tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11549300054064497752024-09-02T00:14:41.713+03:00cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-15938044994003916252010-03-30T11:50:00.002+03:002010-03-30T12:43:50.957+03:00

And as all things, this blag too must come to an end. It's been a wild ride, and you've all been a part of it. Some would compare it to the silently applauding audience at a professional golf game, mere bystanders, standing in the way of the game itself. But to me, it's different. You, faithful readers of this blag, did your part in shaping my time in Uganda. Many left comments, thus managing

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-32617634977573445132010-03-29T15:47:00.000+03:002010-03-29T15:48:01.322+03:00

Okay, I'll be honest here. I was secretly hoping for the doctor to give me a very specific diagnosis. "It was malaria after all," she was supposed to say. "Your immune system just crushed it far too early for our tests to pick up on it." No such luck. The current diagnosis is "unspecified gastroenteritis" as suspected earlier. Chances are it won't get

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-43647924614554444002010-03-28T14:18:00.000+03:002010-03-28T14:19:07.164+03:00

At this point, my body clock is thinking, "Oh, shut up."I originally travelled from Norway via London. That's one time zone to the west, or -1 hour. Not much of an adjustment, sure. After London, I flew to Uganda, three hours ahead of London. Now we're at +2. Seven weeks of that, then it was back to London, for one day of -1. Then good old Norway, back to 0. And now, it's

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-35988067676431283942010-03-27T17:02:00.000+03:002010-03-27T17:03:18.434+03:00

I'm a hypochondriac!Well, no, not exactly. It turned out not to be malaria after all, but the symptoms did fit, so it wasn't exactly far-fetched. Most likely, it was just some gastroenteritis of some form or other. I'll only have the final diagnosis on Monday. I'm back home now, after having spent the night at the hospital, taking various blood tests and workups. It's

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-6589940186599987922010-03-27T06:57:00.002+03:002010-03-27T16:39:09.769+03:00

The abdominal pain has arrived! I've been admitted to the hospital now, where they've just taken some tests. We'll see what they say... The adventure continues.

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-27430664230158074942010-03-26T00:38:00.001+03:002010-03-26T00:38:39.743+03:00

After a trip like this, most people bring back souvenirs. Some bring sculptures, some bring postcards, some bring photo albums. I've probably brought malaria with me.At least, I think it might be malaria. Headache, fevers, joint pains; sounds about right. The symptoms aren't entirely typical; I have no abdominal pain, would have expected that perhaps. If I haven't gotten better by

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-67705379041326845192010-03-24T14:01:00.002+03:002010-03-24T14:04:00.982+03:00

It seems strange to me that we take world travel in stride the way we do. Among the passengers on my flight, an ominous indifference marked the crossing of the Ugandan border, as witnessed on the flight map. Think about it. You're in a country filled with this blend of peoples, all with their various cultures, personality traits and appearances. Music, dance, language, life. The very idea of it

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-63045330848881607182010-03-23T14:14:00.000+03:002010-03-23T14:15:10.777+03:00

The original plan was to relax at home for my last few hours in Kampala. But, as a friend of mine pointed out, today has a whole other atmosphere to it than other days. This day would be so much better put to use by experiencing the full last-day-here feel of the country. So I made myself a treasure hunt. I jotted up a quick list of things to find, and then went out looking for them. A bottle

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-56738794659250850232010-03-22T20:05:00.000+03:002010-03-22T20:06:14.012+03:00

My time's up. Within 24 hours, I'll be sitting on a plane home. The mood may be more somber than the analogous one from Last King of Scotland though.I've thrown all my stuff onto the bed now, thinking that it'll force me to get packing. After all, this way, I can't go to sleep before I've moved all my stuff into their respective suitcases. One piece at a time, that's

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-79462694886443789432010-03-21T14:07:00.001+03:002010-03-21T14:17:01.840+03:00

It was so dark in my room last night that my brain went haywire. No kidding. Pitch black outside, the power gone. No amount of waiting would allow my eyes to adjust. It was all just... black. It started with a dream that I had of someone walking into our room in the middle of the night. I startled awake. But, the dream didn't end - I saw this person, moving towards my bags. I heard this person,

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-53243506787385552372010-03-20T17:48:00.002+03:002010-03-20T17:50:21.993+03:00

My shoulders are going to get their revenge for this tomorrow. It was an adrenalin kick beyond compare. Rafting on the Nile a couple of weeks ago was fun, I'll grant you that. This, though. This was me and my instructor in individual vessels. This was me aided only by my own paddling, and hip movements reminiscent of a Shakira music video. Me staying afloat on rapids hellbent on flipping me

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-13377103873355815822010-03-19T16:02:00.000+03:002010-03-19T16:03:17.827+03:00

What errands to do! Getting materials, dropping by stores, saying goodbyes... I am but one man!   With only five days to go of my time here, there's a lot to get done. Add to that that I'm planning on heading back to Jinja for a day, and it's clear that I'm really running out of time.   Wish me luck.

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-84277739136671504832010-03-18T14:33:00.003+03:002010-03-19T10:10:22.123+03:00

It's better that ten innocents get beaten up within an inch of their lives than that one guilty person walks free. Or at least, that seems to be the general sentiment among the locals here. Mob justice is big here. We've seen a lot of that at the surgical casualty. As I've heard a friend of mine describe it, the police coming to the scene of a crime are more often than not the ones who save the

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-9412627638407449912010-03-17T23:43:00.001+03:002010-03-17T23:43:49.716+03:00

Drumming on stage was on today's agenda, as I wrote in an earlier post. I went with the intention of trying it out, but the event got cancelled at the last minute. The reason: a nearby contemporary dance display, where the dance group apparently had said that their performance would be disturbed if we played loud music.   I went to watch a part of the dance practice though. Very beautiful

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-5337707866288457832010-03-17T23:28:00.002+03:002010-03-18T00:36:30.486+03:00

The drama level seems to be going up here. The Kasubi Tombs, a world heritage site here in Kampala, were set ablaze today. One thing is that this is an absolute tragedy from a cultural perspective, perhaps comparable to someone knocking down the Taj Mahal (another world heritage site). Another is that this can potentially turn quite ugly, if there were political motivations behind this as is

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-78953960098919473972010-03-17T12:57:00.004+03:002010-03-18T00:38:55.430+03:00

I delivered a baby for the first time today! It all went so quickly once it started. By the time I had put on my gloves, the woman was having her contractions and the head was on its way out. A little help along the way, and this baby girl cried her first cry to the world. A strong, healthy cry, before she settled down to sucking her tiny little thumb. I'm well aware that if I hadn't been there

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-28257396665870277672010-03-17T07:57:00.001+03:002010-03-17T08:00:38.307+03:00

You know, I always thought that I had crossed surgery off my "list". I could never picture myself dicing, slicing and suturing for hours on end. But, I'm beginning to realize, the more I get to participate in the operation while assisting, and the more the procedure makes sense to me, the more interested I get. I observed two emergency caesarian sections yesterday back-to-back, and then

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-3368470973409589532010-03-16T14:17:00.002+03:002010-03-16T14:22:36.369+03:00

A bit of everyday drama: there's been a shooting at the university here, with subsequent riots, deaths and lockdowns. So far I've only heard rumors of the event and gotten strict instructions to not walk back to campus at this time. For all intents and purposes, we are safe and unharmed. We're even hoping that the volleyball tournament that we're organizing today will continue as planned. Life

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-83142462230363562302010-03-15T00:11:00.004+03:002010-03-15T08:54:37.781+03:00

Missed me? I've been to Murchison Falls this weekend, getting as close to roughing it as I've gotten here in Uganda. A pit in the ground for a toilet? I call that roughing it. And it's been great. I can't describe the weekend as anything but a photographer's dream really. Witnessing the sheer force of the waterfall as it bellowed out into the valleys below, against a tropical forest backdrop.

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-87009187922178644942010-03-11T23:57:00.001+03:002010-03-12T00:58:03.670+03:00

Some people know too much. I say this in light of just having had my team come in second-last place in a pub trivia quiz. I mean, how do people remember the year in which the ANC was taken off the terrorist watchlist? Or stuff like who won silver in some Olympic sport from many years back? I am a big fan of trivial knowledge, I'll grant you that. It just seems like such a conspiracy that

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-79988810970866014222010-03-10T22:19:00.000+03:002010-03-10T22:20:06.815+03:00

"Tap-TAP-tap," says Jonathan to me, gesticulating in time with his hands. Tap-TAP-tap, responds my drum.   I met Jonathan yesterday at his band's concert, where they combined East African rhythms with other musical styles, ranging from blues to jazz to Carribean in true fusion style. Very fascinating to listen to.   What was particularly fun for me was the fact that Jonathan told

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-78889550682732294522010-03-09T15:42:00.003+03:002010-03-09T15:45:32.762+03:00

Whatever am I going to do when I get back to Norway where it's no longer cheap to order food in? It's so easy to let laziness get the upper hand here. There's no need to go to the shops, to make food, to go to restaurants. A phone in your hand and a rough idea of what you'd like to eat will cover it. They'll stop just short of feeding you grapes while fanning you with palm leaves, but

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-50515547672749022362010-03-09T15:09:00.001+03:002010-03-09T15:09:56.374+03:00

In terms of maintaining a sustainable population, the low birth rate in Norway is good, I guess. But for a group of medical students hoping to participate in as many deliveries as possible, ten deliveries a day at the hospital back at home might be a bit on the low side.   No such problem here. With 33,000 births every year at this hospital - which translates to about 90 deliveries a day - I do

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-28817015622608619872010-03-08T21:21:00.000+03:002010-03-08T21:22:14.975+03:00

Women's Day today. Usually it means flowers, perhaps a day of pampering, maybe an extra compliment or two. But who would have thought that the whole country stopped up almost entirely to observe this day?   Women's Day is a public holiday in Uganda, it seems. Hey, I'm not complaining about the practice. It would just have been nice to know about it before waking up early in the

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1154930005406449775.post-89874389361815338772010-03-07T22:54:00.001+03:002010-03-07T22:54:53.610+03:00

There's a good chance that my body has some parasites now. It's not that I have any symptoms of the disease itself, but rather as a result of probably swallowing quite a bit of Nile water while learning how to kayak today.   Spent an extra day in Jinja today, seeing as how it's a place that offers so many activities that it'd simply be wrong to only stay there for a single day.

cnyhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121159419395465728noreply@blogger.com2