Day 2 in Mekele and I have already embarked on my deworming service effort. At about 8:00 in the morning, Jemal and I set out to the city’s health bureau office. It was a small stone and brick building that had separate small offices for the heath officers working on different health and education projects in the community. The person running the day to day affairs of the office was an elderly gentleman with a very kind face and demeanor and went by the name of Hay Ilom. Hay Ilom had worked in that office for nearly 30 years and spoke good English. There I met the first member of our deworming team, Moges, and our van driver Shi-Sha. Moges is a very interesting persona; he seems like a prototype combo of an intelligent, philosophical, hardworking guy with a very amiable character. Above all other things, he is faithful in all his commitments, whether it’s his work or his friends and family. As we set out, we were joined by three more members of our team, all of them women. Tsege (pronounce segee), Flores, and Birham were all lab technicians on the team, with Birham being the youngest.
Soon, we were travailing in our old and dilapidated Toyota Land Cruiser across even more dilapidated roads and stone city streets, with our bodies constantly jumping up and down the seats. When we arrived at our first school site, out in a remote part of the city, we were greeted by a host of children who had been neatly sitting outside waiting for our arrival. They jumped up at our arrival and there were shouts of excitement as Jemal jumped outside and pulled out his camera. The kids love having their pictures taken and as I pulled out my camera, I discovered to my anguish that I had forgotten my batteries in my baggage back in the hotel. However, I pulled out my mino video-camera and approached them requesting them to say hello. They were shy at first to see a ferengi (foreigner) like me, but soon they began warming up to me and the camera. However, when I asked if they could sing a song for the camera they started cracking up and I decided it was time to move on. We dropped off Moges at this first site to administer the KAP (Knowledge and Attitude Practice) survey and gather stool samples and continued on our way to the other school sites. At each school, I was greeted by a host of children who were very interested in seeing me and at each site we dropped off one of our team members.
The final stop for Jemal and myself was a school called Ethio-China, a school that was helped to be built by the Chinese. The Chinese apparently have ties with Ethiopia and seem to be doing a lot of road construction and development here. We assembled about 30 to 40 children in one classroom, who were between the ages of 7 and 11. Jemal explained to them in Tigriniya the purpose of the project and what was expected of them in regards to the KAP survey and the stool sample. At the mention of them having to collect a sample of their stool, many of the kids burst out laughing, but soon realized that we were serious. I began a conversation with the little bald headed kid, about age six standing next to me and in time, a crowd of children formed around me asking me questions ranging from who I was to why I was there. They girls at first were all really shy, but they too in time began to warm up to me and seemed curious to know whether I was a Hindi film actor. Apparently many of the kids here watch Bollywood films and are well-familiarized with stars like Shahrukh Khan and Kajol and with films such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hain. One of the girls asked me to sing the title song from the last film and so I sang a part of it. Later on I asked them to return my favor and so they began to sing K’Naan’s Wavin flag. Apparently, the noise was too much and the school's headmaster came and asked everyone to sit down and finish the survey sheets. I felt bad for getting the kids yelled at and when I later apologized to them, they just smiled and asked me how the video looked. Every minute I spent with these kids were truly special. One of the little girls, who the headmaster stated was the brightest in her class, questioned me about my work and about life in Ethiopia and in the U.S. One of the more startling questions that she asked was this, “They say that English is the king of languages. How can this be?” I was surprised by this simple yet potent question, as the very question she was asking me was part of a much broader one about how was it that one part of the world still struggled to feed and clothe its people while the other continued in its unparalleled state of consumerism, uninhibited spending, and waste of resources. I answered her question the best I could by telling her that all languages are unique and that her native language, Tigriniya, was also a king in languages due to its rich history and age.
Later that day, our survey team reassembled in a lab-room on the campus of Mekele University. We were joined by three other young men, who were laboratory technicians but also lecturers in the department of microbiology. We spent the next few days preparing wet mounts of the stool samples, analyzing them under the microscope and identifying the number and type of parasites present. I was able to view about six different types of parasites including Schistosomiasis mansoni, Ascuriasis, taeni, Hymophlys nana, tropocyte (amoeba), and hookworm.
As we returned back to Mekele city on Friday evening, the streets were once again alive and vibrant with people and music. The various shops lining the streets were crowded with the weekend shoppers and people just hanging out relaxing in the pleasant and sunny weather. It’s so surprising and unusual to hear Justin Bieber and Usher’s music blasting through my hotel windows as I write this post reminding me that even in this place, music is universal and part of the entire development and modernization occurring here.
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