Briana Lee
Completing eight exams in four days, getting eight different vaccinations, fundraising $500, composing and illustrating two 13-page presentations, gathering 150 toothbrushes, children’s toys and clothes and somehow lugging all of the above three-quarters of the way to the equator may not exactly seem to most students the ideal way to finish the last semi-relaxed academic year of my school days.
In fact, having done so this June, I can safely say that the somewhat stressful preparation for my mission to Ethiopia was not something I’d like to do every day, but the two weeks that followed were two of the best weeks of my life.
In October 2008, I applied to travel as a student volunteer on an Operation Smile medical mission. On each mission team, where possible, two students in their final two years of school are given the opportunity to take part. After completing mission training in Norfolk, Virginia, where I was the only Irish student in training, my mission location and date were announced. I was headed for Jimma, Ethiopia, in late May with my fantastic New Mexico mission partner Jen, and adult student sponsor Jean, a fellow Irish native.
Although I had almost five months to prepare, the two-weeks leading up to my departure date were the most frenetic. I cleared out Penney’s, Dunnes and the art and hobby shop in search of clothes, toys and pens to bring to the children we would be treating on the mission.
When I finally left at 5 a.m. on May 27, it was with great relief that I final conked out on the plane at the beginning of our 6-hour flight from Frankfurt to Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.
Our mission was to take place in Jimma, Ethiopia’s second city, in the heart of the Kafa region, about a 5-hour drive south of Addis. Having met the 40 other team members, hailing from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines and from Ethiopia, we arrived in Jimma on the 28. Jimma has a population of upwards of 500,000 people, and is a university town; however, it is a far cry from anything I have experienced before.
The city has two paved roads and the rest are uneven red dirt tracks. Our lodging, the Central Jimma Hotel, was unusual in that it is three stories tall. For the most part, buildings in Jimma are low rise, hand painted corrugated iron and Tuk-tuks, buses and bikes share the road with hoards of people, street vendors, goats, cows and horses. The noise was the most striking part of my perception of the exceptionally poor but extremely lively and bustling city!
The hospital resided on the campus of Jimma University and consisted of a group of old one-story buildings. Seeing the hospital reminded me of how fortunate I was to have a modern hospital and health system in Ireland. Water, both at our hotel and in the hospital, was an irregular occurrence, as was electricity which was generated by the hydroelectric dams of the province, and was in short supply with the rainy season not yet arrived.
Our first task of the mission was to set up the operating room (OR) and to screen the prospective patients. The hospital had provided one small ward room, their only operating room, and a corridor adjacent to it for us to use as our base for surgery week. The mission was to have three operating tables, one from the hospital and two others brought in by Operation Smile. The ward room was to be shared as both a pre- and post-operative room, which is where patients and their parents stayed before and after their operations. The room, which was about the size of an average classroom, fitted 23 patients and their families.
The playroom, where the patients were brought directly before being prepped for surgery was a long low corridor with one window, where I spent much of my time entertaining young patients.
One aspect of the Ethiopian culture which affected me greatly while I was there was the attitude of the people. In spite of their poverty, and all that they lack, from the bare simplicities of clothes and food, to a modern hospital, adequate healthcare and even a basic education, they are always happy and grateful for everything they receive.
Although the theme tune of my time in the hospital was a high pitched “YOU, YOU, YOU,” the distinctive cry of the large crowd of local children who wanted me to produce some entertainment (usually a volleyball, coloring or friendship bracelets) out of my seemingly bottomless backpack, each and every trivial item I gave out was met with a stunning grin, a handshake, a kiss on the hand, and once, a very slobbery kiss on the forehead!
After screening 121 possible candidates for surgery, the schedule was made for those who were to have surgery. Only 84 operations could be performed, and one of the most heartbreaking moments was witness those whose names were not called. For some, who had travelled for up to 4 or 5 days by bus and on foot, this was a life-changing opportunity, for others, a terrible loss as they were turned away.
We didn’t have much time to be sad however, as surgery week began immediately the next day. The seven days of operations were filled with volleyball, skipping and dressing-up in the spare surgical gear before each patient left us for the OR.
By the last day we were exhausted, craving a hot shower and in my case, dying for a cup of Barry’s tea! However, in spite of the 13-hour days, somewhat funky Ethiopian cuisine (particularly egg, sourdough flat bread and chilies) and endless amount of work to be done, I still managed to come out of the hospital on our final day desperate not to be leaving.
One little boy, Gebray, who was always hanging out around our area flashing his smile to earn a sticker or pencil from one of the team members, had us all on the edge of tears as we drove away. Although Gebray was not one of our patients, he was an orphan awaiting surgery in the hospital.
Over the two weeks we were there, we had become his family, and he couldn’t help but cry as we left. Although we managed to distract him temporarily with a t-shirt, there were a few tears in our bus as he followed us all the way to the university gates waving goodbye.
After almost 15-hours of travel, sitting at home at my kitchen table, liter or so of tea in hand, I was and still am amazed at those two weeks. Over the five days of surgery, 84 corrective surgeries were performed, 122 patients were screened, and countless others educated about the benefits of good oral hygiene and nutrition.
We handed out thousands of pencils, pens and school stationary, hundreds of teddies and toys and MILLIONS of stickers. We blew enough bubbles to fill an Olympic swimming pool, and there are a number of very grateful Ethiopian scrub nurses still wearing my three sets of Mater Private scrubs.
Though 84 surgeries were performed, I can safely day that at least 85 lives were changed during our time in Jimma - the patients lives and most definitely my own. It was a truly a fantastic experience.
