Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays!!!!

We missed out on writing the Nov blog because we were either on the road going to Congo or in Congo working.  We spent the month without internet, (and other modern amenities), and except for a brief stint into Bukavu for an afternoon to catch up with family we were in the deep village.

This time we started off by interviewing for a new translator.  We found out Mr. Aganzi was going to be leaving us to go off to the big city, Bukavu, so for the first few days we were busy trying to find a new translator. We found Mr. Tonto who was a perfect translator.

Mr. Tonto always with French to English book in hand.

It was work full on! We had patients in the morning and then later in the afternoon but the middle of the day when the adults were off tending the farms, we would go and visit the schools to give anti-malarial, worm and scabies medicines to the kids.

Mr. Ank giving the teacher anti-malaria medicine

Mr. Tonto and Mr. Aganzi giving worm and anti-malaria medicine to the kids

Michelle giving scabies meds to the kids

In March 2014 when I first went to open the homeopathic clinic in Congo we were invited to come to one primary school to give these three medicines and of course we agreed.  Scabies is rampant in the village as nutrition is so poor, most families eat fufu, (cornmeal mixed with water until its hardened), the staple of their diet. Within 6 days the scabies started drying up on the heads of the kids.

our first set of neighborhood kids to get scabies meds in March 2014

only a little alopicia where the scabies used to be

On getting back to Congo the first thing I did was visit the school, I wanted to know if the scabies had come back and how many children had missed school because of malaria.  What a surprise to find that the only children with scabies in the school were 5 new cases, kids that had started school only after we had given the medicine.   The headmistress was also very please when she told us that of the 930 children in the school only 57 were  unable to take the final exams, due to lack of school fees and not to intelligence, this being the year of lowest number of absences she’s seen since working at the school. What a triumph for both Zuri Medicine and the kids!!

The Superintendent of Schools at the local school board has now asked us to work in all the schools ridding the children of scabies, worms and giving anti-malaria medicine. We were able to cover 5 schools while we were in DRC this time but word is spreading and we are getting request from other schools in other districts to come and do the same effort for their children.  What an AMAZING project we’ve got going on, we will be happy to!

Check out these cute faces!!

It was rainy season when we visited Congo and so we saw many malaria cases.  At least 50-60 percent of daily patients were suffering from malaria.  We asked everyone to come back after 3 days on the Malaria X medicine to report how they were feeling.  Most were feeling well enough to go back to the fields after the first 24 hours and by day 3 everyone was back up on their feet and about their normal routine. This is good for a community where farming is the livelihood and during rainy season everyone needs to be out tending the farms. We will have to restock on our Malaria X medicine when we go back to Congo in the future.

As we do treat many people we can’t help but run across cases that touch our hearts.

Here is a young girl suffering from epilepsy, she’s only 13 years old and is no longer enrolled in school because of the number of epileptic attacks she suffers daily. Her family is also poor and cannot afford the school fees.  She came to see us as soon as we started working in the clinics, and we were able to find a good remedy, Cuprum, for her.  Her dad very happily reported that she’s only had one seizure this whole month.  He is worried that if she runs out of medicine she may start getting seizures again.  It was a hard sell to convince him she would be fine till I come back in Feb/March.  Just like any parent he’s worried about his kid. Can we help to send her back to school? School fees are $200USD for the year.

13 year old with daily epileptic attacks

Look at how cute this little girl is!! She has a skin rash that covers most of her body, but it didn’t stop her from being inquisitive and exploring my office.  Finally mom was able to get her from under the table and up on her lap so I could take a photo.

In the new year, Zuri Medicine will be moving to a new place on blogspot to make it easier to find. zurimedicine@blogspot.com look out for us and follow us there.

Help Zuri Medicine to help kids like these.  Our work depends on YOUR generosity. 100 percent of your donations go to helping schools children, and poor families in the villages who can’t afford health care. Remember your donations are all tax deductible.

You can send your tax deductible checks to:

Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc.

3811 Ave H

Brooklyn N. Y. 11210

Or you can send a donation through PAYPAL: bmwfoundation@yahoo.com

Don’t forget to add Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be directed accordingly.

 Zuri Medicine Christmas Wish List.

Send a teen to school – 200USD.

Help us to get back to Congo in Feb/March – Airfare 200USD round trip

Continued travel by road 120USD round trip

Visa fees- Congo - $150USD for 2 month visa

$100USD for 3 country visa to travel through Rwanda and Uganda where we pick up the Congo visa.

Also, we would like to work in the refugee camps, if you have contacts in the UN or in the refugee camps in Congo, please get us in touch.

Thank you and have a Happy Holiday!

 Michelle 

October Happenings!

Zuri Medicine and barefoot homeopathy

I cant believe its almost the end of Oct and I haven’t put out a newsletter yet!! The days just seem to fly by!  

At home in the West, its cold and kids are preparing for Halloween and  here in Uganda, we have rainy season.

feet full of mud!

I was asked to do 2 homeopathy training in the villages.  The roads are nearly impassable by vehicle.  Normally I take a motorbike – called a boda – but because of the condition of the rd most days its impossible, you get stuck in the mud or the boda throws you down.  I’ve fallen off  in the mud before and it was no fun.One village, we are close to the main rd, where I’m staying with a host family it’s about a miles walk from the main rd to the house. When the rains come, which they do every day, it’s a muddy mess. The road is red clay  and it sticks to your shoes and feet, by the time I get home I’m dragging about a pound of mud on my shoes.   As such, most of the people we were expecting for the training have not been able to come consistently or at all because of weather conditions. We are suppose to go even further into the villages for the 2^nd training but I think we are going to have to reschedule this for dry season as its located about  10 miles in from any roads and  navigable only by boda. Although working in the villages is Zuri Medicines mission, we also have to be able to get there.

We see patients in the clinic as we train to give real world experience to the "barefoot homeopath" here is baby we saw in clinic that presented with an umbilical hernia, and one week after giving him Calceria Carbonica 1M one dose with 200c daily for  week.  The hernia seems to have shrunk a bit but my recommendation was to take the child to the hospital to have this operated on immediately.  The family is poor and cant do so without help.  If you would like to help this child to get an operation check out our link below and send a donation.

The students were so pleased with the classes that some even came after hours to discuss homeopathy. There is never a rest time when teaching and running clinics if the students/patients  know where you're staying :)

Here are some of our graduates from the 2 week training. Issac and Moonlight. 

On the other hand we made some contacts with Evelyn, a spunky little woman who runs Outreach to Africa and has 2 clinics of her own along with a school. She was able to arrange for Zuri Medicine and an optometrist to work in the villages along the Congo border.  New glasses and homeopathy what a win for the people in the area!!!

                                                                                                                                                                Agnes, Zuri Medicine "barefoot homeopathy" in Uganda and translator for me at the hospital.

There are our patients waiting to see us in the background.

Dr Clyde doing eye exams for people in the villages who need glasses.

Now off to treat the Ugandan army, what a great opportunity for Zuri Medicine!   We have promised to come back in January to do followups and see the officers we missed.  Agnes will be there to take care of them till I can get back to help her. 

After a long day working with the Ugandan Army, and working in a hospital we show up at a village with 120 people waiting for homeopathy.  It's 6 pm and soon I wont be able to see my keyboard, but that doesn't stop the demands for medicine. 

After a long day we are happy to go home, take a hot shower and crawl into bed. 

Uganda was certainly eventful and I cant wait to go back in January. 

Now we’re getting ready to go to Congo in the upcoming week! I’m excited to get back to the Congo clinic and to follow-up on the patients we saw, especially the classrooms of kids. 

Here is our paypal: zurimedicine@gmail.com

and for a tax deductible donation, make checks payable to: Bertha Mae Williams Foundation

                                                                                                    3811 Ave H

                                                                                                    Brooklyn N.Y. 11210

Don't forget to put Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be allocated properly. 

Till next time!!

Michelle

September Happenings!

September Happenings!
Another summer has come and gone, kids are settling into the routine of school and there is the acute awareness that it’s time to get down to serious work. Here at Zuri Medicine there is no exception, we are also feeling its crunch time.
I have made it safely back to Tanzania, with a teen in tow. My 15 year old son decided to enroll here for the school year and I was ever so grateful for young muscles to lift all the heavy bags packed full of remedies while at the airport. Thinking his part in the operations was over with heavy lifting, on arrival I put him to work helping me organize and catalog all our remedies. Parents with teens know this ensued with a lot of grumbling, but we got the job done. Now we have a catalog of all remedies and potencies and know whether it’s in liquid or pellets in our pharmacy. This has made life so much easier knowing exactly where to look and what kind of remedy we are looking for.

We are not only organizing our pharmacy but also busy organizing the Zuri Medicine’s upcoming training in rural Uganda. Training starts on Sept 29th, less than 1 week, and runs through Oct 24th! We have 2 groups organized, totaling 90 people, and more are asking to join everyday! The first group of 40 people will be a continuation of the classes Zuri Medicine taught previously, adding a few new remedies relevant to HIV, malaria, and childhood diseases. The second group will be composed of all new people and will be trained in the acute care course prepared by HHA. Homeopathy is spreading like wildfire throughout Africa, and people are very interested in not only seeking treatment but learning how to treat as well. If this keeps up soon we are going to need volunteers coming to teach these short 2 week acute care courses. Some students joining us are asking for sponsorship to travel to classes as well as sponsorship for accommodations and Zuri Medicine is always looking for funding to help. The total cost for both training is $1,500. Please consider a donation to us. We have included a link to our wish list page, our PAYPAL as well as the address to send a check. Remember, we depend on you to help us keep this work going.

http://www.myregistry.com/organization/Michelle-Pickering-Moshi-Kilimanjaro/731183

You can send your tax deductible checks to:
Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc.
3811 Ave H
Brooklyn N. Y. 11210
Or you can send a donation through PAYPAL: bmwfoundation@yahoo.com
Don’t forget to add Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be directed accordingly.

Zuri Medicine runs a clinic at the end of training every day. Supervising at least a dozen people taking acute cases all at once can be challenging to say the least. This is where my Complete Dynamics repertory comes in handy. Thank you to Roger for the donation of the Master Edition to Zuri Medicine and as Zuri grows we will continue to use the CD program. As students from the rural villages struggle financially they are happy to run CD from an internet shop on a Sunday, when the program is free, to practice prescribing and learning more about the remedies in their kits, donated from the pharmacy of Dr. Mital.

As I prepare myself mentally for 3 border crossings on a 3 day bus ride to rural Uganda, I am packing and making sure I haven’t forgotten anything important, like remedies and a good book to read! Zuri Medicine will keep you all abreast of what’s happening in Uganda when we can as internet can be spotty in rural areas. We are all looking forward to the training as the more homeopaths we have especially in rural areas, the more people can be helped.
Our wish list: http://www.myregistry.com/organization/Michelle-Pickering-Moshi-Kilimanjaro/731183
Please consider making a donation to our PAYPAL: zurimedicine@gmail.com, to help continue projects like this one while implementing new one.
Thank you,
Michelle

Habari Gani! We are in TANZANIA!

WE ARE IN AFRICA!!!!
Habari gani! Ian and I made it safely to Africa!
In case you had not heard the news, Ian joined me in Africa for the 2014-15 school year.
We are using this as a year to explore different cultures and as such Ian has been enrolled in the local school system, (more on this later).

On our way to Tanzania we spent a few days in Istanbul Turkey, or rather we ate our way thru Istanbul Turkey. This was my second time in Istanbul and I really loved it the first time and thought it was a great place for Ian and I to share in the culture together. Seeing the city thru the eyes of a teen was totally different than the way I saw it the first time. He first noticed all the cats around the city and that people went out of their way to feed them. Goggling this when we got back at the hotel we found out that Prophet Muhammad was kind to cats and so the Islamic people of Turkey are also kind to cats. Who knew!

Where I thought the cultural aspects of Turkey would hold the same attraction to him that it did for me he had a different spin on things. At the Grand Bazaar when I was interested in the rugs and how long it took to weave one rug and the clothing made from felting, he was more interested in the Sultan style knifes, swords and Marilyn Monroe lighter, (of all things).

On leaving Grand Bazaar, Ian and I spent hours wandering the streets looking for the Spice Market, we were completely turned around.

As we are both big tea drinker we ended up spending wayyy too much money on different teas, as we kept smelling and wondering what the tea was gonna taste like. Ian’s favorite so far is the Jasmine tea that blooms into a flower and mine is the Turkish black tea with a dash of pomegranate tea thrown in. At Topeka Palace, I was happily showing him all the beautiful tile work while he was busy imaging what it would be like if he were Sultan and ruler of both the Asian and European sides of Turkey.
On our stop at the famous Blue Mosque, I was chatting him up about the significance of the

mosque while he was commenting on the washing areas and the smell of everybody’s feet. The one thing we did see eye to eye on was TURKISH DELIGHT!!

We enjoyed the taste of these sweet treats so much that we would stop in all the shops that we past that were giving samples of Turkish delight, and there were many! On the first night in Istanbul while our bodies were trying to adjust to the time difference we got up, went wandering the streets to buy Turkish delight to eat in the middle of the night. We were in Turkish delight heaven. We ended up bringing some to Tanzania to share with friends. As we walked along the streets we would stop to sample the foods from street vendors, drinking freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and eating bread that looked like pretzels but Ian said tasted like a bagel. We ate at outdoor café’s the whole time, I loved the lamb and Ian the falafel, and were even lucky enough to witness a wedding taking place with bottle rockets shooting off to celebrate the bride and groom cutting the cake. Totally AWESOME!!!

Time to say goodbye to Turkey and hello to Tanzania.
The first week here we were trying to settle into the house, unpack, adjust to the 7 hour time difference and our two little puppies Lala and Redz, get over jetlag, and start looking into schools.

A pretty big week for us. We did settle on the Kilimanjaro Secondary School. The school uses a Western curriculum approved by Cambridge University in England, and has a school year from August –June, a plus, instead of from Jan-Nov as we had been expecting. Ian unfortunately started school on test week, but it gave the teachers a chance to evaluate him and adjust the classes he needs to take. He has made a few friends so far, and even dropped our plans of Chinese on Friday night, to go hang out with friends.

As if school, making friends and puppies were not exciting enough, Ian has learned how to ride a motorcycle! But don’t worry, he wears a helmet.. I know, to the adult that’s very little consolation. He is actually very good at it and is very proud of himself and can’t wait to give me a ride on the back..which will not be happing any time soon.

Throughout all of this Ian’s biggest amazement about Tanzania are the ladies selling shoes, displaying one shoe on their heads, as they walk through town hands free.

This weekend we went to the village, and Ian got to see the inner workings of a subsistence farm. I think it’s changing his mind about farming which he has long held near and dear to his heart. We were helping the family to take the beans off the field, except the beans are wrapped around the corn stalks so you have to uproot the old stalks, unwrap the beans, throw them in a pile to be bagged and carried back home, where they are put in the sun to dry. The dried pods are beaten with a stick to unshell the beans which are sifted to separate them from the dried crumpled leaves. Ian’s thought was that we would have to buy beans at the market because this process was too much work.

Ian did, however, participate in the chasing of the chicken for dinner.
In our honor the family wanted to kill a chicken to cook for dinner. The catch; after choosing the unlucky chicken it had to be chased down and caught before killing. There were 3 boys running all over the yard and the nearby woods chasing the chicken who knew he was running for his life. Ian joined in the chase. It was something to see all the boys working up a sweat chasing their meal. In the end the chicken was very tasty and we said a prayer in gratitude of it given its life to nourish our bodies.

At the end of the day, tired from our time on the farm, Ian gets a chance to ride the motorcycle for a few miles on the way home. It was wonderful seeing him driving on the left, with the beautiful snow capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro on his right, him navigating the streets, the people and the cows and goats. We had a great day out, and to think, this is only our second week here.

Zuri Medicine's Summer Happenings!

Summer happenings!!

This summer was not only hot outside but things were heating up for Zuri Medicine as well. Coming home after nine months working in Africa, I was looking forward to down time. Lazing around, spending time with family, hanging out and catching up with friends, but instead I felt like I hit the ground running as soon as I got here. There were things to do that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do once I got back.

Great news!! We have collaborated with an organization and we can now offer you a tax deduction on your donations! The Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc. has stepped up to the plate for us so we can accept donations while filing for our own 501(C ) 3 status thus giving donors a TAX WRITEOFF. Now your generous donations to help the projects that are in place continue and start-up of new ones are TAX DEDUCTABLE! A win/win for us.
You can send your tax deductible checks to:
Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc.
3811 Ave H
Brooklyn N. Y. 11210
Or you can send a donation through PAYPAL: bmwfoundation@yahoo.com
Don’t forget to add Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be directed accordingly.

Our next order of business was to find a mentor at the Small Business Association to help with the business plan. Moving all thoughts from my head to paper was NOT an easy task, but it had to be done. (Why do things sound good in your head till they get to paper?) Dennis proved the right person for the job. He was able to draw these ideas out and make sure they were on paper in a cohesive way. He was awesome and his daughters experience working in rural Rwanda in the medical field gave him invaluable information and insight on how we needed to structure our plan. So Zuri Medicine now has a business plan, on paper!

We have hired a grant writer!! After many months of looking we found Staci Smith. Stacie has been to Tanzania as a volunteer so I felt she knew firsthand the work of healing we were doing. This was the clincher in her proposal that made me know she was right for our mission; “ I have conducted several projects in East Africa and just returned from a remote project in Tanzania near Lake Tanganyika in the Kigoma region, so I understand well the challenges with medicine and clean water.” Staci has jumped in with both feet and has been researching our most likely sources of funding. In order for us to move forward in our vision of helping communities to heal with homeopathy we have to be funded!
One of Zuri’s vision in the near future is to expand, adding two full time employees one to oversee our full operation and the other to be the boots on the ground popping in to oversee the clinics, for this we need funding.

Treating kids for ringwrom/scabies of the head in D.R. Congo

We have been invited back to rural Uganda to teach in September. (Starting to notice our theme of “rural”?) People there are anxious to continue their homeopathic education. The first half of our course was good but it left people hungering for more, so we will go in-depth on topics that matters most in Africa; malaria, HIV care, and childhood diseases. We teach for only two (2) weeks at a time so we pack a punch into our courses and leave them wanting more. KAPOW! Here is an excerpt of an email from one of the students who did the first two weeks of the course in February taught in conjunction with Homeopathy for Heath in Africa. “I therefore would like to go for further homeopathic study to expand more knowledges. I like homeopathy very much. I also thank MICHELLE for teaching well, she is talented friendly teacher.”

And finally Congo awaits, our most needy and heartrending clinic. There we start work at 7 am and finish when the last rays of the sun dips behind the horizon. We have an endless stream of people all day long. We have recently opened up communications with the local hospital to train staff, adding homeopathy to their repertoire of services provided to their patients. The goal is to bring an understanding of homeopathy to the staff while setting up a referral service so people suffering from acute ailments can be sent to our homeopathic clinic, already in place. This will help the already overcrowded hospital, (1 doctor to 22,868 patients), to better serve the needs of its community.

Although there was a lot of talk of going to South Sudan to train community leaders in homeopathy, sadly because of the state of unrest, we have had to put those plans on hold. Zuri Medicine hopes to be able to reopen negotiations at a later date when things settle down. It’s unfortunate as many people are suffering without access to ANY health care.

We have been offered a pharmacy by the late Dr. Mital’s wife, Shamaji. She learned of Zuri Medicines work in Africa through Yashasvi Jhangiani . As remedies are hard to come by for our lay homeopaths in rural Africa, having a kit to hand to them at the end of training with the remedies they have studied, is an invaluable tool. It’s the difference between going out and helping members of their communities, (on acute care of course), and being stuck with knowledge they can’t put to good use. We are asking for sponsorship to buy bullet cases to use as pouches to hold the remedies. Well done Yashasvi Jhangiani for helping us put Dr. Mital’s pharmacy to good use.

And finally a big thank you to Sheree LaNora who got tired of hearing about all Zuri Medicines adventures but only seeing it in photos, she has donated a VIDEO CAMERA to us. YEA SHEREE!!! As soon as I learn how to use it there will be videos of the work being done.

Our summer has been fun, but also a lot of work taking place behind the scenes. Zuri Medicine can’t thank all those who are helping to move us along enough. As I start to pack my bags for another long stay in Africa I am overwhelmed by the work ahead of me but pleased with the work done over the summer to ensure we build a solid foundation on which to move forward. We are grateful to all our friends and supporters as your kind words and donations help us to achieve unimaginable goals in rural communities that are medically underserved.
Please consider making a donation to our PAYPAL to help us continue projects already started while implementing new one.
Thank you,
Michelle

Shoes, learning and school fees.

So what do shoes have to do with school you ask..... Answer, everything. We were told by the clinic coordinator there was a grandma and a mama we needed to do a home visit for, the mama was suffering from an ulcer and complaints of not being able to sleep at nights. We showed up at the house to find both women sitting outside, bibi (grandma) in her 90’s, shelling peas to sell to feed the family. (check out bibi's shelled peas right below the tin cup in the basket.)

The small one bedroom house was being shared by bibi, the mama, an adult child with a baby of her own, 1 child in school and 2 small children that were left in the mama’s care after their parents died of AIDS. We start the consult and she tells me she’s suffering from anxiety because of thoughts. “What’s worrying you mama?” “My daughter can’t go to school because she has no shoes, and I don’t have money to pay the school fees.” “No shoes?” The school fees I could understand because education wasn’t free, but no shoes? This shouldn’t stop a child from learning. I knew there were certain dress codes the schools held the children to. I’d see them after school in their identifying uniforms headed home playing together in the streets, but I never thought that not being able to meet the dress code by not having a pair of shoes could actually stop them going to school. What difference does it make what you wear as long as the child has an interest in learning? (Kids headed home in their uniforms)

This was one of those times I was silenced by the complexity yet simplicity of my African experience. In the end I wound up buying the shoes, they were second hand and cost me about 5 bucks, and giving the mama the money for the school fees worked out to be about $18. It was hard to know that for such a small expense a child was being deprived of an education. Now that I’m back home, I get up in the morning and start my day with the thought of what to wear, go to my closet overflowing with shoes and choose the one that best matches my outfit. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder about the little girl who had no shoes while my closet overflows with the many I haven’t worn in years, something I take for granted. I often think of her mama too, shelling peas, the only source of income for the family. It’s pushed me to try to do something to help while home. I’m challenging you to help me make this difference by donating your unwanted shoes no matter the condition or the era. Let’s get them outta the closets and to a 3rd world country where mama’s like this one can use them to start micro businesses to feed their families and send their kids to schools. It also gets some feet covered in things other than old tires and smashed down plastic bottles. My ship date is August 1st 2013. Please contact me if you’d like to donate your shoes. Camrhyian1@yahoo.com

Brussels here I come!

I hate Brussels!!… at least that was my 1st impression. After being up for days preparing my house for sale, making sure the kids were all set for after school care and pick up’s for the next 7 months while I was away working in Tanzania and worrying about how everyone would get along without me I booked a 3 day layover in Brussels with the plan to explore the city, but when I got there I was so tired I swear I was cross eyed. I got into Brussels at 5:30am, grabbed a cab to my hostel in the vicinity of Grand Place, (I’ve never seen the movie so I’m not afraid to stay at hostels), with the mindset of exploring as soon as I got there. I had already researched The Atomium, Grand Place, Manneken Pis, various other sites and friends had made recommendations that sounded good, so I had a harty list of places to go. My 1st walk down to Grand Place left me with the impression it was ostentatious and I couldn’t wait to get back to my hostel, but that was the tired talking. After a well needed shower and nap I headed back on the exploration path to sit at Grand Place and just take it all in. That’s when it hit me; Brussels was awesome! And I loving every min of it!!!

For the next 3 day I would wake up and walk to Grand Place and just sit. I would order a pastry and tea, sit and just people watch while look at the ornately dressed buildings shrouded in gold. Most enjoyable for me was walking around the streets and capturing pictures of the many graffiti or is it wall art(?), along the streets. I walked from one end of the city to the other, hopped on and off busses and would hang out in the parks enjoying the weather, I even ended up having tea and good conversation at a cozy little tea shop with a Moroccan I met. Of course I had to eat a Belgium Waffle… I couldn’t come all this way and not have Belgium Waffle! My waffle had whipped cream, strawberry and chocolate, now I’m not a fan of chocolate.. I know, I know, who doesn’t like chocolate?… but I suddenly knew what all the rage was about. Leaving Belgium without buying chocolate to share with my family back home was not an option and it took me to the next experience of figuring out how to use the post office. You actually have to take a number and sit and wait your turn to be called!

No trip to Belgium is complete without seeing the famous Manneken Pis and I spent time coming back to it over and over.

I didn’t see half the things I planned, and in the end I didn’t want to, I was happy to have the down time to transition between what had been a very stressful past few months of packing and preparing and what I knew was going to be a fast paced intense 7 months of homeopathy, and caring for people who are HIV positive. I left Brussels rejuvenated, refreshed and with my sanity intact…. Exactly what I needed for the road ahead. >