Llanarmon-yn-Ial, Eryrys and Graianrhyd community website

Dr Chris’ Monthly Blog - December 2011/January 2012

I hope you all had a lovely time over Christmas and New Year.
I arrived back from Zambia on the 8th December & full pelt back into council/village life. The first thing was the wonderful carol singing in the Raven on 9th December, which was fun, packed out and relatively tuneful!

Then with a mountain of mail unread I was chairing the Partnership scrutiny at short notice, difficult as I had not read the previous minutes very well, fortunately everyone else had. There was a presentation about the proposed anaerobic digester by Rhuallt - a good thing. This was written up in the latest County Voice if you want to know more. The Bilingual forum also a meeting about the translation services for the council, which are expensive, but needed. We need to share with Conwy where the service is more used and they have in house translators (which we don’t). Then more worries about the outpatient services like phlebotomy and clinics at Ruthin Hospital, which has been closed for 3 months- a bad thing. It means patients traipsing to Denbigh or Glan Clwyd hospital if the surgeries are too busy. Furthermore this may mean the permanent closure if we don’t make a fuss. There is a petition to sign with Nia in the village shop please sign and I will deliver to Mohamed Mehmet and to Cllr Morfudd Jones, who is also the chair of Ruthin hospital League of Friends and is extremely concerned.

The Youth Club Christmas party on the 14th was great; well attended, masses of food provided by the mums, games, a raffle and a quiz. Fortunately I had the mobile youth bus crew there to help keep a semblance of control.

So by the time I sat down after writing 100 Xmas cards, I decided I was too tired to do anything more for 2 weeks, so had a great Xmas at home (with Ruth, Iwan and dogs) and New Year in the pub.

My trip to Africa was wonderful. I went to Zimbabwe first and taught the trainee surgeons in exams techniques. I stayed with my great friend Christopher Samkange. Harare had improve manifoldly since I was there 3 years ago; Food is in the shops and cars are on the road (with relatively cheap petrol). The electrics still went off without warning at least once a day for 3 hours, but the water was on 90% of the time. The currency is now stable with $US being used, these are grey and torn from 3 years use without being replaced. Ruth and Iwan were by this time having a great time at Victoria Falls doing white water rafting and bungee jumping. They stayed in magnificent colonial splendour at the 5* Victoria Falls hotel. In the meantime I travelled by car with Christopher and another surgeon, Bothwell, to Lusaka; 7 hours including one hour to cross the border post. We were dry and thirsty by the time we got to Lusaka and I managed 2 pints of lager before I went to my friend Mohamed Labib’s house to stay (this is an alcohol free zone!). The others went to the Mika hotel a cheapish hotel as these local African surgeons are not paid well. The South Africans and the Brits always stay in greater style.

The examination training was the next day and then a weekend off before the busy surgical exams. We got up at 5.30am (I didn’t know that time existed) and worked from 7.30am until 4pm. Wonderful clinical material. The final day was the graduation ceremony at which I, with 4 others, were awarded Honorary Fellowships to COSECSA (College Surgeons in East, Central and Sothern Africa); Ruth and Iwan were also there. The ceremony was full of colour, lots of pomp, African dancing and a wonderfully tuneless police band. Christopher gave a 10 minute citation he mentioned not just Ruth but also Nan (Liz Edwards) as the star of the show who brought Ruth up whilst I was rushing around North Wales and Merseyside. A moving experience and a day to remember.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda/ Happy New Year!
Love Christine

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