Of books and covers

They say you should never judge a book by its cover.  Easier said than done.  Remember I was concerned about my lack of a doctor (GP) and wasn't sure if Dr M would be too brusque, incomprehensible and (worst of all,) male?

You wanna know something?  I really like him.  He loves a good chat and if you get him going, he will chat for ages.  Today I got him going.  Five minutes talking about blood pressure and 20 minutes talking about languages, countries, people and racial tensions.  The more he talked, the easier I found his speech was to understand.  I always knew he was a good doctor, but I didn't know how learned he has had to become, how travelled or how good he is at understanding how people work.

He speaks 6 languages.  He has a wife with whom he has raised 6 children.  He has managed gaps in his own school education due to war.  He has managed educating his own children in different towns to his home and work, and he has continued their education while moving between countries.  He has lived in a few different countries that have seen civil war and apartheid.  He has worked in railways and in medicine.  He has seen how speaking someone's language can diffuse racial tensions.  He has been shown great kindness by people with different skin colour, and he has been judged by people with the same skin colour.  Presumably, he's seen it all the other way around too. 

Initially I was concerned because the conversation didn't flow freely in the early days.  But sometimes all it takes is to get someone talking, and when they open the pages of their life, you see the picture so much clearer than if you've just got the cover to go on.

Oh, and one other thing - sometimes his clinic runs a little behind time.