Bye Flower

For now anyway.

Full day today, with a lie in then Church then lunch out with L and Beth, then a 14mile long run - oooh that was hard, finishing by meeting up with L and Beth and DM.

Beth is off to Milawi tomorrow for 10 weeks with 3 girlfriends for her medical elective. (medical students in the UK traditionally have about 10 weeks around their just before or during their final year - the elect to do - well anything medical - many take the opportunity to experience medicine in another culture)

30 years ago(read that quickly) I was setting off on my medical elective to a mission hospital in central India. After four years of book based medicine and some mainly observational training I found myself consulting, anaesthetising, occasionally wielding a knife (surgically that is), managing care and myself. Looking back now I can see that the kind of doctor that I've become emerged during those weeks in that far away and foreign culture.
Unlike maybe the current generation of doctors I had a profoundly sheltered life in terms of knowledge of folks of different cultures, adjusting and beginning to find richness and value in all that is perhaps looking back on the trip was my most valued gift of my elective.(“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain)

Travel well and safely Beth, have lots of fun, you'll be a blessing and you'll be blessed. Who knows where the journey will take you outside or within but I'm hoping for goodness. It may be 30 years before you know how it really was for you, for now we trust.

DM says bye too.