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 :)