First day

Had a great first day in Ethiopia. We traveled to Dukem (about 30 minute drive) to look at the progress of our new facility. We are building a 12,000 sq ft. facility that will house a medical clinic, a 17-room guest house, a restaurant, and meeting room. The medical clinic will provide free health care to the 60,000 people of Dukem. Upon completion, the clinic will be staffed by a full time doctor, nurses, and a lab technician. Not only is medical care very limited in Dukem, it is expensive. Our clinic will provide free health care to the community. We will supplement the clinic with short term medical trips from the US. We would like to bring four teams a year and provide medical care not only for the people of Dukem, but for the less developed regions of the country as well.

On a lighter note, I like to sleep with the noise of a fan so when I got to my hotel in Dukem, I asked a housekeeper if the hotel had a fan. She did not understand so I proceeded to use all my acting skills to demonstrate what a fan was. I was waving my arms and blowing trying my best to communicate. She did not understand nor did two of her colleagues. Ten minutes later I get a knock on my door and it’s the housekeeper and she hands me an electric power strip! Apparently my acting skills need some work.