Romance Dies (well and truly)

In October I had food poisoning after food poisoning and found out I had some abnormal cells in my cervix following a routine examination. The ‘best’ doctors here wanted to cut out a section of my cervix as well as other things. No one here is qualified to do it, they said. I would have to go to Lebanon or England, they said. Words like ‘hysterectomy’ were mentioned and I had truly had enough. One doctor emphatically advised immediate impregnation(?) as at 33 (then) it was really my last chance. After that, she said, they could cut it out.

Instead I went home and had a very simple routine biopsy in 20 minutes and waited for the results for a few weeks then came back. I was more home sick than ever after this whole affair and visiting my old school in Brum made it so much worse. I realised how much I missed the life and challenging nature of the students there.

There’s so much we take for granted and (if you’re anything like me) criticise; like the national health system and education but seeing how things are in other places makes you realise how good we really do have it in the UK.

I thought I was seasoned traveller and could get used to a lot. Maybe I’m just tired and fed up of not being able to eat anything. ‘RICE WITHOUT GHEE?!’ is the usually incredulous response I get in Arabic from people when I ask them for food without dairy. Through an interpreter the chef in the school canteen told me that it was not possible to cook rice without butter. That there was only one kind of rice you could cook without ghee but that had to be imported from Italy.

As always, it’s the people, though that have saved the situation We have met a few really great people who have made a huge difference to our experience here.