Facing Africa

Sarah and I arrived in Addis at 6am having had only a few hours sleep and D was at the airport to meet us :-)

We went for a nice strong coffee and a lentil samosa with D's colleagues and felt much better. D has been in Ethiopia for two weeks, working at the MCM Hospital for a charity called Facing Africa . This provides surgery for survivors of Noma, a disease which has a 90% mortality and causes terrible facial disfigurement. Sufferers are shunned and face a life of shame and social isolation.

Today was the last day of his two weeks and the plan was for the team to visit a Cheshire Home up in the hills outside Addis where patients go to recuperate after their operations. They get fed, and clothed and treated with a kindness which they have probably not been used to.

I have read and heard a lot about Noma but have never experienced it first hand. Sarah and I weren't really sure what to expect. We had to meet all D's colleagues for the first time and try to stay awake as well.

I really can't put everything we saw and felt into a short blip write up. But this photo will maybe speak a thousand words.

The patients, all in their FA tracksuits, are sitting and waiting to be seen by the surgeons at the clinic, and we were chatting to them (as much as language differences would allow). And here is D dancing with Jacob, all the patients laughing at him, and the baby looking a bit scared!

We had lunch, games (football, volleyball, dominoes), balloons and bubbles for the children, and cake. Everyone was sad to leave, even Sarah and I who had only met these brave people for the first time today.

sorry in advance to my blip friends if I don't comment for a while. Internet access is very patchy here.