On Monastic Life...

In case any of you were wondering where we're living and perhaps haven't followed from the beginning, I should point out that Dave and I are staying in a Catholic Monastry. These are Comboni Missionaries and have been based here in Sudan for many many years. And I'd also add that they are awesome individuals. They're a mixture of ages and nationalities, some Sudanese, others from Europe and Mexico. There's an adjacent Nunnery as well where the Sisters all live, and they frequently have joint socials! (In addition to the two church services a day, that is...)

Fr Valentino in the middle there.

Anyhow, I write this now because we had the pleasure of a birthday party yesterday. Father Valentino was 86. He's an amazing man, and has been in the Southern Sudan since the 1950's and remembers the days of the British rule. The Sudanese civil war has been the longest in Africa (4 decades) and he's been here throughout. Needless to say, they have some great stories, and the insights that we've been able to glean from them into the Sudanese culture and mindset have been invaluable.

Birthday party in full swing

Not only that, but they've been incredibly welcoming to David and I. I'm not sure what I would have expected such people to be like - but I'm sure the reality far exceeds it. The Brothers are friendly, warm, down-to-earth, generous and very funny; our shared meals are a real pleasure and they've really helped to make us feel at home here. They insist that we join them for beer on sundays! There's a really wholesome community spirit in the place which we've both really appreciated, as it's certainly helped eased the cultural transition and frustrations and difficulties associated with it.


Professionally speaking, I've been off the wards with some of the other surgical SHOs and consultants attending a course in War Surgery that the ICRC have put on in Juba. Really fascinating stuff. You learn a lot in ATLS about how to initially treat things like gun-shots etc. but I've no real clue about the longer term managment, but now I have an idea. There were a couple of surgeons running it who were working in Darfur: one was an Italian liver-transplant surgeon turned Anaesthetist, the other a Swiss surgeon who started war surgery before I was born! Very intersting indeed.

That'll do.

James