Thanksgiving...

Today is Thanksgiving. Although I won't be feasting on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie, I can definitely say I have a lot to be thankful for:

• Health - I've only been sick 3 times since coming to SL in 2005 and only required time in bed with ORS and paracetamol.
• Safety on the road - I've been in a couple of near-accidents, but have been kept safe on the roads and avoided major incidents
• Electricity - well, we didn't have NPA for a week, but now have power again. YAY.
• Water - so far so good, we've had a long stretch with water. Now that the rains have stopped we'll have to get water bowsers (trucks) to fill the water tank.
• Friends - grateful for a good group of friends around me, both colleagues at work and others in the international community especially
• Africa Mercy - even though I have only been onboard a few times in the last two months, it is great to have the ship here. Especially in the first 6 months I was onboard a lot, both for work and pleasure. It has been a blessing to be able to send patients to the ship for diagnostics and treatment.
• Family - I really miss them, especially getting to know my nieces and nephew.
• Internet - It's not been working well at the hospital and we still don't have it at the house, but at least there are places I can go to access the internet, which is especially good for facebook and skype.
• Life - we had a morbidity and mortality meeting today. 152 children died in October. That's a lot of death. The average life expectancy here is less than 50 years of age. There are funerals all the time. I am happy to be alive today.
• Chocolate - chocolate bars, chocolate milk, chocolate anything. Chocolate makes me smile. I know my diet is pretty poor here (as in, I skip too many meals, and hardly eat meat), and chocolate probably doesn't help matters much. But the happiness it brings is worth a lot!
• Beaches - rainy season is over, I think. It actually hasn't rained at all this week, not even at night. This means that Saturdays can be spent at the beach again. Thankful. I love the beach. I've also tried to start running again. Coming home around dusk though means I can't run during the week, but weekend, here I come.

There is so much more I am thankful for! A de tel papa God plenti tenki!