The operating theatre at an eye camp in rural central India, 1989.
It’s in the church, which has mud walls and no ceiling – if you look up, what you see is the beams, rafters, battens and tiles of the roof. And spiders, mice and dust. To make a reasonably sterile operating theatre, they strung up a sort of tent of thin, scrupulously clean cloth to keep the dust off.
It’s cleaner than you’d think. But flies are still an issue.
(This particular camp was one of two paid for with money we raised in Stornoway, Scotland. Particular thanks are due to Tom Sinclair (RIP), the local Church of Scotland minister at the time, and his wife Pam, who both worked tirelessly to help raise the money. Several friends in the Free Church of Scotland also helped.)
©Clive K Semmens 1989