We arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on Wednesday. Where Dubai felt western, Addis is definitely African. There are abundant similarities to a county hospital here. It is controlled chaos -- everything works, but not well. In the airport, we had to first stand in what you could loosely describe as a line to undergo an Ebola screening. Getting a visa, exchanging money, and finding our bags all went smoothly. But then we had to get through customs. One of our bags was flagged for inspection. We decided to separate that bag from the rest after watching a few Ethiopian women have to remove every article of clothing from each of their bags. Auna spent about 2 hours emptying everything from the bag, explaining why we had medical supplies and what each item was used for, and shuffling papers between 3 different customs agents. We were carrying an airway mannequin (basically a plastic human head with a cross-sectioned neck to show the anatomy) and two deflated plastic CPR dummies in this particular bag. The man inspecting the bag looked with disgust at the mannequins and quickly closed the case back up. Thankfully, he let us leave with the head -- it was definitely the most difficult item for us to get back home! In hindsight, we probably could have just walked out of the airport without even stopping at the customs inspection stations with all of our bags given the total disorganization of the entire process.
Another perk of the controlled chaos is being on "African time" -- even after an unexpected two hour delay, our driver to the guest house we were staying in was still waiting for us. The roads in Addis are crazy. No lights, only roundabouts. We felt a little like we were in a Mario Kart game, dodging other drivers, honking to get people to move, no regard at all for any lines on the road. The roads here are the epitome of "shared" -- cars, 10+ passenger vans, horse-drawn carts, donkeys, cows, goats, and PEOPLE everywhere. Its a bit shocking that we haven't actually seen anyone get hit so far.
The guesthouse was fantastic. Clean, fast wifi, lots of space, wonderful staff, and a friendly house dog named Max. Lee, the manager of the house, arranged a reservation for us at an Ethiopian cultural restaurant (Yod Abyssinia). We had a buffet of Ethiopian food (amazing!), St. George beer, and watched traditional dancing and singing during dinner for entertainment. The dining room was packed with people, a mix of European and African tourists as well as Ethiopians, sitting at low tables crammed into every inch of space available. People sang along with songs they knew and even went up to the stage to dance along with the performers. There was a European family sitting next to us with a little boy, probably about a year old, who was bobbing his head along to the music the whole time. It was a fun introduction to the culture of Ethiopia.
Today we are headed to Soddo, where we will be spending the rest of our time here. It is a five hour drive from Addis (we're in the van as we type). Our driver, Silas, is a pro at dodging wandering livestock and potholes on the road (he leaned out the window once to scold a cow). We just stopped at Butajira for a much needed macchiato break -- the coffee here is delicious (thank you Ethiopian grown beans and Italian brewing influence)! We are looking forward to finally getting to the hospital after nearly 4 full days of travel. Pictures to come!
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