Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital part 2
Garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
Last week I wrote about our visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.
Today I present a few more photos taken around the gardens and buildings of this wonderful hospital, a place changing the lives of so many local women in an amazing way. To read more, click here.
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
Garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital
Garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
One of the places my wife and I wanted to visit while in Ethiopia last December was the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, established many years ago by an Australian doctor, Catherine Hamlin and her husband. We had heard about this wonderful hospital some years ago and had financially supported its work.
Last year, just when we were planning our trip to Ethiopia, an hour long documentary on the work was shown on Australian television, further fostering a growing passion to support this hospital. In December we planned to visit our daughter who was teaching at Bingham Academy, an international school about 20 minutes by taxi from the hospital.
We asked her if she could contact the hospital to enquire if we could visit. She went one better and arranged an appointment for us. It so happened that the son of the CEO of the hospital was a student in her class. We later met the CEO and his family at a church service and found them to be lovely people.
Over the coming days I plan to show more photos of the garden of this wonderful hospital. I was not permitted to take any photos of the patients which is completely understandable. The grounds, however, were amazing; so peaceful and therapeutic for the patients.
I challenge my readers to find out more about the work of this hospital in treating women suffering from obstetric fistula. In fact, I challenge you to financially support this amazing work. Click here to go to their website for more information.
Garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
Garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
Street scenes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Street vendor, Addis Ababa
By way of contrast with the photos I posted yesterday, today I have shown some scenes of the shops and buildings of some of the ordinary people living in the bustling city of Addis Ababa. There are thousands of street vendors like the one shown above, selling everything from fruit and vegetables to clothing to shoes to whatever you want.
Shops in suburban Addis Ababa
Many of the shops are tiny – perhaps only a few square metres in the front room of a house. Bakeries, butcher shops, furniture shops, car repair garages, cafes, clothing shops, sheep and goats for sale, shoe shops – the list could go on and on. In any one street you can find thousands of different items for sale. It’s all very colourful and diverse with pedestrians moving along the street – or on the road – all the time.
One interesting thing we observed in moving through the streets and looking into shops; they are generally very clean. The street may be rough with potholes, drains, animal excrement and the like, but most shopkeepers take a pride in their shops and the wares they are selling. Even in the poorest areas they attempt to give good service and a good product.
Shops in suburban Addis Ababa
Shops in suburban Addis Ababa
Shops in suburban Addis Ababa
Scenes around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Buildings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
One of the interesting things I found about visiting Ethiopia last December was the contrasts in the capital city, Addis Ababa. Today I have posted photos of several modern and quite lovely buildings, structures which would not be out of place in Australian cities. We went to several supermarkets and shopping centres and they looked very similar to what we’d find here in Adelaide or other Australian cities. In fact, the supermarkets were generally much cleaner and well kept than their Australian counterparts. Only the products on sale differed though we recognised many of the same brands we can get here at home. The labelling also differed, though many were in English as well as the locally spoken Amharic.
In most cases, however, we only had to go a short distance to see the other side of Ethiopia where the vast majority of people live in poor conditions and struggle for survival. More about that in coming days.
Buildings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Buildings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Scenes around Bingham Academy, Addis Ababa
My daughter's apartment building, Bingham Academy
During our visit to our daughter at Bingham Academy in Addis Ababa last December we stayed with her in her apartment on the school campus. In the photo above her apartment is the three windows on the top floor on the left of the ramp going up to the door. This was just a few metres across the car park from the teachers’ preparation offices so it was very convenient.
Staff apartments, Bingham Academy, Addis Ababa
In the second photo above are more staff apartments in the lower part of the school. We only went in one of these when we were invited to dinner to the home of an Australian family we got to know quite well while there. The housing for teachers at Bingham is quite comfortable without being over the top. All the teachers I spoke to seemed very happy with their accommodation. I observed that some classrooms were somewhat less than ideal, some needed maintenance and some were filling roles for which they were not designed. The administrative staff and governing board are very aware of these shortcomings. There is currently a strong fund raising effort to enable a completely new secondary school building to be built in the next year or so. This will ease the shortage of classroom accommodation in the rest of the school.
Bingham Academy, Addis Ababa
The above photo shows several of the classrooms, a part of the playground for the younger children and to the lower right the car maintenance sheds. The photo is taken from the balcony leading into the school library. The library is at bursting point and in serious need of expansion and upgrading. I think this is also on the plans for rebuilding.
Eucalyptus forest, Bingham Academy, Addis Ababa
One of my favourite spots within the campus was the eucalyptus forest near the oval. This was a very peaceful area and good birding there as well. I am a little sad that a part of this small forest will be removed in order to accommodate the new secondary building. I know its necessary for the future of the school and the students, but I hope some of the trees are retained as a very useful and pleasant amenity.
Overlooking Addis Ababa from Bingham Academy
From the library one has a limited view over neighbouring houses, as shown above. It shows the style and diversity of housing in the district. In another view – one I didn’t photograph – there is a prominent slum area. This is quite common in Addis Ababa: good housing merges with slum zones with very little separating the two.