December 2006
 News
(All photographs below are © Nancy Crooks)



 

Dear Friends

There was a mischievous glint in the eyes of the Bishop’s wife, Jane, as she took over the wheel of the pilot cutter in Aden harbour. The rest of us watched with eager curiosity, wondering whether she would accelerate and ‘slalom’ through the buoys and wrecks of the harbour, but she didn’t. If she had contemplated mischief she suppressed it, executed a fine sweep of the harbour and surrendered the wheel.
 
This was just one of many memorable and very happy moments in our recent tenth anniversary celebrations of the opening of the medical clinic.

Present with us throughout them were Drs John and Muriel Berkeley who, with meticulous attention to detail and foresight had drawn up the original proposals for the work of the clinic. Not only did they provide while here a valuable professional perspective on the work - they sat, listened, enthused, gently challenged and constantly encouraged the current medical staff. It was wonderful to watch. We valued their warm, Godly wisdom and professionalism and continue to receive their helpful observations and suggestions on the work here. They came to celebrate, but with an eye still to the future of the work, which was most impressive in a couple with over a century and a half in years between them!
Our main service of celebration on a Thursday evening in November was a joyful, leisurely time – our musicians played, the Ethiopian choir sang, Bishop Clive preached and he and Peter only narrowly escaped being drafted in as priest and Levite in the children’s spirited presentation of the Good Samaritan. There were also some very moving testimonies from past staff.

Tom and Edna Hamblin wrote of their sense of desolation on seeing the early months of reconstruction swept away in the civil war of 1994. ‘We stood’, he wrote, ‘unashamedly weeping. On telephoning the Bishop in Cyprus and informing him of the sad situation and that we had lost so much … he was sympathetic and said, ‘You haven’t lost your vision have you, Tom?’ I assured him I had not, but was apprehensive as to how we should proceed!’

Gashu, long standing staff member and elder of the Ethiopian congregation spoke eloquently of what Christ Church’s ministry had meant to him and his community. Representatives of other Christian groups in Sanaa and Taiz came to share in the celebrations, while many more sent greetings.

The British Ambassador, Michael Gifford and his wife, Trish, came, and a friend, Jean, from our home town of Dolgellau in north Wales came especially for the celebrations and brought greetings in Welsh. While she was here, Jean quietly and effectively took over the running of the guest rooms. We learned that at home she is known as ‘Practical Preston’, and we were grateful. We had entitled the celebrations, ‘Give thanks with a grateful heart’ – and we did.

Afterwards we ate a sheep and a goat, purchased with the help of a local friend the previous afternoon from the Somali livestock market, way out of town on the way to Taiz (not a place for the fainthearted or vegetarians).

They fed over a hundred guests, and the next afternoon we returned to the market for another goat, this time for the staff party. A local Syrian restaurant actually prepared them and served them beautifully, along with a wonderful spread of oriental dishes and salads. In the background we could hear the trickle of water over rocks in the very newly formed pool in the garden.

 



The 'Yemeni' Bishop and staff from the Eye Clinic
A few days after the formal celebrations ended, friends from two of the Gulf congregations flew in for four fleeting days. It was a great visit. They came laden with gifts of cheese, chocolate, and much else, and, they were indefatigable.

They took a keen interest in the work here, several tackled Aden’s highest peak, Shamsan, and all travelled through the desert to watch our eye team at work in a hospital on the Red Sea. They also enjoyed our favourite fish restaurant and seemed unperturbed by the scavenging cats who leapt onto the table. We cannot promise all the same attractions but we hope others from across the diocese will venture this way too.

As mentioned, the eye team from here have been away at Mocha, a dusty, desolate, windswept port on the Red Sea. They performed 123 eye operations at the town’s excellent little hospital. John Sandford Smith from Leicester (see below), and a regular visitor here, operated.

His visit has overlapped with that of Adel Wahbe, an Egyptian eye surgeon introduced to us a year ago by the Anglican Bishop in Egypt, Bishop Mouneer. Both doctors are operating here this morning but this afternoon Adel goes to Mocha to perform another 50 operations, at the request of the director.



Patients in Mocha


Cataract patients in Mocha
 
It takes us 3 to 4 hours to drive there and it is an easy journey on a fine new desert road. Tragically, just over an hour’s drive from Mocha is Yemen’s second city of Taiz. Government health statistics suggest there are 37 trained ophthalmologists there. We wonder what they do? Mocha’s hospital director tells us their fees for operations are far beyond his people’s reach. Last week we charged $25 for each cataract operated and waived the fees for some. We were still $200 in credit after paying for the drugs, lenses, travel and wages for the local staff and our own. The needs are enormous and the bulk of Yemen’s population pitifully poor.

Sadly, in the last months we have had two of our eye team resign and a third, Qaid, the leader, has announced his intention to leave soon to rejoin his family in North America. All three, but particularly Qaid and Rana, our previous theatre nurse, have made a terrific contribution here and have proved resourceful, conscientious and very dedicated. All have said they are leaving for family reasons, but in this culture people don’t always tell you things to your face, and other colleagues say it was to get better salaries elsewhere. We do not blame them and have actually spent much time in the past weeks seeking ways to raise all the salaries.

It means there are some big gaps to fill. Some we shall recruit for locally. Jeanette, our New Zealand theatre nurse, will also leave soon along with William, her husband, and it would be wonderful if we could recruit another expatriate Christian to follow her.

But not every one has left and we are delighted to have with us Dr Samira Banweir, a gynaecologist and midwife who has worked for the WHO and UNHCR here. Small of stature but big in heart and ability, she is a great asset and patients are coming in significant numbers to see her.


Another very popular addition to the team has been Sally, a delightful, affectionate, fun loving terrier, who was dropped on our doorstep late one night. ‘Is it dog?’, asked a curious child yesterday, for she is a most unusual dog in Yemen. Mansour, our administrator/manager wants her when we go on leave, while his uncle has asked to buy her for his granddaughter – but she is not for sale!

Our life, though it sometimes seems it, is not entirely lived within the walls of Christ Church. In early October we broke out and stayed with great friends, Tom and Annie in Beit Mary, in the hills above Beirut. It was, in the light of recent weeks and as so often in the past, a happy, but bitter sweet experience.

Yemen has passed through another general election. The president paid all government employees an extra month’s wages before the elections, and in the following week he was returned to power. Some 40 or 50 people died earlier in a stampede at an election rally in Ibb, but no one took much notice.


Sally and Peter
Two weeks ago, to our joy, the 10 member crew of an Indian salvage tug were paid the 10 month’s wages they were due, and flew home to India. Peter, who had been involved in the saga, was actually summonsed to the airport at 4.30 am by the ship’s agent to witness the payment of the salaries and bid them farewell. The Chief Engineer has since rung from his home in India to say how happy he is to be home with his family.








Chief Engineer of the tugboat Hari Singh with Peter
Last Friday (the day in which we gather to worship) we lit the first of our four Advent candles and put out the liturgical purple. It is a solemn season and the hymns are magnificent. While I have sung them with vigour in the past, I have always added silently to the refrain, ‘come, Lord, come’ – ‘but not just yet’. That reticence is passing – ‘Even so come, Lord Jesus’!

Thank you so very much for your encouragement, interest, support and prayers.

We wish you a wonderful Christmas
With much love in Christ

Peter & Nancy - and Sally



Dereje -  creator of the water feature

Rev’d. Peter Crooks
 Christ Church


P.O. Box 1319, Tawahi, Aden
Republic of Yemen
Phone/Fax: +967 2 201204
Email: chrchu@y.net.ye