November 2008

Mood: Actvist mood[Toot!] Index: 5.2Communism Bit: OffLocation: Entebbe.sf {font-family: copperplate gothic light}It’s HIV/AIDS day this Monday. You’re reading my post on the pertinent topic du jour.

On January 17, 2009 I'll be traveling to Kampala, Uganda for 2 1/2 months to do a rotation at Mulago Hospital which is affiliated with Makerere University. Instead of worrying about the e-mail addresses of my friends and loved ones not being added to my e-mail list (as has happened so many times with my travels in the past) I've decided to attempt blogging about this trip to share my observations, experiences and thoughts so they're accessible to anyone who wants to read along. Please feel free to post comments or send e-mails in response!

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This morning on my way to work I was standing by the road trying to cross it obviously, because I do not have idle tendencies of just standing by the roadside for just. Anyway, so I am standing by the road looking left, right, then left. There is an elderly lady standing right beside me, also attempting to cross the road. She reaches out and takes my hand. Startled, I turn and look at her and without saying a word, held on to it tighter and helped her across the road. or maybe she helped me.

Something about winter nights makes them memorable, something about the way you stood there hands safely tucked away from the cold in the pockets of the gray jacket I love to steal from you when we see late movies. Maybe it is the sad eyes behind those glasses, the smile you managed for my benefit. The way your car stereo has the sound balanced to the rear speakers so that it felt like Natalie Grant was singing from the back seat as we rode under the amber glow of the street lights. I wish you didn't feel the need to be so strong around me, because I hear it when you sigh.

My friend, after a week that saw me find something worth more than rubbies, I received a sermon that opened my eyes to another dimension. This is a break down of that sermon that made me stop tithing1. I owe God nothing, I have no debt because it was all paid at the cross.2. All that I have belongs to God3. The tithe is part of the old covenant but we live under the new one.At this point I see you cringing at my comments and even thinking i need help.If God owns all you have then i don't think when it comes to giving you will start to compute how much to return to HIM.Anyway, GOD loves a cheerful giver.NOW I DON'T HAVE TO SUBJECT GOD TO THE CALCULATOR MULTIPLYING HIS STUFF BY 0.1 AND FEELING GOOD ABOUT IT!!I feel like 100% that's what its gonna be!!

Last week I finally got to do something I have always wanted to do, that is white water raft the Nile. Another of my life goals conquered.Over the last 8 years I have tried often to get a group of friends to ‘do’ the Nile with me, but everyone seemed to drop off the list as the date grew closer. So I gave up until this year. The fact that Bujagali dam grows bigger by the day and will one day block off a great section of the rapids played a big part in my ‘do it now’ mentality.

I’m home. The last month was like being an apple in the stomach of a lactose intolerant someone who got stomach flu from some iffy Indian food sold in some backwater joint in Mumbai and then followed it with three slices of cheesecake, a glass of full cream milk and some danino yoghurt. Hell. Exams, looking for a place to fart in private, looking for a place to store my stuff, money and my lack thereof, trying to decide what was going and what was staying because there was no way I was under 30 kilos. But exams ended, and I found a good place to fart, with friends, 25min from school.

I stumbled upon these interesting photos of Kampala in those days of our grandfathers. I'm young like that, unlike some of you who were in P6 already by 1960. Of course Baz I'm not talking about you. You are like us the youth of today (that is just a saying, not the title of that 1980s song by Musical Youth. Which I heard on the radio of course) and your latest Bad Idea had me in stitches.Right, let's play a little game and see how many of us can identify which places are featured in the photos.Number 1 Number 2

Every flavour has been flavoured beforeuntil i see a Mars bar hovering at my doorDammit!I'm losing it...then i wonder, just whose is it?I'm Cocoa Curiousbut not to know her nameis not to play her game'cos caramel's the sameonce you get to the centreno!this is "do NOT enter"& that's not what i'm after

Remember this rhymeHome again, home again,when shall I see my home again,when shall I see my little brother,I'll never forget my home.

In less than a week from now, we shall be marking the 20th anniversary of the international annual World AIDS Day -1st December- a day when people from around the world that are passionate about fighting HIV/AIDS come together within a single effort to focus on global shared action and raise public awareness on specific issues related to HIV and AIDS. Some of the issues that will be raised on 1st December include the continued importance of fighting stigma and discrimination due to HIV and the disproportionate impact of AIDS on women and girls. The fight against AIDS is over twenty five years old and although some people choose to deny it, while others unabashedly ignore it; the AIDS epidemic is a global emergency that affects people in every country on this earth. That some of us would choose to hide our heads in the sand over such a matter is more than simply shameful. It is tragic.

KIGALI - I had a kodak moment at the hotel this morning when Fred Opolot, the executive director of the Uganda Media Centre came over to say hi to Monica Chibita, my former lecturer and now colleague at Makerere University.We were all on the same flight from Entebbe to Kigali, shared cars and are also staying in the same hotel (the spankling new Top Tower hotel about which I ought to say a bit more later). Fred did not recognise me despite us having met at State House in Kampala a year or more ago, and speaking on the phone once in a while.

12 reasons why you shouldn't have moved to Maryland1. I can't quite afford John Hopkins tuition, so my tiny university is going to have to suffice.2.I haven't had curry chicken in sooo long.3.No one is force feeding me breakfast anymore. I've lost the 3 pounds you had me gain.4.I don't have anyone to sit and dream with in the coffee shop.5. I loved it when you washed my hair.6.Now how else will I find out the cute boys names before the end of the first day of school?

my God, my God, why have i forsaken You? again?

Mood: Do(d)gy mood[Toot!] Index: 0.2Communism Bit: OffLocation: EntebbeAs penance for the length of the last post, I'll make this short. But I'm still up to my jaws in bile, so I'll spit yet. At dogs, this time.They lie to you when they tell you dogs don't forget. I went to that gate yesterday, and it just barked at me. Vicious barking, with intention to rip me jugular out.Wasn't it I who recognised its mother dead by the roadside? Wasn't it I who, while its mother's blood still flowed and cars still stopped to look at the mangled dog body, initiated a plan to save the stray family's puppies?

In her better days,She calls me by fancy titles,"International man of mystery",but that's not my name!(I argue),"The comeback kid",but I was always here!(I retort),I am always here,I walk this way,this is the air I breath,and that is the fountain where we loved.Esquire of the mountain,I was he, for a year and a day,Robin of the stream,You my valley lily,during the best days of our lives,When we watched the tadpoles grow,And fed bread to your ducks.

I never hear him farting,Or fucking,neither moving around of furniture,nor beating wife with said furniture,But the sound of his snoring,That I hear as clear as a bell toll,from across this house's wall;1-2- snort then silence1-2- hurumphh then silence1-2- mmmmm then silenceThe sound of his snoring,my lullaby in this building of the boring.Wonder if he too hears me,in battle with the evening's kill?