We spent some days in Liquica, installing the first dental set into a clinic. There was no forklift to remove the air-compressor for the back of the truck, bit no matter, we all joined in to help manouver the machine down a steel ladder and lever it around to the back of the building.

Biomeds whose daily city work is done in hospital basements with lift-access: now imagine carrying an electrical-safety-analyser with one hand while riding on the back of a scooter to get to the main hospital building. There is a reality that no-matter how good your workshop is, if your work is remote, you will need to learn how to transport tools, equipment and personnel to each site. It is a totally different game.

Would you go to work every day for 3% of your current pay, or would you move elsewhere? Or work as a contractor for private-industry? How do we, as a global community of biomedical engineers, respond to the brain-drain? How do healthcare workers, administrators, recruiters and trainers respond?

When you need to design and build a workshop: think about a kitchen, get rid of the oven and stove, and you’re most of the way there.

There was, of course, no biomeds, no technical support and no workshop. I borrowed space in their lab, which looked like an old kitchen, and sat beside the girls who were testing slides for malaria and TB. Eventually people asked me to fix anything that could be fixed, including a washing machine, photocopier, a kerosene-powered vaccine fridge and a diesel generator.