A Week of Visitors

We were fortunate enough to have my brother Marc, his friend Alejandro, and my cousin Kyle visit us last week. Here’s a report from Marc:

You know, when Jeff first suggested that we come to Chiri rather than meeting up elsewhere in Ethiopia to travel together, I wasn't sure that I was that thrilled with the idea. Candidly, even on the trip to Chiri, I wondered how we would keep ourselves from being bored out of our minds. I cannot believe how wrong I was. Our time in Chiri was definitely the highlight of our trip. And forget about being bored, I can’t even imagine how we packed so much into 4 days.

The Work…
Jeff and Erin are doing some amazing work at the Chiri Health Center. During the short time that we were there, we really got to see them in action. We started our first day going on rounds with Jeff. We saw a few patients that had malaria, a woman who had just lost her baby (still birth), and 2 children who were suffering from severe malnutrition. I have to admit that I was quickly reminded I did not follow in the family tradition and become a doctor…I definitely could have fainted as Jeff examined the patients (and I think Alejandro was in a similar boat). Luckily, my queeziness abated as the week went on, which permitted me to visit my first live birth. While the one woman there (Rahat) had to leave the room when the episiotomy started, the rest of us soldiered through and saw a new baby boy being born.

What amazes me being here is how thoughtful Jeff and Erin and their colleagues are about how they approach problems. They don’t just ensure that a child doesn’t die of malnutrition, but they ensure that the parents are educated so the same problem does not happen again. They don’t just treat a patient with TB and let them go, they make sure they come back every morning for the next 10 months to ensure that they take their medication. Before coming here, I thought that Erin’s work as “Outreach Director” basically meant that she went out into the community and ensured that people knew about the services offered at the clinic. I was so off base. Erin not only leads a team of people that ensures that 10 communities are vaccinated, but that they are educated on taking better care of themselves and on how to prevent getting sick in the first place. Her projects range from a demonstration garden at the clinic so that people can learn how to grow a broad range of vegetables that encourage a balanced diet to constructing and selling cement toilets to encourage sanitation and ensure that disease resulting from human waste is minimized.

The Play...
In addition to definitely being an educational trip, we also had a lot of fun in Chiri. In just 4 short days, we managed to accomplish a lot:
· Go for a very muddy hike to a beautiful waterfall in Bonga
· Eat ful (basically Ethiopia’s answer to refried beans served with yummy bread) for breakfast every day. By the way, it cost about $0.30 per person!
· Learn to make Injera (the national bread in the shape of a pancake) with the help of the Children from the Children’s Home
· Shop at the Chiri Market
· Visit a Tej Bar (Tej is Ethiopian honey wine)
· Attend an elementary school graduation. When we got up to leave, we found out what celebrities must feel like as half the children at the school tried to follow us out in an attempt to get their pictures taken
· At that graduation, we also got to see kids climb into trees for a better view…and subsequently get knocked out of those trees with older kids with sticks!
· Ate amazing homemade meals, including Mexican food with homemade tortilla chips and also fresh gnocchi
· Stopped for lunch with a very fiesty nun in Bonga (she was a real spitfire)
· Team McPanzerville kicked ass at a board game (I can’t remember the name)
· We’ve saw monkeys outside our guest house and baboons on the roadside
· Oh…and we solved the murder mystery titled “Trailer Trash Tragedy”!

Ful & Bread