2nd January 2012

Well I am pleased to say that the woman that had the twins here by caesarean section told me that she did not know that she was having twins before I scanned her and at that time, she was not planning to come to hospital for her delivery. Indeed, she hadn’t planned anything, which means that she would very likely have stayed at home (approximately 90% of women have their babies at home in Ethiopia). So when asked why she came to hospital, she laughed and said, ‘because I told her to’. This is of course very true, I did tell her to go to hospital as very few women seem to manage to deliver both babies alive when at home. Moreover, one of the babies was in a transverse position and was unlikely to come out on its own accord. So, she is a lucky woman and hopefully she will tell others in the village that it is better to have a check-up at some point during the pregnancy, and hopefully, when they do, someone will spot when there is a problem and will hopefully refer them to hospital if they need to be there. Yes, a lot of ‘hopefullys’ but I think it is certainly possible to bring about this change, even if on a small scale in a couple of regions.

Last night we took the boys to the Green Bar for a meal as the bonfire is lit on a Sunday. On the walk up to the bar we stopped off to buy Lalisa a belt as he has developed a crooked posture from walking along with his hand hitching up one side of his trousers.  The poor little chap almost completely lost his trousers, revealing his naked bottom, when I tried to thread the bright pink belt (his choice of colour). His waist is about half the diameter of the trousers.

The Green Bar (named this by faranjis as it has a green gate) also doubles up as a butcher’s kiosk and they use all the bones for the bonfire. It kind of smells a bit odd – a bit like an operating theatre where they use diathermy to stop the bleeding – but along with the booming and somewhat wailing music, it creates a nice atmosphere.