Ethiopia Lighthouse 2011 -- 3rd Post

It’s now Friday, and we are starting to wind down our time here at Project Mercy. It has rained for the last three days, so it is quite muddy. The power has also been off much of the time which makes life a little more challenging but we are getting along fine.

This is the last day of teaching for the team. Most of them finished yesterday since today is exams for grades 1-4. The KG still has regular school today so some of the team are working with them. Next week will be exams for the upper grades and then they have semester break for a week.

The student with the “bite” ended up spending three days in the hospital. His foot looks much improved and he is in good spirits and has been playing with the kids. If he were in the States, I doubt that they would have hospitalized him at that point since the antibiotics hadn’t really had much time to work; but I think that they wanted to make sure that it didn’t get any worse since they weren’t sure exactly what had bit him. The entire bill for his stay was 250 birr. Translated into US dollars that is about $15.00! He got adequate care and recovered; sooo I’m thinking that something needs to be done to American healthcare. What that something is, I’m not quite sure.

I was able to spend some time volunteering at the hospital on Tuesday. I helped out in the ER taking vital signs. Some of the staff are able to speak a little English so they were able to guide me through what I was to do. Their equipment often does not work well so it was a little challenging at first until I got the hang of it. I guess it goes to show that you don’t always need the top of the line to obtain the same results. We Americans are used to doing it the lazy way, by pressing buttons for instant results. When we first arrived there, the sister (head nurse) was preaching to the people in the waiting room. They want to make sure that the people who come to the hospital get told of God’s love for them. They also continually play the Jesus film in Amharic in the waiting room. Many people stay and listen.

Wednesday was Timkat here which is the Orthodox celebration of Epiphany. In Ethiopia, Timkat is a celebration of Jesus’ baptism rather than the coming of the wise men. It is the most colorful holiday here. On Tuesday night, we watched a parade of people marching from the two Orthodox churches in the area. They were dressed in colorful outfits, singing and drumming and carrying a replica of the tablets in the ark of the covenant. They danced, sang and ate all night and the next morning continued their celebration. We walked down to see some of the celebration in the morning, but, obviously, we didn’t understand much of what was happening. However, it was very interesting to watch.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to climb up to a waterfall. I’m not sure what happens if it is raining and muddy. We’ll see.

Some of the older guys that live at Project Mercy have been our guides when we go places outside the compound. They do an excellent job and our team members love them.

Sunday we will head to Addis Abba for two days before we take off late Tuesday night. We will do some debriefing, shopping and sightseeing around the city. This will probably be my last entry for this trip. Keep praying for a safe and uneventful trip home. See you soon.

Love, Roger and Carol