Brave Hearts
Every time I attend a surgical mission, there is a person whose journey just steals my heart. There have been over 350 children that have arrived for screening to see who will be accepted for surgery. Out of them 180 were finally scheduled for surgery. This is always the saddest part, those who have to wait another year, it's eats a whole in everyone’s heart to know that not everyone can be helped.
A Teddy
There is a little teddy journey that unfolded on this mystical island of Madagascar during the past week. Jade my daughter of 6 left South Africa bearing gifts of little Cuddly “Bush Babies” that were given to her by Woolworths to hand out to each of the children receiving corrective cleft surgery through Operation Smile, close to 200 of them. I will never forget a few weeks ago when she arrived back from school, I said to her, “Jade, go and see what is in your room”, she dropped her bags an ran off, this was followed by silence for about 5 minutes as she struggled to open the 2 large brown boxes. Then – yes, chaos broke out.
Breakfast – the full house with the Century City Canoe Club
Breakfast – To some this means a meal, crucial to the start of a working day, sustenance for what lies ahead, that aroma of coffee that has the ability to wake even the brain dead after a hard evening. But to another group of hardened paddlers
Make a commitment
The past few days have been a real journey for so many people from different walks of life, countries and cultures. Everyone has come together for a simple reason, to quietly make a difference. These are real people not driven by any ulterior motive that so
The Mission
We checked into our Hotel and it was straight off to the Hospital to meet up with the Operation Smile team who were already half way through the first day of screening. We drove into the grounds of this massive hospital complex, grey stained buildings, sun
Landing in Madagascar
It was a weird feeling flying over the channel looking down at the ocean below and thinking the last time that I travelled to Madagascar I paddled there in a kayak. Madness if I look back at what I did, but now experiencing what I am
I’m returning to Madagascar!
Its now been six months since my epic adventure of Madagascar, six months of recovery. Physically the scars have healed, but there is always the deep turmoil of emotions that one has had to suppress during a journey in order to get through the bad times.
Cap D’Ambre
Every time I crossed the shoulder of a hill I was hoping that finally I would be there, but no, this island was going to drag it out. Rivers and swamps were the order of the day. One becomes so desperate in a way that weirdly
I just need sleep
It was now 2:30 in the morning I had been going for about 14 hours, exhorted, wet and hungry, I had to rest. There was no village in sight. I had stopped many a time to listen for animal sounds or the tell tale chicken crow
Out to sea
It was now dark, the going was near impossible. The rain had started again and I was basically stumbling and sliding around in the dark. Blinded by insects in my headlamp light and eaten alive by mosquitoes, attacking my face and ears all the time. Insect
