Snapshots from Ethiopia

“My morning is not wasted but might have been without the effort of inducing it with meaning. That, in fact, is the thesis of missions overall. Not only do they NEVER occur precisely as planned, they are often better, but only through very “high energy input opportunism for capitalizing on the diverted route toward the same purposeful ends.”

And, the exigency of a given case can set us off a pathway different that the preprogrammed topic, but is thereby made far more practical. In the same way, our obstructions have led us through a dozen offices of people indifferent to most bureaucratic delays, but occasionally an unexpected champion emerges as we found in Joseph in the US Embassy in Djibouti who is still working the diplomatic wires in seeking help for us. A medical mission is not just a lot like life– it IS life, and how we adapt to it and try to cope with the hardship and inevitabilities such as disease, poverty, and mortality and still get something done is encouraging”

-Dr. Geelhoed’s journals, Ethiopia 2018

 

Although our Ethiopia mission was shorter than expected, we found that there were opportunities to plan ahead for future visits, make solid connections with local officials, and still get some good work done. We invite all friends of Mission to Heal to experience a part of our trip and look through this photo gallery of snapshots from Ethiopia.