An Ethiopian Thanksgiving

Another week has passed, this one as quick as ever. This last weekend,
Addis held the biggest road running race in Africa. Not able to miss
up the opportunity of a lifetime, many of us ferrangies at the
hospital signed up for the race. Due to sickness, meetings, and a
hostility threat put out by the American embassy only five of us ended
up doing it. This race was much unlike any other I've done, because it
is Africa you know. About 32,000 runners were all very jam-packed
throughout the 10k race, and me being stuck somewhere in the middle.
It was a lot tougher than I though it was going to be also. Addis is
at an elevation of 8,000ft, almost 2,000ft higher than Gimbie. This
and the fact that it was a very hot morning made it extremely
satisfying to cross the finish line. Afterwards we all sat down and
had avocado and papaya juice, wow was it good.

After returning home to Gimbie it was back again to triage. The most
interesting patient from this week was that of a man with a swollen
stomach. We often have men come in with this problem, there stomach
fills with fluid, for which I'm not sure what reason. The solution is
easy though, they are just admitted to the hospital, where their
stomach is drained by a catheter, sometimes up to three liters comes
out. This man was different though, beyond his stomach was a
cantaloupe sized sack that also appeared to be filled with water. The
weird thing was that he could push the contents of this outer sack
into his normal stomach cavity. I'm not sure the outcome of this case
yet, but maybe I'll soon find out.

In other news this year was the first year that I've been away from
home for Thanksgiving. But, we celebrated it twice, so it almost
evened out. The real Thanksgiving was spent with the rest of the
Americans, about 20 of us, at the Johnsons home. It was great, and had
all the right things for a proper vegetarian thanksgiving meal. We had
mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, pumkin pie, vegetables,
cookies, guava bread, gluten…. the list goes on and on. It was
amazing, I also got two packages that day which made it especially
good. One from my dad, and one from Walla Walla. That night, a group
of us went to the stadium and played American Football and also some
Ultimate Frisbee. We instantly had our whole field surrounded by kids
watching us play. It was great fun, except for the fact that I rolled
my ankle on a rock.

Our second Thanksgiving was today, Sabbath, up at our house. I would
have to say that it was even better than the first. We celebrated a
second one because the hospital administrator Paul was in Addis
attending meeting during the first one and he felt a little left out ;
). So we had to have another. Man was I ever bummed. This time we had
mashed potatoes, stuffing, amazing gravy, beans, rolls, green beans,
parsnips, roast, amazingly amazing pumkin pie, papaya pie, papaya
cobbler, just to name some of our food. It was amazing.

This week should be another full one. Tuesday, I'm headed to a clinic
for a couple of days, so that should be another great experience,
other than that it should be a normal week…except for those unexpected
things that always seen to happen. So keep me in your prayers, and
have a great week also.

November 20.

A lot of time has past since I last wrote. Almost three weeks in fact.
I've now been here two months. One-third of my time is gone, but by no
means was it wasted. One thing that's new is that I have now watched
my first surgery. It was a C-Section and it was also the most intense
thing I've ever seen. My job was to assist the anesthesiologist by
holding the oxygen mask on the patient. This gave me a great view of
what was going on. All in all the surgery went quite well, although I
didn't feel quite so good. After the baby had come out and Dr.
Annete was checking the placenta, I started to feel sick.
Luckily there was a chair nearby and so I quickly sat down; I was still
still holding the mask on the patient. Nearly fainting during a
surgery is not exactly my idea of a success, but all is well that ends
well.

Last week, was time for a little break. Two of the other
volunteers that were here were leaving and they wanted to see part of
Ethiopia before they left. We agreed to join them, so last week was
spent in Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Gondor, and Lake Tana. We had a great
time. Gondor is called the "Camelot of Africa."  It has a whole bunch
of castles from the 18th century. Lake Tana was also great. We went
and visited some old monasteries and also the outlet to the Blue Nile.
We were told that hippos can sometimes be seen there although we
didn't see any. However, one morning on a run on the lakeside I saw a
leopard. Don't worry it was running away from me. The trip was
also full of good times, great food, and all that, but man is it ever
great to be back in Gimbie.

The hospital did have another crazy thing happen this week. Yesterday a
Chinese man was driven here by some of his coworkers (The Chinese
build roads here in Ethiopia). This man had been hit by a car
36 hours earlier. His neck was broken and he was already
determined to be a quadriplegic, but he was still alive. It was
decided that our hospital did not have the proper equipment to treat
him, so he was loaded into our Ambulance to be taken to Addis Ababa.
This morning we found out his fate. About halfway through the trip to
Addis, which is about eight hours, all the electricity had gone out in
ambulance. This meant no more oxygen for the man. Trudy Squires, a
nurse practitioner whose husband is the Chief Operations Officer here at
the hospital was driving the ambulance, they had to perform CPR on
the man for the rest of the trip; in the dark. I am told that the man
died one hour out of Addis, but CPR continued. When they arrived at
the hospital there was no doctor there. They waited for one and a half
hours before leaving to try and find a different hospital. The second
one was no better than the first and so they returned. Finally, at
4 a.m. a doctor showed up and the man was pronounced dead.

Now for a little better story.  About two weeks ago a lady from Spokane
sent us four hundred US dollars for Fletch, Justin, and I to use to
help kids go to school. A full year at the Adventist school it about
60 US dollars, so there was enough for six kids, plus a little
something extra to help someone else if we could. Yesterday while we
were at work one of the cleaning ladies asked us, through a translator,
if we could help her buy shoes for her two little boys. Fletch and I
decided that this was a perfect project for that extra money. We sent
the boys into town with the purchaser for the hospital, Buressa. We
could not accompany them because the towns people see that we are
helping these kids and not theirs and the end result is not a pretty site.
The shoes were bought, but we told Buressa not to give the shoes to
the boys till today, because we wanted a picture of them to send back
to the donor. Today, as I walked through the hospital the mother
grabbed my hand tightly and pulled it to her chest, then lead me to
where Buressa was standing. He was in a conversation, and while we
were waiting, she would not loosen her grip on my hand. Occasionally
she would lift my hand to her lips and kiss it and say, "galetoma,
galetoma" (thank you, thank you). I soon found out through Buressa
that the kids were ready to have their picture taken. I rallied up the
shoes and the kids and brought them to our house. Most of the walk was
spent with the mother's fingers interlocked with mine, she would not
let go. After we had taken the pictures we found out that this lady
was not even the mother, she was just caring for these two kids,
because they were orphans. With her eyes starting to tear up, she thanked us again before she left with the boys, who had rolled up their
pants so they could more properly show off their new shoes.

It again stuck me just how easy it is to make a difference here. These
shoes were eleven dollars per pair. This may not sound like a lot but
you must remember that this lady is probably only making about $30-$40
a month. For her to buy these shoes it would have been impossible.
This is just one story. There are many others like it that happen.
Just a thought, Christmas is soon approaching. Don't forget that it
is the season of giving.  Maybe go out of your way to help someone a
bit. It won't hurt you, and man it will make you feel good. If you
want, you can even send just a couple bucks here. Fletch, Justin and I
would be happy to find a worthy cause for it. Shoot even get your
families involved. My email is njkinne@gmail.com if you are interested.

November 19.

Sorry I've been slacking with the blog, but I just got back from an amazing trip through Ethiopia.  Here are some pictures from the trip.  I'll update the blog again soon and hopefully put up some more pictures.  Thanks for all your prayers!

November 1

Nov 1
 This week definitely had its share of challenges. The biggest one was
the problem with the water supply. City water had been off for a
couple of days here, so eventually the four water tanks on top of the
hospital had been used up. This is not a huge problem because we have
another 20,000 liter tank out front for back-up. But, they are hooked
up to different pipe systems throughout the hospital. The problem came
we it was realized that there where no more sterile tools for surgery
and the autoclave (a machine that sterilizes instruments) is hooked up
to the tanks on top of the hospital. There where six people waiting to
have surgery, some of them desperately when Paul (the hospital
administrator) came up to Fletch and I and said, "So, we have a bit of
an interesting situation going on." From that statement we knew
something very exciting was happening. The next hour and a half was
spent hauling water in bucket from the one tank to the other. There
were about 12 of us hauling these three to four gallon buckets so that
the autoclave could be turned on.

This wasn't the end of it. That first episode was on Wednesday and by
Friday the backup tank was empty also. We now had a much more
interesting problem because there was no water to be had. The city had
now shut off our water because we had not paid our bill, because the
hospital is out of money. They would also not give us an accurate bill
until we paid yet we could not pay our bill till we had an accurate
account of what we owed. There were now two options. One was to take
50 gallon barrels and go to the stream to fill them up and the other
was to send someone to go and talk to the Chinese, who are hear paving
roads, and ask them if they could fill our tanks with there tanker
trucks.  Justin, who had just gained connections with the mayor of
Gimbie Town earlier this week, called him to see if we could have the
water from the Chinese for free. He said we could, so Justin and
Henock (an Ethiopian Accountant) set out to find the Chinese. While
this was happening, Luke, Joel, Zach and I had left for the stream to
fill the barrels of water. After we had fill them and returned to the
hospital, we set out to figure out how to transfer the water. Just
then Justin and Henock arrive in this huge tanker truck. And so the
pumping began. The truck was about 10,000 liters and was a bit over
half full. We found a big fire hose and started pumping the water into
the tank. After about a half hour, a second truck showed up, this one
was about 20,000 liters. Needless to say we got the tank full on
water. Here at Gimbie God is constantly reminding us that He is in
charge of the hospital, not us.

October 26

Life continues going very well here in Ethiopia. This last Sunday I
got my first opportunity to speak. I was asked by the youth leader for
the division, pastor Ljellum (pronounced like flagellum with an "l"),
to speak at a youth conference small village not to far away. I agreed
and so the date was set. Sunday morning came, but with rain. Because
of this we were not going to be able to ride a motorcycle out there
like previously planned. So we rode in a truck out of town. About 10
kilometers out of Gimibie we turned off the paved road. What we turned
onto didn't look much like a road to me, put in from the US I guess.
Ljellum got out to check the "road" condition and found that it hadn't
rained there yet. So up we went in the truck. After about twenty
minutes of rough riding, the road got to bad to continue by truck, so
we started walking. We arrived at our destination after about fifteen
minutes. This "youth" conference turned out really to be for all ages,
but considering many people die here before age 50 it was a decently
young crowd.

When we walked up the first man had already started to preach, so we
just walked up and sat on the stage. The stage meaning a slightly
raised leveled off section of dirt with a cloth hung for a back drop,
a tarp for a sun shade and two benches set behind what looked like a
dresser that had been converted to a pulpit. After the first pastor
finished it was then my turn. I spoke about the love God has for each
one of us and how he desperately wants to be in a relationship with
us. To illustrate this had a volunteer to a whole bunch of push-ups
and squat jumps to receive a soccer jersey that I had bought in town.
I drew the connection that just as the Mankale (the volunteer) did
many things to get the jersey; God has done many things to be with us,
including dying for us. After I was done there were a few special
music features then Ljellum spoke. When he was finished it was time to
head back out. While we were leaving Mankale ran up to me with the
biggest smile his face. He told me that he now knew how much God loved
him and he wanted to share God's love to everyone. It was very
encouraging to here that the point I made was clear to the people.

As soon as we left it started pouring rain, so we knew we were going
to have to walk all the way back out to the road. It wasn't too bad
though, It took just over forty minutes of fast paced walking to reach
the paved road. After arriving back at the hospital I found out that
there was a patient in desperate need of blood. She had just had a
baby and had lost a lot of blood complications. It just so happened
that my blood type was the same type, so I went down to give. Let me
tell you, giving blood in Africa is nothing like giving for the Red
Cross. They stuck the biggest needle I've ever seen into my arm then
set the bag on a scale so they would know how much blood I was giving.
There was no stress ball to squeeze either so it was a bit more
difficult than usual.

Here's a fact, blood=life here in Gimbie. There is no such thing as a
blood bank, no extra units of blood anywhere to be found, mostly
because Ethiopians are afraid of giving blood. Because of this if
someone is in need, a donor immediately found and it goes from one
patient to the next, still warm and everything. I guess life is just a
little bit crazier here in Africa, and I'm getting used to it.

More Pictures...

Here are some pictures from my adventures here thus far.  

1. A picture of me with my new friend Galeta, he rocks.  This pictures also shows my man beard.  It so happens that I shaved for the first time since I left home today.  

2. A picture of the baby baboon that I pet on one of of Sabbath hikes.  

3.  A picture of me with one of the amazing pancakes that our cook made for us.  I can't complain about the cooking here, but I sure do miss food from home...especially Mexican food. 

4.  Fletch, Justin, and I after our Sabbath after hike.

5.  This picture is a picture just outside our house here.  If you stuck your head out the front door, this is what you would see.  The path leads to the hospital.

6.  A picture of the grasslands here.  The bigger building in the top right hand corner is actually the hospital that we've been working at.

Enjoy!

October 23.

I've now been in Gimbie for just over one month. It's amazing to think
that one-sixth of my time here has expired. It also makes me want to
make the most of the rest of the time that I will spend here.

Triage is now becoming more of a job and less of an adventure.
Although I still do enjoy it greatly. I've gotten used to stepping out
of the exam room and having a see of faces stare blankly back at me.
After I stumble back from the wave of hot and stinky air that is so
thick with B.O. you could cut it, I try and call the next patient's
name. I generally slaughter the pronunciation. Sometimes I really
can't get it right after repeated tries, and all the waiting patients
start laughing at me. No worries though, I don't get embarrassed and
laugh with them. My vocabulary of their language is also increasing
daily. Fletch and I can now mostly manage without a translator. Some
patients do not stop telling us there problems even after we've told
them that we aren't doctors and we don't speak their language. To this
we generally just say "no comprendo" then carry on. When we speak in
Spanish to them it helps for some reason, we still haven't figured out
why.

There have been many interesting cases that come in. The patients who
are in great need we prioritize and if they are especially bad we send
them to the ER. One such case happened a couple days ago. This ancient
looking lady was helped in by two other men. You could see she was in
much pain and also had blood all over her face. When we took her
vitals we found that she had an incredibly low blood pressure, her
heart rate was almost undetectable too. When we finally got it, it was
above 150 bpm. We figured she might have internal bleeding because we
were told that she had fallen very hard.  We immediately sent her to
the ER. I still have yet to find out what happened to her, but we did
hear a funeral going on later that day.

There are many other saddening cases that come in. Yesterday a 3 year
old boy came in who had a temp of 104 degrees, a heart rate of 160,
and respiration rate of 50 per minute. Small children can be a very
fun thing to deal with but also can be the nightmare of the day. If
they are old enough to tell that we look like doctors they
automatically think that we have needles and are going to give them a
shot. This ends in a screaming kicking baby being held down to get its
temperature taken. Not fun.

This weekend we are getting visitors. Fletcher's girlfriend is coming
with another friend to visit us for the weekend. It's about an 8 hour
bus ride…poor them. I miss you all and hope you count your blessing
each day, because you are more than fortunate to be living in a
country like America.

October 18

October 13

Hello all,
Life in Gimbie continues to be a great adventure. This last week was
very busy. I am now settled in to a weekly routine. Fletcher and I
started working triage last week. Triage here in Gimbie consists of
taking the vital signs of all the patients before they go in to see
the doctor. So Fletcher and I take turns taking blood pressure, heart
rate and temperature, while the other one records the results. If
someone comes through that is dangerously high/low in any one of these
areas we can either transfer them to the ER or make them a priority
for the doctor. So far I really enjoy it.
There are two great stories from this week. One is about our maid
Negusay. Negusay came to the office where Justin works one day and
requested if she could have a job. She explained that she has no money
and no food. To make matters worse she has a six week old baby and her
husband just recently died. She had become to weak to give good milk
to her baby and she herself was also weeks away from dying. We decided
to hire her to work at our house washing our clothes, cleaning and so
on. She has now been working for us for about two weeks. (She works
about 5 hours a day five days a week and we pay her 50 bir, about 5
dollars, per week. This is good pay for the amount of work she does).
She works very hard, the only trouble is that she doesn't speak a lick
of English.
One day she came to me after lunch with her baby and motioned
something to me. Our cook, who also speaks almost no English, said
"sick" so I realized the baby must be sick. So I went with Fletch down
to the hospital and Justin found a Danish nurse who checked the baby
out, asked some questions, and so on. It ended up that the baby was a
bit sick but should just be fed more. This doesn't seem too
significant but for her it was. Without us she would have had to wait
all day to see a doctor, and it would have cost her money that she
didn't have. It was really cool to see how grateful she was that we
had helped her, even though we really had done nothing.
The second story is actually very similar to the first. After work we
often juggle a soccer ball for an hour or so in our front yard. While
we do this there are two little kids who always like to play with us.
One is a little boy name Galeta, and the other is a little girl name
Leta. We bought a ball for them to play with and we bring it out
whenever we play soccer. They love it. Galeta is the son of a single
mother who works grounds here around the church.
Thursday afternoon Joel (one of the other volunteers here) found
Galeta's mom crying. He realized it was because Galeta was sick. Joel
brought them down to the ER and then got a hold of me. Again, because
we are white and they were with us, we jumped to the front of the
line. The doctor checked out Galeta and found that he had tonsillitis;
he then prescribed the necessary medicine. Joel paid for both the
doctor's bill and the medication which came to a whopping 28 bir
($2.80). When we were leaving the doctor Galeta's mom started crying.
We found out through a translator that she had no money to pay for
this and this was her only child. She said she was so grateful to God
for us. Joel and I then took them to our house where we gave Galeta
the first of his medicine. Then with Galeta on my shoulders we walked
them home. Which was half of a mud sided house.
It again struck me how easy it is to help here. Things are so cheap,
and the people are so grateful when you help them. I am already so
grateful for my time here. I have learned so much already.

Road Trip and FINALLY some pictures!!!

We woke up to smooth jazz at 3:45am. After making the necessary stops
in the bathroom, we made our way out into the driveway. Our friend
Seyoum (see-ume) soon arrived with entourage in tow; a taxi driver and
a monster of an Ethiopian for our personal protection (seriously).
We piled into two small vehicles with our eleven total bags. We raced
through the strangely deserted streets of Addis and screeched to a
halt at the bus station. By bus station we mean gravel parking lot
with sixty aging buses parked in it. We stood and waited in the
pre-dawn chill. Forty-five minutes later the stampede began with the
opening of the gates. While there was no audible gunshot, we were
certain there was some incredible prize to be had at the end of this
sprint.
We played roulette to try and find the right bus. Lost in the first
round, won the second. That is, if you call a twelve hour bus ride a
win. Like the proverbial Moses, our guard stepped onto the bus and
cleared us the dry land of three free seats (three seats, but only
five cheeks). Nolan, Davy Crocket, was left to hold the Alamo that was
our block of seats. Justin, Fletch, Seyoum, and our bodyguard haggled
in a spewing cloud of diesel fumes (let's just say there are very few
emissions tests in Ethiopia) with the "luggage attendants" to obtain a
decent price for our luggage transport. After being threatened by
exposure to the media and the government by Seyoum, they agreed on a
semi-decent price for us ferrangies (foreigners).
Our bus, packed with seventy people, would only comfortably carry
fifty people back in the land of the free and the home of the brave
(also butter and cheese). The passengers were all ready to leave at
six a.m. After the sun rose around seven, the bus driver finally
decided it was prime time to pull out. We were on the bus to Gimbie!
Approximately one half mile down the road, we found out that we were
actually on the bus to the shell station down the road where would
make a bus swap. What is a bus swap you ask?  A bus swap is where
every single person on the bus starts yelling, then rioting, then
pushing, then shoving, and eventually spilling out of one bus and into
a new one. Who would be left on this bus? Not these ferrangies. Justin
elbowed an elderly lady in the kisser. Fletch trampled a small child.
Nolan's meek and mild temperament compelled him to allow every person
to leave the bus before him. Lucky for him, Justin and Fletch clawed
and scratched their way into decent seats. Now we were on the bus to
Gimbie…..at eight a.m.
Hour one and two were smooth sailing. We enjoyed the scenery, the
paved road, and the best company. We soon reached Ambo. Little did we
know that this breakfast stop would be our only one of the day. Nolan,
after waiting for everyone else to push by, got off the bus to see
what he find for food. After being propositioned by many beggars, he
came back to with three oranges.
Soon we were on the road again, but the rest of the trip would be much
different. The first noticeable change was that the smooth pavement
became rough gravel. The second big change was the heat increase
created by the rising sun. It soon became clear that everyone in the
bus was strictly adhering to the national no-open-window policy. They
have a fear that the open air carries malaria, so lack of oxygen and
extreme heat is apparently the new cure for it.
Around hour three, a lava flow of regurgitated injera (the national
sour flatbread) started flowing under our seat. The volcano? A one
hundred and forty year old lady, hunched forward in the seat in front
of us, attacking Fletcher's backpack with her spew.
Nolan caught a stiff case of the extremely contagious regurgitinitis,
or in layman's terms, he felt extremely green and nauseous. But Fletch
and Justin had stomachs of iron, and felt fine, other then being faint
and dizzy from lack of food, water, oxygen, and space. The presence of
the dinosaur's vomit wasn't helpful either. The dinosaur was faithful
in spewing every hour or so, until we reached Gimbie. The rolling
landscape moseyed by in a green haze. We had no idea how long we would
be kept prisoners on this rolling deathtrap. Hundreds of hours passed.
Nolan, inspired by the dinosaur, made a break for the window and
hurled cheddar cheese peanut butter crackers all over the side of our
"bus". He felt like a new man. Just in time to pull into Gimbie. We
made a friend on the bus, named Olliot, who helped us successfully
procure all of our luggage off the roof, and into our possession for a
non-ferrangie price. We made it to Gimbie! Unfortunately, we were not
greeted by the hospital welcoming committee, and it more looked like
we were the new circus freaks in town. Three white boys, with eleven
pieces of luggage equals fresh meat. Thankfully, Olliot flagged down a
blue donkey (a taxi) and we stuffed all of our junk inside. We then
rode the quarter mile to the hospital in mad style. We crashed landed
at the front gate, and ended the most uncomfortable, yet memorable day
of travel in all three of our life histories.

The End.

Life in Gimbie - October 1

This is a rundown on the last couple of days here at Gimbie. Sunday
was a pretty good day. First off because I was done being sick. And
secondly because it is a national holiday so nobody works. So like
usual when we have down time we played cards. Usually Hearts of Up
and Down the River, (it's kinda like rook). Usually it's Fletcher,
Justin, Luke, Joel, and I who play. Then in the afternoon we started
clearing off the soccer field. Or what we have plans to be the soccer
field. It's actually just a plot of ground where a house used to be
that is nice and flat. It was formerly used as a volleyball court, and
the net and poles are still there. It is now terribly overgrown with
weeds. As we work the kids that live in the compound come out and try
to help us work.

The hospital is in the process of building a nursing school to use.
Like most of Ethiopia the plot of ground to be used is on a hill.
There were two options for excavating the ground. One was to hire a
bulldozer and get it done in maybe a day or two, this would cost about
25,000 bir, (exchange rate is 10 bir to 1 dollar). The other option is to hire a
whole bunch or men to dig it out, which would cost about 8,000 bir.
Naturally we choose the latter.

The hospital hired four contractors to find men, and they gave them
this stipulation. For each day under 30 days that they finished, each
contractor would get an extra 25 bir. But, for each day over 30 there
would be a subtraction of 25 bir. There are about ten men that are
working at the dig site. They are using shovels, picks, and
wheelbarrows to move the massive amount of red clay. The men also work
extremely hard because they want their bonus. These men also are
apparently not the most trustworthy and we were told to have people
watch them all day so they wouldn't steal the tools.

 Monday was the day for fletch and I to watch. We also wanted to shoot
some video of what was happening. After doodling around, taking video,
reading and such, foreman Nolan (that's me) finally got some action.
The men brought two broken wheelbarrows to fix. They carried them with
me up to the garage where I spent the next hour and a half fixing
them. I even welded one back together, which was my second time
welding. That afternoon instead of just watching I decided to help.
Even though my helping would cost the hospital more money, it was
terribly boring just watching. I instantly had blisters but it was
good work.

Yesterday was spent cleaning the volleyball court/soccer field of the
one to two foot high weeds. It the US this job would take one person a
maximum of two hours. Here using the methods that I'm sure were
thought up in the Bible times, 4 people have worked 8 hours on it and
it's still not done. It didn't help that during lunch it rained like
I've never seen it rain before in my life. We literally had a pool of
water in our front lawn when it was all over.

Today was again a different job. We found that AHI (Adventist
Hospitals International) would be coming in November. Paul Howe (the
hospital CEO) asked Fletch and I if we could have a video ready to
take back with them. So the day was spent brainstorming, and starting
to get shots of the campus and such. Wish us luck!!!

The First Days - September 23

We've been here at Gimbie a couple days now.  But there hasn't been
internet. It just came back up last night I guess. Also the internet
is dial-up and we pay by the minute. So I'm writing this e-mail
offline. Then when I get on I'll send it, with the other one's I've
written and copy the one's I've gotten onto my computer. The country
here is sooo beautiful. It's very very green. There are rolling hills
in every direction, they are dotted with trees and huts, but mostly
there are just fields. The air is clean and nice, which is very nice
compared to the constant sucking of exhaust in Addis. I just saw my
first monkey's today… They were super cool.

Life here at the hospital is good. Fletcher and I work grounds, with
some other Americans that are here. We will probably be doing that for
a while. There's a ton to do right now. Hopefully in a bit we will be
able to do some stuff in there. But right now there is not much work
in there for us…because there is no American doctor. When there is an
American doctor the people come in droves.

The people here are amazing. They are so genuinely nice. Most of them
cannot speak English that well. But the ones that can are very nice
and very fun. They are a very touchy. They are always holding on to
you, your hand, your arm, anything. Another thing I really like is
that when in conversation, if they need to say yes or uh-huh, they
suck in air and make a little sound. It's super cool.

Our first trip into town, was pretty fun. All the little kids yell out
"forangie, forangie" which means "foreigner foreigner." We also don't
stop walking, if we do we will get surrounded by kids, who all want
money. It's hard to say no, but if you give to one you have to give to
all, and we're gonna be here 6 months. Also there are many ping pong
tables. I can't wait to play the kids. I guess they play for money
though, and their tables are reminiscent of shallow bowls, so it might
be a little tricky. I hope to do it later today though.

Finally arrived in Addis Ababa - September 20

Praise God. I've made it to Addis Ababa. The trip was terribly long.
After getting to Washington D.C., it was a direct flight to Ethiopia,
we just stopped in Rome to refuel. But we were not aloud to get off
the plane. Travel time from when I left my house, to when I got to
where I am staying now was 29 hrs.

When we landed in Addis, Fletcher and I were both a little nervous
about getting through customs because we had lots of equipment such as
a laptop, projector, tools, and medicines. We really didn't want to
pay duty for all of that stuff. When we had finally gotten all of our
baggage, we got into the customs line. Everyone had to put all their
luggage through a scanner. There was a big mission group in front of
us and they were taking a little while. When it was finally our turn,
the first guard just waved us on through!! When we got to the second
guard, he first put his hand up to stop us, then he also waved us
through. It was crazy. We didn't even see that happen to any of the
natives that were going through.

We are staying at the Union Conference right now. Gimbie, our final
destination is another 10 hrs away. We got in Thursday night, so
yesterday was spent buying food and supplies to be used in Gimbie. We
have almost everything we need now. We wanted to buy a cell phone, but
we haven't had the chance yet. Justin got in last night, around 9. We
weren't able to pick him up, but when he got to the compound Fletch
and I told him that he was going to have to sleep in the room attached
to ours. We told him that we had slept there the night before and that
there where huge spiders on the ground. He freaked out and promptly
said, "No way, I'm sleeping with you guys." And he did.

That's all for now from Ethiopia. Keep me in your prayers. I'm not
feeling good at all. I have a low temperature and a sore throat and
cough.

Almost Ready

I'm leaving in two days and boy am I getting excited about it. I think I have almost everything I need. We just had a big going away party on Sabbath afternoon. It was great to see all of my Spokane/North Idaho friends for one last time. Fletch and I are leaving Wednesday morning at 8. And Justing follows later that day. Keep us in your prayers