Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Friday the 13th and Luck is on Our Side

Ethiopian Airlines Flight #503 was the only flight out of the United States on Friday with "Destination: Ethiopia." In fact, Dulles International Airport in Virginia is the only airport in the U.S. used by Ethiopian Airlines. With an average of three flights per week, it's neither convenient nor popular for U.S. citizens to pursue this exotic port of call. But the WSF was out in numbers, fearlessly blazoning the "airline less traveled."

In short order, all bags were successfully checked, and every member of our little band of volunteers sailed through security almost unnoticed, like a quiet yet forceful wind. Long flight story short…sixteen hours later our feet were pounding against the tarmac in Addis and we were populating the tram to the customs terminal. After a few minor hold-ups at customs and several WSF group photos, we were off to the Ghion Hotel in two wobbly busses packed to the gills with people and stuff. Luck and grace prevailed on this most auspicious of days – the first day of our philanthropic adventure: Mission to Ethiopia.

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How to Use this Blog

Dear Students,

Please accept my “virtual invitation” to join me on this profound mission, this exciting adventure!

Blog posts will include a chronicle of daily events, interviews with patients and volunteers, and photographs.

Some brief advice on reading blog posts.
1. Go to the top of the page to find the most recent post.
2. Read the date at the top of the latest entry.
3. Read the entries from the bottom up for each date. Each entry posted on that date will be time stamped. This will help you read the posts in order (this may be relevant if we are following a particular story of a patient or event).
4. To find a list of all blog posts, go to the bottom right hand side of the blog. The entries are listed by date and title.

Sincerely,

Mr. Bucs

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Mission

On February 13, 2009 I will be traveling to Addis Adaba, Ethiopia with the World Surgical Foundation as a volunteer. I will be assisting the videographer, collecting and recording daily surgical data, maintaining the Foundation’s daily blog, and acting as a liaison for the press. For two weeks the volunteer doctors and nurses of WSF will be providing much needed surgical procedures to people who do not have adequate access to health care.

Addis Ababa: "The Capital of Africa"

Addis Ababa is the largest city in Ethiopia (about 3,000,000 people). Ethiopia has the unique distinction of being considered the origin of modern humans due to several very important hominid fossils which were discovered there, the most famous of which is the Australopithecine “Lucy.” Furthermore, a recent study suggests that Addis Ababa is the exact location of the origin of modern humans. After analyzing the DNA of 985 people around the world, geneticists and other scientists claim that they have found a pattern which shows that homo sapiens left Addis Ababa 100,000 years ago and migrated throughout the world. The DNA evidence indicates that genetic diversity declines steadily the farther one's ancestors traveled from Addis Ababa, which suggests that all homo sapiens throughout the world are descendents of small populations of individuals who branched off from a larger group of individuals in Ethiopia.