Ethiopia October 26-28

Ethiopia Healing the Children October-November 2012

October 26-28

Our team started leaving the US on October 26 en route to Ethiopia.  This will be the eighth Healing the Children visit to Ethiopia, seventh of mine.  We are concentrating primarily on pediatric ENT but always have some other activities as well.

Three of us left from Newark and changed planes in Frankfurt.  There we met two others from Boston.  We had a several hour layover; time to walk around, get coffee and relax a little before another long flight.  It was raining with a few snow flurries mixed in in Frankfurt, and we were glad to be inside.  Our flight was a little delayed leaving because of the weather, but we made up most of the time.  There was a scheduled stop in Khartoum Sudan to drop off passengers and to refuel.  We’ve never done that before on this flight, but that is the new schedule.  Supposedly it is cheaper to refuel in Sudan, and about 25 passengers got off, so I suppose it is extra revenue for the airline.  We arrived in Addis Ababa without difficulty, got through passport control easily, got all of our luggage and got through customs with no problems.  We got to the hotel a bit after 10 pm and were in our rooms by 11pm.  All in all, more than a 24 hour journey from when I left home; but an uneventful one.  Sleep was wonderful!

One team member arrived earlier on Saturday; two others were supposed to arrive Saturday but because of flight delays in the US they were unable to make the connections and they both arrived today.  Our team has two ENT surgeons; one OR nurse, two audiologists, a nurse anesthetist, the Vice President of Healing the Children, and me.  The surgeons gave some lectures this morning, some people are off sightseeing this afternoon, and we will have dinner tonight as a team at a local Korean restaurant where we have been before.  Half of us have been here before, and for half this is their first visit.

Tomorrow we will be at Cure hospital, primarily evaluating patients for surgery and seeing some patients from previous trips.  We have a few complicated patients coming in for evaluation too.  I may go to another government hospital where I have been before to help with surgery there.

It is a little cool and cloudy here today with a few rain drops; a little unusual for this time of year here.  Still, no hurricaine like in the US!