Travel now not tomorrow

  “Good morning, Sister, how are you?” I didn’t have time for such greetings. I was a midwife at a mission hospital in the Zambian bush, running a ward with 24 beds and often had more than 30 patients plus their families. I had bush clinics to visit, and I was taking eight Zambian nurses through their midwifery theory. I had no time to exchange idle greetings. Or so I thought. It was when the pace began to wear me down, my chest felt permanently tight and I wasn’t sleeping well, that I started to slow down. And that was when I began to exchange greetings. “Good morning, Sister, how are you?” “Good morning, I am well, and how are you?” “Ahh, I am very well.” Smiles go with such greetings, and everyone goes on with their day. For me, happier than before. Greetings may appear superficial and a waste of time, but they provide a connection to those around us and make us feel part of something bigger. Where I grew up in Glasgow, we didn’t have specific greetings, but yo...