The Field trip included a number of Board members, friends, family, and interested supporters of the JDC/Dr. Rick Hodes/Dr. Boachie spine program, a couple of very nice outside consultants, plus a few senior JDC staff –around 25 in total. At dinner we also had a few guests – Dr. Boachie; the Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia (a nice story of a Jewish Ethiopian girl who made it to Israel at a young age and against tough odds became well educated and succeeded to the point of returning to Ethiopia as an Ambassador; and a representative from the US embassy.
The dinner was an opportunity for everyone to get to know and get comfortable with one another, as we were about to spend an intense 5 days or so together.
Monday Nov. 9th
Highlights:
A two-hour morning briefing session for introducing and framing the study trip. Purpose of the Field Trip: to explore and evaluate the current IDP activities in Ethiopia, comprised primarily of Dr. Rick Hodes’ Spine and Heart program as well as a number of other ongoing and new projects in the areas of hygiene, clean water, pediatric outreach, a new Honey bee Centre for education and training of farmers, a Science and Technology Centre to encourage high school students to pursue such studies and careers, and support for “Women in self-employment” initiatives. The ultimate goal is to understand and evaluate our current and future activities in Ethiopia, with a view to sustainability and capacity building.
The rest of the morning through lunch was spent at the Ethnological Museum exploring Ethiopian Ethiopian history and heritage, including viewing and learning about one of our ancient ancestors, Lucy, whose skeletal remains date back some 3 million years; we had a wonderful and colourful museum guide. After lunch on the grounds, I encountered a few large tortoises that at first looked like sculptures, though not for long.
Following the Museum visit we observed Rick examining patients at a relatively new hospital called AaBET. One of the patients we saw was a little boy around 2 years old, accompanied by his mother; the toddler recently had both heart and cataract surgery in India. He was very happy and lively, and he felt like clapping his hands frequently in, what I believe, was a display of how happy he was - blind from birth, he could now see.  |
| Dr. Ibrahim (front left in picture) |
On the spine front, it is very encouraging that AaBET hospital appears to have been designated as the future site of a new spine centre of excellence in Addis intended to support Dr. Rick’s spine cases and to train and build capacity within Ethiopia to do more complex spine surgeries than currently possible. The very serious cases would still have to go to Ghana for a number of years. Chris, John and I did bump into visiting spine surgeon Dr. Kamal Ibrahim from Chicago, who brought a whole team with him to perform some spine surgeries and start the process of training some of the locals. We were able to hear Dr. Ibrahim’s vision for developing this spine centre over time.
At the end of the afternoon before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at a good Italian restaurant with our group and a few local program partners, we attended a special gathering with heart and spine patients
of Rick’s that had received surgical treatments either in India for heart or in Ghana for spine at Dr. Boachie's Focos Hospital. There were acknowledgements of both Dr. Boachie and Dr. Rick, and I was given the honor of presenting a small symbolic gift to Dr. Boachie in appreciation for the spine program partnership between Dr. Rick/JDC and him. As I remarked, what a beautiful partnership for good between this devout Christian Dr. Boachie and observant Jew Dr. Hodes; how much better the world would be if only more people would use their religious faith to work together for the greater good of humanity rather than for intolerance, divisiveness and destruction.
Tuesday, November 10th
6:00am departure for Addis airport for our flight to Gondar. On arrival we check into the Goha Hotel, located on a hill with a beautiful view overlooking the city. As with the Sheraton in Addis, it is my fifth time staying there and it feels like coming home each time, with many of the same staff I have become friendly with over the years.
I can tell you that not only have Chris and John been a delight to travel with throughout, they are smart, analytical and insightful, and took the purpose of this trip very seriously. I am happy, though not surprised, that their contribution to the JDC Field trip was considered valuable and much appreciated by the group. By the same token, I know they found the trip to be personally and professionally interesting and stimulating.
After breakfast we toured Fasilidies Castle, “Africa’s only Camelot”. Chris, John and I had an abridged lunch as we rushed off to Gondar University Hospital on a parallel agenda to touch base with some of the senior surgical people regarding the Trauma care Partnership program established back in 2013 between UBC faculty of Medicine, Branch for International Surgery/VGH (as part of the 2012 “Bring Back Hope” initiative ). We hoped to also meet with some of the Pediatric outreach doctors to go over some of the issues in getting outreach into the vast network of villages for early detection of spine problems. We ended up going over thematter with Dr. Solomon, head of the surgery department. One major disappointment: the new Hospital that was well underway on my visit the end of 2012 had stalled just a few months short of completion, though I was assured more than once that the issue will be solved.
At the end of the day we made a brief visit to the construction site of the latest JDC project in sustainable development, the Woleko Ethiopian Honey Bee Centre. We distributed some colourful bee themed hats that were made by JDC board member Alan Rothenberg's son-in-law Kevin, who is in the hat making business. That evening we enjoyed a traditional dinner and dancing at the Four Sisters restaurant.
Wednesday, November 11th
I was sorry that Chris and John couldn’t experience this day of rural exploration, but they had to leave early for home due to commitments. After breakfast we departed for a day in rural villages of the Gondar region. We first visited a village in the Dembia province with our partners from the Israeli non-profit NALA 
They are teaching basic things like washing hands before eating, not going bare foot through dirty waters or drinking from the rivers, defecting in the designated latrine areas, not eating raw meat etc. It is a constant challenge to monitor and reinforce these lessons with both the children and their parents.
Next we visited a rural school which I also visited on my last trip in 2012 – it was fun pulling out my computer and showing a number of the school children surrounding me pictures I took at the school 3 years ago and seeing their reaction as they recognized many of the faces.
Next we visited a rural school which I also visited on my last trip in 2012 – it was fun pulling out my computer and showing a number of the school children surrounding me pictures I took at the school 3 years ago and seeing their reaction as they recognized many of the faces.
After a picnic lunch stop en route
-- consisting of boiled potatoes, eggs and a banana -- we made the long land cruiser trip over extreme terrain to the historic Jewish Beita Israel/Falasha village of Ambover. Now inhabited by others since the Jewish inhabitants abandoned the village decades ago to fulfill their traditional and religious yearning to get to Israel, Dr. Rick Hodes talked to us about the history of Ethiopian Jewry and their exodus to Israel in Operations Moses (1984) and Solomon (1991) and 
We made our way to the area of the village where the old Jewish synagogue is reputed to be and sat in the hut which many believe may have been the old synagogue. Rick had some fascinating stories to recount about what it was like during Operation Solomon, the covert Israeli air force operation that airlifted over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews out to Israel over a harrowing 36 hour period as the oppressive Mengistu regime was being toppled. Before leaving the village to head back to Gondar we looked at another Science and Technology after school Centre JDC is constructing in this village. |
| Dr. Sisay, Sam Amiel (JDC country head for Ethiopia, me in the middle, Dr. Mensur in the right of the picture |
Thursday, November 12th
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| With my friend Alemu, senior JDC field staff in charge of Ethiopia |
In the morning flew back to Addis and on our way from the airport stopped in at the Women in Self Employment (WISE) Centre, a leading NGO that is helping vulnerable women across Ethiopia and is a partner of JDC. I noticed that WISE has support from a number of Canadian philanthropic organizations and other international support. After learning about the program in some detail, we were able to buy different products produced by the women being assisted in developing sustainable cottage businesses.
Back at the Sheraton over lunch the group had a debriefing and sharing of thoughts and observations on what we have seen and what our future direction and strategies should be. Later, we had a special closing dinner at the home and gallery of talented Ethiopian artist Fikru Gebramariam, who had returned
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| Fikru showing us his painting in his second floor studio |
As we arrived by bus, his lovely villa that he personally designed and built appeared like an Oasis in the outskirts of Addis and we were warmly greeted by him and his lovely girlfriend.
We were treated to seeing many of his paintings completed or underway in his home art studio, and enjoyed an excellent buffet dinner well hosted by friendly staff.
That night or the next day most of the members of the JDC Field trip departed for home. As is usually the case on such trips, I enjoyed getting to meet a number of new people and establish some common bonds with them, as well as strengthen relationships with many of the others that I already knew to varying degrees.
But I still had the remaining three days I set aside in anticipation of revisiting Tesfaye’s village with him and Fanteye (as recounted in my post Tesfaye's Village Revisited Nov. 2015 ).
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