Sunset over the compound

Lunch in the childrens' ward

Cleaners dancing at our farewell

Friday 20th August

Well we had a good send off today. There are 3 of us on the move, Ian and I and the young Italian nurse who has also been here for 3 months.

At assembly, after ward allocation, we were all asked to step forward and receive a posy of flowers each, a hospital tea shirt, and E----- and I got some beautiful black and white beads. The beads mean we are Dinkas and we have cows. Quite an honour to be given them as they are highly sought after and not meant for the koajas (white people) to wear. They spoke about us all individually and thanked us for all our work. It was really nice. Of course we then all had to return with a few words.

Our collective theme was peace for them in January 2011 during the referendum for separation from the North. Then all the cleaners performed a dance. This was at 8-30 am!

To follow up the story with the burns dressings, I did manage to contact Prof Fiona Wood (with your help) who very kindly replied to my e mail, and reassured us that we were doing the right thing with the burns wounds, but it would of course without skin grafts take a very long time.

The other exciting news is we have an Australian surgeon coming out to Sudan to fill in for our Director/Surgeon, who has himself to leave for for surgery in Italy. Again, it is with help from you that this connection was set up. He arrives on the 1st of September, the day we arrive home, so unfortunately we will not be here to greet him, but there are others that will.

It would be wonderful if we could set up a network with Mapuordit Hospital, Sudan. In the dry season, the Brothers have a plan to build four more volunteer rooms in the compound with a bathroom attached. This just what they need as conditions are very basic there (as I know!).

If there is anyone out there that would be interested in coming, there is a great need for nurses to train our staff and students, & Dr’s to get experience in tropical medicine. Teachers for the local primary and senior high school. Plumbers, electricians, anyone who knows about solar energy, odd job man, landscape gardeners, anyone really (after all, we even took Ian!). It is expensive to get here, so 3 months is a good stint and it does take at least 3-4 weeks to get over the culture shock.

Thank you for all your words of support and help regarding the website donations. We will see most of you back in Sydney and the UK on our next visit.
Anne