We landed in Frankfurt and had an easy flight. Many of us are going to Philly and have a long layover. Five of us took the train to Weisbaden, having coffee.

At the airport in Addis. Made it through customs, check in, immigration and security without issues. Home tomorrow night! It was a terrific trip.

Dr. Glenn and Dr. Allan and I had a busy two days at Butajira about 120 km south of Addis. The town has 35,000 people but the local area is more like 250,000. Went to Grarbara hospital where they see 50,000 outpatients a year, mostly ophthalmology. They also do rehab, epilepsy and ENT. We saw about 150 patients.




Lots of animals on the grounds, some in a small zoo!

Many in our group enjoyed the sunshine and some shopping!

School children...

Road block!

Back in Addis...here are some photos of some of the work we have been doing....

Mother with child

Baby in recovery

During Surgery



Waiting to be seen....




No privacy!

Had a great day in Butajira. Saw lots of patients, visited 2 hospitals, saw many interesting local sights, have many great pictures. Will send when in Addis.

No Internet access at the guest house where we are staying so no pictures today. There is a small zoo with a hyena, porcupine, and baboon, monkeys here too!

Our combined ENT, neurosurgery and ophthalmology case went very well today. Three of us are visiting a hospital 3 hrs south of Addis. Lovely drive and grounds.

We did 11 surgical cases at Cure today and some at Black Lion. I took care of two adult orthopedic patients today who would not have had surgery if I wasn't here. One was a hip replacement and one a hip fracture. I am on my way to have dinner with my friend Laura and her family.

It is Tuesday and our team has been in full swing in four locations. ENT surgery at Cure hospital, Urology and ENT surgery at Black Lion hospital. Patients are being evaluated in clinics at Cure, Black Lion and the School for the Deaf.

With patients before ear surgery

Setting up a microscope

Child before surgery






Monitor we sent from the U.S.

Dr. George doing ear surgery

Dr. Aida watches surgery













Dr. George, Dr. Kavi and ENT resident
doing ear surgery

Patient before tonsillectomy

Dr. Allen at work





















In the recovery room

It was a full and busy day. Going to have dinner, plan for tomorrow and then sleep!

Monday night our whole team of 18 had dinner together in an Italian restaurant where we are staying. Many of us have never met before as we are from around the U.S.: Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington DC, North Carolina, St. Louis, Arizona, New Jersey and Pittsburgh. As we went around the table and introduced ourselves, you could really get a sense of how excited everyone was to be working together to help many people. We have ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) surgeons, Urologists, an Ophthalmologist/Plastic surgeon, nurses, audiologists, anesthesiologists, students a biomedical technician, and support staff. We have already met many people from around the world and other places in the U.S. who are here trying to improve medical care and technology.

















Dr. Glenn and I went back to the Korean hospital yesterday (where we had visited on Saturday) to evaluate a patient with an unusual tumor of the face. In order to successfully treat her with surgery we need a neurosurgeon in addition to our ENT and Ophthalmologist. There is a neurosurgeon from Sweden at the Korean hospital and we evaluated the patient together. We are tentatively planning to perform the surgery at the Korean hospital on Thursday.





















On Tuesday our team is in full swing in at least four locations. ENT surgery is going on at Cure hospital, Urology and ENT surgery is going on at Black Lion hospital. Patients are being evaluated in clinics at Cure, Black Lion and the School for the Deaf. It will be a full and busy day, but hopefully successful.

Our ENT team is at Cure hospital today seeing patients and scheduling them for surgery later in the week. Dr. Aida (another anesthesiologist) and I were in the OR today taking care of orthopedic patients. They were children who had leg deformities, mostly from cerebral palsy. The urology team is at Black Lion hospital evaluating patients. We are slowly all getting adjusted to the seven hour time change and the 8000 feet altitude.

Just had dinner: Swedish neurosurgeon, five Americans in a German Beer garden in Ethiopia!

We saw 12 or 15 patients this morning in our ENT clinic. The space we have used before was being completely ripped up and there was a lot of dust and noise, but we found two rooms to use. Patients waited very patiently in the middle of the construction zone.
















We have about 8 patients scheduled for surgery so far. Tomorrow we will see more ENT patients at CURE hospital, do OR cases at CURE and maybe Black Lion.


















Tonight we are having dinner with Laura, a US anesthesiologist here and Lars, a Swedish neurosurgeon at a German restaurant!

We are on our way to Black Lion to see ENT patients. We will examine them and decide which ones are surgical candidates. Most will get audiograms too.

We are on our way to Black Lion to see ENT patients. We will examine them and decide which ones are surgical candidates. Most will get audiograms too.

Saturday was a low key day. We visited Korean hospital. Some went to the National museum. We went to a coffee shop and had dinner. Others arrived last night.

We are fine, had a relaxing day. Visited a hospital, went to a coffee shop. Some people went to a museum, we drove through the market and had dinner with a local US trained surgeon and his wife. The rest of our crew arrives any minute now. We have clinic tomorrow morning.

Wall Carving