Entombed in a Cathedral

Emperor Haile Selassie was a beloved leader of Ethiopia from 1930-1974, before and after the Italian occupation. His body is entombed in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is why I ended up there on a Tuesday evening with 4 other ORBIS volunteers.

 

 

 

 We got there at dusk, but our cab driver persuaded the gate-keepers to let us into the grounds even though it was getting late. Then the gate-keepers persuaded the priest to take us into the cathedral itself. He silently unlocked the massive hardwood doors and let us in.

 

 

We then had a rather creepy, silent, dark, after-hours-esque tour led by the priest, who only turned on a single lightbulb in the entire cavernous chapel, and led us to the tomb without saying a word. 

 

But that wasn't the truly strange part of the experience.

 

At the end, the priest personally walked us to the exit then broke his silence by frankly telling us that he would need a generous tip before he would unlock the doors to release us from the church.

 

Ultimately, we had to give him about $100 to get him to let us out of there.

 

In the future, I'd love to be able to refer to this story as the time I was held hostage in an African cathedral by a sinister clergyman. 



 

All kidding aside, I'm sure there must have been some sort of fundamental misunderstanding on our part. I'm sure he'll put the money toward a good cause.

One miracle at a time

The pictures never do it justice. The words never make it real enough.

During the past two weeks in Ethiopia, I've seen some wonderful life-changing stories play out. I was lucky to work with the pediatric ophthalmologists, so all of the patients were young children with their whole lives ahead of them. It's really gratifying to think how the difference they made for our little patients will carry forward as those children grow up.

The first Monday, I met Zeineb*. She's ridiculously cute. Her mother is a widow who thought that there would never be help available for Zeineb's eyes, and even if it were, she wouldn't be able to afford it.

By the end of the week, Zeineb had eye-muscle surgery to straighten her eyes, and a pair of glasses to help her focus better so that her alignment can stay straight.

On Wednesday, there was Mubarek, the bravest kid I've ever met. Just to come to the ORBIS screening, he and his dad had to walk 2 hours from their village to a neighboring town, then spend a week's wages to ride a bus for 8 hours into Addis Ababa. He has Duane's Syndrome Type 3, which prevents his left eye from moving properly when he tries to look from side-to-side.

We made sure they had a place to stay in the local hospital, and by the next afternoon he had eye-muscle surgery to help both of his eyes line up straight in primary gaze.

The next Monday, I met Fetya, a 2 year old boy who was born with a cataract in the left eye. If congenital cataracts aren't removed in time, the brain never learns to process the visual signals that the eye sends it. Fety had his surgery the next day. I hope the surgery came in time for him to get some of his sight back.

I also met Atiya, who is 6 months old and blind from congenital cataracts in both eyes. The local surgeon plans to use the new methods he learned through ORBIS to help this little guy.

 

The whole thing really makes you realize how lucky we are, doesn't it? I wish there were a way to make things right for every kid in the world.

 

 

(*Pictures and names used with permission)

You'll be glad to know...

You'll be glad to know that it only took a mere 52 hours of air and land travel to finally make it back from Ethiopia! Six hours of that were spent standing in line to re-book a canceled flight out of Germany. An unknown number of hours were spent sleeping on airport benches, like this dude:

 

You'll be glad to know that at a certain airport restaurant, if you want a Ciabatta Bread Ham and Swiss Sandwich it will cost you $7.99, but for some reason if you just order ham and swiss on ciabatta bread it's only $3.99

 

You'll be glad to know that never-before-seen artistic renderings of Mr T's early childhood are for sale in the outdoor markets of Ethiopia.



 

 

You'll be glad to know that the pay-phones in Ethiopia...

 

...are actually time machines.

 You'll be glad to know that if you go to the right bakery in Addis Ababa, you can easily get a cake for your Pirate-themed house party!  Or a cake shaped like a furnace boiler... for your, um, furnace boiler-themed party.

 

You'll be glad to know there's finally an answer to the age-old question of how many people it takes to screw in a lightbulb. Three.

It's always relief to scan over the drink menu...

 

...and find that the restaurant serves Ho Chocolate.

You'll also be glad to know that the iPod 5...

...is a status symbol clothing brand.

And that Pringles exist in Africa, but they're cleverly renamed as "Mister Potato Crisps," and their logo is the sombrero-wearing three-way-illegitimate stepchild of the original Pringles guy and the Super Mario Brothers.

Speaking of food, you'll be glad to know that I've now eaten spaghetti ungracefully on every continent I've ever visited. In this particular pasta mishap, I was starving when lunch arrived but there were no utensils to eat with, so I was using the cardboard lid from the food box as a noodle-scoopy-shovel-thingy. Innovative. And awkward.

 

Perhaps most importantly of all, you'll be glad to know that if you ever need a guy to run down the street carrying 22 mattresses on his head, it's not an impossible dream.

 

Worth the Effort

 

Where the next two weeks will take me:

http://www.orbis.org/Default.aspx?cid=5712&lang=1