I am back from Ethiopia! What an amazing and wonderful place and trip. I must say if you are thinking about coming to this school definitely look into the service learning programs with the Global Health class. I have had the privilege of doing a bit of traveling in my time and living overseas, but the trip to Ethiopia and Project Mercy exceeded all expectations I could have possibly had. The plane ride was long! But the people on the plane were nice and friendly and the atmosphere on the plane was lighthearted and enjoyable. When you have to be on one plane for that long it is an added bonus. Ethiopia is a country of the most beautiful sights of people and colors I have ever witnessed: from the different color scarves to animals on the streets. Everyone was so polite and excited to hear the Feringies (non Africans, white people) try and speak their language.
From day one at the Yekitat 12 hospital, I felt like a sponge soaking up all the information I could find on healthcare and the healthcare system in the country. It is surprising and uplifting to see the amount of care that is given to the people with the limited amount of resources they have. It really makes one think about the amount of waste that goes hand in hand in our healthcare system. One of my great discoveries on this trip was to see how one person can truly make a change and help people: from Dr. Hamlin at the Fistula Hospital, Dr. Rick at the Mother Teresa Orphanage and Marta and Deme at Project Mercy. To be meeting and talking with these remarkable individuals, I was able to see how one person can make a difference in the lives of thousands.
Now some of the most wonderful parts of the trip happened in 2 day span, on 3 amazing levels. My 32nd birthday was our first Friday in the country at Project Mercy. The surprise birthday doughnut, cake and songs from the house children will be one of those moments that I will cherish for the rest of my life. It was the most unexpected birthdays I will have ever had. The next day the group decided to hike to a waterfall about 2 hours away in the mountains. On this trip I decide it would be the best time for me to spread my mother’s ashes so part of her can flow through Africa. This would have been a trip she would have loved to have joined me on and or done on her own. So we set up a group of 15 and broke up into smaller groups. A group of 5 of us, Joel, Mel, Susan, Jen B. and myself, set off on a pretty good pace to get to the waterfall. After some backtracking and remeeting up with the second group we made it to the waterfall. What a beautiful sight this was to see! Probably a 20 to 25 feet waterfall into a 10 foot pool; absolutely breathtaking! It was a very special moment for me to spread her ashes and reflect on hopefully how proud she would be of me right now and what I am accomplishing in my life and with my Masters.
After we started to head down in the big group, we decided that we are going to stop and check out a Church that is built in the mountains that the locals attend. It is supposed to be another sight that truly inspires one regardless of how religious you are. On the way down my counterpart for the trip and friend in my specific program had a horrible accident. She slipped in the mud and broke her ankle. It’s a tib/fib break! Now a little more information on the hike: first, Yetabon, where Project Mercy is about 8k, the hike up to the waterfall is probably 11k, so this is definitely a nice hike. It started raining about an hour and half into the hike and had kept drizzling all day. The ground is wet and muddy and Justine slips in the mud and breaks her leg. Let’s just say, that if anyone is thinking about heading on a trip in the future, bring your friends and if you don’t have friends in Nursing or Physical Therapist, meet some of the wonderful people and become friendly. We had 4 nurses, 2 with an ER background and 6 PT’s (soon to Doctors of PT) with us when this happened. It was truly a sight, seeing everyone jump into their own work mode and handle the situation. We made our first stretcher and carried her down about 100 feet and had to make stretcher number two. I saw this first hand, the compassion, caring and hospitality of the Ethiopia people. A local farmer, whose yard we were going through, brought down two eucalyptus trees and helped us make a stretcher that allowed us to get our friend off the mountain. His wife brought out a pillow and two blankets to help her be more comfortable and warm through out this ordeal. These are quite possibly the only two blankets that they had in their entire house and she just offered it to us to help make the situation better. Then the rest of the villagers came out and helped carry our friend the three hours down the mountain to the hospital. As a group we tried to help, but the villagers were going down the mountain at such a pace that we were running trying to keep up. We were all falling and slipping in the mud and the villagers were doing this barefoot, it was truly remarkable to watch. To have a better understanding of how remarkable and selfless this was, had any local person fallen and broken their leg, the most likely scenario is that they would have a hobbled down the mountain on their own to the hospital, if they could afford to pay for the visit. Or most likely, they would have gone to the local healer, where he would have set the break and said stay off of it for 6 weeks. If one were to go to the healer the outcome could be a possible deformity in the way the bone healed and loss of motion to ankle with no rehab. So these amazing people, who do not know us or remotely speak our language, take it upon themselves to assist us in getting our friend down the mountain. Had the task been left to us only, it might have taken us at least 7 to 8 hours to get to the hospital and also would have subjected Justine to possibly more damage from the break. It was truly inspiring to see the help that we received in this time of need.
This trip definitely has me looking into options to work abroad in health administration once I graduate. I think this trip has also helped in giving me a leg up with knowledge of healthcare in foreign countries. I know I will be back to Project Mercy and Ethiopia.
By the way I did finally get a job, right before I left! I am a CTA at the University of Colorado Hospital! Now I have my first job in healthcare administration! So far the job is wonderful and very educational. I am working in the ED, so it is definitely fast paced. I hope you enjoyed this entry and don’t worry I have a lot more to add to the Ethiopia trip. I have to tell you about the great people and children at Project Mercy, the Butajira Market and the HIV/AIDS TB clinic we went, oh yeah and the Hippos!!
Till next time.
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January is over. School is in full swing and I am well on my way into what seems to be a solid 2009. So where were we last time?; preparing for my fundraiser. The fundraiser is over and it was a success. We raised over $1,400.00 and I would like to say Thank You, to everyone that helped make this event special. So coming back to school after the first big break, it was definitely challenging trying get in the swing of things. I would recommend that you trying to keep reading and staying on a pattern; it helps to make the transition more enjoyable.
Regis University Health Services Administration Blog 