Ethiopia! Part 1--The Mission

As predicted, here is a cut and paste of Blake's emails from Ethiopia along with my recount of stories and pictures he shared with me. But Blake wants me to let everyone know, that if you'd like to hear more, you are more than welcome to call him for the details. Seriously, the trip of a lifetime.

November 19, 2007
Hallo (Ethiopian for hello),
Internet at the hotel doesn't work, so this is the first chance I've had. Things are going well--it's been a rollercoaster emotionally..but luckily it's gotten better each day and everyday should be like today from now on. First day we went and toured the hospital and it is the worst hospital anyone has seen in the 30 plus missions they've been on and some even lived in Africa for years and never saw anything as bad. Patients that had just had surgery were lying in hallways on foam pads on the ground, there are blood spots everywhere on the ground, they use biogas made from fermented feces to power a lot of things in the hospital and that combined with the bodies they roll out every 20 minutes or so makes for a pleasant smell. They weren't even sure if we'd be able to do surgeries because the conditions were so bad. Then the second day we did screenings on about 200 patients and started surgeries today--I was hoping to send a few pictures but the connection is so slow they won't upload. It is the best feeling to take the patient in to surgery and then see the parents' reactions right after the surgery is finished, and the worst feeling to have to turn away so many patients that arrived today after traveling for 16 hours by bus and foot because our schedule is full. The food was really good the first couple days but we've had the same thing at every meal, so it's getting a little old. We had a welcoming party the first night and I was lucky enough to be able to join in the native Ethiopian dances.

The hospital. Kind of like lots of very, very old, rundown portables.
The operating room, with a man holding a rifle standing guard.
The line of people waiting to be screened.
Blake's office for screenings. By the middle of the day, the gutter behind the chair was filled with sewage.
Waiting to hear if they'd been selected for surgery. Many people were turned away because there weren't healthy enough to undergo the anesthesia.
Doing exams.
Blake mostly extracted teeth and also made obturators (retainers) to cover the palate for several of the patients they could only fix the lip on and some to expand the palate before surgery.
Some Ethiopian dental students came to observe. They only thing they learn in school is how to extract teeth.Happy!