Yesterday I attended a conference on Leprosy and was profoundly impressed. The speakers were very moving and the cross-section in the audience is something rarely experienced in the UK. At the end we lit candles to show that we had been enlightened by those with leprosy in Africa. I realised my own experience of leprosy was biblical!! It can now be cured with antibiotics and even the effects of hard skin lesions on faces can be eradicated.

Today I attended a mourning of a close relative of one of the project. To hear the sound of women totally distressed by the loss and able to express it moved me to tears. I wonder if we are moving further and further away from humanity in the west? We have so much to learn from Africa.