At the age of 17, she left Nicaragua under false pretences. The authorities thought she was going on holiday to Mexico. She was actually defying the dictatorial regime of Somoza and flew to the Soviet Union, the enemy of her government, in search of a better life. There she found love and became a doctor. Her husband brought her to Mauritius and she brought with her that compassion unique to those who have survived a harsh and oppressed childhood.

She is Dr Ana Del Carmen Somarriba de Naraidoo, the last name being that of her husband. The rest is what she is, what her long lost country and culture have given her. Ana talks of her past with nostalgia. Yet, looking at her, one would never guess at the struggle, the hardships that have made this woman what she is. When she left Nicaragua, her father, a well-known politician of the socialist party, had to make undercover arrangements for his daughter to be enrolled at a university in Ukraine. He was later to pay for this violation of the dictatorial laws of the regime of Somoza; her first letter to her parents was intercepted and he was imprisoned for his disobedience.

Ana’s first year at university could not have been harder. She had to learn Russian and a foreign culture before she could begin her medical studies. Added to this was the knowledge that her future was uncertain. She had practically no contact with her parents and she knew that going back after her studies would mean going to prison first to pay for her sins- the quest for a better life.

But fate had other things in store for her. She met the man who would become her husband in Russia and got engaged pretty much straight away. When she managed to communicate this to her father, he got out a map of the world to see where his daughter would be going to live. He was none the wiser; Mauritius was nowhere to be seen on the world map!

Mauritius in 1977 when she came to live here was a completely different story. She remembers the time where "this miniature island was like a big family and everybody was so keen on being helpful". Things have changed, says the woman who considers herself fully Mauritian. She must know what she is talking about; her job with the ministry of Social security takes her everywhere. Ana remembers the times when she had to go to the villages and offer door-to-door advice on family planning or give antenatal treatments to the women in the villages. Sometimes those people couldn’t speak Creole- a language that the good doctor has mastered on top of her native Spanish and acquired Russian. Not a problem, Ana thought, "I’ll learn Bhojpuri!"

Twenty seven years later, Ana Naraidoo as she is now known speaks of her life here with love mingled with nostalgia. Mauritius is no longer the place it was when she first arrived, the people have changed, the values have gone but she can’t help it; she still bears a great love for this country that welcomed her so many years back when her own country was closed to her. She first went back home 20 years after she left it. There, the desolation she saw broke her heart; the dictatorial regime had been overthrown and the economy had gone backwards.

Will she go back there to live? "I have learned never to make long term plans, you never know what fate has in store for you…" says Ana. The immediate plans, she knows and she starts every day with the same anticipation; she goes around seeing her old patients and tries to give them what they so desperately seek - some time, some caring and a little bit of love… in spite of everything. Or maybe because of everything…