In this Advent time and a couple of days before Christmas, you would rather expect a title such as "the joy of giving," wouldn't you? Surely, today, I witnessed the joy of giving but, as genuine as it was, it is the result of a complicated and long process, a real business process.

This morning, Birt and I joined Emebet and Joseph, the co-founders of The World Family, to visit two hospitals in Addis Ababa: Saint Peter and Gandhi Memorial. The former is part of 50 hospitals that Joseph equipped with 2nd-hand and refurbished medical equipments from the US. It specializes in tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS treatment and asked for equipment to expand in the orthopedic and reeducation field. The second is on the candidate list for an upcoming project and is the largest maternity in the capital, the hospital where Emebet was born. The two institutions being at very different stages of the project, that provided a great opportunity to seize the broad spectrum of activities and hoops that Joseph and Emebet have to go through just to... give! Which include a call from the Minister of Health on Joseph's cell phone while we were driving through town. We should actually see the Minister himself at the inauguration of the community center in Gara Dima in one week!

At Saint Peter we conducted a review of the content of the three containers which have been shipped this year. Explaining to the local staff what some devices are meant for or how to reassemble and set them up. A dozen of articulated beds have been placed in a special pavilion which is empty today but has been setup in case of a swine flu epidemic.

At Gandhi Memorial it was a very different story: Joseph and Emebet were trying to convince the Director of the hospital to use some of his budget to cover part of the transportation costs and get a lot of needed supplies in exchange, instead of spending all his budget on much fewer brand new equipment. It seems like a no-brainer from an economical standpoint, but it is not that simple from an administrative point of view and also because it requires change of habits. The same issue we encounter in the... business. The discussion was all about submitting a wish list that Joseph will fulfill. Quite timely as we approach Christmas... Working from hospitals' wish lists is actually the very unique value proposition of The World Family, a much more sustainable approach than the one of other associations who decide on their own what they ship. It makes the logistics much more complex with very specific needs to meet, and that is one of the purposes of The World Family's Oakland warehouse which serves as the Santa Claus' hub to handle and mitigate this complexity.

We visited several sections of the maternity starting with the emergency room, in full swing (one lady in labor arrived with her husband with blood on his pullover). A room smaller than our car garages or not as clean... It would have been indecent to take pictures... We stopped by the consultation room, then the brand new premature section which only Emebet got in after putting some protection on. Overall, certainly the local state of the art which the Director and his staff can be proud of, but so far behind what we have in the US, health care crisis or not.

While the four of us had lunch in an Indian restaurant, the cell phones kept ringing to track the progress of the rest of group and we arrived just in time at 1:30 to see most of the group coming out of immigration and customs controls. With the remaining 6 exiting 15 minutes later after they checked on the missing luggage that didn't make through the connection and change of airlines in London (Agnès reported it was a total mess in the luggage warehouses at Heathrow). Everybody was looking so pale and exhausted after this 76-hour journey, door to door. Back to the theme of the title, the kids were given the opportunity to experience what it takes to fly overseas to conduct business. Although, fortunately, not all our business trips turn to such an awful adventure. What a way to give up three days of your vacation to such a noble cause. The business of giving...

PS: one quick word on running (the original blog theme...). None today as Mengsitu canceled our morning meeting last night. If we are leaving for Metehara tomorrow as scheduled (we'll decide tonight based on the form of the troops after their 4-hour rest this afternoon), the next opportunity will be there. In a much warmer weather as it is raining again today in Addis.

Connecting with a distance running incarnation

As announced in my previous post, I did woke up early to get to Meskal Square by 5:45 am. My hotel is only 3 kilometers away from the city landmark and the road is paved (which is not the case for many nearby roads) but it was pitch dark and difficult to see the holes in the pavement or sidewalk. The sky was full of bright stars but that was not helping. When I reached the plaza, I saw a few runners gathering indeed and asked one if there was some groups going out for a run. His English was very approximate and he shown me the benches forming an amphitheater around the plaza. Basically you run one length of the bench then move one step up and come back, and so on for 30 or so times. He shown one side was for the 5,000 (meters) and the other for the 10,000. And he invited me to follow him on the 5,000 side.

It was still very dark and the "benches" made of irregular dirt with holes and rocks. I kept my eyes down and fixed on my "personal trainer"'s shoes. He was running as smooth and light as the distance running elites. He didn't seem to pay attention to me except when pointing his finger on larger holes or rocks. It was a comfortable pace. I wish I could upload an image with the trace of my Garmin to show you the convoluted run which came to a total of 4,000 meters actually. There were about 50 other runners going back and forth with us, mostly men.

After that we did a few 200m sprints along the entire plaza and that is when I discovered that he was really really fast. After a few of them, I asked him what is his main distance and, with modesty, he replied with something which says long: he finished third at an international half-marathon in London recently in 1 hour and 1 minute which is world class. He accompanied me back to my hotel, with a friend of his, so we could exchange emails. He is definitely interested in learning more about running opportunities overseas. His English was not permitting a lot of exchange but we planned on meeting again tomorrow morning so he can give me his resume.

Back to my hotel room, searching his name (Mengsitu Abebe), I actually found that a documentary on distance running just got released this month in the UK, which includes Mengsitu. See http://www.theroadtobeijing.co.uk/documentary.htm. It was particularly moving to learn from this website that Mengsitu was a former goat herder as I see these herders from my hotel room.

This morning I also had breakfast with Birt who is joining our group. Birt has worked with Joseph (the co-founder of The World Family with Emebet) for 2 years. He lives in Palo Alto and arrived here on the 17th which gave him some time to visit many places in the city looking to buy supplies and wood to build looms at the village. And there is not such thing as Home Depot or Lowe's, so everything is complicated and takes a lot of time (yes, requires patience, cf my previous post...). We were joined by Teddy, the local representative of The World Family, who will be our interpret during our two weeks in Gara Dima and Metehara.

And now for the scoop on the weather side: it is raining in Gara Dima this afternoon! Not pouring rain but enough to fix the dust. As for the pollution it is actually pretty bad and, between the high elevation (2,300m - 7,550ft) and the chilly temperatures this morning, my throat is bothering me. Now looking very much forward seeing the rest of the family and the group landing at Bole Airport tomorrow morning so we can move to Metehara on Thursday!