Well here we are in December. I was Face booking my cousin Mark Birtwistle and he said he was off to a Christmas party today !! It all seems so very far away from me. Had the worst injury I have seen yet yesterday. A man fell down and broke his back about 4 months ago. Because he was and is now paralysed from the chest downwards he didn't feel any pain so why go to a doctor ? He had part of his spine coming out of a hole the size of a golf ball. It looked like the bone from a lamb cutlet sticking about one and a half inches from his back. Then because of not moving in bed he had developed a bed sore on his left buttock. It had eaten the whole of his buttock away. Tou could see and touch his upper leg bone and all the tissue and sinues where there on display, not only that but it was all green being necrotic and heavenly infected. The doctors got furious with his wife who had not addressed this appalling problem and just stood there looking blankly. I forgot to say when I went up to the Born Free compound with Stephen a couple of weeks ago, we were having our lunch and there were 4 wild cheetahs wondering around about 5 feet from us with no fencing between us, it was magical. My day consists of the alarm clock going off at 6.00 am, a lie in for bankers but am still getting used to it !. Then Mass at 6.30 am until 7.15 am. Then I go back to my room and do exercises for my back for 40 mins. Then I walk up the road to the Amba cafe for my Macciachio to kick start my day. Then off to OPD (out patients department) to start setting up my trolley for the day. Then me and Abyiot who I work with doing dressings set off for ward 4 where the wounds patients are. Then finish at 12.30 and depending on my back I will either go back to the Amba cafe for a bowel of soup or go for a lie down. Back to the OPD at 2.00 pm and either depending on the number of patients who need looking after either more dressings or I go the children's ward and play with them until 4.15 pm and then its feeding time for 25 children who mostly have to be fed individually. I finish between 5.00 and 5.30 pm. Then off to my room for a lie down and more often than not that is the end of the day for me. I climb into bed at 6.30 pm and get stuck into a book and then light off around 8.30 9.00 and sleep very soundly. Back to my new volunteer with OCD obsessive cleaning disorder, Marco. e does clean constantly but he has an extremely irritating habit of whistling like a cockatoo on speed. He gets up at 5.30 am and starts this wretched whistling with no tune or joy to it. I spoke too soon. Two days ago another Spanish volunteer arrived. He is about 25 and speaks perfect English and each night I go to bed with the sound of his guitar playing softly from the next door room, just wonderful. He is mainly playing with the children and is wonderful with them, a real joy to have around. A couple of you have asked about the sexual orientation of Marco the obsessive cleaner. Well in true Italian style with the use of his clenched fist and a cupped fist smacking into each other when he was describing about a particular encounter with a lady friend, I am guessing Marco and Silvio might have crossed paths in the past. It is still quite cold here. You can certainly see you breath in the morning on the way to Mass but is tee shirts by 11.00 am.