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tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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4:30
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Wow, brilliant film this... If you’ve not watched this movie, you must. Michael Moore is a brilliant cinematographer and he certainly didn’t let up in this ironic angle on the American health care system, with comparisons with erstwhile looked down upon states like Cuba. It’s remarkable how big business has taken hold of such an important and basic element of American life. In one scene in the film one woman, unconscious when she is put into an ambulance, is billed for the trip because her insurer says it was not pre-authorized. Now you wonder how could she get authorization for the ambulance ride when she was out cold on the pavement? Yeah, that bad. Towards the film's end, he discovers that Jim Keneflick, proprietor of the web's largest anti-Moore website Moorewatch.com, is going to be forced to shut down his site after his wife becomes ill and he can't afford the $12,000 needed to pay for her care. So, keen to protect Keneflick's right to free speech, or so he says, he sends the money to him. Jim is especially grateful for the anonymous contribution. It is only revealed that it was from Michael Moore, when the film is released. The movie as described by some movie reviewers and critics.. “acidic new documentary about healthcare” “Michael Moore's litany of horrors about the American health care system, which is run for profit,” “It's those personal stories, of ordinary lives destroyed one form letter at a time, that make "Sicko" so powerful.” "It's not impossible that this bitterly funny, bitterly sad call to alms could move reform back up the political agenda. For that reason alone, you owe it to yourself to see this movie." “It’s a really brilliant movie this, and surreal” A must watch. tHE mEDiCinEmAn.
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12:37
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 September? Is that the month already? I have to say, I must have been amazingly lazy or incredibly busy these couple of months. And which is it? Well, a bit of both actually, and so much has been happening. .
For one, I got done with maternity..
Praise God? (Did I hear an Amen?) 3 months of sleepless calls and tonnes of work. I would describe maternity, for lack of stronger adjectives, as laborious and painstaking. Not to mention the kind of pressure everyone puts on you. If anything so much as goes wrong, then you’ll have to explain why 10 minutes after being called, you were still trying to find the bearings out of your bed..
Weekends lost meaning, because more often than not, I’d be on the maternity floor, or theatre working as usual. More of my tales of terror with pregnant women later though.
I’ve now done 2 months of Internal Medicine and have one more to go. This is probably the most relaxing department ever! The calls are light, no emergency surgeries at night and I mustn’t forget the free afternoons…
Then got my internet connection (finally!) and now I’m on the information superhighway like a fish to water. So much to read and learn on the net, that even sparing a moment for my blog has been difficult. But I’m confident that this is the first of many more posts to come. tHE mEDiCinEmAn.
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9:02
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 First, let's start off with why i've not blogged for, well... such a long time. Simple really. It's the department i moved to from Paediatrics. The good people in KNH call it Obs & Gynae, we, on the other hand, prefer to call it Maternity, Mat in short. The first first, was me doing my first caeserian section, alone, yipee.. Oh, and that was before i delivered my first baby. hehe.. Another first, the number of hits on my blog pita'd the 1,000 mark. I was always looking forward to that.. now if only 1 of every 10 of those peeps left comments.. hmm.. Then i almost hit another first. I almost got internet in my room, save for a couple of 'gentlemen' that couldn't admit that they couldn't do the job.. story for another day by the way. Got my first salo'... Making friends became so easy suddenly. Humans! ... i'll add a few more firsts in my next blog, for sure. Keep it locked. And also tonnes of storo's from the Realms of Thika Maternity.. Oh, and guys, props to your mothers. I swear! The kind of sh*t (literal shit and otherwise), pain etc that they went thru' to bear you, is to put it mildly, excruciating. So, big up for my mum! & i'm back! Laterz, tHE mEDiCinEmAn.
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9:42
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 I've only got one more week to finish my internship weeks in Paediatrics, and boy i'm i glad! The other day, i was in our acute room... (that's like the Paediatric E.R. at this here district hospital) and i was thinking.. "hmm we must have gotten really good at this." Gotten good at this, you see, since, it had been more than a week since a child passed away! A personal record, that i felt quite proud of. So there i was, happily remembering that i had only slightly more than a week b4 i was done with screaming babies and endless ward rounds every single morning! I don't know if i imagine the headache, lakini, i suddenly felt like a pile of bricks had dropped squarely on my head. The nurse i was working with announced that "the child there in the corner doesn't look too good", and as i glanced at the said corner, i could see the mother sobbing and this one dedicated father holding the oxygen prongs on the child's nostrils. "Oh dear!" My worst moments in the ward usually start this way. Well, actually they start something like... "Daktari, mgonjwa hapumui!" And right there, u've to jump on your feet and do something, anything... usually heroic, heroic-like or somewhere in between. Back to the story. So this particular kid was gasping at every breathe it could muster, and after 11 weeks in that ward, you can almost tell how long one has to live. A very unnerving skill, and for this kid it wasn't very long. The child's dad didn't make it any better when he confided in me that this was his only kid, and only 1 year after he was born, it would be cruel for him to join his maker. Time was of the essence, and i proceeded to fix a line. As expected, the kids veins could just not be seen. But we did not give up. Pricked and poked his arms, his hand, his scalp, his  neck.. yet nothing. Things seemed to get frantic, the mothers sobbing only got louder, and everyone else held a deathly silence. (deathly, how apt!) .. strapped his leg to look for a vein there. Don't know if it was luck or 11 weeks of experience, but we got it. Felt like time for a war cry just there. Victory was ours! Having given starting doses of some acute drugs to help the child breathe better i left, felt a bit like i was walking on air. Another young soul saved. The evening was young and we had been invited for a dinner organised by a drug company to launch a new product.. (more like bribing us with food.. but that's a story for another day.) And we ate and made merry. I wasn't on call that night, but i really wanted to know how the child i had left earlier in the acute room was doing. When they say life isn't fair, they really mean it. Being a resource poor setting, our 'mortuary' (prior to a body getting to the actual hospital mortuary), is an isolated bed,(or is it cot) placed near the door to the acute room, just as one gets in. And like a really bad movie, was the body of that kid, wrapped in a leso and labelled with his name, well in sight for me to read.  Uuuh!! It's a nasty feeling that. Yo' only consolation is that you did the best for the patient, and many others have survived, thanks in large part to yo' efforts. But ooh! it ain't consoling.. ..not one bit. Laterz, aNGuiShEd mEDiCinEmAn.
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8:14
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Warren G's hit, "I want it all.." had it's chorus going like so I want it all; money, fast cars
Diamond rings, gold chains and champagne
Shit, everydamn thing
I want it all; houses, expenses
My own business, a truck, hmm, and a couple o' Benz's.. I’ve never thought doctors earn enough. Ok, so almost every working Kenyan thinks they don’t get as much as they deserve, for all the nation building they are involved in, kaaaazi hio yote. (Well, MPs still want to earn more, despite not working at all.. Lakini that's a for another day.) Caller No. 1: My doctor drives a Merc, he bought 2 months ago. And how does one sleep at night after charging you 2,000 shs to ask you a couple of questions and spend another 5 minutes listing a remarkable assortment of drugs worth another 3,000 shillings? Kwanza wakatwe mshahara! Shindwe kabisa! Hehe… I think I already know which doctor this must be. The difference is this dude and myself is that he's a consultant, and a specialist in his field, and for sure, he’s gonna charge an arm and a leg for his years of hittin’ the books.
At the bottom of the food chain, however, is the eager, i-use-a-matatu-but-look-i’m-a-doctor, kind of chap, who, for the first few months at least, is excited and happy enough to have a new title and shiny badge to prove it. That’s kinna us.. the medical interns. Enyewe, if there were ever misused persons, we would be them. My consultant visits the wards maybe 2wice a week and barely spends an hour or two, to review difficult cases, or just complain about this or the other. And for this, grosses around 150K from Sirikal every month. I wouldn’t want to imagine how much more she makes from her clinic and hospital consultations. My colleagues and I who slog away the whole day and night, weekends and public holidays, (did I say weekends?) earn 20K basic salo. Well, it’s not that bad, coz with my house and non-practice allowances it fikaz more than 30. Not bad for a recent campo graduate. So why am I complaining? Caller No. 2: My doctor drives a Bima and lives in Runda. In fact, I want my son to do Medicine… Me: wololo! Poor son. Caller No. 2: I know he’ll be guaranteed a job once he finishes...
 While I wouldn’t want to discourage any “neurosurgeon wannabe’s”, tread carefully. First, it’s confirmed that starting this year, interns finishing their internship are not guaranteed jobs with the govt. And just to make sure we don’t get any funny ideas in our minds, (u know, like a guaranteed job), they got us to sign contracts indicating that our 12 months employment was temporary with no bearing on future employment. The other day, I was going through pay slips that had been carelessly dropped in the doctors’ room. I noticed something rather amusing. Most of the doctors were getting a non-practice allowance of 15,000 shillings. Amusing because, I can’t see how that amount will dissuade these doctors from not engaging in private work. Sample this, for part time work at a private institution, one can make that amount in less than a week, and that’s in one’s free time. So what makes the govt. think 15K will make these doctors focus their energies in the public hospitals? It’s not hard for one to rationalize on why he’s left work early to get to head off in search of more money. Now if I was a neurosurgeon, I’d probably make 15K in a few minutes. And I can see why every top student in Kenya wants to be one. It’s challenging, And would certainly make for a captivating topic at those social events. This-one-Thinks-Amefika: … so I had to call my agent in Dubai otherwise the cars were not going to be let thru’ the port. That’s when I realized that calling via satellite is so expensive. (laughter..) And what do you do.. Top-Student-Now-N’surgeon: I’m a brain surgeon. There are only 10 of us in Kenya you know. I was the ninth. So you were saying you import cars? From Dubai? Fascinating..
It’s interesting how many of these dreams slowly fade away during the first few weeks of 1st year, and focus shifts to passing the next CAT… Anyhow, since I’m not a neurosurgeon, and I don’t think 30K+ a month is enough for saving lives (and that includes nights and weekends) I concluded that I was some what short-changed and I’ve been thinking about several options I could have next year, now that I’m not even guaranteed a job! (Not that I would have taken it up, but that’s beside the point.)
Any ideas? Drop a comment. 5 years? I think i'm getting a headache...
Laterz,
tHE mEdiCinEmAn.
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11:33
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 It’s a pity that yo’ never told about those dark aspects of anything you are getting into. Until you actually do and find out for yo’ self. Actor 1: Oh, kumbe you didn’t know that? E! Si uko vibaya? You: Wat do u mean, kumbe I didn’t know? You could at least have said something, anything! Actor 2: Pole a guy.. You: Pole ? I’m messed! Actor 1: Well, I thought it was general knowledge, you know, common sense? You: Common sense? Lord in heaven! What sort of people are you? Actor 2: By the way, it was even on radio. Kwani you don’t shika Kiss @ yo’ place? You: Kiss? I think I need to leave before I throw bottle at someone!
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Well, it wasn’t this dramatic on the said day. The assistant minister for health made a call by the hospital, and by the paediatric ward, where yours truly was busy saving yet another diseased soul. The a/minister: Yes daktari, how r u today. Me: Not bad sir. Not bad. Just fixing a line on this young one. The a/minister: Hmm.. Fixing a line.. What afflicts the young one? Me: The poor soul is dehydrated. Severely so. And we need rehydrate him urgently. (ok, so the English wasn’t as pampered as this, lakini wat’s a story without good story-telling?)
The a/minister: You know, in my times, we used to wear shirts and ties. Me: (Looking perplexed and disturbed) Oh! (I was in t-shirt, jeans and sneakers!) The a/minister: Yes! Sister, (turning to the nurse in the room) your doctors don’t dress up for work! (..he says as he walked out of the room, cheeky smiles on the faces of many in his entourage) It was a Saturday morning this, and trust me, was not going to wear a tie, not in that heat, and not when I least felt like working. What made this really sad, is that I was not told that the dude was showing up. Apparently, they were launching the door-to-door polio campaign and he first stop was Thika. Everyone else in the ward was crisp and shiny, dressed up like it was a Monday. It didn’t hit me until the guy left.. Actor 1: You didn’t know mheshimiwa was coming?  Me: What? Who was spreading the word? I missed that surmon!
Actor 2: Hehe.. How can you where a t-shirt when a minister is visiting? Me: Jus’ shut up! Actor 1: Kwani you don’t live in around? Si everyone knew?
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The rest of the conversation was mindless and sarcastic. I’ll spare yo’all the empty details. I faced no repercussions, I’m glad to say. Lakini I still can’t do ties on weekends. Iz bila! Now speaking of risky business, this medicine profession I tell you! Our risk allowance is about 5K.. I think, maybe 3K, but I should confirm that. Anyway, one of my colleagues got TB. Drained 2 litres of effusion (fluid) from his chest! Poor fellow. But he’ll survive. I understand he was given time to recuperate, free ward stay, drugs, consultation the works. They treat you real well when you fall ill here. So I wonder, after 5 years, reading and sacrifice, is this what I was waiting for at the end of that proverbial tunnel? You know, bashing from govt’ officials and airborne disease from my workplace? Working weekends and alternate nights? They didn’t mention this when I was signing up for the course. Conveniently I’m sure. Daktari, sio? It’s risky, this business.
tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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10:21
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 The other day, I was having a lively exchange on why Safaricom is the worst thing that happened to Kenyans. “What? With 8 bob calls? How do you go calling them such ugly names?, ” you might wonder.  Well it wasn’t very clear to me either, but with 6+ million subscribers, Safaricom has such a powerful resource, you wouldn’t believe. And so much money, any competitors (media-speak for Celtel) can easily be priced out. Last year, they made 1 billion shillings in every month. That’s Kshs. 250 million in one week! And that is pure, clean profit! If any other company made this much in one year, they’d be considered to be doing pretty well…
 Let’s talk about Celtel for a bit. Having launched their new Uhuru tariffs with a lots of flair to match, I expected a big switch from price conscious Kenyans. (I’ll tell you something about this later). It did happen, for a few days. I even got 2 Celtel lines for myself to take advantage of both the tariffs. Safaricom hit back with its 10 bob all-the-time calls and later, with the limited offer Saasa tariff, where for 12 hours a day, one can make calls @ 8 bob a minute, Safcom to Safcom of course. And as much as 52 bob per minute to call Celtel! (BTW what sort of name is Saasa? Don’t try to stretch the middle “aa” coz you’ll end up soundin real weird… or was that the idea?)
Anyway, what Safaricom had done was to effectively lock in their customers, all 6+ million of them. And charging Celtel an arm and a foot to allow calls to this pool. So during the discussion an interesting idea was floated. What if it cost you 7 or even 6 bob to call within the Celtel network? Won’t every other Kenyan have 073X sim cards in place most of the time? Besides, it hardly costs them anything to have calls routed thru’ their own network. Sounds like a good idea, until you remember that it the reverse also applies. Wat if Safcom does the same and weka’s calls at 6 bob also? Subscribers with their other 6 million+ contacts, will stay on this network, coz it’s easier than to go around changing yo’ mobile contact etc, etc.. Effectively, there will be 6 million people calling at 6 bob on one end and only 3 million on the other, it’s easy to see who’ll be wearing the trousers in that relationship! What about Telkom’s wireless fones? It costs only 5.50 to call another Telkom subscriber anywhere in the country, yet the uptake isn’t close to the millions that Safcom has been able to rack up. Surely people should be ready to call at these good rates! Unfortunately for them, however, the entry costs are a bit too steep. Other than having to buy a line for 1,000 bob, one has to get a brand new handset, coz the technology can’t work with GSM fones. So a cool 5,000 bob+.. to get a fone that you’ll hardly use to call at the celebrated rate of Kshs 5.50 to another Telkom number! It only requires a basic knowledge of arithmetic and economics, to know that you’d rather bamba 50 and call a lot more people @ 8 bob! So that round Telkom Wireless loses 10 – nil. Unfortunately, they still think in the old mindset of charging people to become your customers! That usually doesn’t work very well. I can get a Safaricom or Celtel line for as little as 40 bob. Why on earth would Telkom charge me 1,000 shillings for a piece of metal? Imagine if it still cost you 2,500 shillings for a Safaricom line? They never learn, I tell you! So my conclusion? Even a new mobile company will not be able to nudge Safaricom out of their massive market numbers. Unless of course they have a brilliant product, that’s incredibly cheap, different, innovative, and did I say bloody cheap? It’s only in Kenya, where 99% if mobile users answering calls will have their thumbs squarely placed on the “Cancel” button to save that last few cents spent as the fone comes off my face for me to see wat I am doing. Curiously, the thumb-hovering is on calls that they are receiving and not paying for!  What do you think? Leave yo’ two cents worth of comment. Would love to here another perspective.
Should get to bed. Kesho I have a mortality meeting. We get to keep tabs on how many patients we got to kill during the month. More on that later. Baadayez,
tHE mEdiCinEmAn.
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6:15
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Today was one of those days that I really dread, which if fate chooses, do come pretty often. Another baby had died, and I had the unenviable task of examining the poor thing, confirming and certifying the death, and proceeding to inform the bewildered mother of the bad news. This was particularly heart-wrenching since, it was one of a pair of twins, that I had admitted that long Sunday that I had had in the ward. The diagnosis was pretty simple, GE in a severely dehydrated pt, to r/o Malaria. (Medical lingo for: a patient with vomiting and diarrhea who, as a result, is severely dehydrated, and since the patient complained of vomiting and fever among other shidaz, anti-malarial drugs have to be given, since we are in an endemic area. Enough of that. Rehydration, replacement of electrolytes and quinine would sort out the problem, ideally anyway. 4 days later, while I was incidentally in the ward, the shell-shocked mother calls me and tells me that she had woken up only to find one of her babies ‘staring at her blankly’ and ‘didn’t look right’. A quick exam was conclusive. The baby had been dead for several minutes if not hours. The mother, by the way, had been staring at me intently all this time, hoping I would ease her mind from the horrible thoughts that must have been whirling around in there. The other twin was crying incessantly by now, almost as tho’ she knew what had just happened to her brother.  The part of the story I’d not told you is that this mother had delivered the twins at home 2 months ago and had not visited a clinic yet. Had not got any immunization shots. Apparently, she couldn’t carry both babies with her. Her husband was in police custody and her 6 other daughters, (yep, 6 daughters and now 8 kids) had not been at home to help her out. While her story didn’t sound particularly credible, it reminded of the many social issues that I have come across.
Many Kenyans, and probably herself as well, are not willing to spend that extra, no not extra, that last few hundred shillings to go to hospital for a problem that is not there. She’d rather spend it to buy food for tomorrow’s supper and use the rest to buy a couple of books for her other offspring that walk barefoot to school.  Poverty is easily the biggest disease in this country. This mother had lost a child from a very preventable condition that probably got worse as she hoped it would get better. Illiteracy comes in a close second. I’d tell you things mothers do to their babies that would make u scratch yo’ head, and roll your eyes. Lakini, that’s for another day. I’m on call tonite you know.
I spoke too soon. There goes my fone! Yet another sick Kenyan... tHE mEdiCinEmAn.
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22:59
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 3 interns, 2 weeks and 1 weekend call have brought me to this conclusion. (Not that I care for it, by the way..) It’s been quite an experience so far, quite. Well having been certified a medical graduate, given the power to read and do all that other sh*t, I landed in Thika, at the District Hospital, teeming with life and the not so full of life. According to the Medical Superintendent in charge of the joint, we are supposed to be the busiest hospital in Central Province, more than Nyeri (the Provincial HQ) … I didn’t say it, he did! There it was. We’d set our selves up for interesting times here.  After an episode of haggling, bargaining and luck, I ended up starting my department rotations in Paediatrics. (We have to rotate in all 4 dept’s for 3 months each as medical interns. Internal Medicine, Obstetrics/ Gyn and Surgery as well.) Wasn’t too bad, I argued. I’ll be doing Obs/Gyn next, easily the most hectic of the four, and then go on to Medicine and finish with Surgery. Hmm… this should work, I figured. We got a quick tour of the hospital to put into perspective what we would have to contend with for the next 52 weeks or so.
We were 12 interns in all from the Univ. of Nairobi, so 3 interns in each dept. And in our minds, we knew would be getting at least 4 more interns from Moi University’s med school, who hadn’t finished their exams yet. Which would bring the figure to 4 in each dept. We were later to find out, painfully by the way, that this was not going to happen. Something about only 25 of them passing their exams or something… Basically, this means, night and w eekend calls are closer to each other, more work per person, and did I talk about the weekend calls? I must have, coz I just finished one of the craziest weekends I have had in a very long time. Yours truly was on call, and from the experiences shared by my colleague who had covered the previous weekend, it was supposed to be a walk in the park. Started well. I was even able to leave the hospital for the whole morning before I was called to review a neonate in the nursery. Rushed back, 2 reviews and a couple of lines arduously fixed on newborns fragile wrists, I was done. This was better than I thought. As it turned out, this was the calm before the storm. Or more like a miniature tsunami.  I got to see another 2 cases in the ward that evening and that was it. Went to bed wondering if this could get any better! Ha!
10.00 am. I had just had breakfast, and I was on my computer working out some awe-inspiring design (I’m my greatest fan…) Me fone rang. “Daktari, kuna patients ku-review kwa ward.” Off I dashed. This could be over in a few minutes. A couple of touches on the design, a couple of episodes of 24 and a couple of hours to nap. Perfect, I thought. I get to the ward. “Wagonjwa?” “Ndio sisi…”, the new admissions raised their hands. They were 3. Arghh.. I’d have less time for my nap!
So the good doctor got down to work. Did I say walk in the park? It was now a trot across town. But I could be done soon and back home. 2 hours later, there were more than 7 more patients that had checked into the ward.
Oh dear, I thought. Lunch will have to be taken late. There’s good reason why so many doctors have horrid handwriting. It’s coz that’s all they do, and it can get monotonous a lot of the time.  Well, to cut a long story short, I wasn’t able to make it for lunch at whatever time. Not 2, not 3, not 4… The patients came one after the other. Made me wonder if Sunday is “siku ya kuenda hospital” for the local residents of Thika. 9 hours later, (yes 9 hrs) it was 7 pm and the 3rd shift of nurses had just checked in. This was getting too much; I decided I might as well have something to eat at this rate. Dashed back home. (Thankfully this is a 5 min. walk away.) No one had made up their minds to cook, so no food, and I just had a glass of juice, and went back to the battle field. And there they were, 5 more patients on top of the 2 that I had left!!
WTF! I couldn’t believe this! Did I say trot across town? No, this was like a marathon across the Kalahari! I did eat my supper that night. Much later, around 12 pm. By half past midnight, I’d passed out..  Talk about being thrown into the deep end..
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8:31
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 I think it must be all the time that i've spent during the last month partying that has kept me from my beloved blog this long! Yep, partying mbaya!! Nilimaliza shule... Must have been that Surgery MCQ paper.. rumour has it ati only 3 people pita'd the 50% threshold mark, (aka: a pass, yo-ok-since-u'll-only-kill-half-yo'-patients mark... etc) ps: MCQ - multiple choice question. I've not sat for a harder paper than that in, well a very long time... Some questions went like.. "the number of successful laparascopic procedures in specialist clinics in Guatemala was 85% ... True or False?" (ok, i'm kiddin about the Guatemala part.. lakini still!) I must have been the first person to finish the paper, coz enyewe, there's no need to try thinkin about stuff you've never read.. really. Everyone was complaining, ok, maybe not, coz i probably never got to talk to those 3 nut jobs that actually passed! So when during my clinical exams, my confidence seemed to unfold, i felt a bit exposed... u know, shaken that i might not pass that exam.. It started with the long case. So i take a history from this dude. H was like 45 if i recall...  1 month history of yellowing of the eyes, similar period of pale stools and pruritus (med speak for itching..), and an tender hepatomegally (.. that's an enlarged liver that is painful to the touch.) "Great!", i thought. "Surgical jaundice, secondary to gall stones..". Had read on it a while ago. Tho't it will be a walk in the park, this. Surgical jaundice simply means that the yellowing of his eyes (jaundice) has been caused by some sort of obstruction that requires surgical intervention to relieve it - hence the often other used term, obstructive jaundice. But enough with all this medical lingo. I proceeded verify my diagnosis and the easiest thing to do, was simply to ask the patient what he had been told he has. Indeed, i was spot on. They were "mawe fulani. Walisema watatoa next week." Fabulous. Now i just had to have my story straight, do a proper system examination of the patient, and i'll be D.R in no time... To cut a long story short, the examiners came and they insisted that this dude had cancer! Head of Pancreas cancer or Biliary tree (gall bladder) cancer. Which were actually on my list of differentials but further down than the stones. Apparently, the patient had lost weight during this time, but i tho't it was coz of the poor  appetite he had developed. He had no abdominal masses, that would have pointed more to a tumor cozing the obstruction, or enlarged lymph nodes... Any way, i gave in and admitted that that was wat he might be havin, altho' in my mind, i believed my line of thought was more consistent with findings on the patient. In med school, however, one thing you learn early on, is not to imagine that you know more than your consultants., or ever let them know that you think so... Saves you a lot of trouble.. and pain. One week later, we camped for 5 hours (yes, 5!) outside the dean's office waiting for our results, to know whether we have been recommended to be awarded the degree, given the power to read, whether we were now doctors... To say the wait was nerve-racking wouldn't come anywhere close to describing the feeling! It was terrifying... This was it. The last wait for results.. 5 years of work was coming to an end. The tension was palpable (i read that in a book, or was it someone's essay back in school? hmm...)  Hayawi hayawi huwa. After hours of waiting, the verdict was out... Yes folks, it was then that i become a doctor! Happy holidayz, The latest mEDiCinEmAn in the hut.
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12:25
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 hmm... This blogging thing, this. So busy so little time. It's been dog years since i last wrote a post. Enyewe, doesn't feel nice letting down ma-fans, so i thot i should spare a few minutes of my eve' and confirm that i'm still alive and well. And the post on my trip to Paris will be coming very soon, papa hapa. The break i've taken is actually from the books. Leo we started our end of year exams, yawa! Aii, kumbe hayawi hayawi huwa... the last leg is here with us. It's such a pity i have tonnes and tonnes of readin to do, and it just doesn't seem to end. It was a cold morning as i sat down to do my Internal Medicine essay paper. Management of thyrotoxicosis, anaemia in chronic renal failure... I mustn't bore u, but it was ok. 10 compulsory questions, 3 long hours and one tired med student. Right now, niko juu ya mbuku (books by the way) mbaya. Head trauma and jejunojejunostomies. Crazy stuff. Kesho is Surgery essay. Na pia there is an ortho question humo.. all that readin for one question? Med school! Oh, and one last thing.. Got tired with the alias 'The WebDoc', now i'm fondly known as 'tHe mEDiCinEmAn'. Forgive the camel text, but i thought it's sort of "different" and unique. Otherwise, keep it blogged. Adios amigos, tHE mEDiCinEmAn aka The WebDoc.
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16:51
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 So much seems to be happening, keepin me so busy, away from my blog and all!! That's more or less the reason why i've not posted in ages. Today, however, i've decided to push aside a few things... to share the exciting... (ok, maybe not quite) , happeninings since i last wrote. Well for one, i did pass the Ortho CAT i was telling you about. 53% was the score, being in med sch., i'm told gettin over 50 is enough for yo' patients (sic). We were quite a number of us who didn't make it all the way to 60, the bookworms, and the not so bookworms. Enough rationalising. Back to wat's kept me so quite. Ever heard of SIFE? That's Students In Free Enterprise. What's it's all about is summarised by this extract from their site. ..SIFE team members leverage their personal educational experiences, the expertise of their faculty advisors, the support of their local business advisory boards, and the resources of their institutions to implement programs that create real economic opportunities for members of their communities. The effectiveness of their programs is judged at competition. Each national SIFE organization conducts a national competition, which is judged by leaders from its business community. At competition, SIFE teams present the results of their educational outreach projects and compete to determine which team was most successful at creating economic opportunity for others. SIFE National Champion teams advance to the top level of competition, the SIFE World Cup... Being the business-minded fellow that i am, i promptly joined. I can't think of any other person from med sch. who felt this was worth their time.. boring lot! So indeed we went forth and "leveraged our personal educational experiences" and changed the world, took part in the National SIFE exposition with top business leaders in Kenya as judges. This is where we put together all our projects with a nice audiovisual presentation runnin in the bk ground (read powerpt presentation), and try and convince the judges that ours had the most impact to our communities. Hours later, we got to the finals against USIU and Africa Nazarene University. Sadly for them, we were definitely better and UoN-SIFE was declared the winner of the 2006 Kenya National SIFE exposition! Hurrah! We had a month and a half to put our passports in order, coz we were on our way to  Paris, France, for the World Cup... Keep it here, because when we return we find out, .. shall i actually make it to France? .. the university is broke.. again! .. that'll be 3k for your visa.. .. then cough 20K if u want to survive in Europe! and many more trials and tribulations that is my life.. Keep it blogged people, Baadayez, The WebDoc.
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11:04
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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wow... how time flies, (and how lazy i've become).  The surg CAT went ok.. to put it mildly. My essay had lots of cancer questions, esophageal, colorectal, breast... some of which i'd not prepared for, but my 3rd yr pathology kicked in to save me quite a few blushes. The clinical was worrisome though. Took a good history and made a not too bad examination. Question time was however a bit rocky, especially when i couldn't recall they called an incision made during an appendectomy (appendicectomy)! Not very impressed, the good doctor asked me to read harder! That's not something you want 2 hear just after your exam, u know. Thankfully, i seem to have made a good enough impression for him to award me 59% (--applause--) remembering that not too many of my classmates got 60's let alone 70's, i think i was doin ok.  Anyhow, it's been so long since then, mpaka, i'm now just about to do my ortho exam (we have 6 weeks of each(surg and ortho) promptly followed by an essay and clinical assessment). So right now, i've hit the books again. I should actually be in theatre right now, but the reading doesn't allow me such pleasures.(unless some irate consultant summons us!). And as i read on Weber's classification of Ankle fractures, i thot i should post one more time, seeing that i haven't for such a long while. Otherwise, Keep it blogged.
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12:31
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Here i am, writin this post, when i know all too well that i should be hitting the books like no one's business. I have this surg(that's surgery BTW..) exam next week and i just can't seem to get myself to read!! It's totally frustrating! And when i say exam i mean the full maneno's. A long-case, where we get to take  history from a patient, take a full physical exam, and come up with a management plan for the same. And that's the day after we do our essay paper. Five essay questions and 3 hrs to knock ourselves out answering them. Anyhow, looks like i really should be reading... ama? Things could go awry come Wednesday. I'll definitely tell how the clinical went. I almost forgot. Jana, while i was 'not in the mood for reading' - again - i went to shoot a TV ad! Yep! One of those. It should be hitting Kenyan tv in a month or so. I'll keep this wire live, 4 sure. Baadayez, The WebDoc. 
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4:57
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 More than one year ago, i designed this website for a local band musician right here in Nairobi. I never actually got to meet him, in fact, the plan was that i'd probably never need to. What happened was this.
I had this 'friend' in college who's doin dental surg. and we are both into comps and stuff. So one day he approaches me and tells me about an entertainment portal that some band musician that he knew wanted designed. He had all my attention at this point. We talked about it at length (at least i thot' we did) and it was agreed that i would do the job for a paltry 10k, but i would then get 10k every month for updating the site. Now that sounded almost like a small salary to me! And i was in, hook, line and sinker.
A few weeks later, after being called, hustled and rushed, the site was finally done. Looked good, better than work i had b4, and i couldn't wait for the cash to start flowing in. I had been given 4k before starting with promises of more to come.
 Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The remainin 6k for the site was not 'currently' available, and the site owner had decided to go slow on the project and so there would be no further updating for a long while to come. The whole story was soundin all so Kenyan! You work, someone sits on your dues and the effort you put in doesn't seem to be appreciated that much. And as fate would have it, the months turned into years; almost 2 years to be precise. I had only 4,000 shillings to show for my efforts. My college-mate contact told me that the idea had been abandoned and i had to wait to get the remaining 6,000 shillings.
I figured, this was just one of those bad things that happen to u as you live and learn, in this classroom that is life. I just forgot about it. So, u can only imagine my surprise when one cold sunday afternoon i pass by Kenya cinema and spot a huge, triumphant banner announcing the greatest 'Entertainment portal in East africa'!! Yes, the very site that i had worked my ass off dzn'ing. A visit to the site and an email exchange later, i was in touch with the elusive local band musician whom i'd only heard about. According to him, he'd never heard about some 3rd party that had dzn'd the site and only knew of my cunning college-mate as the "greatly skilled" webdesigner that had come up with his website. Back in college a heated exchange was 2 follow, during which, my hitherto trusted contact was slingin mud in the direction of the said local artist. "He knew about u designing the site! He gave someone else the job of updating it! Do you think i would lie to you?? How long have i known you??" The spirited defense was soundin very convincing. Someone was screwing me proper. The site was littered with ads, and @ the rates he was renting this virtual real estate, i'd say i was being screwed over. My efforts at recovering some money from the whole deal started floundering. Non-replied text messages, "u will get your money.." reponses, and for sure i was fed up. That was when i remembered that i had been given the password to the site's FTP logon just after i finished the site design! That was just 2 days ago now. I thought of just deleting everything, maybe leaving a horrible message on the home page... Now it was my turn to have them by the balls! i won't even tell them what i just did. I'll just wait for 'em to come crawling back, when advertisers on the site realise that it is no longer running! As i write this post, they haven't yet, but it'll be soon! www.showbizeastafrica.com The initial site: [www.showbizeastafrica.com] Aah, the wrath of God. It spares none. Any tips from you guyz out there? Maybe i should never pick their calls and texts like they did mine? The look on their faces will be priceless. Just priceless.
The WebDoc.
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15:13
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Yep, finally! I'm wired, right here in my room in the med school hostels. That might sound rather mundane 4 yo' all in the states and stuff, lakini, over here, we are over the moon. What makes it even sweeter is that it was all the efforts of a group of us web savvy med students, who put in the extra effort... against all odds. And quite some odds they were. We had tried to get the sch admin to do it, but it sounded like.. "we've not even wired offices in the deans office, nani nyinyi?"  "we haven't thought about the hostels you live in yet, but maybe in the next few years!" Ha! I've only a few months in this joint and this was the crap they were telling me? Any how, we already had all our comps connected to a local area network and i had got a wireless router when i was in the states, so then we thot' how do we do this? hmm? Easy, there are internet points in the lib, and the lib's just across the fence, across the road, across another fence... So a few connections here and a bit of reading there, and b4 we knew it, we were off into cyberspace! So akina Clemo, Gacheru 'n everyone out there that checks out me blog, i'll do my best to keep the posts coming.. Baadayez,
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11:30
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Kenya is one amazing country and in the last few weeks it has not disappointed, not one bit. Those who’ve got their hands on John Githongo’s dossier are not doubt amazed by how rotten the corridors of power are. If you believe all that John tells us (and I haven’t any reason not to), then you’ll know that, like a fish, the rot starts at the head. Apparently, on several occasions, the president was told about the fishy goings on in some of his ministers’ dockets. He didn’t do a thing, despite clear evidence that his Ethics PS insisted he had on the matter. Personally, I don’t believe this was just part of Kibaki’s laid back style of leadership, but in fact a personal  effort at defrauding the country he swore to protect. Many times in the dossier, Kiraitu Murungi talks about the funds being needed to fund Narc activities. Dr. Murungaru is on record saying that the President himself personally sanctioned the 4.1Billion shilling (57M dollars) deal to buy naval ships from Spain. A deal that was part of the many struck with the non-existent entity, Anglo-Leasing. All those Githongo’s dossier points at are what the press refer to as Kibaki’s political pillars. It was his Vice President that made a statement in parliament claiming that Anglo-Leasing was a clean and reputable company. Only to later claim that he read was a statement written by technocrats in his ministry. It had been revealed that the cost of the project had been inflated almost 3 and a half times, and awarded to a company that did not in fact exist. Just showing how little respect politicians have for Kenyans’ intellect. The same man, according to John’s dossier, who set up a meeting at his residence to ask John, why he was investigating the issue yet the monies paid out had been returned to the Treasury.  That said, perhaps the understatement of the century must have been from one Minister for Justice, Kiraitu Murungi. At the height of the revelations about the dubious companies making deals with the govt., he chose to refer to the whole saga as a ‘scandal that never was !’ questioning the reasons for the press giving the issue such extensive coverage. It is the same ‘scandal that never was’ that led to his dismissal from the cabinet, albeit belated. Another crack head must be one David Mwiraria. Questioned on why he signed a document that would have seen Kenya lose billions of shillings to the ghost company, he proceeded to blame it on his Permanent Secretary, who had handed the said document to him to sign and he went ahead and did just that, without reading it! Yeah, he expects us to swallow that pile of utter garbage. And since he’d explained away the problem so eloquently, he didn’t see any reason to resign !! He must think we are a mob of illiterate, naïve idiots, if we are to believe a word he said. He’s no longer the Minister for Finance, but I’ll not smile until I see his short, thieving self behind bars.  Back to the Head of State. Now that things have come full circle, I don’t believe there is an ounce of sincerity in anything he does. It was only after lots of sustained pressure that he got rid of 3 ministers, although his VP is still in place, probably hoping to read another statement in parliament whose accuracy he’d careless about. I can’t wait for 2007. Certainly a red card for this govt. Next time, more on the tapes that John Githongo made of Cabinet ministers behaving badly. Peace, The WebDoc.
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2:49
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 Only in Kenya, will a drought occur every 7 or so years, without the govt. putting in place any measures to make sure that it's citizens do not succumb to the eventual famine. And so as it has happened again this year. The President sent out appeals for food donations to sort out another of our problems, that we never seem to be able to solve. So the other day, a New Zealand lady, Ms Christine Drummond, offered Kenya's starving masses 42 tonnes of dog food. Yep, Dog Food. At first glance, it sounds like a vicious joke... "You look very hungry, here, have this. I'd made for my doggy, but u seem to need it more." Ok, so maybe i'm being a bit colorful with my illustrations, but disgust was a common first reaction. It did not look good on the surface by any means. It was all over the FM station talk shows and letters to the editor. What many might not have been obvious, was that this food is actually very nutritious and loaded with proteins and vitamins, especially critical for children who are at highest risk of malnutrition. Many questioned whether being hungry and poor is reason enough to eat what is fit for dogs. On the other hand, what is in a name? Ok, so it's "dog food". Should that stop us from accepting the offer and save thousands lives? The food is hygienically packaged, highly nutritious and has been generously offered to our famine-stricken victims. The lady owns the company donating the food, and i trust, she had the best of intentions when she made the offer. Hmm? I don't know, what do you think? Drop a comment.  Is this another case of ignorant ideas about how to help 3rd world countries out of their problems, or a genuine and considerate offer of help from a kind lady, who tried to help in the best way she could? I'll let it go at that. Next time, i tell you about the resignation of our Minister for Finance. Easily the most powerful portfolio in government after the Presidency. No one resigns here, even against the most damning of evidence. Certainly a first for Kenya, as we continue the fight against official corruption. Laterz, The WebDoc, seeking dog-food recipes.
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6:43
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 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.
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2:43
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 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...  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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------... here are a few more my Kansas experiences. EnjoyInternational 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!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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..
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1:47
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 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.
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2:30
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 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.
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3:01
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
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 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'.
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2:16
From: tHE mEDiCinEmAn
Read This Entry & More At tHE mEDiCinEmAn
 ...it took me sometime to get round to writing this part of my storo's lakini,nimekuwa 'bizee' kidogo. Where was i? ..So 2 weeks later,i got back to the Registrar of Persons to pick my birth cert.I thought i should also remind you guyz how far AG's place is from the KenCom bus stop. U have to walk from Kencom to past Kenya Cinema, up the entire length of Harambee Av. b4 u get there. Any way,moving things along, i was pleasantly surprised to find that the guyz down there actually do some work. No big promises, but no big disappointments either! I did line up for almost 45 mins, and it did take them a | |
Wow, brilliant film this...
