Cold feet

Like reading a big book I wouldn't have time for otherwise, blogging has become a personal tradition on long travels.  It serves a lot of purposes: communicating to multiple people at once about what I'm up to; helping me process what's going on around me in a concrete way; documenting events to look back on from the future (I really enjoyed looking back at my blogs from Bolivia and the Republic of Georgia when I was getting ready to start this post); and giving me a sense of purpose and accomplishment and something to do when I am lacking those things.  For example, I just spent 1 hour on a Friday night designing this blog template that I don't even particularly like, just because I have nothing better to do.  This blog I hope will also help inform and prepare other residents who will come here like me with no idea what they're doing, and maybe even, through your feedback dear reader, help me become more productive while I am here.  (That being said I do not intend this at all to be a formal record of my activities for this rotation and do not represent the views of Emory or the Global Health Scholars Program.)  My other disclaimer is that I might get a little technical, a little medical-dorky, for my non-medical audience from time to time, but that is the nature of this trip and probably many of my observations, so bear with me.

I'm at the end of day 2 here and I'm have just the ever so slightest grasp on what is going on.  I forget how much it is the little victories of learning a totally new place that make all the difference.  For example, I was ecstatic when I finally got my local cell phone to work, which, like home, is the ticket to keeping connected with anyone.  I also got a personal tutoring session from one of the residents on how to take the public taxi (like a mini-bus) from the hospital back to my hotel, and mastered my first Amharic words, which mean "I am getting off [the bus]."  (I still can't get "thank you" down even though Marissa tried to teach me before leaving.  It's like 5 or 6 syllables.)  I will include in another dispatch the always popular from any destination description of "adventures in public transportation."

The title of the post refers to the major cold feet I had before leaving, unlike, I think, I have ever had before leaving on a big trip, even ones much longer than this one.  (Or am I remembering only the good things?)  It's been awhile since I've traveled alone and far from home, and I guess things just seem so good at home-- I'm getting married, got an amazing fellowship, and residency is not the daunting beast it once was, I had four freakin' weekends in a row off before I left, and I was like, what am I doing??  But now that I'm here I remember why I like going to far off places, even when I'm lonely.

I've had some requests for a description of my digs.  I'm staying in a hotel with the same name as my host OB/GYN so I have come to understand that likely the reason we all stay here is that he has some familial connection with it.  I would describe it as a hotel with fading elegance.  For example, my room has small crystal-chandelier-like light fixtures and a gold bedspread, but when showing me my room when I arrived, the handle of the door to the room fell off and the porter was entirely unconcerned about it.  "It still turns, yes?"  My rolling desk chair is missing two of five of its wheels.  But hey, when traveling abroad I don't ask for any elegance, so I'll take it.  The bed is super comfy, room is cleaned daily (which is certainly more than I can say for my normal home situation), I have a nice view, a small fridge, and a little balcony.  I have wi-fi about 50% of the time.  Oh, and another major/minor coup of the day is that I discovered where they serve the included breakfast, and it is good!  So this is definitely a nice place to come back to after a dusty day in the city.

Yesterday was my first full day here.  I walked a mile or so in one direction away from the hotel to try to find a SIM card for my phone (unsuccessful), walked a half mile or so in the other direction away from the hotel to try to find a lunch spot my host recommended (unsuccessful-- ended up at a place with no menu and no English.  I think I had lamb or goat, not sure). I finally met said host in the hotel lobby before he had dinner with more important guests.  I went to the gym at the hotel (which is actually pretty impressive) and ran a few miles, because, why not?  Got settled.

Today was a bit more exciting.  Dr. D, which I will call my host from now on, picked me up and took me to the Black Lion Hospital (or Tikur Anbessa in Amharic-- where I got the name of this blog from).  This is where I gather I will be spending most of my time.  It is the biggest public hospital in Ethiopia and a major tertiary care center, and a training hospital for medical residents at Addis Ababa University.  I followed some of the residents around.  They took me out for lunch and traditional coffee.  I was lucky to jump into a session on ultrasound doppler evaluations taught by a visiting high-risk OB from Switzerland (picture left), and capped off the day with an impressively advanced didactic session on managing newborns with ambiguous genitalia.   If my main job here is to help with resident education, I'm thinking, what do I have to offer??  They seem to be doing pretty well without me.  It's going to be interesting trying to figure out where I (and we, as Emory residents) fit into all this, but that is my mission!

Thanks for joining me on my little adventure.  Comments, feedback, and questions are very welcome by email or the comments section.  I'm going to go wash the dust off.

Love,
Jess