Training in Jimma Hospital

At the end of a training session with almost all of the nurses from Jimma Specialized Hospital, Dr. Tesfaye, the WHO Surveillance Officer who co-facilitated the session took this fun picture. The students were very intent while I talked but had no questions for me. When Dr. Tesfaye spoke in Amharic, they had many questions and a lively discussion. It was a good collaboration, however, because they enjoyed the slides!

Jimma Town

Jimma town has river gardens with a muddy red river running through it as well as a bustling market area and palace. It also has a stadium which is used for big church services and concerts.



Jimma has two universities, one with a medical faculty and teaching hospital and a large agricultural college. The Agriculture college has a partnership with Truro College in Nova Scotia. I met two Canadian students from Nova Scotia who were working in the animal clinic and doing some associated research. They were having a great time and didn't want to leave.

This little girl just wanted her picture taken by the farengi which made a nice change from the more usual "you you you"!


Jimma is full of ambitious young people, several of whom were interested in speaking to me to practice their English and also to ask for my perspectives on career and other opportunities. I spent a few hours with two bright young natural resources students discussing agricultural practice, land issues and the potential for ecotourism in Ethiopia. I found one of their comments quite interesting; because the country is not industrialized, their aquifers have been protected from pollutants. If these two students are given opportunities to contribute, Ethiopia will benefit immensely.

And of course, I also had another not-so-good Jimma moment when two young men stole my locket off my neck. I was walking just on the outskirts of town on a Sunday afternoon and these two young men began to talk to me. I dropped my guard for a few minutes and after dropping behind me, one ran up and snatched my necklace off my neck. The police did a great job of investigating and brought two suspects into the station for me to identify but in both cases, I wasn't 100% positive and didn't want to send the wrong people to jail. Anyway, I am unharmed and will be much more cautious about walking on my own in the future.

Jimma moments

There were many special moments in the past 5 weeks in the field, in and around Jimma zone.

This picture is my favorite so far, a young girl who served us macciato (coffee with milk) in her little family cafe outside of the Setema Health Centre. It was lunch time and we were waiting for staff to return so spent some time with her. She told us she was in Grade 7 but looked older than 12 years to me. I showed her pictures of Nova Scotia from the few postcards I brought with me. Most people in Jimma haven't seen an ocean so she was amazed at the picture of Lunenburg. Three other young fellows joined us and seemed happy just to be part of the conversation.


The next one is of Mohammed, one of the zone surveillance officers and Kinfe, my WHO driver. We had a long drive up into the hills that day to visit two woredas (health units) and their health centres. This picture was taken at the edge of a deep, very green valley inhabited by tigers and monkeys with a stream running through it. The picture doesn't capture the scene very well but it made us want to grab my tent and hike down for a weekend in the forest.



And lastly, yes, I did do some work, not just drink coffee and soak up the scenery. I 'sensitized' over 40 of the Jimma town health centre staff about AFP, measles and NNT. I spoke in English, using my CDC flipcharts and a powerpoint without projector (no LCD that day) thanks for my CFEP computer. Kade, the town focal person, then translated into Amharic and added his own extra comments. During the session, we discovered one suspect AFP case had been seen earlier in the week so sensitization works!

Back from Jimma - Mid mission

After 5 weeks in the the western highlands, I am back in Addis Ababa for a week of reports and meetings. We will be heading back out to the field on the weekend for our final four weeks of surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (polio eradication), measles and neonatal tetanus. We are also working with local health districts and their staff to improve their awareness of the diseases under surveillance, vaccination practices and vaccine safety issues.

As to the pictures, in the top one, the woreda head and focal persons were holding a meeting with the health extension worker and kabele leaders on the side of the road in order to locate a potential AFP case. As they talked, everyone who was in the vicinity joined in on the meeting. We didn't find the case that day but they were able to locate the child later that week. In the second picture, Mohammed, the zone Surveillance Officer is showing me the way to the health post...across several logs. A crowd of small boys gathered to watch me negotiate the logs and thankfully, I got across without incident. In the third picture, the local community had gathered for routine immunizations and it turned into quite a social occasion.

As mentioned in the earlier post, the WHO office has a wireless connection which provides access to the blog. I will post more later this week.