::::I've Left Copenhagen for Uganda::::

Off to Belgrade tonight

I am slowly getting back to normal. Whatever that is - it feels better! The doctors at the Department for Epidimology at the Danish National Hospital have finally granted me permission to leave Denmark, which I celebrated by getting a ticket to Belgrade in Serbia with arrival this evening.

Yesterday the doctors and I finally sort of agreed that I have had malaria. - Well, maybe it was dengue!, the young doctor kept insisting still. For the past 10 days the doctors have insistingly, but in vain, been trying to find malaria parasites and dengue in my blood.

Mistake #1: I took the anti-malarial treatment I always carry with me in case of an emergency without consulting a doctor. To my excuse I´d say that I found myself in the Danish equivalent of the bush (my parents farm at Lolland), and that when you have over 40 degrees fever you give shit about rules, and if you can still read the user guide of an emergency malaria treatment within a hand´s reach you´ll eat it. When I told the doctors so, they flipped, and painted a vivid scenario of me being irresponsible as I could still could be ill from dengue or cerebral malaria.

Fair enough, but maybe a bit too dramatic. I did miss Dr. Stockley for a cynical and down to earth point of view here. Mistake # 2: I realised that the four different young Danish doctors who were part of the consultations all seemed to be extremely sceptical when I happened to state that I´d rather have malaria in Uganda, than Denmark, as the Ugandans seem to have a more relaxed relationship to it. I would have been treated like a normal case at Dr. Stockley´s surgery, not like a guinea pig with a bad reputation.

My insurance company has been the highlight of this week as they promptly granted me compensation for my lost ticket to Belgrade and making it financially possible for me to change my other tickets to actually do some vacation in Serbia.

So - I´m off in some hours...

PS. The best advice I can give to people travelling in and out of Africa, especially if they don´t take any malaria profylaxis - really - is to always carry with you a malaria emergency treatment. You can also get these smart rapid tests, which I´d also recommend - only problem is that they can be a bit too difficult to handle when your hands are shaking too much.

- Now we are ready to do something good for Africa...

...my two Danish visitors joked yesterday morning while getting ready for Tour de Arua.

I still haven't got around to clarify if this dedication contains something more than exploring what the Sudanese men are like.

Christmas Shopping

- This belt has all the African flags, the woman at the Friday market opposite the railway station postulates, while trying to convince me into bying a typical East African leather belt with beads.

- I'm sorry, but you can't convince me. Besides, the blue is for Iceland. At that one, the red one, that is for Norway, I try to give back.

Somehow  the beading on leather belts has gone a little out of hand. The Scandinavian flags pop up in between the Africans. Nevertheless, the lady and I end up in an engaged discussion on flags and countries. I.e. like in where is Iceland , and why I find this thing funny. 

Nothing wrong with that. And I must admit that for a weak moment I did consider the belt with the Icelandic flag a gift for my Icelandic brother-in-law. Thinking it would highlight his black, national costume a bit.

The Doctor's Final Diagnosis

Over the past three weeks I have been visiting Dr. Stockley's surgery in Kampala quite a few times. I have suffered from severe head aches and weekly fits of stomach cramps, fever and diarrhea. At some point you learn to live with it, everyone around has the symptoms at one point. More than once I have found detailed experience of giardia, bilharzia, amaeba or malaria shared over dinner - as one of the most common things. But finally I had had enough when I thought of the alternative. So, after measurements of blood pressure, and other vital tests (I won't go into details with here) it indicated that I had some sort of an infection, which the doctor tried to diagnose more closely by asking the following:

a) Do you drink a bottle of gin a day?

b) Is your work stressfull?

d) Do you smoke?

e) Are you pregnant?

f) Have you had unprotected sex with a local?

g) Do you swim in the Lake or the Nile?

As I could only answer no to all of them, he opted for a CT scan of my brain, which left me sort of concerned. Hence, he suggested that I should go for a beer and return some days later in order to take the tests all over. After the sixth visit the doctor finally diagnosed me with giardia. So now,  fortunately, five days before Christmas, I'm eating tablets with a note saying 'drinking alcohol while taking tinidazole will make you violently ill'. Luckily, the treatment is limited to three days, and for lots of reasons I do hope we are dealing with giardia.

Will You Leave The Airconditioner On - And Turn Up The Carlos Santana?!

Over the weekend I gave a lift to Peter, an Argentinian who works for the Danish Refugee Council in Yei in Southern Sudan - from Arua to Kampala.

Uganda is getting real hot these days, and at the ferry crossing at Paraa in Murchinson Falls Peter revealed that 'luxury to him is to unbutton his shirt and place himself and his bare chest facing the cold air from the airconditioner in the car'. Loud Carlos Santana is also not a bad thing.

I have given many lifts to random passengers over the past 18 months in Uganda going Arua to Kampala or opposite direction. Peter tops as the least complicated and the most entertaining passenger to date.  (I.e. I have stopped giving lifts to American re-borns supporting the Bush-regime).

The Rules Of Gravity

'...Is possible, is possible', the Ugandans reply when you for god knows which time have watched another living example of putting aside the rules of gravity. The things you learned in Europe don' t always apply in African contexts. Comforting, I'd say.

Banana Republic

The worst of all edible things, I know, are the bananas. Always was. I hate the sweety smell, the soft consistence and the taste.

If someone is eating it next to me I have to use all my will power to think of something else. Kissing a person who who has recently eaten the bananas is out of the question.

Of all the countries in the world, I'm in Uganda. Once an infamous banana republic in particular due to Idi Amin, today still a banana republic, but maybe more in terms of the ever present bananas and the Ugandans' fondness of this fruit.

But, hey, the green bananas are beautifull visually...