I spent a week at Oak Hill College in north London in the summer learning about some tropical diseases, courtesy the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF). When you check the stats, Ethiopia is the place to go if you want to catch most of them. I’m all prepared for onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, tape worms, malaria, TB, typhoid; the list goes on. however I wasn’t prepared for furuncular myiasis – I should ask Dr Vicky Lavy, the CMF international director, to add it to the course.

One of my colleagues went to visit Yetemwork’s Mum only to find that she had given birth three hours previously. She had delivered the baby herself and he was wrapped in a scarf, but was quite cool and hadn’t fed. Advice was sought from a Dula (an Ethiopian lady taught basic maternity and post natal care), who was driven over from another project.