Day 5

We're still not really sleeping through the night, waking up between 1-3 am followed by taking "naps" between about 5-7 am.  A little surprising for a couple of EM residents who routinely "flip."  We took a tour of the hospital with Jeremy to start off the day.  He explained the history of hospitals/medicine in Soddo (originally the medical mission was in a different area of town, but the founders were forced out by the communist government in the 1970s and the hospital was run by the government; when the government offered the hospital back to the missionaries, it was in shambles so they started a new hospital on the current site) and then we walked through each building on the campus.  The card room, or registration, consists of 3 outdoor windows where patients line up to pay a fee to see the doctor.  Then they enter the Outpatient Department (OPD) where the ER and clinics are, have vital signs taken at triage, and then sit in a small waiting room.  The OPD has a few clinic rooms, a dental room staffed by a couple of dentists, and a 4 bed ER.  The ER is sparse -- one bed has a vital sign monitor, there is a soon to be filled (by us!) airway cart, and a small Sonosite ultrasound.  That is about it.  We also saw the inpatient wards, including the ICU/recovery area where they have a brand new ventilator that can work with low pressure oxygen sources, the Ob/Gyn ward where a new baby had just been delivered, and the Ortho/Surgery ward (which is being expanded to about twice its current size).  There is also a medical and pediatric ward.  Each ward is a separate long, low-slung building with surrounding green grassy areas where family members of patients set up camp, sprawling in the sun and eating lunch.  We visited the ORs also.  There are 4 rooms, the ortho/surgery clinics are housed in the same building for convenience of location to the surgeons, and there is a call-room for the general surgery residents.  Anesthesia is done by nurse anesthetists frequently using ketamine and nerve blocks, although they have the capability to also use general anesthesia.   There is a kitchen on campus as well, which smelled amazing on our walk by, where they make food for all of the patients.  This is uncommon in Africa, where most hospitals require family members to bring food to patients, but because nutrition is so critical to healing the staff at Soddo feeds the patients healthy, high-protein meals.  Rounding out the campus is an eye clinic, a pharmacy, a chapel, and many residential buildings for missionary families, guests, and resident physicians.  Oh, and three sheep who are phlebotomized for blood agar in addition to keeping the grounds trimmed.

After our tour of the hospital, we attempted to eat lunch at a nearby hotel called Nega, but we went into the wrong "tall yellow building" right across from the hospital which was actually the cultural center.  Turns out they have a cafe, but there were no menus so we pointed at the food on a nearby table and asked for the same.  It was pretty good food, although we have no idea what kind of meat we were eating.  We tried to order coffee with milk, but hadn't learned the Amharic words for this yet, so we ended up with a popular drink in Ethiopia -- shai-buna or tea and coffee combined.  Yuck.  Just before we got up to leave, an older Ethiopian man stopped at our table and said in very good English "I used to live with Americans and every time I see Americans I stop and say 'how do you do'?"  According to Jeremy, many Ethiopians know the English phrase "Are you fine?", which is a direct translation of the Amharic "Dehna neh?" and like to try it out on English speaking "ferenji."

Next was a tour of Soddo (e.g. grocery store, bank, good restaurants, cafes, etc) by van with a group of other visitors to the hospital and a little street shopping for football jerseys where we attracted a large, gawking crowd.  The day ended with pizza at the Gabrysch's house while watching "The Lego Movie."  Auna fell asleep at the table.  She woke up between 3-4 am again.  Someday we'll get this sleeping thing worked out!