Wednesday March 4

I can't believe that a week has gone by without adding to the blog. It's probably a sign of just how busy I have been.

So now into our second week we are operating in all six rooms. I am in the eye rooms where we are beginning to have about 30 patients a day through our doors. 2 rooms with a connecting door aid our communications with each other and enables the surgeons to walk between each easily. Today we performed about 30 cataract operations and a couple of other more minor procedures.

On Monday we operated on a 3 year old girl who has never seen as she was born with cataracts. When her patches were taken off on Tuesday she took a minute or so to realise that she could actually see then picked up a book and started turning the pages. That is what makes the days so worthwhile. Her life will be changed irrevocably by this operation. She will now at least have the chance of going to school as any other child and being able to learn to read and write. I beginning to use all my skills again as we have begun to operate on children in the eye rooms. They require general anaesthetics and this is an area in which I work. There are challenges as the lack of space means confined working areas but we are able to work safely.

We have had several VVF ladies through now and there was a party for the first ones to celebrate their return to normal life for them. They are given a new dress and matching headscarf to as part of the celebration. If you can read Catherine Hamlin's book "Hospital by the River" you will gain insight to the lives of these women and the difference this surgery makes to their lives. They are able to find work again and where they have previously been cast out by families, are welcomed back as they are no longer debilitated by this condition which arises from prolonged childbirth.

Over the weekend I spent Saturday on call then on Sunday went to church in the morning to the FourSquare Gospel church. This is a worldwide church that preaches the gospel as it is. I went with four others and we had a good time there. Christian , who took us, used to attend the church when he lived in Cotonou. Afterwards we took a drive out to Ouidah which was the centre a slave trading for Benin. There are 2 gates there. When called the "Gate of no Return" marked the place where the slaves were boarded onto ships never to return. In 2001 another gate was built 300 metres along the beach and this is the "Gate of Return". Built to commemorate the first Christian brothers who landed there in 1861, it is a beautiful monument, very simple in its design with the country of Benin outlined so that one can look straight through it to the sea. We didn't have enough time to visit the museum in town but we had great fun for the afternoon and the cool breeze off the sea was a welcome relief.

I have begun to run in the mornings. Not sure quite how long the dock is but I suspect it's about three quarters of a mile from one end to the other and return. Even at 6am it's very warm. There is also a local pool and tonight I have been able to go for a swim after work. This has to be timed to perfection as we leave at 5.00pm inorder to be at the pool in time to be able to swim for about half an hour, shower briefly and then return to the ship by 6.30pm before the dinner line closes. It's a great way to unwind after a day though.

And so life continues. Thank you to all who contact me when you read my blog. Sorry if some of you have problems adding comments - I don't why it happens. I'll try to add in a couple of photos when I've consulted with my IT expert!