Things are going well

Things are going well.

To begin with, my day started with my first warm shower since leaving Seattle five days ago!  It turns out that the second bedroom in the apartment has its own bathroom and in this one the hot water heater works.  At this point I've just adjusted to the fact that either power and water shut off periodically and have learned to keep a flashlight in my pocket and the back up water barrel in the apartment filled.

In addition, I now have a working cell phone and an EVDO device which plugs into my computer and gives me slow but reliable internet access.  Both are  relatively inexpensive.

This is the main entrance to the hospital.   I arrive here around 7:45 and try to have a small cup of coffee and a croissant before climbing the seven flights of stairs up to the nursery.  Given that the altitude here is 8,000 feet, I generally stop at the fifth floor to catch my breath. I'm up and down these stairs several times a day so I expect to be an aerobic dynamo by the time I come home!

Three times a week there are resident rounds where pediatric and newborn admissions and discharges are presented.  

All of the medical faculty are addressed by their first name.  I have become Professor Steve and I'm being encouraged to participate.  Face to face conservations here are easy in English.  My problem is that I haven't quite gotten my ears tuned to understand the residents who speak softly, fast, and with the melodic intonations of Amharic.  

Following this larger meeting,  I round with the fellows and the nursery interns and residents.

The infants are packed together in three small rooms which are heated with open electric hot plates and space heaters such that the entire room is one giant incubator.  Today the temp in this room was 31 C which is 89 F.  These two infants are receiving photo therapy to treat jaundice. 

In another room five mothers and babies live together doing Kangaroo Care (skin to skin contact) and breast feeding.  Here, Asrat, one of the neonatal fellows is telling this mom that her baby can go home.  Although Amharic is the official language, over 80 different languages are spoken in Ethiopia.  The mother in the back on the right is translating.  Asrat is holding the mother's cellphone which is covered with little stickers given to her on each day that the baby has gained weight.  It is very clear that this mother  views each sticker with great pride.

Following rounds today, I was invited to lunch.  Here are two members of the pediatric faculty and second neonatal fellow, Hailu, who is in the center.  At the end of the day I connect with one of the driver's from the hospital who give me a ride back to my apartment.

I'm hoping to include a video of Addis traffic.  It's unlike anything I've experienced before.