Here I am, trying to get settled in at the office. I grabbed lunch with an Peruvian colleague and met one from India at the restaurant. Lentil soup and starter's gossip was on the menu. Getting a few anecdotes, exchanging brief histories and drinking macchiatos was followed by my first trip in a shared taxi.
Taxis in Addis are painted blue and white. On the way to the Lime Tree, Rafael and I grabbed a regular taxi. Seven birrs to get up to the restaurant (1 birr = .7 usd). On the way back, we grabbed a shared taxi which is a mini-bus that stops randomly. For the three of us we gave 2.73. The standard ride is a minimum of around 90 cents, but at night, they charge whatever they please. Standard practice with a regular taxi is to negotiate the price before hand.
I had just come back to the office when I found out that I had to go for a medical check-up and to get passport photos taken. I'd need around 12 for the residence permit process. The thought of a medical check up in Addis is frightening. One day in and I'm being asked for a blood sample. I hadn't exactly prepared myself for the idea of being poked with a needle in Ethiopia. I thought I'd been through all the needles at home, where I was confident in the system. Gelawdoes left me in the truck and went in to negotiate with the doctor that I could be seen right away. I jumped the queue and was shown into the basement where the doctor pulled out a new needle (it was in it's sterile wrapping) and tied a latex glove around my left bicep. A swab with some a cotton ball blue from what I hope was disinfectant and he pulled my blood. This is the apparent "voluntary" hiv test. If you discount the mental stress, it was mostly painless. Then, still bleeding from the left arm, I was handed a narrow grey tube/cup and told to pee in it.
Down the alley I went to a shack with a door, ceramic tiles and a hole in the floor. Squatting to pee over a hole in the ground while trying to apply pressure to you arm with one hand, position your pants so you don’t pee on them, and hold a cup under your urine stream isn’t exactly a walk in the park; more difficult still, doing up your pants again with the non-pee-cup hand.
I washed my hands at the sink and went back inside to deliver my cup. After declaring my age, I was all done. After giving them one of my new passport photos for the paperwork, Gelawdoes said we were done, no need to wait for the results and that he would go back to the clinic tomorrow for the papers.
Gelawdoes, I’ve learned, is a master at getting through the fast track. We drove around town to a different clinic with an x-ray machine, but there were too many people, so we headed to a different clinic where I was shown into a shack with eons old x-ray equipment for a chest x-ray after Gelawdoes had spoken to the random guy walking around. Random guy did, however, put on a white lab coat for the occasion of me stripping for the x-ray. I held my breath and he did his thing. After sitting outside for a few minutes beside a rack with x-rays drying in the afternoon sun, I was declared good to go. Gelawdoes will go back tomorrow and pick up the x-ray too.
Back at AA HQ, I was pleased to find my computer had managed to connect to the internet and download my emails. A quick macchiato break at 3:30 pm and I was back in the office, reading up on security materials.
On the agenda now is a little more work and then I’ll head back to the guesthouse for peanut butter and jam on buns for dinner. We’ll see how the evening goes by – reading my guide book maybe? Tomorrow at 8:30 am, I have my first meeting… on value chain assessments for the RAIN project. I also have to nail down the HR people, the financial office and the logistics team for an orientation before I fly home to Dire Dawa on Saturday morning.
Left: Not so flattering passport photo which will be on all my official documents in Ethiopia.
Right: Slightly more flattering photo taken with my mobile in the Mercy Corps truck.
No comments:
Post a Comment