Hawzen - village life again

Went to Mekele ( about 2 hrs south from Hawzen) today with my colleague Delphin, with our local driver Yemane. He has a 12 seater van which he does taxi runs between all the surrounding villages for up to 200 km as well as take tourists to and from Mekele airport to the lodge I am staying in. Had a steak in Mekele as the the food is fairly basic in Hawzen - egg in the morning and soup/pasta/salad in the evening. We also visited our favorite Ethiopan coffee shop (Enku) in Wukro about 45 min north of Mekele.


Then in Wukro, we visited Father Angel Olaran, a Spanish priest who has lived in Wukro for 20 years and who established an orphanage/school.  http://www.etiopiautopia.org/en//menu,foundation/menu,who-we-are/menu,angel-olaran/.  We had last visited in September 2011, with a promise to return to help but alas have not made it. I hope I can make it over the next few weeks.  
He has volunteers coming all the time to help, mostly Spanish. May spend a week at this Orphanage teaching chemistry - they are always looking for help with the kids. they have established a large farm and look to be self sufficient as well as selling some of the foodstuffs. Much like a kibbutz.

Last night we had a farewell party for my Spanish colleague Delphine in Hawzen village. Most of the NGO people attended as well as new found friends from the village. A party in Tigray is not a good party without Tigrinya music and "shoulder dancing", a dancing style which requires just shaking your shoulder. The dance starts with everyone moving in a circle to the beat and then half way through breaking off into pairs (m-m or m-f or f-f). The dance style grows on you.

Back to Ethiopia

Its been awhile since I sat and wrote something, although I have been facebooking about my doings. After spending 5 weeks back in Australia for my daughters graduation and son's engagement, I headed back to Ethiopia via Tanzania. Briefly to say I spent a few days on Zanzibar, some more days climbing Kilimanjaro. It was not all fun as also worked on my Pulse assignment as well as look at dermatology in East Africa.

Arriving in Addis Ababa I settled in to the accomodation, and went to the Addis Ababa office of Millenium Village Project. I also had the opportunity to meet again with the head of GSK Ethiopia, who put me in contact with a number of dermatologists. I met these dermatologists at one of the largest dermatology tecxahning hospitals in East Africa. The number of patients seen per day by about 9 dermatologists was staggering - over 500 people crowding the corridors each day. Pharmaecuticals were given free, if they were available, which in most cases were not. A later visit in January to Mekele's Ayder hospital was distressing seeing children with deformities from skin disease which lacked effective treatments.

Back in hawzen, there was turn around in support for my project and after 3 weeks have managed to get it to a stage that the TB surveillance program will kick this first week of February. Two Health Posts in 2 villages have been identified for a pilot evaluation, and the Health workers trained in recognizing and asking about TB symptoms, and collecting sputum for transport to Hawzen Health Center laboratory for laboartory evaluation. Trying to find good data in the Health Center TB register archives is somewhat daunting as the data is "not clean" for useful statistical evaluation, so investigating it retrospectively.

Spent Timkat or Ephipahny holiday in Mekele  to see the lare celebrations. Enjoyed meals with friends Mullo and Seid in their houses. The religious celebration lasted just over a day.