Its been a busy couple of days!

This last week here in Adama has been great. During the day, we have been extremely busy with training, and we have spent most evenings preparing for the next day and trying to wind down enough to get some sleep.

The participants are extremely engaged, and are really keeping all of the trainers on our toes with thoughtful, and often challenging questions.

Much of what we are teaching them seem to be new concepts and tools. For example, process mapping, mind mapping and 5S methodology. However some of the context of our training is only building on their current knowledge. Everyone appeared to be very aware of the importance of saftey and proper packaging techniques ((triple packaging system) when it comes to sample management.

One of the activities we used to demonstrate how the 5S methodology could be put into practice was to have the participants organize a packaging work station. We (the trainers) had fun building a cluttered, messy area representing the workstation...and then worked along side them to organize and clean the area, rearranging the items to insure proper work flow.

We asked for the participants to come up with "energizers" in the afternoon....to get people up and moving and re-engaged in our activities. One such energizer was to turn and give your neighbor a nice neck rub. Everyone seemed to enjoy that one!

Every activity was full of energy and excitement. Mind mapping was no exception.

Some of the participants might have even taken the terminology "mind" mapping a little too literally!

Joan works with Addis to clarify some of the lecture topics. Interesting enough, Addis is the regional partner who is affiliated with Univeristy of California, San Diego. He works in a lab which provides technical assistance for HIV prevention, care and treatment to the Uniformed Services of Ethiopia (USE), which includes the National Defense Forces of Ethiopia (NDFE), the Federal Police of Ethiopia (FPE), and the Federal Prison Administration (FPA).

There are also regional partners participating in this training who are affiliated with Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University.

On Friday, the students had to prepare 'teachbacks'. 25-30 minute presentations as a group, with each participant presenting for 5 minutes. This was to give them practice as a trainer, and after each group was done the entire class would offer constructive feedback. Everyone did amazingly! Even the quiet, shy folks who didn't offer up much during the week got up and presented their material.

They used a variety of instructional techniques and often added humor to their lessons. It was great to see them incorportating many of the tips and tricks we had taught them.

Saturday morning, the head honcho of EHNRI came out to present certificates to each of the students. We were also able to burn CD's of all the photos both Joy and I had taken over the last week...including this great group photo. I think they were more excited about the picture CD then they were about the certificate!

 

Day 1 done...and what a day it was!

Day 1 of Specimen Referral System training was very busy. We were originally expecting about 40 participants, but discovered in the morning that number would now be about 30. Once everyone finally arrived (including a few late comers in the afternoon) we settled in at 26.

The participants quickly opened up their workbooks and eagerly started leafing through them.

After brief introductions by the project manager as well as the in-country sponsor, the students started their training off with a pre-assessment test. This assesment will be repeated at the end as way to measure the amount of knowledge improvement over the last 4 days of training.

Soon, in an attempt to relax the students, a true/fase activity was completed....green if they felt the statement was true, red for false.

Right before lunch, the big activity of the day got under way. Process Mapping....a concept that seemed at least a little bit familiar to the students.

The participants were broken into groups and each group was responsible for placing a process map on the wall, using pre-printed cards. It was exciting to see how engaged everyone was, fully participating and willing to share their opinions.

We had been told the participants would be shy and reserved...that we would need to really work to draw the out and participate, especially on the first day, however that couldnt't have been further from the truth. There are at least 6 or 7 obvious leaders among those taking this class. They are not afraid to speak up, have strong opinions and will even tell one another when they are mistaken.

There's a definite comraderie as well though, with everyone assisting each other as they flow through the activities.

After wrapping up the long day, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was late by the time we sat and ate (fast food, this place definitely is NOT) and all of us still had quite a bit of prep to do for the next day. As much as we would have liked it...our day was not quite over!

Getting to work in Adama

We stopped for lunch on our way out of Addis since we weren't sure what types of restaurants would be available once we were on the road.

Apparently, this is "THE" restaurant to go to while in Addis. Celebrities such as Brad & Angelina and the Carters have their pictures on the wall as you enter. For some reason, they didn't seem to want to add ours to that wall!

We arrived in Adama (Nazaret) about 2 hours after leaving Addis. Although, mieage wise, the two cities aren't all that far apart, travel is extremely slow because of all of the construction trucks and transportation trucks on the road. There is also a lot of livestock around, cattle, horses, donkeys and goats...just hanging out along the side of the road.

We are staying at the Maya Hotel, apparently one of the nice hotels in the city. The rooms are pretty small, but are clean and include a mini-fridge.

The mosquitos are really bad, so netting at night and anti-malaria pills are a must. Fortunately, I haven't experienced any of the side effects the anti-malaria pills are known for causing.

Probably the biggest inconvenience is the lack of water pressure. The water in the shower literally comes out in a steady stream of drips, and forget about getting temperature correct....its more like a decision between two evils, scalding hot or freezing cold. Almost impossible to find anything in between.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the hotel where the training would occur. Our boxes had arrived with all the training material, now we just needed to assemble it into a tote bag.

Each participant would receive a workshop binder as well as a CD with all the electronic versions of the training material, a pen, a notepad and a name tag. Later in the week we would be passing out the "trainer" binders they would be using during the 3rd week to perform this training themselves in their own particular region.

With four of us working to complete the setup of the room and assembly of the tote bags, we were done quickly and able to head back to the hotel for a quick dinner before retiring for the evening to study the material fo the next days session.

Ethiopian food & traditional dance at Yod Abyssinia

My bogging is getting a little behind due to the slow internet connection at the hotels.

On our last night in Addis, the team went out for a night of traditional Ethiopian food and folk dance. I was worried WE would be the ones doing the dancing, but instead we were treated to an amazing show while we at delicious food.

The restaurant was caled Yod Abyssinia and seemed like quite a drive from the Hilton.

Once we arrived and found seats, the show began with a team of musicians on stage playing traditional Ethiopian music.

Our first performer was a beautiful woman with a soulful voice. At one point in her performance a Japanese business man was so enthralled he even got up on stage to dance with her a bit.

As we listened to the music, they brought out a delicious white wine for all of us to share.

Soon, we were called into the buffet area and were greeting by a washing station. The attendant has some soap he dispensed into your hands, and then as you washed he poured warm water from his kettle over your hands until they were rinsed.

The buffet included all sorts of traditional Ethiopian dishes, starting with one of their staples...Injera.

Injera is a spongy, sour flatbread and is used instead of a fork or spoon to pick up the other food items on your plate. It soaks up the juices from the differenct sauces perfectly. Injera is made with teff, a tiny round grain that is easy to grow in Ethiopia. Teff is very nutritious, however it contains practically no gluten so it wouldn't work well to make a bread that needs to rise.

Everything has extreme flavor, and often has a nice bit of spice.

After we filled our plates, we headed back to our seats in time for a beautiful performance. 3 male dancers and 3 female dancers filled the evening with several different performances...many of the performances included coy flirting from one sex to the other and appeared to be courtship rituals.

The men came out and strutted their moves...trying hard to impress the ladies.

and then it was the women's turn to impress and charm the men with their moves. Much of their dancing included subtle shouler pops & movements of their necks.

The grand finale inluded some wild head swinging. These ladies could have kept up with the best of the head banging Heavy Metal fans!



The evening was so much fun, and I think left all of us with our toes tapping as we headed back to the hotel.

Stocking up on stationary & a Rock-Hewn Church

We hit the town to gather office supplies. Post-its, pens, paper, notebooks, markers, tape, and flip boards.

One stop shopping, we pick up everthing at one store. Most likely the biggest sale of the day for the store!

street vendors sell a variety of items, including 'toothbrushes'. The chewing stick, Zana, has even been found to have anti-microbial properties

There is even coffe service along the street if you are interested.

There is a lot of construction going on in the city. We were told this is one reason the Chinese are investing, Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing countries in Africa. The construction is interesting to see, with wooden branches stacked as scaffolding and looking very rickety.

Its very common to see livestock along the busy city streets. Donkeys and small herds of goats, not phased at all by the chaotic traffic.

Many of the stores have manikans showing off the clothing available for puchase.

We stopped back by the EHRI office to insure the training material would be shipped to the training facility by Monday. While we were wating, a large bird landed in the tree above. No one knew what it was, but it seemed to be a cross between a parrot and a bird of prey.



After we got back in the car, we stopped at a coffee shop for drink. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and the amazing aroma hit us the instant we walked thru the door. A welcome change from the thick scent of exhaust on the streets.

Back on the road, we were briefly surrounded by a herd of goats.

This woman was playing 'peek-a-boo' with her child. They were having a great time, laughing and gigling...until she saw me with the camera poking out of our van window. She frowned at me and I told the driver to 'step on it!'.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Lucy. Named after the first hominid skeleton discovere here in Ethiopia. For the longest time it was the oldest skeleton discovered, until Ardi came along.

While the food looked delicious, it lacked in flavor. Everything was slightly cold and the steak was so tough it was hard to cut.

After lunch we headed back up Entoto Mountain. Adrian had joined us a day late, and he was interested in seeing the sights. We also learned there was a rock-hewn church just 2 kilometers from where we had been just the day before.

On the way up the mountain, we spotted a small boy playing along side the road. Joann asked the driver to slow down and stop and she reached her hand out with a 'hot-wheel' truck for the child. As soon as he saw the toy, his eyes grew wide and an enormous grin stretched along his face. I swear, I have never seen such unbridled joy & happiness...and all it took was a toy.

He raced up the hill, squealing and laughing along the way. Shouting to all of his friends about his new treasure.

At the top of the moutian, a water station was thick with locals all patiently waiting their turn.

When we arrived at the rock-hewn church, our first impressions were that it was no different from the church we had visited the day before. It was a large impressive building with many tall windows.

Once inside though, we saw what was so special about this particular church. Large, floor to ceiling, murals covered the entire center pillar of the church.

The murals depicted many stories of the Bible.

even the devil was represented by a large terrifying creature.

just outside the large church were a couple of caves, carved out by hand and used as a place of worship.

On the way back into town we passed by the American Embassy. A huge, pristine building surrounded by a large protective wall.