Bliss bliss bliss. I came back from the weekend to find I have an Italian called Marco who has arrived and because he was here 11 years ago he has been allowed to stay in the compound. So I got back last night to the smell of fresh coffee (he had brought his own coffee machine from Rome) and he was cooking pasta melansanza. Then if that wasn't good enough I find out he has OCD and it manifests itself in cleaning. I though we had had a new bathroom suite installed until I found out he had cleaned the bathroom to within an inch of its life. Broken light bulbs had been replaced, he had brought new buckets to hold water in the bathroom and the kitchen gleamed like a new pin. Like the Slovak Sister, I think I have died and gone to heaven. He asked me what I wanted for dinner tonight !!!!! As I sit in my room typing away I can here him mopping out the kitchen again. He mopped it out at 6.00 am this morning (2 hours ago , bliss).He makes my nephew Guy seem positively slovenly. He has a cloths shop in Rome selling women's fashion and is here for 3 months. So far he seems really nice and kind. The dates and times here in Ethiopia are very strange, first of all its 2004 not 2011 and then its is what I would call ten past 8 in the morning but in Ethiopia it is ten past 2 as they work on a clock which is 6 hours behind, quite strange and gets a bit of getting used to. Christmas day is 7th January and New Years day is 21st September. Last weekend when we went up to the Born Free compound, Stephen and myself were having lunch when 4 cheetah's turned up and wondered around about 5 feet from us, magical.

I was at Mass this  morning and as usual my mind was wondering off the subject in hand and was thinking how lucky it is to be a nun as when you wake up the one less decision you have in the day unlike the rest of us mere mortals is what to wear. Simple, one outfit, bliss.
Well my back is improving with the help of my wonderful physio Jemila. She pulls and twists and bends me in ways I never thought possible. I am feeling 100 times better. I can almost stand up without pain. I can work in the morning but have only managed 2 afternoons this week. Otherwise after my morning shift I will lie down and sometimes not get up until the next day. Sounds lazy but the day goes pretty slowly. The lovely Huges have lent me a dozen movies which I can watch on my lap top attached to my speakers its like watching TV. I am currently ready 5 books so my classic reading will be very much improved whence I return. Thursday night Francoise, Andrew, Stephen and 4 friends of theirs and I went out to a Greek restaurant to celebrate Thanksgiving day. Not very good food but a great fun evening. Tonight Stephen my Australian mate and myself are going out to an Italian restaurant with a couple of girls from the British Embassy so no videos or electronic books tonight. Hopefully some pasta which the Ethiopians are very good at cooking, a legacy of Il Dulce and some wine. This morning is cold and overcast as it has been for the last 3 days. A lovely Englishman called Colin who was at the Thanksgiving dinner the other night asked me to join him for lunch on Wednesday to meet his fellow Rotarian's. Well a free lunch seemed like to good an invitation to turn down so I did not. In the cold light of Friday Andrew informed me that I had agreed to address them on a subject of my choosing !! Aaahhh. Damm these wine fueled evenings.To quote the Sisters favorite expression, What to Do ? I am deep in my favorite catholic inspiration Sarah Macmillan very kind parting gift to me, Catholicism for Dummies. I can highly recommend it, I am learning so much and realise just how bad my knowledge of my catechism is, not any longer ! I have just spoken to the head honcho Sister Seraphim this morning and asked if I can be sent out to another project just for a change of scenery. I am sure that if there are no volunteers here there certainly wont be any there but that's OK. I just have to be back by the 20th as my friend Alice Murphy will be joining my on the 22nd so I want to get back with a couple of days to spare so to be sure to be able to meet her at the airport and settle her into her hotel.. It really is such a different atmosphere here this year compared with last year. No mates to go and have a beer with. No one to sit down with in the evening and de brief about your days work. Its all very well seeing people from the outside but its very hard for them to comprehend what you are going through emotionally and physically. A lovely old man we have been looking after died yesterday. He weighed about three and a half stone, no teeth and was allegedly 115 years old, so no great surprises there. We had 3 other deaths this week so I think I spoke a little to soon about the low death rate last week. Anyway they are in a much better place right now and are sitting with God in heaven without pain and suffering. Anyway off to work now.

Well I am sounding like a bit of a moaner. My back is so bad at the moment I cant work. I spent 2 days unable to move lying in bed going crazy with boardem. The only good thing is I managed to read two books. I reaquainted myself with Mr Dorian Gray which is just the most wonderful book and then a very sinister thriller which if the sisters found would excomunuicate me imeadiatly .Last night I hobbled to the Hilton for a Scottish ceiliedh. Robby Burns, haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky which dulled my back into some slow moving. Am spending the whole weekend with my friends the Hughes as I cannot work in any shape or form. Francoise has made an appointment with Addis's leading back man for Tuesday morning at 9.00 am. It cant come quick enough. My Ariel fresh laundry has just been brought up to my room by thier cleaning lady which is wonderful and good for me not to have to do it myself. Met the acting Britsih Ambassador last night who I was given an introduction to from Carla Powel's son Hugh. He is charming, very young about 42 and his very pretty wife wearing a very tiny tarten skirt but very tough and not overly friendly. I am so lucky to have the Hughes looking after me, a large vodka and tonic has just been put infront of me so although I am moaning a bit about my back all the rest is fine. STILL the only volounteer at the compound but I am getting used to it. Have just been e mailed by Belly Loudon-Ackerhiem and I am going to visit her in Keyna in the middle of Jan with a view to going uo to Lamu to possibly work there. Plans all up in the air but that suits me just fine. I will wait and see how phycially fit I am and what I am able to do and base my desisions on that. Andrew in the kitchen cooking up a side of beef marinated in Terikia souce and roasted pumkin potatoes, yum yum. What a spoilt boy. Went up to Born Free park last weekend with Spephen and I got charged by a lion. I was behind a pretty secure fence but I didnt see it coming and it was less than 2 feet from me. My heart rate was around 200 beats per minuite and 4 park rangers were all on the ground laughing. Addis is bathed in the sunshine at the moment with blus skies all day. Unlike last year when we had people dying at the rate of 1 to 4 people a day, we have had no deaths here at all in the nearly 3 weeks I have been here. I pray to God it stays like this. The sisters are much friendlier this year and so a really happy atmosphere. There is a sister who is divine, quite literely. She qualified as a doctor aged 25 and then 5 months later she joined the sisters. She goes around with the biggest smile on her face all day saying she cannot wait to meet god. In my imobile state she came to my room each day to see if I was alright and needed food or anything and was so excited when she found out that I had Phantom of the Opera on my i pod. So we listened to that together and she said she thought she was already in heaven. Oh the simple joys in life. Not another pair of Jimmy Choos, just some music. I love this Slovacian woman, when I see her in the morning my spirit if lifter higher than the highest cloud and I want to be like her, to have her unbridled joy and passion for life and people. A truly inspirational woman, how lucky I am to have met her. Once again I am a lucky lucky boy. If I end up a hundreth of this woman I will die happy. What a joy this trip is becomming.

Back again !!

Well its still raining and what a day I have had today. First patient today had woken up in the night with a hyena biting her face. The hyena had ripped off the whole of her forehead. I have never seen such a mess of a face before then a man came in who had awoken to another hyena biting his toes and foot. That wasn't so bad but not conducive to having a conversation as to where we should go for lunch. Then the conversation turned to the amount of doctors and nurses from around the world who come as volunteers and then when they get into the out patients department promptly faint, so I guess I have done OK so far. I found an American girl today who was working in the children's department. She is about 20 called Nicky and seems very nice. I am going out for a pizza with Stephen from the Born Free foundation tonight and then stay over at his house and set off early tomorrow morning to go and see his 2 new lions. Rats still preventing me from sleeping as they hurtle around under the floorboards all night shagging or fighting, quite unerving.

In Addis Ababa

Sitting in a darkened internt cafe with the smell of petrol burning my nostrils. I am the only volounteer here at Mother Teresa's and so its quite lonly at the moment.