Arba Minch eye 2010
FightingBlindness in Ethiopia ARBA MINCH mission 2010
The 2010 Mission of fighting blindness in Ethiopia continued its annual programme further a field to southern the part of the country to the province of Gamu Goffa to Arba Minch town. Even though we did not hit our target in numbers it was a very successful mission.As always there were some problems on the way but we believed that what God want us to achieve for these poor people has been done.
We were well prepared to treat at least over three hundred people so we took enough supplies with us for these tasks. Alas when we arrived in Addis Ababa Airport unusual circumstances which we have never experienced awaited us. It took me one whole day to go and argue our case that we simply came to help and that all our equipments was steriled ready to be used on patients who were waiting for us at Arba Minch.Because of this scenario we missed our flight to our destination by the time we got our luggage through with the help of the almighty. Then it was ten minutes to get to the departure gate for Arba Minch. By the time we got there half of the team went through the gate while five of us missed our flight.We hadto plan alternative roads. If you cannot run try to walk! We had to get to Arba Minch by any means so we hired a lorry to take all our supplies and got another car for the team and drove to Hosaina without eating and arrived at midnight. When we arrived at Hosaina there were no room in all the hotels so we drove around the town till about one in the morning when we found a very shabby place. They gave us some Injera and wott for which we were very grateful.
On the Morning of the same day we went to bed and woke up at seven and could not get a drop of water to wash so we started our journey to Arba Minch. We were determined to get there and help those who were waiting to be helped. We arrived at about one o’clock in the afternoon. Guess what? We book into one of the very good tourist hotel but therewas no water. More to the point we were more desperate to have something to eat than get washed and be clean.
Failure of Communication. We had been sending emails and telephone calls to three different people saying that we only require patients with cataract blindness. This message was not carried on the media. After arriving in Arba Minch and quick grab of something to eat we went up to the hospital. I saw some patients but not in bignumber like we used to see in other places we have been. I thought that may be they went away to come in the morning. We got to the hospital and after introducing ourselves we started to setup our equipments. We were ready to do some work but as the number of patients was not that much we just made for our hotel and made ourselves ready for the following morning.
I personally was not excited not to see the great number of patients overflowing as we were accustomed to seeing. The great number we were seeing the majority were not cataract patients for which we were geared for. We started operating on Sunday morning by the time we came to Tuesday we were running out of patients. On Wednesday and Thursday we started to do second eye which was not our policy. But we did not want to return any one disappointed so we did some second eye.
All in all we treated 209 patients and went sightseeing. On Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before we flew back to Addis. At the end of all this we were all very happy to make over 209 peoples lives been changed for the rest of their days. It was worth every thing that had happen to us on the way to help all these poor farmers.