Stacia Neale, Fundraising Operations for HealthyKids International (HKI), is blogging on her experiences as she accompanies the SickKids No Boundaries team to Ethiopia to oversee the filming of a documentary. Read all her posts here.
The moment we touched down in Addis, Ethiopia, I put aside my personal musings and prepared for what’s to come.
Our first group mission was to secure entrance Visas, which worked for all of us except Frances, a SickKids Orthopaedic Fellow from Uganda. Uganda is one of seven countries that does not have an immigration agreement with Ethiopia. While the rest of us changed money and wrangled the hockey bags full of medical equipment onto carts, Dr. Andrew Howard, the Head of SickKids Othopaedics (who had flown over a few days earlier), successfully worked his diplomatic magic (with the assistance of helper Kassa and a phone call from Dr. Milliard Derbew, Dean of the Addis Ababa Medical School) to get immigration clearance for Frances.
Moments later, we encountered our next obstacle in the short hour since we had been on the ground. Addis customs officials refused to allow us to take our hockey bags out of the airport until they received permission from the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. Despite having meticulously detailed content lists, the bags were locked in a room awaiting authorization that did not come until the following day. We reluctantly left our supplies at the airport and headed to our hotel.
We settled into our rooms, spent time napping, prepared for the upcoming week and got to know one another. Dr. Blake Papsin, Head of SickKids Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat) went to the Black Lion Hospital with some of his team to do preliminary rounds with his Ethiopian colleague, Dr. Abebe Melaku. Others from the SickKids No Boundaries team spent the afternoon trying to reach someone who could help us recover our luggage.
It was a long and frustrating day. But in the No Boundaries spirit of rolling with the punches, we ended on a high note with dinner. Our group of 25 (2 surgeons, 1 surgical fellow and 1 resident, 3 anesthesiologists, 2 dentists, 2 dental assistants, 6 OR nurses, 3 PACU nurses, 2 general helpers, 1 medical engineer, 1 fundraiser and 1 videographer) went out for pizza and had some laughs.
According to Wikipedia, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa with more than 79.2 million people. That’s twice the size of the population of Canada. Click here to read more on Ethiopia.