So today we leave Ethiopia. Liora already left a couple days ago and Liad and I are flying out this evening (her to Israel, me to Tanzania).
Our last few days were filled with action. We were hoping to finish things up on Thuursday and have some time to just explore the region for a day or two and catch our breaths. It turns out that we ended up having some more patients towards the end of the week so we were actually at the hospital until Friday afternoon. Also, we have been trying to organize all the data for the office in Israel so that they can have a list of the every patient that has come from Ethiopia, their diagnosis, the correct spelling of their name, whether or not we had a chance to see them (and why) and contact details for those who we did not have a chance to see.
|We are going to finish that today and then head to the airport. The hospital in Ethiopia has arranged all of our transportation to and from the airport because we have with us an ECHO machine that is fragile and very expensive. They have actually been fantastic about that and they have gone to great lengths to make sure we have been able to look after the machine - On that note, no one in israel has offered to collect Liad from the airport when she arrives in Tel Aviv, so she will have to take a taxi first to the hospital to drop off the echo machine, and then to her home....all this after two flights and a full night of flying.
We had a chance to say our goodbye from here and see everyone one last time. We got some nice gifts from some of the doctors (in addition to be taken out for dinner earlier in the week). I also had a chance to sit with the hospital director and just say thank you. he was the original collaborator with SACH when everything began in the late 1990's.
Needless to say, we have learned a lot over these past few weeks. We have learned about Ethiopia and Ethiopians as well as their culture and their behaviour. Importantly, I think we have learned a lot about ourselves and the type of medicine we would like to practice.
We all feel accomplished with our task and we believe we have seen as many patients as we possibly could have. The majority of the patients are fine and well and only come for periodic follow up, if at all. Some, however, are going to need to be re-operated and we are glad to have brought that to the attnetion of the physicians both here and in Israel. hopefully if some of them come to Israel in the coming months, we will have a chance to see them again.
So that is all for now. Looking forward to going through our pictures with anyone who is interested upon our return.
all the best,
Will (and Liad)
Our last few days were filled with action. We were hoping to finish things up on Thuursday and have some time to just explore the region for a day or two and catch our breaths. It turns out that we ended up having some more patients towards the end of the week so we were actually at the hospital until Friday afternoon. Also, we have been trying to organize all the data for the office in Israel so that they can have a list of the every patient that has come from Ethiopia, their diagnosis, the correct spelling of their name, whether or not we had a chance to see them (and why) and contact details for those who we did not have a chance to see.
|We are going to finish that today and then head to the airport. The hospital in Ethiopia has arranged all of our transportation to and from the airport because we have with us an ECHO machine that is fragile and very expensive. They have actually been fantastic about that and they have gone to great lengths to make sure we have been able to look after the machine - On that note, no one in israel has offered to collect Liad from the airport when she arrives in Tel Aviv, so she will have to take a taxi first to the hospital to drop off the echo machine, and then to her home....all this after two flights and a full night of flying.
We had a chance to say our goodbye from here and see everyone one last time. We got some nice gifts from some of the doctors (in addition to be taken out for dinner earlier in the week). I also had a chance to sit with the hospital director and just say thank you. he was the original collaborator with SACH when everything began in the late 1990's.
Needless to say, we have learned a lot over these past few weeks. We have learned about Ethiopia and Ethiopians as well as their culture and their behaviour. Importantly, I think we have learned a lot about ourselves and the type of medicine we would like to practice.
We all feel accomplished with our task and we believe we have seen as many patients as we possibly could have. The majority of the patients are fine and well and only come for periodic follow up, if at all. Some, however, are going to need to be re-operated and we are glad to have brought that to the attnetion of the physicians both here and in Israel. hopefully if some of them come to Israel in the coming months, we will have a chance to see them again.
So that is all for now. Looking forward to going through our pictures with anyone who is interested upon our return.
all the best,
Will (and Liad)
Have a safe flight wherever you go!! It defenetly sounded like a unique experience. Liad I will be your driver - it goes with the territiry. Love & kisses.
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