Lucy

This weekend I walked around the corner to the National Museum of Ethiopia and right next door to Lion Zoo. The Museum was decent and cost 10 birr for foreigners. However most of the exhibited items lack descriptions so if you want to know what you're looking at you'll have to pay a little more for a guide. Scams like that make me angry, so I went in alone and eavesdropped on other peoples' guides. The temporary special exhibit was the works of some Ethiopian photographer from the turn of the century. The "photo reportage" chronicled the story of a king who got sick and picked a kid to be the next king and the first king died and the kid became the next king until he wasn't king any longer and then somone else was. It was really quite memorable. Also at the museum, which is attached to King Haile Selassie's (Ja's) old digs, is the famous Lucy skeleton... or, a copy of the famous Lucy skeleton. The real Lucy is probably in the US somewhere paying for the existence of this museum. My favorite part of the museum was the random artwork, especially the paintings by some guy named "Unknown," an Ethiopian legend I assume. His versatility and ability to master different styles was unparalleled. I took a fair amount of pictures and will hopefully have them up sometime before I return to the States.

Lion Zoo. I.... hm... Lion Zoo. Lion zoo has five different animals. One animal is a white rabbit. Two animals are small monkeys with erections. One animal is a kudu (mini-antelope). The last and most remarkable animal is the lion. In the middle of the zoo is a round pen, maybe 60 feet in diameter, with six or seven lions in it. The pen is surrounded by a path. The path is surrounded by a fence. To get onto the path you have to pay the same amount you already paid for admission. Since I had already paid 10 birr for myself and another 20 for my digital camera, I replaced physical proximity to the lions with technical proximity (zoom lens). A video camera would have cost me 150 birr. Really it's my fault for expecting anything more. Its miniscule size is obvious from the outside. The real attraction is the kiddie section with rides. I stopped to take a couple pictures of kids on the ferris wheel and the slide, but even that didn't push my total zoo time over 20 minutes.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Well just comings, really. On Sunday night Naor arrived. Naor is a 25-year old ex-security guard from Israel. Of course "security guard" in this instance means about as much as "guard dog" does at the compound. Naor is tiny. And timid. He is roughly 5'4", 130 lbs with a strange pattern of premature baldness and bushy red hair peaking out of his collar. He keeps kosher and I was worried initially that we wouldn't be able to find anything for him to eat. Then he told me he doesn't really like vegetables either and usually just eats rice and potatoes or pasta with sage at home. Rice and potatoes will be no problem here. So far he's lived off the free bread and jam and lentil sambusas (samosas) from the lady around the corner. About a month ago he left Israel to volunteer at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Uganda but left after a month, apparently because the other volunteers got drunk too often... He returned to Israel for a two weeks and left for Addis, where he plans to stay for roughly three months. He speaks Hebrew, Arabic, English, and French, which is pretty impressive in my book. All Israeli men are required to serve in the army for three years after 12th grade (two years for women) and his job had something to do with translating for Palestinians who needed admittance to hospitals or other similar services. He's doing a decent job of keeping his composure in the wound dressing wound but has no plans to move from assistant to dresser, which will work out fine for us.

There is also a new doctor here, Dip (Deep). Born in London to Indian parents, Dip is straight out of a cartoon. If it weren't for the sprinkle of grey in his crooked beard his face would be totally ageless. His hair is completely disheveled and sprays out in all directions from his head. He is an extremely nervous-seeming religious fanatic. Today someone told him he was doing a good job and he whipped his head around and said "well, God is good." He asked me why I was here and when I said I was just here to volunteer he said "yeah but who sent you? Did God send you?" He tried to get me to lead a prayer at lunch today because I am the man of the volunteer house. I told him I don't pray, and he said "even when you really need something?" We asked him to show around today's two new volunteers and he said he would make sure to show them the chapel first. I admit I have a tendency to exaggerate at times, but this guy embodies everything I imagine when I hear the word "fanatic" from his physical ticks to his mental obsession with God. It's actually really entertaining listening to him, awestruck by the idea that he could possibly get through medical school. Perhaps medical school is no longer a requirement for calling yourself a doctor in London. What do I know?

MICHAEL

One outpatient who comes to us every Tuesday and Saturday is Michael, a 50-year old man with an amputated leg. Michael is nice and speaks English well, and I was flattered when he told me I bring him great comfort. The flattery didn't last long, though, because a few minutes later he said he would like to sit down and have a long talk with me about his life. In Ethiopia that only means one thing: he wants money. With this in mind, I still agreed to meet with him Monday after work. We sat down briefly as he got straight to the point. He lived with the sisters for five years, expected to live with them forever, but was discharged after his leg healed. Now he wants to make a job for himself, but he needs money to start that. With a little prying I discovered that he has a brother, sister, and mother living in the country side but is too ashamed to ask them for help. When I asked why it was easier to beg for help from strangers on the street, he smiled and shrugged. Apparently the sisters receive applications for financial assistance from patients and ex-residents. Michael showed me his and said he hasn't had any response. I gave him 50 birr and told him if he expects someone to give him enough money to start a business he's going to have to come up with a real plan with real numbers. I was really hoping he would say something to impress me, because he seems like an intelligent man, but it was really just a slightly more strategic way to beg for money. He even had the audacity to say "you can change me, Alex!" I was insulted by the assault on my intelligence. Unfortunately jobs are hard to come by here, as 50% of the population is unemployed, but there are plenty of opportunities to support yourself day-to-day (shining shoes, selling lottery tickets), which he admitted to me, but couldn't really tell me why he hasn't tried them yet. He then bought me a cup of tea with the 50 birr I gave him and silently watched TV at the cafe. Turn that 50 birr into 60 and then we can talk more about your entrepeneurial prospects, Michael.

A BERG'S EYE VIEW

- I don't feel tall here until I see someone who looks really tall and I realize I am taller than they are.
- The more common beggars are, the harder it is to give them money.
- I shower and use the internet on alternating days, so you can rest assured that everything you read here was written by dirty fingers.
- It took almost three weeks for my allergies to take over my whole body.
- Some of our patients still think I'm a doctor. They regularly come to me begging for help after already visiting a hospital for consultation.