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.