Wrap up

Its hard to describe the mixture of feelings associated with leaving Addis. I so enjoyed working with the team at Cure and getting to know them as friends. They are an amazing bunch of people. I will miss seeing them every day. There was a staff retreat on the Friday of the last week. We went to Ya Ya Village, which is primarily used as an athletic training village, built and owned by Haile Gebrselassie. In the morning, there was a mix of worship, feedback about the year, and slapstick games and skits. I loved how much they all laughed at the jokes they played on each other! In the afternoon, there were outdoor games and sports. It was a lovely, chilled way to end my time with the Cure team, apart from having to give a speech at the end!

My final week at Cure there was a spinal surgery course running, with visiting faculty from the US and UK. I knew one of the surgeons well (he is from my hospital in Oxford). It was lovely getting to catch up with him. I was invited out for dinner with them each evening, which was very nice of them! One evening at Dr Tim’s and another couple of evenings eating out. It was a nice way to finish off my time in Addis. Other than that, I mostly spent the time wrapping up loose ends.

There are some things I won’t really miss about Addis – the busyness and noise – specially the loud speakers – particularly when the choose to do it at 3 in the morning, how long it takes to get anywhere because of the crazy traffic, I’m a bit over injera, and standing out as one of the very few ferengi in the city. However, after being away only 1 day, I already miss the people, the warm sunshine, the shots of coffee, Friday morning chapel (especially the singing) and Thursday morning prayer meeting, the sunny greetings and wide smiles of the patients, cozy post-lunch coffee and chat with the nurses, and laughs with the gait lab team. I’ve put some final photos of the team below. The top 2 photos were taken on my last afternoon in the gait lab and include the gait lab team, physios, orthotist, nurses and doctors (and me). Bottom left is taken at Dr Laurence’s house. From left to right is – Lauren (Laurence’s wife), me, Andrew (visiting plastic surgeon who was around for a few weeks), Dorothy, Sarah (Andrew’s wife), Rachel (Tim’s wife), Tim and Laurence. Bottom right is Yididiya, the person I spent the most time with in the gait lab.

So long Addis… until next time!