This morning at about 6:00 am, our friend Sarewit from Jhpeigo picked up Nate and I (Creighton) from our hotel and started our 650 km drive north to Bahir Dar. Luccie and Lauren went south to Hawassa. I thought I would sleep during most of the drive, but I hardly slept at all. It was fascinating! The country side is very different from the city. About 84% of the 82 million people in Ethiopia live outside urban areas. Just over 4 million live in Addis Ababa, and only 260,000 in the next largest city Mek'ele. So it’s clear the great majority of people live in rural areas. And that's what we saw today; a bit of that rural life. Ethiopia is a very beautiful country. It is very green and there are endless fields of crops and tilled dirt. In many ways, it was like stepping back in time and watching people farm in the 1800s. Their plows were pulled by donkeys and composed of tree branches that were tied or nailed together in such a way that a branch dug down into the dirt as the donkey walked. And there were a lot of farmers working in those fields! We also saw all kinds of natural formations, plant life, and animal life including amazing views from cliff sides, red rock cliffs, Acacia trees, tons of various livestock, children with whips, and other towns on the way. But there were definitely two highlights: 1) TONS of Baboons hanging out in the middle of the road that wouldn't move until we were practically running them over and 2) the longest river in the world: the Nile river. It was amazing! But equally interesting was the conversation we had with Sarewit and Berhanu. We've had an excellent overview of the health care system by Jhpiego over the last couple days, and today we had a firsthand description of the country's history, current status, customs, language, pop culture, and interesting facts. A few highlights were:
-The detailed lesson of the language's alphabet and grammar structure. By the end I could partially sound/spell out Amheric words
-A description of the civil war struggle to overthrow the previous socialist government from a man who experienced it all
-Information about their 13 month calendar which is currently set on the year 2003
-And information about Lucy (the 3.2 million year old pre-human fossil) and old churches constructed from a single stones
Now that we’ve had a good overview of the health, history, and culture of the people here, we’re even more excited to visit the health posts and health centers that provide basic care to the people in rural areas. These facilities reach out to the greatest number of people and could be an excellent source for innovative ideas to help the most people possible. We’ll keep you posted on our experiences…
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