"Bleeding is good"

About 3 weeks ago a small bite on my neck started to go septic and eventually turned into a boil which, despite a course of antibiotics, ulcerated. Not a pretty sight, although it was not causing me pain. This is how I came to be lying on a couch at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, my face covered with surgical cloths, listening to the doctor explain what he was doing. I started out at Casualty and worked my way up the seniority ladder to the duty surgeon, as each one wanted someone else to look at it.
By now both the application of local anaesthetic and the treatment of cleaning out pus were most definitely causing me pain, but apparently “bleeding is good”, I was told, because it indicates live instead of necrotic tissue. This is more difficult to believe when the blood is coming from your neck!
The wound is now clean, I am on new antibiotics and I believe well on my way to recovery. I am also sporting a huge, completely outsize plaster on my neck which has attracted a lot of stares and a few direct questions while I have been in Kigali. “Bandits?” was one theory posed for my wound. Asking personal questions of complete strangers on the street is much more acceptable here than it is in Europe.
I have nothing but praise for the medical care at King Faisal Hospital and by western standards it is fairly cheap. The administrative procedures leave something to be desired : they took a lot longer than the medical ones, but in general it seems well run.

Before I came here people said I would need to get to understand Bishop Geoffrey. He had a major operation on his neck last year, perhaps this is a small way of me identifying with him!??