And now… here she was. Giving me my big lift for the year. And suddenly ...

Dr Teddy Totimeh (L) with Dr. Sandvik a visiting surgeon after an operation.

My birthday just passed. I am learning to treasure each year. Learning to count my blessings, and to be grateful for health, for strength, and the opportunity to make something of the abilities I have been blessed with. I work in an environment where those opportunities and blessings are wrestled from people’s hands regularly... And sometimes they come to me with the question: why…

The health tourism budget for West Africa alone is in the billions of dollars. And most of this money flies away from the countries.

On community

Two weeks ago, I sat in a club house in Kolkata, with a special group of people. They were neurosurgeons from 4 continents, hosted by a generous colleague in a special place.

What more whittling away of our human psyche will we accept?

On Questions

I was passing by those ambulances on a daily basis. Lined up in neat rows on the parking lots of power. The controversy swirled around them. The need beckoned. The death data swelled. And still they sat, waiting for the word to be given. The dust accumulated. The rust must have started already, the salt breeze wafting off the coast just miles away.

And if that is where it ends, then maybe the glitz was for nothing. Maybe the light that is shining again at the door of no return ...

Two African American guests visiting the Cape Coast Castle as part of the ‘year of return’ celebrations stare into the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean where many were carted off into slavery in America and the new world.

The Christmas decorations still hang around. It was nice while it lasted. Now it’s time to move on. Baubles and blinking have become flickering indicators of a society which takes its time, with everything.