Coffee in Ethiopia – Guest Blog

We’ve recently returned from 2 amazing weeks in Ethiopia visiting Tim, Kate, Ellie and Seb. It was great to see all of them and get a glimpse of their life and how well they are all doing. Tim especially was instrumental in making our trip so memorable, helping organise and advise on trips and adventures. In a short time we; visited ancient monastery ruins, went camping, saw grazing monkeys, chased Ellie and Seb round the shores of Lake Tana, went shoulder dancing, visited the ruins at Lalibella, experienced the first rains of the season in the mountains and saw the Blue Nile Falls. We were also lucky enough to be treated to a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony by Zenye, who helps look after the house and entertain the kids for Tim and Kate

In addition to injera, Ethiopians are rightly proud of their coffee heritage. Their ceremony is a relaxed procedure and is really just a good excuse for a social occasion. From green coffee beans poured from a twist of newspaper Zenye produced cups of strong, black, sweet coffee which tasted fantastic while we all sat in the sun and snacked on fresh bread and popcorn.

Matt and Lara

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Bahir Dar City 10 Km road race – Update

I had a call from a friend last week who had just seen my post race interview on the Ethiopian 6.00 news.

Unfortanatley, they were in a bar and the volume was turned down so we’ve no idea if I had been translated in Amharic…

 

Can you remember your first bike?

Video blog for a change with accompanying music from Ethiopia’s current number 1 selling album

Please note: this short video is a depiction of family life that all are welcome to view, however it has nothing to do with sustainable maternal health care in East Africa, save you MBs if you view this blog for this topic only

Medical Student Exams

Much of last week at work was taken up by the medical student exams. They have spent 10 weeks with us and will now rotate to Paediatrics for 10 weeks.  Compared to the UK, this is a long attachment for medical students.  However, much emphasis is given to these specialties in their training, as a result of the country’s high maternal, neonatal and infant mortality rates.

The students as a group are exceptionally diligent, both at reading their text books and attending the wards.

The exams were great fun, with each student presenting patient histories, showing us their examination skills and then being grilled on general clinical knowledge.  The whole thing was organised by our team of junior doctors, an example of how much responsibility is given to such young members of staff.  Along that theme, a 26 year old junior doctor has just been made Medical Director of the hospital

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Bahir Dar City 10 km road race

Since we’ve arrived I have been trying to find local running races I could plod around, with no luck.  So I have to thank Deshu, our friendly knowledgeable Baja driver for altering me to a race happening in my town this weekend.

After parting with a £1 for entry on the previous day, I arrived at the start line in central Bahir Dar (near the Mango round-a-bout for those who know the town) on early Sunday morning.  As well as a melee of organizers and runners, there were also parades of singing Christians, it being Ascension Day.  The race, I was told, would be 10 km and would take a route around the town centre, with a final run up the main street.

Things were a little late getting started, but the organisers seemed to have it under control.   A minute or two before the gun a clutch of serious looking runners stripped off their tracksuits and gathered at the front.   The very fast start was partly checked by a pile of sand in the road, left there by contractors who are replacing the flagstone footpaths.  After a few hundred meters, some were reduced to walking whilst the leaders sped off.    Kate and the kids were positioned on course to shout encouragement and said the leaders, including some women, were moving seriously fast.  You can see in the photo that many are wearing plastic sandals instead of trainers.

I haven’t run competitively for a year, so set out to run a steady race.  It was also very hot.   I counted only 3 other ferenjis, and I got quite a lot of support from the spectators.  I finished 86^th out of, approx I would say, 500 people, in 37.45.  At the finish line I was interviewed twice by TV crews, and a lot of fellow runners were interested in where they finished with respect to my position.  No one wants to be beaten by the middle-aged ferneji!

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Dog Days

In advance of tomorrow’s race (see forthcoming blog), I decided to stretch my legs early this morning on a run around our local area. I couldn’t help but notice an usually large number of dead dogs on the road; with no signs they’d been hit by a truck or got by a Hyena. A knowledgeable Baja driver later told us that the local authority had decided to undertake a cull (by poison) of stray dogs to prevent spread of rabies. If you were a dog owner it was definitely a night to keep your long-loved pooch locked up.

Fortunately for ‘Mutley’ – see post ‘My family and other animals’ – we made a point of keeping him inside last night to stop him barking all night (If only I’d known….)

 

Field Trip

I spent a day away from Felege Hiwot Hospital on Monday to get an idea of the bigger picture.

Outside of Bahir Dar, health care services are provided by Health Centers and Health Posts.  Health Posts are manned by 2 or 3 Health Extension Workers who offer advice to the local population of about 1,000 households on good hygiene and sanitation, family planning and provide vaccinations, antenatal care, and basic first aid.  Health Centers serve about 35,000 people and are typically run by 8 nurses, 2 health officers and 1 midwife.  Of note, no doctors are located in any of these facilities.

The area we visited, Gonji, was 2 hours south of Bahir Dar on a dirt road,.  I specifically requested to go to this area as it appears to be a common referral source for many of our patients presenting with ruptured uterus.  We were all impressed at the level of organization of the Health Centers, with lots of up-to-date patient statistics.  However, some of the obvious limitations are lack of commonly used medications (Magnesium sulphate for Eclampsia and Vitamin K for neonates) and transportation.  There is only one emergency vehicle for the whole district and payment for the driver and fuel needs to be provided by the family.  Generally it takes about 4 hours to transport a patient from the Health Centre to hospital – whatever the emergency.  When I asked a midwife in one Health Center what the biggest challenge of her job was – she responded “working at night”.  She went on to explain that they had no electricity at all and therefore she worked by torch light.

The whole trip left us with mixed emotions – in awe of the health workers who continued to provide a service in such difficult conditions, overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges that the Ethiopian health care system faces to provide health care across such vast rural areas, and mindful of the challenges this presents to hospitals, struggling to cope with the complications arising from patients who have travelled long distances in emergencies.

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