Hospital Horrors

November 1^st, 2007

Yesterday morning Kate woke up really sick. She had terrible, deep, sharp stomach pains. So we decided to go to Nekemt. It was Binyam, Getachew, Matthewos, Kate and I. I told Massamo to tell the school director and Teka why we weren’t coming to class. So we left on the bumpy road some time after 7 am. It was torture hearing and watching Kate next to me she would clench up her body every few minutes. We were all praying, but she was saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” the whole way. Afterwards she described it as probably being as painful as labor contractions although she’s never felt them before. I felt so bad and wanted to do something for her. I held her hand when a bad ‘contraction’ came, she would squeeze it harder. Since we were all so worried, it was a very serious and long drive.

When we finally arrived there, a crowd of people, probably close to a hundred of them, was waiting to get in. they all stood outside the gate of the hospital pressed up against the gate. Matthewos got out and talked to the guard and we were instantly let in. then as we walked into the building there were crowds of people in the hall. There was almost no walking space. Since Kate could barely hold herself up, she was being helped by Matthewos and they could barely get through the crowd. I felt so bad because those people were probably there for a long time and they probably wouldn’t get helped that day, and we, as white people, just waltz right in and get helped. It made me feel like it was a case of white privilege. I hope it wasn’t. I mean, she really did need to get helped quickly, but how many of the people needed to be helped just as bad? They probably walked there from miles and miles around since it’s the only hospital for miles around. They probably carried their sick loved ones there. Who knows how long and how many trials they had to overcome to get there? Yet they didn’t complain as we passed them. So as we walked into one of the rooms, I started to cry because of the moral dilemma and overwhelming feelings I had. The floors were dirty, parts of the building were falling apart, and it smelled strange. But I guess all hospitals kind of have a weird smell. There were nurses and doctors everywhere in their white coats. Since there were a lot of young people, I think that some of them might have been medical students.

Kate was asked a few questions, but not many. Then all of a sudden they were ushering her into another room and a nurse was pulling out a needle. I didn’t hear what it was so I was really confused and started freaking out in my head. “What are they doing with that needle? What is it? Is it clean?” They pulled Kate behind a curtain. I went in with her and held her hand. Getachew held her while they pulled down her pants a little and stuck the needle in her behind. Later I found out it was a pain killer. Kate said that she had noticed that the nurse didn’t have gloves on and hoped that she would clean the area that the needle was thrust into. She did clean the area, so that was good. But she still wasn’t wearing gloves.

Then they ushered her to another location and said she needed to use the bathroom. At first we were shown to some tin huts in some tall grass, but Matthewos said that that would be too traumatic for her right now. So they showed her into a nurse’s bathroom. She gave a stool sample, which I would not have wanted to do if I was her. We went to the doctor’s office and he asked her what her symptoms were. It was difficult for us to understand his English, but we got through. It was kind of awkward because there were maybe 5 men in the room and he lifted up her shirt. He just showed her stomach, but still, I felt like it would have been a bit awkward for her. We waited patiently as they tested the stool. Kate’s painkiller was working, so she was much more coherent at this point. Now she was just sleepy and wanted to go to bed. Finally the results came and the paper said ‘many motile bacteria’ so they told her to take supro which she already owned, so that was good. She’s just not supposed to take it unless a doctor tells her to. It took us forever to finally reach the compound, but when we did, Kate slept for a long time and woke up feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of an appetite.

As Kate rested, I went to the coffee fields with Getachew and Binyam. As Getch paid the people, I sat in the Land Rover for 2 hours. At first I sat there uncomfortably while people crowded around the Rover and stared at me. But eventually I realized I was going to be there a while, so I interacted with the people out of the window. There were many children that I talked to especially. Binyam didn’t know much Oromifa, but he helped to translate a little. I learned a few words in Oromifa, such as ‘kotu’ which means come, ‘mucha’ which means baby, and ‘inyaata’ which means food. There was a small boy who was super cute and I kept touching his hair. He kept ducking. Then a note was passed to me. I looked around to see who it was. It was a girl who quickly hid behind a tree. The note said:

Can you talking Oromo language?

No matter. Try try.

What your name?

- and –

My name is Mulu Daneli

I keep it in my journal. I was touched by her desire to get to know me, but I couldn’t understand why she kept hiding. I tried to get her to talk to my face and she finally did when I said, “Mulu, kotu” (Mulu, come). I let some of the children touch my hair which was really exciting for them. On the way there we picked up some women who Getch said were arguing about whether my hair was real or not. Ha ha! It feels funny to be such an anomaly to the people. It was a really great time to just hang out with the people. Sometimes I feel so separated from the people when we are in our compound.

This morning I taught the class about adverbs. Exciting, exciting. Sometimes I wondered why the heck I was up there and sometimes I was fine. But I felt so inadequate. I love talking to the children on a more personal level I wish I could do that more. I don’t like standing in front of people, telling them things, and acting like I have all the answers. I had tea with some teachers and returned home.

I played Frisbee with some of the men from my compound and from the Belo project. I love watching people’s reactions and seeing how they catch the Frisbee. It’s so entertaining. One man hops into the air with his legs together every time he catches the Frisbee no matter how low or high it is thrown to him. Getch seems to get stuck on one leg as he reaches for the Frisbee. He often makes funny noises as well. Binyam likes to have it tossed to him high so he can leap up into the air and catch it with two hands. Matthews comments as he throws it, like, “ok, here we go. Yeah. Nope.” I can’t even describe it.

We said goodbye to Massamo and Getch because they are going to Addis. Getch will be back sometime next week, but we’re not sure when. I was really sad that they were going because those were the two whom I felt most comfortable with and had many good conversations with. We joked around with them a lot too. It feels like people we get to know best are always leaving us.