Getting word to Tesfaye's mother at last

Friday, July 17, 2009: After lunch I had a nice surprise visit from Nanci and Tesfaye at my office, which was his first return visit since the surgery. As everyone in the office had certainly been getting updates from me on Tesfaye's progress, they appreciated the opportunity to see him in person. The highlight later in the day was successfully connecting through to Meheret in Gojjam Ethiopia at midnight our time. Meheret owns a shop in the town near the village where Tesfaye's mother Yeshi lives. It is about a 2 hour walk from her village, the village where Tesfaye was born and grew up until making his way to Addis to find help; as they do not have any telephone service ( nor electricity or running water), the method whereby Tesfaye can reach his family is to reach Meheret and have him relay a message to his mother and/or set up a time for her to walk to his shop to receive a telephone call from Tesfaye. The last time he did this was a week or so before his surgery, and unfortunately Melaku and I unsuccessfully tried to provide an update in this manner after the surgery. Amazingly, on our first or second try we got through and Tesfaye was so happy to be able to tell him that the surgery was a success and that he is doing very well now. They in fact had been anxiously awaiting to hear how the operation went. Meheret will communicate the good news to Yeshi, and Tesfaye told him that he will call back to speak to his mother at the same time in two weeks from now.