Went to Lalibela and Gondar this weekend with the EM resident from Wisconsin. I think some pictures are the best way to tell you how it was. Had a great time, but am fairly ready to dive back into the ED tomorrow morning!

-w

Approach to Lalibela from the airport. 

We happened to be in Lalibela for Timkat/epiphany/the last day of Christmas celebration. 

Lalibela

Me by a church. I am small. The churches were huge. 

Market day in Lalibela. The whole place is surrounded by mountains. 

Inside a church in Lalibela. 

Lalibela

A restaurant on the outskirts of Lalibela called Ben Abeba that was pretty amazing. The food, the views, the sunset, the moonrise, the fire overlooking the valley, the bathrooms, the architecture...

Me! (at Ben Abeba)

Sunset

Moonrise

The rest are from Gondar-

My favorite part of Gondar-the tree roots at Fasilides' bath

Fasilides' Palace

Palace

Debre Birhan-probably the single most famous church in Ethiopia. The angels on the ceiling are replicated all over the country. I still think I liked the chiseled/carved rock churches of Lalibela more though. 

This is where I am staying! Its a nice guest house. I have my own bathroom, hot water, breakfast, and really nice people. Also there is wi fi, that is fairly good, and according to Eric Kiechle this means I can send texts from here to anyone with an iphone. I was beginning to feel more like I was in Africa, with the smog and the hospital and all, until I got a text message from a friend in the US right after I turned my phone back on...



And this is Frank Addis where I had dinner-a guy in a shop told me about this restaurant the first day I was here and I finally made it tonight. I was shocked by the view-I guess I am higher up in the city than I thought. You can see the mountains in the background! The smog tends to dissipate later in the day, so it was quite lovely and the food was delicious. Also, after eating the food here a couple of times, I think I am impressed by the quality of Ethiopian food in DC. It tastes very similar.



I am slowly starting to understand the hospital-its literally "you get what you pay for"-everything has to be purchased by the patient or family before it can be given, including pain medicine for trauma patients. Some things are so similar to home though-the ED and the medicine teams disagree over who should get admitted, the surgery team is hesitant to take surgical patients from the anyone else, etc. 

I like this blog because I can tell you all the crazy things that happen here...like how there is a bookstore a block away from my house that sells baby Miller. Most of you likely don't know what that is, but I was pretty excited about it.

And yeah, the hospital is special too. Lots of surprises...and you have access to essentially every diagnostic test in the ED here that you do at home. 

I'm here!

Hi Mom and everyone else,

I'm here, alive and well and sleepy. I have already had a Castel and a marriage proposal, so although I've never been here, some things already feel like home:)

Addis is calm, pretty, friendly, and surrounded by mountains. Automobiles and roads here are in such great condition compared to anything I've seen in West Africa. That and the lack of motos make it feel quite peaceful even in the middle of the city.

I'm settling in today, start work tomorrow, will keep in touch. I'm going to try to post some pictures too, so if there are any up, its the airport in Jeddah, the street in Addis Ababa, and my tiny hairbrush.

-w