Damien Brown is an Australian doctor based in Melbourne. He began writing seriously after his last humanitarian posting, encouraged by readers of a blog he kept while working for Médecins Sans Frontières in Africa. This is Damien’s first book. BAND-AID FOR A BROKEN LEG BAND-AID FOR A BROKEN LEG BEING A DOCTOR WITH NO BORDERS (AND OTHER WAYS TO STAY SINGLE) DAMIEN BROWN First published in Australia in 2012 Copyright © Damien Brown 2012 Text design by Lisa White All photographs by Damien Brown Maps by Brittany Britten All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Email: [email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available from the National Library of Australia www.trove.nla.gov.au ISBN 978 1 74331 021 2 Typeset in 11.5/16.5pt Minion by Midland Typesetters, Australia Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper in this book is FSC® certified. FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Dedicated to all those whose stories fill these pages. ‘Here, it is like this . . .’—Dominga, our Angolan cook CONTENTS Author’s note Maps Africa Mavinga compounds Mavinga township Nasir 1 The Edge of the World 2 The First Dance 3 O Novo Doctor 4 Confusão 5 Testimonials 6 Mavinga is Different 7 Bargaining for Body Parts 8 Fighting Cubans 9 What Appendix? 10 Sleeping Easy 11 Memorable Lines 12 Watching Storms 13 Guidelines for Abduction 14 Net Fishing on the Zambezi 15 Shooting Down the Runway 16 Evacuation 17 Week from Hell 18 Airborne Reminders 19 An Angry Clan 20 The Assassin 21 Catfish and Cow Dung 22 How You Gettin’ Home? Selected Reading Acknowledgements AUTHOR’S NOTE All incidents described in this book are true. The names of patients have been changed to protect their confidentiality, but many of the names of staff have been left unaltered. Like Toyota, for example. I couldn’t have come up with a name like that—not for a person. This book was written in the months after the events took place, and as such all dialogue has been recreated to the best of my memory. Any errors or misquotations that could be attributed to characters in this book are purely mine, and mine alone. I bear full responsibility for any and all inaccuracies. While editorial constraints have meant that some minor scenes have been compressed, or combined, this was never done to alter the integrity of the account as a whole. At the time of writing, I had no association with Médecins Sans Frontières, and it had no editorial input. My respect for the organisation remains high, but I hope this book will be seen neither as a specific endorsement of any one organisation, nor as a rebuke, but rather as what it was intended to be—a story about people, and of the difficult conditions they happen to live in. AFRICA (SELECTED COUNTRIES SHOWN) THIS MAP WAS CORRECT AT THE TIME THE AUTHOR WAS IN THE REGION. IN JULY 2011, FOLLOWING A REFERENDUM, SOUTH SUDAN WAS GRANTED INDEPENDENCE, DIVIDING SUDAN INTO TWO SEPARATE NATIONS.