Visiting Lemma's school with friends from Spicer Street Church
Jerry cans full of water will be carried using the wooden supports on these donkeys
A weaver bird weaving a new nest near Lake Langano
On our balcony there are a collection of plants. Some I’ve been given, one I bought and a number have been carefully nurtured from cuttings. They look rather attractive and I enjoy tending them.
As will every other day for several months, my birthday dawned bright and cloudless and, somewhat annoyingly, at 6:30 am. It’s Saturday so laying around in bed for a bit is quite appropriate, until I try to watch the BBC Breakfast News when the Internet does what it often does – the speed oscillates alarmingly between zero and very fast for a couple of minutes then it fails altogether.
Amharic has a fabulous term to describe naughty or cheeky. It is ‘rabash’. This week an animal on the compound could definitely be described as rabash. There are several wild cats that live in the rubbish pit. I have often jumped when emptying a bin and a cat has jumped down in front of me from a dark corner.
Several important events have happened recently; a couple of them we noticed much more than in previous years as we now have a panoramic view of the local area from our new second floor flat. The birds changed – the vultures suddenly vanished (hooray!) and dozens of yellow-billed kites returned, circling and swooping around outside our window. (What do all these big birds of prey eat we wondered? Hopefully the local rat population.)
It was during our stay in Awassa that we spotted some outlandish hats – just right to decorate for the Bingham ‘Crazy Hat’ day. They were being sold by boys at the roadside who have hats and baskets in piles to tempt the traveller.
Often my medical work is little different from my UK practice, except that most of my patients are a lot poorer than the population of affluent St Albans. I live and work in a big city at high altitude that doesn’t suffer the same degree of tropical disease as more remote and lower places. However sometimes things come my way that take me by surprise. Here are three short examples from my work today that my medical readers in particular will appreciate. it’s interesting to reflect on what might happen were these situations to arise in the UK. One in particular would make national headlines.
There are mosquitoes in our gym. I know this because while I was sitting at a weights machine last Thursday I saw one settle on to the 3rd web space of my right hand and the itchy spot I am now scratching is the result. Mine was the last blood it ever tasted.
There was no call from Grades 11 and 12 this year for a Child Development IGCSE so I was keen to look for another opportunity and preferably one that would take me outside Bingham.
As I stand in the kitchen and clear (although undrinkable) water flows from the tap into the sink, I glance through the apartment window. This affords a great view of the river that meanders behind the school compound wall. I can see a lady about to do the same chore as me - washing up. The difference is that her water today is a deep muddy brown and flowing downstream apace.
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.