It is Wednesday night, April 13, 2016. We have just about finished our mission here in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, and we are all feeling mixed up about that! Yes, we are ready for food that is familiar, water that doesn’t do things to your system, and air that is not filled with smoke!
Dr. Stan thanks our Rotary helpers.
But we are also going to miss this. We are going to miss our team, the best group of volunteers and medical professionals you could ever put together! We are going to miss Ethiopia, because it really does warm the soul… it gets into you. We are going to miss the beautiful patients, who have suffered for so long with injuries or issues that would have been dealt with instantly at home!
Rotaractors and Dr. Adil follow Stan’s lead in a jump photo!
But we are also going to miss our partners in this mission, the Rotaract and Rotary club members who have helped us all the way. They are all students or young professionals who have taken time off in order to make our life at Gamby Hospital somewhat easier. They interpret, they help us calm the patients, they ride with us in Tuk-Tuks (Bajaj as they are known locally) to buy soda for break time. They basically do whatever it takes to make our mission successful.
Rotaract Club President Yohannes demonstrates the fine art of eating with native Ethiopian Indira
Lead surgeon Dr. Stan Valnicek was eloquent in his praise of our Rotaract and Rotary supporters. He suggested that the team is like a chain, and every contributor was a link in that chain. Yes, the surgeons are the stars of the mission, but as Stan says, “The success is only as good as every link in the chain”. To our local support team we owe a great deal.
Team Ethiopia mugs for the camera with some of our Rotaract helpers.
This Wednesday night, just 2 days before we leave, we had a wonderful celebration dinner for our Rotaract and Rotary hosts. We would be in rough shape without you…
Thank you!!!
– Peter Schultz & Dina Kotler