Visa problems, national catastrophe and local events had reduced out international team to two. I wondered what this would do to the last two weeks of my mission. It turns it would make them awesome. I had vaguely been aware that out team lead was a slightly legendary figure, casual stories of negotiating with the Taliban and facing off angry militaries for several months to advocate women’s rights. But then as you get to know a person well you start to appreciate the underlying characteristics that make for these stories. So I had been at our remote clinic a week, just feeling good again after another bout of gastro on…

It would have been nice to go 24 hours without my first patient dying. But that is not how this game goes. It was less avoidable than many deaths here, but nonetheless, still avoidable. I debrief with the team, lessons are learnt. I locate a smaller face mask for next time and we talk about how we can communicate with each other and families navigating the 3 languages we are working in (English, Arabic and Tigarian). And we carry on; the hospital flows remarkably well considering it has been constructed, staffed and stocked in only the past 3 months. I see a 7 month old with malnutrition and gastroenteritis, a…

A week in quarantine, after officially a full year of living the Covid life this lifestyle has become too familiar. So it wasn’t so bad to spend a week binge watching series, exercising in a confined spaces and virtually interacting with lots of people. I feel somewhat like a playing piece at the moment. On the grand board that is emergency relief I have been slotted into another project; “for a few weeks” which I can see becoming a few more and a few more until my 6 months is up. So, without much consultation or any information, I had my Covid swab, receive a phone call about a car…

Before long journeys I always have the nagging sensation that something must go wrong. Despite knowing everything has been organised and being generally laid back it seems impossible that all the many interlocking segments will click together and I will arrive at my destination. But I sit here at Heathrow airport it seems the impossible will happen and I will be departing on the first leg of a journey that will take me into the mountains of southern Sudan. It’s already been a long old journey already. I am not sure exactly when it started. I remember sitting in a filled lecture hall on evening in medical school; listening to…