Football and Cataracts

I am not always a football fan. It happens every two years, for the World Cup or Euro Cup, just  like for so many others. But nevertheless, it was fun to go to a Siena football match on Sunday, when they took on Orvieto, and the final score was 1-1. My Texan friend Hettie and I stayed for the first part, and were able to join in the noisy celebrations when Siena scored in the first half an hour. Other friends, Bene, Cecilia, Alexander and Andrew below  were more dedicated and stayed the course. 

Siena had a couple of years in the first division, Serie A, but now they are relegated to the D league I believe... I am hoping a recent acquaintance is going to change that: the Siena football club has been bought by a Swedish former football player called Jonas Bodin whom I met a couple of weeks ago, together with the lady who will be in charge of the Siena ladies' team; Jenny Damgaard.

This was all thanks to my cousin Pelle who read an article about her connection to Siena in the Swedish morning broadsheet Sydsvenskan,  and decided to alert me. I wrote her an email which Pelle sent on to the newspaper and they forwarded to her. By that evening both she and Jonas came here for aperitivos and a chat. 

There are not many Swedes at all here in Siena, so I suppose they might have been a little curious... I am wishing them well in their challenge!

Other important matters would have to include the 12th cataract operation event in Djenne, that also involves the above mentioned cousin Pelle, who with his wife Nanni continues to sponsor a hundred and fifty free cataract operations every year in Djenne. It is number 13 in fact, because one of these events were held in Kayes Medine where my Keita's family came from.  For the first few years Keita was there with us, since he worked at the Djenne hospital, and also since he had himself been active in eye operations, not cataracts, but operations for Trichiasis, also called trachoma. Now the operations a given in his honour and there is always a minutes silence for him at the inauguration ceremony. Below centre is Dra, the Mayor of Djenne, and Keita's best friend. The first person to the left is Dembele, representing our MaliMali association, the figurehead through which the admin of the event takes place. The second is Keita's second son Lassi. I had arranged for the team to pick him up in Segou where he lives, in order for him to be present and feel proud. To the right is Dr. Faira Keita, the head surgeon- a lovely man, totally dedicated to his job. 

There are always hundreds of people arriving from the far distant bush, having walked for days, hoping to be seen and  retrieve their sight. 

The team operated 40 patients yesterday, and here they are this morning, waiting  for a check up before they are allowed to leave.

                                                         And today the team continues!

It has always felt like a huge privilege to be involved in this, and the kindness of this continuing sponsorship by Pelle and Nanni is simply impossible to over estimate.