Smile

 

 

What is it that makes you laugh, is it Charlie Chaplain, Monty Python or someone else’s silly walk.  Anyway it’s best to   ''always look on the bright side of life'' so here we go

We had a good laugh this week when we decided to buy a star light for the veranda. It was in the local supermarket and we had all agreed it would be fun and a tasteful addition to our Christmas decorations. Arriving home we unwrapped it and excitedly plugged, and burst out laughing, it was multi-coloured and flashing quite a disco experience and not quite the white subtle look we had hoped for but probably much more to Chadian taste.

 

Crickets (insects plural and not the singular game) have also featured strongly in making us smile this week. They are a popular and apparently very tasty fried snack. At the management meeting being British we prefer to offer locally made roast peanuts bought in old coke bottles.  I offered some around saying the problem with these is once you start you can’t stop –yes says Pastor Djibrine just like crickets mmm I said not quite what I meant.

Different people different tastes. In a similar vein, Ruth Gwan, the daughter of Dr Isaac our Cameroonian colleague, told Rebecca that she was wondering how on earth any one could live on honey like John the Baptist as it was so sweet. We too have problems with his diet but it’s the locusts that stand out rather than the quite palatable wild honey!

Anyway what’s really making us smile this week is the opening of the new maternity unit. It is looking great with all the equipment in place and the new curtains and furniture. We moved in a week ago and tomorrow is the opening ceremony we will have all the local dignitaries and will officially cut the ribbon. But nothing ever goes completely smoothly round here. Yesterday we checked a shirt at the team meeting and discovered that the 80 newly arrived T-shirts were misprinted. They had the same message front and back.

                       CEF Hôpital de Guinebor II,

                    Pour une  Maternity Sans Risque

The health education message for the back encouraging antenatal visits was missing.

Disappointed we decided that Ndilmbaye would have to take them back and ask that a further message be quickly added. The printer was surprised and pointed out that only one was misprinted, so he had put it on the top of the pile. Naturally it was the one that Ndilmbaye had pulled. The 79 underneath were as planned and perfect!!  Whoops! Good news and so they were distributed as planned to the staff today ready for tomorrow. And so, the donuts are ready, meat is in the fridge, there are piles of drinks and boxes of prawn crackers ready to be cooked. We will need to start early as official time for opening is 9 am.

We had better go and write our speeches.

 

Spot the spelling mistake and don't forget to smile.