Back in Nairobi..

Yes, yes, i know that i've been a bit slow and lazy on my blog, lakini it's with reason.You know internet is not as freely available here as many like myself would like. So it's not often that i get online.
Anyway, now that i've done away with a chunk of guilt, i've to say how lovely the weather here is. Everybody's saying that it's got too hot, but i disagree. I would have been saying the same thing had i not spent a couple of months of fall and winter in America. At least i dont need three layers of warm clothes... (lol). I'd even almost forgotten that the sun doesn't have to set by 4pm.
Nairobi is not doin too bad, other than the half constructed building that collapsed somewhere in "3rd world" parts of town, where less financially abled people frequent. Blame is going all round. Most of it to the City Council of Nairobi, that approved and failed to oversee the construction. Such a pity that we end up learning from our mistakes.
Speaking of mistakes, the weekend papers had been awash with stories linking very senior ministers in Kibaki's government to graft. Payment of billions of shillings to a company that did not exist!! The media have baptised it the Anglo-Leasing scandal. Only in Kenya, will a whole Minister of Justice, say that a crime was not committed since the stolen money was promptly wired back when the story first broke last year! Yep, Hon. Kiraitu is famously quoted for calling it "The scandal that never happened."!But now those ghost are coming back to haunt them, as the former anti-corruption 'czar'releases dossier documenting how his investigations were hampered and obstructed by the very people we put into power. Sadly, he has to do it from exile in Britain, after alleged threats to his life were made. Now, who would want this man dead? I certainly have a few names in mind.
Let me let off on the politics issue. I get heated sometimes! Med school is off to slow start. Just finished a rotation in Anaesthesia and i've just started another one in Dermatology, for another 2 weeks.

Keep it posted. I'll definitely be updating the blog more often from now on. A lot more stories, corruption, med school, weather updates... the usual.

The WebDoc ,blogged out, somewhere in the hot sun.

thank you people...

This blog is dedicated to all the people, i met, wrote to, talked to, laughed with, groaned about.. etc, durin my sojourn in Stato. It's been quite an experience, now that i'm on my way home. (sob..)

And i packed this post with pics, being my last from this side of the world.

First up, my bro David.. who sorted out my ticket. I probably wouldn't have come here otherwise. Thanks a tonne.

Thanks Brigid and Carole, my sis's, dropped me at the airport and helped to perk up my financial 'short-comings'.

The Germans we lived with at International house, you guyz are awesome. Martin, Sandra and Christian, aside from the PhD's etc(myself not even having a degree to talk of yet!), u really helped me out in those first cold, blurry days.

Thanks Martin, for wakin me at 5 in the morn and not gettin mad when, against my better judgement, it took me another hour to get out of bed and into the hospital. Oh' those early mornings.. biting cold, driving wind, drowsy mind..
Remember the annoying little green notices, on the wall and on top of the toilet. "make sure you flush all the way!" - coz we don't flash in our home countries? haha...



<--- A section of the KU Med. Center.







Thanks Dr. Jones, for the patience you had with me when i new not what to do, or where to go. And Dr. Hermreck, Selim and Delcore, for the opportunity to assist in your theatres. "..Retract!!" haha..

Thanks to Natt. For paging me one hundred and forty five times, when i was late or lost, and explaining things when the abbreviations sounded like an alien dialect of English.

Thanks Thad. A very good friend indeed. Always ready to help out a confused international student. The Guessture's game at Jeremy's, that was somethin' else!! haha.. Didn't think i'd meet an American who knew so much about Kenya. Hope you'll visit one day. It's a beautiful place this.

Thanks Clemo', small world, isn't it? The barbeque was deadly, the book as well, no doubt. I might finally decide what to do after med school... I'm waiting to read the headline, "Computers Save Humanity - The HIV breakthrough" hmm.. That angle of science unasoma, iz noma. Holla, when you check into Nai.

Last but certainly not least, thanks to my sis Di and her hubby John. They kept me in the basement away from the neighbours.. haha.. no, just kiddin. They fed and kept me warm for the whole time i was in stato. I couldn't thank you enough. Did i mention the free internet?

And thanks to anyone else i might not have mentioned here, but who made my experience a worthwhile one.

..and i'm expectin' yo'all to write a comment, just unload a thought or 2 that you might have. That's what a blog's all about. The comments link is just after the pics i put below.

Peace,
The WebDoc,
somewhere over the Atlantic.

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... here are a few more my Kansas experiences. Enjoy


International Hse.
The posh diggz where we were accomodated.

..what it looks like inside.

And this is me, trying to look intelligent :-), in the Dyke's Library.
Pretty sleek joint!!

me again, on the www. Ever browsed @ speeds of 3mbps+ ? I have!

This is part of the hospital. Didn't take too many pics, long story..

ahh.. the game! Off the wire kabisa. TV does no justice, i'm telling you..

The mascot, like the team, is a 'JayHawk'

The Crowd.. and no, they were not in worship.

.. and of course the ballers. The KU JayHawks are in white.
they did win the game btw!

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I guess that's it from me. More blogs will be coming but from Nairobi this time. Yeah, i'll be waiting 4 your comments..

The Biggest Loser..

There's a new danger in the states. No, not Bin Laden and his suicidal fanatics, it's morbid obesity. U've probably heard about it in Kenya, lakini this you have to see to believe! Guyz are big!

There's this show on NBC, which has been quite a hit over here in the States, "The Biggest Loser" "hmm?.." you wonder, "whatever do u mean?" Well, it's really simple. A bunch of 14 larger than life Americans (literally) are tracked in a kind of 'Big Brother without the drama' arrangement. (well there's a tear here and sneer there, the usual.)

They live together at this joint where they are put thru' the paces, weight training, jogging, endurance missions, u know, the full 'i'm training for the Olympics' energy.

Each week one of them is fire.. oops, kicked off the show, shown the door etc. They work in 2 different teams and the team that has lost the least % in weight gets to vote out one of their own (soundz familiar). At the end of the show, the person that has lost the greatest percentage in weight is declared the winner and walks away with 250,000 US!

How about this. It's the only one of it's kind in the world, a boarding high school for obese and overweight teenagers. you have to be above a certain weight,i'm not sure what, to have any chance to get in. The school has recorded great success with its students, so much so that, it's opening a new school in New York. It will cost you however. About 5,000 dollars a month!! If u kenyans can quickly convert that 2 vernacular,(ok i'll do it for you..) 380,000 KShs/month! Oh.. but they'll be giving some scholarships soon as well.. to cater for everyone.

Once while i was at KUMC someone told me, "..sometimez they can't even fit in the CT scan machine.."

"hmm...", i wonder, "what happens then? they do without a scan?"

"oh no.", he replies, "we have to take them to the zoo, to use the animal one that's bigger!"

Yeah, i was also laughin my head off. But it wasn't funny. He was dead serious. Such is the agony some people have to go thru'. Fast food, many times is cheaper than kawaida food, and since it tastes so good, and it's alwayz available just around the corner..

For many people the only solution has come in the form of stomach stapling. Slowly developing into a subspeciality field known as bariatric surgery. They even have an association, etc http://www.asbs.org/.
They say 2/3's of American adults are overweight or obese! That's more than half. And needless to say, some doctors are making a killing, cardiologists, endocrinologists, the staplers (bariatric surgeons). It costs upwards of 25,000USD for a single operation!

Blame has been thrown all around, from farmers - whose methods of improving yields though not illegal, is raising eyebrows - to coperate fast food businesses like MacDonald's, who were actually sued by 2 teenagers, but won.
In my humble opinion, however, it mostly has to do with the way life goes on here.. move around in a car, get into a lift, sit in your office for hours, drive back home, sit infront of the tv and that's it. I even see people using shoppin carts that you can sit in to shop!

I don't know where this thread was headed, but i thot' i should bring out the stark contrast between America and Kenya.. kids could be dying of malnutrition in Makueni, but here, guyz are dying because of having too much to eat. Makes you wonder..

Keep it blogged,
The WebDoc.

The mind that is Kenyan..

So the following morning (this is about my passport by the way..) i got to this guyz office, bright and early, and sure enough i found him sittin in his office, "processing" an illegal 'alien', some dude from Nigeria.. Anyway, he asked me to give him a few moments as he proceeded to throw unsavoury unmentionables at the hapless man.

"Ulikuwa unaleta drugs hapa?" On realising that the dudes swa was worse than his, he went on to mock him in English. I was getting very nervous at this point. He seemed like a no-nonsense dude. A few minutes later, he called me in and asked me to state my 'biznez' He was a kisii dude, (coincidence or plain old Kenya?) Very warm person i was glad to learn. Then he asked about where in kisii i was from, "and your dad, his wife.. etc.. blah blah blah.." and we carried on like a house on fire.

Some of us can't speak our mother tongues, lakini at this very moment, i was wishin i could, you know, just break into an eloquent trip of kisii, to 'smooth my way'? Too bad. The mother tongue story, by the way, is for another day.

He took all the docs that i had come with, got me a receipt and told me to come see him in a week. Said he'd hang on to the receipt to keep checkin whether the passport was ready.

I left the room thanking him immensely, but wondering at the back of my mind when he'll ask for his cut. He didn't. I figured he'll probably need it once the 'goods' are delivered.. hmm..

(A week later...)
I got to his office early in the morn. I was warmly received. Almost thought i might get a cup of coffee to start me off. He was honest. He had not checked whether the passport was ready or not. "What shall we do?"
I thought he might have started to play games with me.. or better still posturing for his 'cut'?? But he quickly burst that bubble.
We do have some good people on the face of this planet! He handed me the receipt i'd left and told me to follow it up downstairs. Well, that basically meant that i wouldn't be seeing him again... he wouldn't be getting anything from me. hmm...
"where's the catch", i thought. Felt very awkward as i left the room, wondering when he'll stop me and stick out his hand. Lakini Kenya is truly changing. He just wished me a good day and reminded me to learn kisii. And off i went.

When we return.. all about the passport receiption at Nyayo hse. and "the 10 top reasons you want to get your passport NOW!"

One more interesting thing i felt i must share with yo'all..
did you know that in Canada they put on pics of ischaemic brains from stroke victims, brown teeth from frequent smokers and bent cigarettes to take advantage of visual cues reminding people of it's association with impotence..

A study showed that 21% of smokers were tempted to have a cigarette but decided not to because of the new warnings and among non-smokers, 48% said the new warnings made them feel better about being a non-smoker.
A puff, anyone?

Baadayez,
The WebDoc.

Anointed handkerchiefs? Only in America...

Hamjamboni?
I thot i should write about some interesting "public advisory"(a very long ad actually) that i watched on american teli' jana. It was entitled anointed handkerchiefs! I thot' this must be another bishop Deya sort.
Turns out his plot is a lot more subtle, almost innocent. The instructions he gives are as follows: (& notice the consistent use of 'please'..)

1.Please send me your name and address, nothing more and I will send you a free "Bible red blood of Jesus" prayer handkerchief, postage paid.
(yes, FREE! so you think "where's the catch..")

2.Please do not tell me what you need or what you are going through. Allow the Spirit of God to speak to me concerning your needs.

3.When you receive your prayer handkerchief, go to a quiet place where there is no one but you and God, then watch God speak into your life.

4.I want you to keep the prayer handkerchief for 24 hours and 24 hours only.

5.Then rush it back to me and when I receive it, I will feel your needs and what you are going through.

6.I will then place it into my beautiful, anointed hope chest and pray daily for you.

...hmm. Didn't get the part where your miracle is revealed on receipt of the small sum of....?

Well, that's because it wasn't there. However, he kindly requests you to visit his website and make an even kinder donation.. to do the work of God, of course, which is in no way tied to the fruitition of your miracle.

But there are no consequences outlined if 4 example, the hanky doesn't make it on time. The Postal Service could be on strike? or if you had the sniffles and (God forbid) used the hanky for more than just pray? will it backfire? I was thinking of raising those issues with him, u know, just in case..

What most people might not realise is that this same ad is seen by thousands of other people, some more easily swayed than others and these guyz end up making obscene amounts of cash.(being fanatically religious is not a bad thing, it's a dangerous one)

No wonder then that u'll hear of cults (even in Stato') where a huge group of 'stable-minded','reasonable',good people on command of their 'leader' can do things as outrageous as giving off all their hard earned possesions and money to these 'fishers-of-men' or worse, setting themselves on fire, to get to heaven!
Such indoctrination can occur especially to people who are emotionally vulnerable, for eg. depressed and very lonely persons.

Those interested in knowing more about the above mentioned's ministry, fear not, i got his website where he accepts cheques as well as plastic, by the way.
www.kerneythomas.org

Moral of the story?
U can make money anywhere in the world,there is always a bunch of gullible folk, ata kama ni Stato'.

Monda,
blogging 2 weeks b4 i leave stato'.