Against All Odds

Today was my first scheduled workshop, and it was the best personal training I have ever had in "going with the flow" and staying in the present. It began when we discovered that Woiny's watch was running 15 minutes slow, and, although we had planned to be at the HFC head office by 8:00, in truth we were just getting into the car at that time.

Our regular route, which yesterday showed no signs of construction, was today blocked completely by rocks. Winding our way through a myriad of unpaved and rocky back "streets," we eventually found a way around the detour, only to discover that it was a major religious holiday and all of the main roads in the center of Addis were closed as well. A broken down bus, abandoned in one of the two lanes of the detour, slowed us down even more.


The handouts that were to be picked up on Friday were not available until today and due to great luck, the man who had printed them up was just about ready to leave his shop when we arrived (see photo of copy shop).



We finally made it to HFC at 9:15 and since most of the attendees had also been delayed by the traffic, we began the workshop at 9:45.

I didn't notice, but in the flurry of setting up my computer and the power point projector, my laptop was never connected to the electricity. The morning went fine, but just as I was about to show a 20-minute video, the electricity went off and I realized my computer battery was almost dead. Multiple attempts to start the HFC generator were unsuccessful, so we decided to break for lunch and hope the electricity would come on again in the afternoon.

It did not! So that was the end of the power point presentation. Fortunately the handouts were very detailed, and we worked off of them. The 32 Ethiopian therapists, teachers and nurses asked wonderful questions and seem to understand my English very well. We began with a translator, but then found out they didn't need it.

By the end of the day, the room had become extremely hot because the 32 chairs blocked the windows from opening. With the electricity still out, we decided to show the video on Woiny's laptop. Everyone crowed around to see the small screen and seemed to find it helpful and validating.

These therapists are earnestly trying to do their best despite the enormous level of trauma here and the limited training that is available to them. It was inspiring helping them understand new concepts such as dissociation and trauma processing, and despite all of the setbacks and problems, I feel that the day was 100% successful! Many of them have expressed an interest in our upcoming EMDR training in the fall and I believe that the introduction of this new therapy will have great ramifications throughout Ethiopia.

Dorothy