Back in cold Belgium... tired but satisfied! I have just downloaded my photos and I re-live each day anew. I can still vividly imagine every situation and the many happy faces on every picture that I view. Well, maybe those many missions with Medics Without Vacation mean a lot of leave days, but even the most remote and most expensive health or holiday resort cannot compare with the feeling that remains in you after a successful mission for MWV! I am already looking forward to going again next year...

Some people ask me to tell on this blog something about the work on-site. Maybe one very last detail on the field work which is being done over there. Last Saturday, we went with Brother Emile to the little house that the brothers bought about a 4-hour drive away from Buja. It is intended that he furnishes it as a kind of consultation place for those who are unable to get to the big hospital. There will also be some beds for people who need urgent care. It is not intended that it becomes a hospital; the seriously ill must be taken to Buja. At the moment, the question is still how... You should know that in all of Burundi, there is only one psychiatric hospital (yes yes, we work there :-)), and that it is a serious task to get there. Imagine that you need to take a trip of about 4 hours with your psychotic brother or with your manic sister in order to obtain the right medicines. Here in Belgium, this is difficult to imagine, but in Burundi it is a daily reality! Medication for the mentally ill is not available at any pharmacy in Burundi, but at the pharmacy of the Neuro-Psychiatric Centre of Kamenge (CNPK). Every order of any organisation or ... must thus be done through them. Here it is hard to imagine, but over there, it works fine. Everything can be done better, but work is underway! Every distribution site which is added is of course welcome with open arms!

Brother Emile will thus furnish and start up his local dispensary in the second half of this year. I heard him talk enthusiastically about his biggest plans and helped him to plant the first trees in order to perk the place up. Fun huh: also this is MWV work on-site (during our spare time of course...)! With this, I wish him much success and I hope that he reaches the right people and gets the right means to succeed in his mission. Maybe we will hear more about this project next year.

At least I hope so!

Many greetings and thanks to all for the great support! It did me good!

Veronique

NB: I have resolved to take a Swahili course this year. Does anybody have tips where and how I can take it? My neighbour here in Ronse is from Rwanda and wants to teach me, but it seems more sensible to me to take organised lessons. All tips are welcome!