Tuesday 18 December 2012

Happy Gena!

 
It seems difficult to believe that it’s December and Christmas is right around the corner. 

Holiday Concert at School (Aysha on percussion)
To celebrate the end of the year the kids have a crazily long Dec/Jan break (3 weeks plus two days).  Various holidays get absorbed around this time: Ethiopian Orthodox Xmas (Gena) ,Epiphany (Timkat), Milaud,  Christian Xmas, New Years .

I’m having a hard time imagining myself madly shopping, wrapping, treeing, baking etc (I know that’s not what Christmas is about, but that’s how I usually celebrate.).  None of   that type of stuff going on here. 

Ethiopian Christmas (Gena) is celebrated on  January 7th and is a more sober affair with an absence of trees, Santas and gifts.   Strangely, I’m not missing the holiday scramble but will probably make up for it next year with some sort of Christmas over indulgence.

The month has been good.

Sue and Erle in Tigray
 We had a terrific visit from Sue and Erle earlier this month.  After much debate on Sue’s part as to whether to come or not; I think Sue might have had fun and we even heard her say some good things about Ethiopian Airlines!

Aysha turned 14 this month (another unbelievable thing).   We had a lovely birthday dinner with some of her girlfriends from school.

Y12, "our" hospital
Rounding with Med Students
We also decided on a “launch” date for our Family Medicine Residency program: January 28th is D-day.    Seems like there is still an overwhelming amount of organizing that needs to be done, but we are happy that things are moving forward.  Hope there won’t be too much shrapnel to clean up after the launch.


Happy Holiday’s from all of us to all of you!

Sunil and his buddies after school

Season 1 Sports Awards





Wednesday 5 December 2012

World Toilet Day


I’m a bit late with this post as World Toilet Day was in November (apologies).

I came across World Toilet Day as I was surfing the net, trying to discover why toilet facilities for women in this country are subpar.  Even at restaurants, toilets are often mixed gender with minimal or no privacy.   This can make for a slightly anxiety provoking trip to the loo. 

Men feel free to pee anywhere and anytime they want.  I’m not sure where or when women do their business.  I suspect there is an assumption that women don’t really need to pee during daylight hours or maybe women are just not thought about at all.

I then read some slightly disturbing things.  Many girls in rural Africa and Asia stop attending school because there are no girls’ toilet facilities for them at school, or they get bullied by boys at school while doing their business.

The World Toilet Organization is addressing this health and gender issue.  Here are a few things they have to say:

-1 in 3 women worldwide risk shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they have nowhere safe to go to the toilet.
-Sanitation plays an important role in ending poverty, creating gender equality, and keeping children in school.  

-Right now nearly 40% of the world’s population are without sanitation

A couple of links:
 http://worldtoilet.org/wto/                             
 http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/world_toilet_day/default.asp
                                                           

I couldn’t really come up with any photos for this blog, but I think you get the idea.