Ethiopia + Podoconiosis
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ethiopia + podoconiosis a trip to wolaita zone, soddo In the spring of march two-thousand and ten gavin studer traveled to the country of ethiopia to taste, see and embrace the beauty, suf- fering and simple love of the ethiopian people and thier countryside. 00 addis ababa upon arrival I stayed at addis kadan, a cordial baptist guesthouse in addis ababa. this is 145km where I met alayu as well as jeff and chris who I would be traveling butajira with for the next 6 days. hosaena route [9] 155km the next day we drove shasamane route areka (clinic site) the 4 hours south to boditi + shanto (clinic sites) soddo, stopping only in soddo butajira for lunch. 8 days 20mi 300KM TO SODDO 20km in the field... day 1 - arba minch setting out at five in the morning in a special darkness, a void without electricity we picked up Mebrat on our way south to the town of arba minch. The drive was stunning after first light the sun rose over a glimmering lake abaya. my first african sunrise! It was a small village along the way that was our first & main destination. we were to attend our first african christian church service, pastor Zewdie was go- ing to preach. what seemed to be a youth choir, amazing voices typical street scenes for lunch we had coffee and tea in a beautiful shaded courtyard in the city of arba minch. finishing our machiatto’s continued on to the crocodile farm where along the way we encountered a wild boar bathing in the muddy road and a couple of ba- boons (one was a baby porched on a fence, so cute!) leaving the farm I was stopped by a group of teenagers who wanted to all take pictures with me! It was funny to have guys pushing girls out of the way to pose with me. So today’s journey was totally epic, sitting in the front seat of the landcruiser with the window down and my head sticking out to soak in the clouds, the huts, and the lake as they rolled by. our first day trip blew my world to shreds! An african church service with singing, dancing and even wailing! innumerable children gathered around to see the for-rengies! As we pulled away from the village, getting to know the people I was to spend the coming week with was so amazing! areka CLINIC SITES gununo boditi + shanto 20km soddo gasuba day 2 - gununo & widows goya the morning brought us to the current mossy foot headquarters to see shoemaking & barber training. After playing with Hode (Hoe-day), a young boy who’s mother works as a shoemaker we were off to Zewdie’s presentation to about 40 church leaders about mossy foot and the very villagers it afflicts near to them. we handed out suckers to children and men as we headed to the clinic. there is a need for a enhanced presentation (video?) in amharic that would be shown about the work mossy foot project does and their current needs, which could be addressed by local ethiopian churches. also, a battery operated projector would be of immense help (cutting out the 100 pound generator for electricity) a row of beautiful homes in the village of gununo Gununo is fabulous, green pastures and huts rang- ing in all different shapes and sizes with corrugated gable roofs and even some with front porches! Later in the day we met up with a gospel agent who would be showing us to the rural areas where widows need- ed house renovations, or new housing all together. These decrepit houses needed rebuilding for around $250 dollars (for the typical grasshut and mud). It was within these rural plots that the leaning homes of the abandon women and widows were found. there are currently 12 shoemakers and 3 sewing machies which produce about 400 shoes a month. gununo clinic potters village on the way to a widow’s hut day 3 - gasuba presentation & home-cooked dinner the people here in Ethiopia are so friendly & inviting! Zewdie gave another pre- sentation here in the tree-lined village of gasuba. afterwards I stumbled upon a primary school and decided to go hang out with the bunch of kids that were following me anyways. we then headed back to soddo to go to Zewdie’s house for dinner. we took a bajaj there and back which was fun and pretty comedic to have 3 of us tall americans stuffed into the back seats of one of these tiny things. the food was great! I love eating popcorn with my un-filtered coffeeSharon arrived at his house on a motorcycle with kebede, a young Ethiopian nurse in training at Soddo Christian hospital, we met and immediately made plans to hang out this coming weekend. gasuba loading shoes for clinic distribution tree-lined streets inside of a bajaj dinner at pastor zewdies day 4 - goya & coffee ceremony this morning at the headquarters I met the new employee, Daniel. he just so hap- pens to be good friends with Kebede (small town I guess). I showed some of the staff who had extra time on their hands how to play hacky sack (they all got it im- mediately). after seeing the young boy Alameyu (a teen who suffered a bad bone infection and gash in his leg, who’s sister Abanesh is a mossy foot patient) I asked if he had a jacket since he looked cold, he said no so I gave him my sweatshirt. after seeing the hairdressing vocational training, we traveled headed out to two clinic sites. mossy foot project has served over 150,000 patients - many of which recover and become vocationally trained. they then go back to thier home villages and help take care of others as well as guide them to clinic sites. a patient sucking his candy Jeff and I (Christ stayed at home to prepare his sermon) shook all of the patients hands (most have been outcast from their villages or shunned because of their foot condi- tion) so it was great to see them light up. We also passed dum-dums, this brought an even more anxious/ex- cited look to their faces! To break the silence and bring laughs Jeff would take pictures of the patients and then show them their own pictures, almost every time they would laugh and show their friends sitting next to them. The last of the candy went to health workers and children gath- ered outside the building. There was a very sad story at this clinic in Goya, a young woman of 17 named Kedebush had a pretty bad case of ongo- ing mossy foot. This beautiful girl was alone, an orphan of parents who had passed away. She collected wood from the lowlands for survival, burning to and selling it at charcoal in the soddo market, that’s about 30km of walking a day just to sustain herself! This was an incredible injustice. When we arrived back into town Mebrat had a coffee ceremony waiting for us, it was some strong/good coffee! and pop- corn on the side. a widow with her 3-year old day 5 - shanto + boditi clinics it was great to see all of the staff at morning chapel this morning, I had a chance to thank them for my time here and share my thoughts on how the mossy foot project is doing amazing work. The group of people assembled in the room with me cre- ated a great family that has the ability to reach so many people here in Ethiopia. I told them I would keep them all in my prayers, that it had been my honor and plea- sure meeting and getting to know even just some of them. This morning I got a kiss on the hand from Abanesh and Alameyu who I had given my sweatshirt to the day before (not to mention a few kisses on the hand from patients at clinics) a man bad- ly affected by mossy foot began to wash his own feet in the ditch next to the shanto clinic It seems that everywhere we go there is at least one young boy around the age of 6 to 9 who sticks to me like I was go- ing to take him home botiti clinic After two health clinic sites, we vis- ited a mossy foot patient who had recovered and started her own hair- dressing shop in a nearby village. It is beginning to be very saddening to see so many Ethiopian people along the roads we travel who hold their hands out for food and money, gesturing their hands from their stomachs to their mouths. It is hard to sit back and just watch. day 6 - terepeza & the building site we walked around the terepeza (meaning table) church compound today with a few ethiopian friends that we had met up with at breakfast. they also took us to the building site so we could take some crude measurements. after lunch we visited the site for a second time with Gary. this time (since we were all white) kids started gathering from surrounding houses and farms to watch us walk around the site. It would be of great assistance if there were an American correspondent/building supervisor here to oversee all operations full-time. Gary seriously hinted to me that It would be great if someone young like me could be down here in Soddo keeping everything running smoothly, that would be amazing I said! the first Mossy Foot Project office, on the Kale Hewot Compound current Mossy Foot Project staff the west end of the site, looking west across soddo the mossy foot project has raised over $30,000 to begin construction of thier permanent headquarters overlooking soddo.