Two-Week Update

Abdi and I have been to Ethiopia for two weeks, and now I finally pushed myself hard to write my first blog. Everything has been so different here - different from what I am used to and from what I expected. It was quite an overwhelming feeling at first, but I have been enjoying my time here tremendously and people are extremely friendly and welcoming.

We were in Addis for a week, getting ready for our project. While waiting, Abdi and I explored around in the city. I was very impressed by how much construction work has been going on - roads, railway, subway, real estate, etc., and literally it is everywhere. I have noticed that there were many Chinese companies, such as CREC and Huawei telecom that support building this country's infrastructure and do businesses with Ethiopia. On our way to Assela, we drove by the Eastern Industry Zone, which is one of the largest industrial zones in Ethiopia and is invested by a Chinese company. It occupies 500 hectares land and will provide 10,000 jobs when it is at full capacity. I also saw Lifan cars, which are produced in my hometown Chongqing. It was amazing to see how much China has invested in Ethiopia. I met couple of Chinese people in Addis, and they were extremely nice. But they did feel like the heavy taxation and red tape from the bureaus make doing business here difficult. 

In spite of nice shopping centers, hotels, new office buildings, and international movie theaters (we even watched Monster University in English without Amharic subtitles), you can see poverty everywhere you go. According to UNDP, 39 percent of the Ethiopian population lives under the international poverty line of $1.25 per day, and the capital city is no exception. On the side of the roads, there are small venders that sell clothes, beverages, snacks, cellphone cards, fruits, etc. Many women would sit on the street, roasting corns and selling to people passing by with 2 birr each (10 cents). Some people would beg for money with their children or just sleep on the side of the roads. Imagining this what I saw in the capital city, living situation is definitely more difficult in the rural areas.

Another thing is completely out of Abdi's and my expectation is how expensive things are. Abdi's extended family told us, few years ago a bag of sugar would only cost 4 Birr, but now it is 30 Birr. It drives me crazy to think about fried rice in a normal restaurant here costs twice to three times as it does in China, not even to mention their taxi, lodging, gas, and imported products in supermarkets. Even for their cheapest transportation (besides walking) - mini bus, depended on how far you go, a round trip might cost you around 3-10 Birr (15-50 cents). We once asked a taxi driver why transportation was so expensive, he said, because the government imposes high taxation, in order to support further construction. You really have to know how to spend your money well here to survive, especially with average people who do not make that much income. For example, a waitress might earn less than 1,000 Ethiopian Birr a month (around $50) or a driver could only make 2000 Birr per month ($100).

Said enough about my superficial observation on the city, I want to share more about my cultural experiences so far. People here are really friendly and try to take care of us. Abdi's family friend Senayette was kind enough to invite us to her house to enjoy the coffee ceremony -one of the most famous Ethiopian traditional socializing rituals. Senayette's sister Elena and her husband, who is a pilot for Ethiopia airline, picked up us and drove us to the house. They cooked a feast for lunch - Bia'nat (misar, vegets, etc.) you eat them with injera, a soft sour flatbread that is full with mineral and nutrition. It is common here to only eat veges on Wednesdays and Fridays because of the Orthodox Christian fasting tradition which people abstain diary diet. That was the best meal that I have had since we arrived, because it is not only a delicious meal, but also a taste of home and joy. 

After the amazing lunch, their maid prepared us the coffee ceremony. Before the trip, I only knew how famous Ethiopia is for its coffee, but now I understand how important coffee is to them. Here is the setting of a coffee ceremony: they roast their own coffee beans, grind them, put the coffee power in the jar then boil it, and when they serve the coffee, they light a special thing called Ethan, and what makes the coffee even better is that they put a leaf in the coffee, and it smells like mint and makes your coffee fresh. People would gather together to enjoy their coffee couple of times, and normally they would call their relatives, extended families, and friends to come over to chat and enjoy coffee and celebrate the day. There is no other coffee can compare to the authentic Ethiopian coffee. People not only have coffee ceremony at their own, but literally wherever you go - shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, and cafe places. It has been a pleasant experience for me.

One more interesting place we visited is Merkato, the largest market in Addis Ababa. I first saw Merkato from the post card, and it looked absolutely crazy, crowded, and exciting with thousands of vendors and a variety of things they sell. Of course, I like to visit local places like this. So Abdi, my "body guard", was more than willing to take me there and show me around. Merkato is a huge market where you would find almost everything. Local people warned and told us it is a very tough place where people would pickpocket you all the time. Of course, I was too fascinated and excited about going to Merkato so none these warnings registered in my head. Abdi's extended family got so nervous once she learned that we were going there by ourselves. Therefore, she insisted going with us and after an hour of traffic, we arrived Merkato. It was even busier and crowded than it looked on the post card. People were loading bags of goods from the mini bus; some would carry a roll of carpet on their shoulder; or some would have handful of bells and small items and yell to sell, etc. It was raining, so there was mud everywhere on the road and sidewalk. Cars, taxis, and buses drove through the crowds, hulking at people. It was more regulated now than few years ago, because the government built large buildings, so most of the venders had to move inside. And of course, being the only Chinese girl wondering around Merkato, I attracted so much attention and people would literally be so fascinated to see me. Anyways, we ended up only visiting two buildings with traditional clothes, scarves, and souvenirs. It was quite fun to look at Abdi and his aunt bargaining and cutting prices for me. Everybody thinks Abdi is an Ethiopian so that has been a huge plus.

Well, every day I explore and try new things, and I feel like I have so much to write about. But I am sure you all want to know more about our Daivs project and how things have been going with it. Before I share more about the progress, I would like to give a big thanks to Dr. Mulu, who helps us make our project possible, has a special heart for her work to help women with fistula, and tries to take good care of Abdi and me beyond her busy schedule. As you know, Abdi and I stayed in Addis for almost a week to prepare our paper work and modify our plans. When we arrived in Addis, we had an ambitious proposal, but we had to figure out how to implement it. Reality is always not exactly what you would think. I would never imagine how much the government regulates volunteer work and NGO practices. There were moments of chaos and stress, but we were never discouraged, and everything eventually worked out really well. So now Abdi and I are in Assela, where WAHA has its Fistula Center in the Assela Hospital. People here greeted us warmly and really support what we hope to accomplish.

YuHsin, who is from Taiwan, helps us connecting with different key figures in the hospital, and provides us support to our project whenever we need it. She tries to take care of us, too. She doesn't only help us with our project enormously, but also shares us her personal experience and work with fistula patients. She has great heart for these women, and her daily work and interactions with the women mean a lot to these women. Each fistula patient has her own story, but all stories are just extremely sad. Through our short conversations on Monday, a woman asked the doctor how soon she could have another baby after the surgery, because she only has two girls, but her husband wants a baby boy! When we tried to tell her that girls were perfect, she responded, "In the name of God, I think boys and girls are the same to me, but my husband wants a boy." This just makes me extremely sad. We hope to get to know more about the women at the center, understand their stories, and help them.

Although Fistula cases have already been eradicated in developed countries because of the medical technologies available, many people do not even know about or heard of what Obstetric Fistula is. Unfortunately, it is quite common here. According to UNICEF, only 10 percent of births are attended by skilled medical professionals, such as doctors, nurses, or midwives, which means 90 percent of women give birth at home or other places without proper medical facility or having any health personnel attended. Also think about other factors, such as lack of nutrition, poverty, having baby extremely at young age, low/none education, etc.  All these factors contribute to fistula cases here. Once women experience belong labor during childbirth, families normally do not send these women to hospital, since they cannot afford it (even the ambulance is free in some areas, but they still have to pay the fuel), which is probably less than 30 US dollars. By quoting YuHsin, "In the situation, family members choose transportation expenses over lives of the mother and the baby." So, as a part of our project, we will go into rural villages around Assela with Birke, the WAHA health professional, to have educational outreach on maternal health and obstetric fistula as well as to identify pregnant women who really need financial support for transportation to the Assela Hospital if needed.

So far we have visited over seven health centers in towns and rural villages, talking to pregnant women there and explaining to them the importance of delivering babies at the hospital as well as collaborating with the local midwives and health center doctors or nurses. We have had very productive two days during our local visits with Birke, and we got to see the rural areas and interacted with some amazing kids. Abdi will post more about our field visits on his upcoming blog.

 ------- Posted by Amy :)