A Right of Passage

For most of August a group of us, made up of Oxfam and Coady staff, traveled to three project areas in Southern Ethiopia to collect information as part of a final evaluation. It was an exciting opportunity for me to sit with many of the project participants and hear their stories, opposed to sifting through jargon heavy documents in an office! I really appreciated the way the evaluation was conducted as well- we used a Most Significant Change Approach (MSC), MSC is an evaluation technique which allows community participants to tell stories about changes in their lives since the project started—and then they rate the stories in terms of which changes were the most important. These are then compared to a baseline that was set at the beginning of the project.

Examples of unexpected change continued to present themselves, but the most intriguing by far was outside of Yabello, where one community brought a training they received on household expenditures (the Leaky Bucket) to their traditional authorities. The result was such that, once the traditional authorities realized how much money was being spent on Alcohol and Chat(a local leaf which is chewed to become high) they decided to enforce somewhat of a prohibition in the area…

On Day 8 of our travels, our group was set to visit a Gum and Incense collecting cooperative, approximately 40km outside of Yabello. While the distance of 40km may have initially seemed like a trivial detail, it later proved to have quite the impact. The first 20km of our journey that morning was on typical Ethiopian road, aka hardly an American interstate but MORE than sufficient. As for the second 20km, well if you spun me around in the middle and asked which way the road went I would have laughed and said ‘what road’? Needless to say the combination of my third row seat and my tendency to become car sick did not bode well. A Kenyan colleague joked that I should feel lucky to be receiving a free “African Massage” and laughter immediately erupted throughout the car!

When arriving at our destination, I felt as if I had just gotten off of a ride a universal studios and my stomach was in my throat. As my colleagues could see this based on the color… or lack there of in my face they insisted I stay in the car for a moment to regain myself. Feeling like a silly forengi—foreigner—I fought my better judgment and after 10 minutes I returned to the group. Immediately upon sitting down I knew this was no longer just carsickness. I made my best efforts to discretely remove myself from the focus group discussion and rejoin the drivers reclined in their cars. Just when I thought I felt better I realized my bean breakfast was about to made a re-appearance. A Camel watched me throw up, next to a piece of used cardboard that upon a second glance I realized read “WFP” (United Nations World Food Program)—I couldn’t help but ask myself "Where am I write now?!" It was certainly a situation I never could have imagined this time last year.  

I have since realized that I likely had food poison, as later that day I could no longer retain fluids. (I am incredibly thankful for CIPRO! Never ever ever ever travel without it!) Now that I have recovered, my experience of getting sick has come to feel very much like a right of passage. I feel as if I could ask almost anyone in Addis what their worst “sick” story was, and if they didn’t have one they would certainly be incredibly thankful and somewhat surprised by their good fortune.  

Beyond my realization that my water throwing up experience 500+km from the capital, was nothing short of a right of passage it also made me aware of a number of other things, particularly how fortunate I am in soooooooo many ways.

Firstly, that I was traveling with amazing colleagues who wanted to make sure that I was fine and treated me like family. I felt like my hotel room window was a reverse drive-through and people just kept bringing things to my window, in hopes that it would make me feel better; crackers, juices, flat pop, whatever they thought might help.

Secondly, while I am aware that people who live in rural areas have a much better tolerance for the local foods due to years of building up the right bacteria, when they become very ill, a large portion would not have access to the luxuries I had at my disposal—a Toyota Land Cruiser and driver to take me back to Addis—(he was already taking someone else!).  The experience also made the rural quality of health care more apparent. There were many health centers present but they often lack the physical materials necessary as well as the staff. Some colleagues explained that while Ethiopia has at least two reputable medical training facilities, many trained professions seek work outside of the country, tempted by much better wages. 

However, in stark contrast to the quality of healthcare available in rural areas, my experience at the Korean Hospital (one of many hospitals in Addis) made me aware of how efficient the medical system is in the capital. I was in and out of the hospital in less than an hour and half, having seen the physician twice, once before and after additional test. I was blown away at the speed and quality of service—perhaps based on the fact that I have spent many long hours in Canadian Emergency rooms!

All and all I took my health and my privilege in being able to maintain it seriously for granted until I was ALMOST not even COMPLETELY in a situation where I was not immediately able to access some of those privileges.

Steph xx

As always feel free to get in touch at steph.milo.mackinnon@gmail.com