Three cups of coffee

It’s been a busy week running clinics at the CURE hospital as well as organising things on the ground here at the Cheshire. Patients from across the land have now heard about what we’re doing and they all see this as their one and only chance to get the help restarting the walk on normal life they deserve. Each day we’re inundated with calls from various medical personnel dispersed across the country, finding people of every age and every disfiguring condition, willing to travel days in the hope of a cure to their ailment. I’ve been visiting children at the eclectic and saintly Mother Teresa hospital, an institution run by nuns from across the world, harbouring images and deep symbols of Christianity and Christ. The work done there is a great inspiration to all humanity.

The total bed capacity of the Cheshire (forty) has been reached and now I am beginning to appreciate the pain staking role of the ‘bed mangers’ back home in our wonderful NHS. It has become a balance between those who desperately need the close attention here and transferring whom would still benefit from surgery but are in more stable conditions to other institutions/ centres. The problem is that the number of days and hours our surgeons will be operating is limited (14 days) and as the number of cases increases, the likelihood of eventually turning people down is steeply rising.

One night we were invited to a coffee ceremony by a lady called Meraf, an Ethiopian dental student who’s on her elective working with and aiding Hiba. The ceremony began by setting the scene; candles dotted around the room (due to a power cut, not tradition!), a hand-made straw-like rug, fresh coffee beans with a coal stove and raised tray housing multiple small china coffee cups and saucers. We dry-fried the coffee beans turning them from a yellow/grey to the deep totally-cocoa colour we know and love. This was followed by crushing the beans up using a pestle and mortar to transform them into a fine powder. The powder was spooned into a traditional Ethiopian coffee pot, water added and then placed back onto the smouldering coal pieces, allowed to boil and then cool before serving. The coffee tasted fantastic, although bitter and traditionally one should drink three cups, the third being the most important and known as the Barika (blessing) cup. The night was spent laughing and joking, talking about culture and tradition. It’s great to see age-old customs valued and practiced and not swept under the carpet of capitalism. A night never to forget.

Yesterday we visited Menegasha National Park, a forest with multiple vibrant and lively trails full of wildlife leading to waterfalls, hilltops and mountain paths. We were joined by Meraf (the dental student) and Dawit, our personal driver/guidebook/ATM/translator and friend. He’s a truly wonderful guy who’s just had a healthy baby boy born today (congratulations to him) and bears a sneaky resemblance to my uncle Amir from Canada. He’s a local producer and works with Facing Africa as a local manager/ fixer and has now become my table tennis rival at the Cheshire (!). The National Park was about 18km from the Cheshire and the route there was one passing tiny little villages housing farmers, cattle, waving children and women with their daughters carrying bunches of straw and sticks on their backs, walking back home from a hard days work. We arrived at the park to be met by a timid baboon and began our trek through the forest, making our way through winding dirt tracks cloaked by tall ancient colourful trees and a plethora of birds, warthogs, monkeys and insects! We eventually reached the dainty waterfall and enjoyed the fresh cool down.

This new week we plan on having a ‘sports day’ for our patients at the Cheshire, boasting the good-old egg and spoon race, three legged man and relay sprint.

Join us!

Marwan