We spent the evening night in Nazret at “The German Hotel”. No air conditioning and lots of mosquitos. The rooms were bare, but the dining room had at least 20 of the ugliest chandeliers I’ve ever seen. We came to a consensus that communists built the place- not Germans. Kenny slept on his balcony. By now, we had a new addition to the group- Antonio- an Italian/Ethiopian still photographer we hired to replace Wondy. Wondy, our first hire was a fantastic “Olan Mills” photographer but a terrible field photographer with a very scary wife. It wasn’t working Antonio looks Ethiopian, but speaks with a heavy Italian accent- hands flying and all. He wears lots of jewelry.
We went to dinner that evening and I introduced Kenny to “Fernet Branca” my favorite Italian apertif. Antonio was elated that I knew of it. Kenny drank two shots and swears to this day it gave him malaria.
Thursday we visited an IOCC site- an orphanage that has several USAID donated cows. The whole concept is that the cows make milk which is fed to the sick orphans. This nutritional supplement – a simple glass of warm milk- has made a huge difference in the health of the boys. The cows have multiplied –thus sustained- and they use the dung for bio fuel to run the stoves for cooking the kids’ food. Pretty cool. They don’t know how many of the children are HIV positive. They’ve tested 5 positive so far and these kids are on meds. There are likely many many more.
The orphanage is run by the Orthodox Church and we were met at the site by the Archbishop- a 78 year old spry with a quick sense of humor and a quick step. He showed us his new church, his honeybees, and The Tree. A most magnificent tree that would put the Redwoods in California to shame. What did the tree have to do with Global Health? We don’t know. It’s just clear that we go where the Archbishop wants us to go. He also blessed Alexander, calling him “Alexander the Great.”
We then went to film the barber a Nazret. This became a huge issue when we found out the barber had expected us the day before and headed to Addis. She returned for us, but boy did I have to issue my apologies for the schedule confusion. We did not need a translator b/c you could tell how she was feeling and what she was saying with her expressions. She was a pistol. I love her. She has 3 beautiful children and has taken in 2 aids orphans. She’s a single mom (her husband infected her with HIV and didn’t tell her- so she left him). Her barber “shop” is a storage container in the middle of a very busy market. It was chaos when we arrived to film. It was late and we were losing light…. We managed to film it all in an hour- quite a miracle. Keith and Kenny looked liked pied piper’s walking through the market- with dozens, maybe hundreds of people following them .
When we got to the barber shop, she didn’t have the key- so we literally took a crowbar and broke in. (I will be expensing another lock for her). Her interview was passionate and her message as big as her smile. I am proud and privileged to be responsible for telling her story.
Saturday we headed out to shoot Addis scenics in the morning. In broad daylight, in front of hundreds of people and 2 feet away from Kenny, I was mugged. I had knelt down to take pictures of some children, and the next thing I know I see two hands grabbing my camera. But the thing was, I had the camera strap around my wrist. So my mugger ran off with my camera- and me- in tow. It’s quite a blur, but for some reason, I fought like hell to hold onto that camera. I’m sure it has to do with the 600 hundred photos that can never be replaced. Apparently he dragged me for quite some time- maybe 10 or 20 feet- he was strong….. but then Misgana came to my rescue. Kenny recounted that Misgana jumped over me and tackled him, taking us all to the ground. We fell down a two foot rocky embankment- I probably did some sort of somersault. Misgana had him by the shirt and hit him with a rock. The guy ran off into the alley.
When the dust cleared, I found myself on the ground, bloody, and my things were scattered everywhere. The women in the market wre outraged and rushed to my aid. They picked up my hat, my bag, my flip, batteries, chapstick off the ground while Kenny picked me up. I was very shaken. Keith was so concentrated on shooting, he never saw what happened (but the audio is on tape 27 at 8 minutes in !). My hero, Misgana, now earned the name Jackie Chan. He decided from that moment on he was my brother and my permanent protector.
I still had the camera wrapped around my wrist. I still have my precious pictures. We won.
Shaken, but not stirred, we headed to interview Dr. Mulu amuu (spelling not right) at Yakatit neo natal unit. ? First things first, they bandaged me up and put some horrible burning something on my wounds. It was hard to believe I had just gone from a street mugging into a neo natal unit, filled with babies struggling to survive
Our friend Zenawit joined us and warned me I would cry. I tried to prepare myself, but how do you prepare yourself to see dying babies?
This unit, the most advanced in all of Ethiopia, did not have heart monitors, or oxygen. In fact, the unit was about as bare bones as I had seen any clinic. They are in desperate need of EVERYTHING- diapers, formula, anything.. They had a few incubators and some donated machinery, but only one doctor. Dr. Mulu amuu works 7 days a week and has done so for years. She has two nurse assistants. She saw over 6000 babies last year alone. She is on the brink.
As we walked through the neo natal unit, so much of the terminology sounded familiar to me. Since Alexander was born premature, he had a few things in common with the peanuts I met that morning. Meconium in his lungs, wasn’t breathing when he was born, was tiny, wasn’t latching.. etc. The difference is that my hospital had a respirator. There was a team of nurses and doctors 24 hours a day. There was always electricity.
She introduced us to a set of twins. The tinier one was blue and his eyes looked funny. She realized at that moment the baby stopped breathing. We filmed as she calmly performed infant cpr, pushing his tiny chest and pushing oxygen into his lungs. She revived him. When I asked her the chances of the baby surviving, she held up her hand and made a zero. She said he would be dead within a few hours
If she had a respirator like the doctor treating Alexander had, she could save him. She didn’t. There aren’t any respirators in Ethiopia. Without a heart monitor, the nurses had to stand over the baby to see if he was breathing. There were 19 other babies in the unit that needed the same kind of attention.
The doctor’s interview was incredible. She fights and fights and fights. One soldier in an army with no weapons to fight the infant mortality rate in Ethiopia. It’s 59 percent by the way, and that isn’t accurate b/c they can’t account for home births.
My last question to the Doctor was this “When I tell you I paid 5 dollars a month for my prenatal vitamins and my insurance covered all of my visits during my pregnancy, what do you feel?” She cried. Not out of anger or jealousy. She just cried. She told me “I know what to do. I have the education. But I have no resources to do it. I know what to do, but I don’t have any way to do it..”
Saturday evening we were guests of the Health Minister at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. The food was incredible. The traditional dancing was magnificent. Yes, I have video on my flip of Kenny and Keith dancing with some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Keith had smooth moves. Kenny looked like Jeff Daniels in The Big Lebowski” trying to move his shoulders.
The advance team from the One Campaign joined us and we headed to The Sheraton after dinner. I realized how lucky our little team has been- in just one week. We have met magical people, laughed and cried, and have the incredible privilege and heavy responsibility of giving these stories justice.
The Sheraton in Addis is like someone picked up a hotel in Vegas and dropped it into the middle of Addis. It’s posh, it’s over the top. We ended up at some party the sheik (owner of the hotel) throws monthly. It was like a club/prom for the beautiful and rich in Ethiopia. We had glow sticks and did the electric slide. I found it ironic that I was mugged in the morning, witnessed death and birth in the afternoon, and was doing the electric slide by evening. That’s Ethiopia.
This video sums up our Ethiopia trip through the eyes of our soundman Kenny Garaghty.
