Pearlygate

Visits of the great and good on ‘fact finding tours’ however brief and the latest such visit was brief achieve little but do destabilise.  So it was that a senior Adventist doctor arrived for 3 days achieved nothing but subsequently uncovered further debt in this debt ridden establishment where any accounting practice let alone good accounting practice seems to be non- existent.  Much money has been given for building projects, the result of which is decaying lumps of concrete but little in the way of concrete building, the rubric being that the money was diverted to running the hospital paying such essentials as salary.  Now it appears that in addition to essentials, holidays of American staff, car costs for travel, per deums (see blogs passim) and general living of ex pat Adventists have left holes in the accounts of several thousand dollars.  So it is good to know where all this charity money goes.  Certainly there are no published accounts.  However, has the arrival of ‘fact finders’ now two groups of them achieved anything?  Answers on a postage stamp – of course not.  Grandiose plans to build new buildings for the theatre, when the autoclave only works courtesy of a rock to appease a yet to be appointed surgeon who wants to do orthopaedics, when most of the staff remain largely demoralised, demotivated, and underpaid with little incentive in a failing institution whose management is divided between two fighting institutions.  The major players in these institutions, the church in Addis and the Adventist docs in ‘Lo Melinda’ southern California seem to be at loggerheads and refusing to meet each other so probably little will happen but as it has been here for some years now the hospital itself will go on lurching from crisis to crisis mis-spending  what little resource it has while remaining in the hands of Adventist children planning their next away day on what funds are available.  As they are all on tourist visas  and have no qualifications the schools and hospitals depend on the registered qualifications of such Ethiopians that are around for their registration, if of course they bother to get it and use of these qualifications do not come cheap – back handers all round chaps.  Meanwhile I shall pay my bill for the rebuilding of the mortuary like a good boy, the penalty for allowing homicidal orphans into my car, the ultimate irony of charitable giving I suppose.  Meanwhile the new medical director’s wife has had enough, and bought a one way ticket to Malawi and a free ride with us to Addis, and he moves into our lovely home when we depart but is unlikely to take on either the chickens or my ‘care in the community’ gardener, thus the sustainability of  my market garden is now in jeopardy.  I say market garden but my ‘greens’ are given away to vitamin deficient faranjis not sold.

Venal misuse of charity funds is not of course confined to religious organisations and, although on a smaller scale is rampant locally too.  The departing ‘program manager’ has set off on a family visit, prior to his departure to a BBC money laundering  operation, taking with him the charity car and forcing the hire of alternative transport adding to the costs of both the charity and the project fund.  Cycling money really well spent and no one about strong enough to say no.  The as yet to be appointed successor will be looking for his own fiddles soon enough. The dear departed is already fixing for a mate to step into his shoes and doubtless travelling Danish charity execs will see it his way. Working for ex-pat NGO’s is clearly the way forward as it seems to allow you both decent housing in Addis and access to furniture at a cost that would make you wince in the Harrod’s sale.  Sadly the charity for which we give our services spend more time with infighting than delivering help (sorry training to potential helpers, who are as demotivated as the hospital staff).  Meanwhile, the now voucher free (and therefor have to pay) wretched rural population will continue to struggle in with their obstructed labours  where at least this faranji will go on trying to rescue them and pass on a modicum of common sense to the sudden explosion of ex pat medical students that infest the place, the local midwifery students having declared some sort of holiday, it being the rainy season.  This particular wretched girl had been in labour at least 24 hours with a head firmly wedged and despite a fetal heart , a baby with fixed dilated pupils that did not get off the cushion that passes as a resuscitaire hereabouts.  A tutorial for the locals on obstructed labour this afternoon I plan.  I now understand the pointlessness  of partograms in these parts as no one labours anywhere near one, they arrive fully dilated and clapped awaiting miracle cure.  However access to miracle cure is only available to those with vouchers, Ethiopian post code lotteries again.

For those who have been following the cancer story I am pleased to report that the ureter has stayed in, and the woman gone home, if not cured at least symptom free, so hopefully some good done and all the money spent on her not free loading.

Meanwhile the delinquent puppy is now due to move on to a third  or is it a fourth home as it it’s propensity to eat small children and everything else is becoming a problem, has a future as a guard dog me thinks.  Message for faranjis – no dumb chums.  Far from dumb chums two chickens also be rehoming and the new tenant of this house is not showing much keenness and they are now absurdly tame, even preferring their tomatoes cooked.

So, forget the big picture, forget the petty and not so petty manoeuvrings of the organisations, just concentrate on the person in front of you and do your best for them – individual sustainability.