18th September . Third day for surgeries.

I don't know what happened to y'day's blog; it's in the ether somewhere! We had done three cleft palates, amounting to about 4 hours of surgical time, ad an easier day for Tony. When you add in anaesthetic time, recovery , tea breaks, lunch and post-op visits and pre-op planning it remains a full day. A lift in the long Landrover, picking up hospital staff over the first two kilometres, so 13 by unloading. Today we had 14. The summit of Mount Elgon was clear this morning. Y'day it threatened a storm, that passed us by. Today we had a torrential hailstorm that started on the dot of 1530. You cannot be heard speaking in the theatre environment! We did a palate in the morning followed by more challenging cleft lips. So we finished later and got the lift home as the vehicle slithered past huge mud puddles.

Anne Marie planned to go to the market with Jo Finlay this morning, but she is still recovering from concussion after her bike acident in Norway when she dislocated an index finger. We didn't see her all day, but on our return we found she had severe vomiting, probaly from sorting out a patient a day or two before. One senior member of Dreamland hospital was admitted with malaria today. It's too soon for that for Anne-Marie, but she will be more prone to malaria since her doxycycline today will not be taken. We pray her recovery is swift and that Bjorn and the rest of us avoid it!

After three days we have done nine patients. We are hitting the target set in the planning of the project, and more patients keep turning up. How we decide who to do, and who can't be done will be difficult if it comes to that.