Green oranges on Lion Mountain

When your Dad can crash his airplane into two water buffalo, life is unlikely to go according to plan.

Even so, Emily Joy puts on her rose-tinted glasses, leaves behind her comfortable life as a doctor in Britain, and heads off for two years to a remote hospital in Sierra Leone.

There she finds the oranges are green, the bananas are black, and her patients are very ill.

There's no water, no electricity, no oxygen, no amputation saw--and Dr. Em is no surgeon. And there's no chocolate to treat her nasty case of unrequited love.

Dr. Em's problems are tiny compared to those faced by the people of Sierra Leone on a daily basis.

If they can remain so optimistic, what's Em's excuse?

Our green doctor is a bit of a yellow-belly, often red-faced, trying to fight the blues.

But green oranges give sweet orange juice. Never judge a fruit by its color.