Closing Time

So..it's been a while! I really have failed at updating this blog this year, sorry doesn't cut it. I mean 6 other entries this entire year with 2 of them only being half finished?! (I will eventually get round to typing up the rest of the Malawi travel blogs...he says.) Abysmal. I'll try harder next year....but I thought I'd squeeze one more into 2008, for the sake of it. Cheeky sod I know, it being New Year's Eve and all...but I have nothing better to do, and it seems an appropriate time for this blog and this title- I always tend to get reflective at the end of the year any-way...blame the fireworks and too much sleeping. It does seem like I only seem to post during extended holiday periods these days; partly because I lack the time, but mostly I think due to the boredom...at other times, this beast slips my mind. It would seem DJB/Taylor's last post would be quite accurate! (sorry Tayls, I would be more discerning about your anonymity, as discussed previously...but I think we passed the point of no return when a)you started videoblogging and b)joined facebook ... it's not like anybody we don't know would ever read this anyway!)

But anyway, I digress (as-usual), let's get down to business. So I kind of left it hanging last time, my bad. Well, just in case you didn't know, I've been out of bed and off the crutches for months. It was actually a remarkably speedy recovery, in terms of being able to walk normally again...I was probably at my most fed up when I wrote my last entry. On a day to day level, everything's pretty normal now...its still a little bit tighter than the other knee when kneeling, but there's no other real discernible difference. Still haven't started doing proper exercise again, it's not ready for that yet I don't think. If I'm honest, since I've been able to do my day to day routine, I've let my physio stuff slack off horrendously...it's hard to find both the time and the motivation to do it, with everything else going on. As a result, I have a feeling my fitness is a lot worse than it has been for a long time...I even get a little out of breath on hills now. I bought gym membership a while back, but, frankly, I hate the gym...however, there's little other choice if I want to get my knee back into a state where I can do more rigorous fitness related outdoors-y activities. Clearly a New Year's Resolution to be had...knee physio and gym, and then get fit.

So what else?Hmm.. You'll be glad to know I did get the write up of my project done...it wasn't as comprehensive as I had hoped, and I ended up leaving out a lot of the research points I had made, for the sake of space- but at the end of the day I got a decent mark for it, and i still have all the original research materials if I do want to go back and do a more thorough and detailed report. As a result, I'm now the proud owner of a BSc in International Health- had my graduation just under 2 weeks back! Got a 2:1, was slightly gutted seeing as I got 69%, and that was only due to some really weird/harsh marking on one assignment, but they were having none of this appealing/consideration malarkey. But at the end of the day, I'm really glad I did it, it's like I've finally got something to show for myself after 4 years of Uni, something academic and tangible. And I definitely needed the break from Medicine.

Talking about Medicine, I started back into fourth year back in August- my penultimate year of medical school. I've got to say, it's been a very different year so far in comparison to third year; the early start mixed with a plunge into the deep-end, after a week of intro, made it feel even more detached from student-life than usual. Not only was nobody else back from their holidays yet, but the fact a lot of my core teaching was happening at Jimmy's and the LGI, rather than on campus. As for the placements, they seem to be a lot more haphazard. On one hand, they've tended to be very short placements, so it was often quite hard to loose interest, and with the decent ones, they've been quite intense too...so you can pick up a lot of useful knowledge and skills in a very short period of time. On the other hand, its almost like they're too short, you've no time to settle, you have no idea where your meant to be half the time as no-one expects you to be anywhere, your not entirely sure how much your retaining, you get a flavour of a topic without getting a feel for it...its almost like your a passing ghost, with no-one paying you any mind...and still somehow, in some places, your often left hanging around doing not a lot. If I'm brutally honest, I've probably not done as much reading as I should have thus far, and may need to catch up at some point. But I do miss the large amounts of patient contact we had in third year.

Saying that, 4th year has brought some new confidence and perspective. We've finally started to do more grown up doctor things, that help keep people alive or work properly towards diagnosis and management. It's like we're finally student doctors as opposed to medical students. The first time I was forced to bag and mask, then intubate someone (sticking a tube down someones throat so they can breathe artificially) i didn't really think much of it...i just focused at doing the task at hand, but in retrospect I felt quite proud and slightly awed...I had effectively kept someone alive...that's a whole lot of responsibility. I've also now observed and helped in my first set of deliveries, most of which were c-section. It was such a bizarre feeling to be part of something so personal...and its not an understatement to say that birth is something really quite breathtaking. The point at which you first hear a baby cry, where moments ago there had been nothing but a bulged belly...wow. So yeah, I do feel slightly more doctorlike, which is a good thing I guess! Nothings really taken my fancy yet, although i did enjoy anaesthetics and, suprisingly, oncology. Currently in the middle of a psychiatry placement...interesting, but not really my cup of tea. The good thing is, most of my placements have been in Leeds, so I wasn't entirely cut off from my friends when they returned to Leeds come September.

Talking about my friends, it seems, despite the best of my efforts to the contrary, I've made some new ones. I thought I'd finally got to the point where I had more than enough close friends, and I could, to some extent, stop making the effort to get to know people...but no, more awesome people have to muscle their way into my life. Typical. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did, some of them I'm already remarkably close too, and I like having them in my life. They're important to me, and now i wouldn't go without. But it does mean more effort to keep up with people on my part, something i find myself forcing myself to do recently. To be fair, this is probably more reflective of my current state of mind. Being at home and away from Leeds, I seemed to have slipped back into my old hermit ways...sleeping most the day and not making much of an effort for anything or anyone. And while I do miss Leeds, I just can't be bothered with missing it.

Overall, on the grander scale, I think I've been doing quite well... I feel closer again to people that I was drifting away from, I have new dynamics with other friends and the n00bs know me quite well. I've even taken up more role-playing campaigns and more outings to see people and such. Still, I can see a downward slope if I don't keep an eye on things..my next placement being in Castleford doesn't help...but hey. Bridges, crossing and all that malarky. The only other thing really is it feels like my social circle is getting quite big, and inevitably, it does feel like some friends are closer than others. At times its almost feel like the group is splitting a bit and we're getting some mini-cliques... but I think I just need to adapt to more people and different dynamics...In light of everyone banding together to beat down the ridiculousness and aggression of one certain individual not so long ago, I still have faith. although I am looking forward to spending some quieter, smaller evenings with my older friends. I do wish i had been bothered to contact my school friends these holidays...but C'est la vie, my own fault for being so damn lazy. Most of my Leeds lot are actually having a house party tonight; a large part of me wishes I was there right now, but all things considered, I know home is where I need to be tonight. What I want to do and what I need to do are often two different things.

So yeah, 2009...there's going to be a lot of change in my life I think. Some of it will be active, I've made a lot of decisions recently about my academia, my social life, the way I live and the rest of it...and have resolved to make some changes. I won't post them here, because a) I don't like failing and b)some of its for me to know only...but as long as i have the guts to go through with everything, life may be very different. Other changes are more passive and inevitable... my family life will be changing hugely in the near future...how its going to effect the dynamics will remain to be seen, but a lot of time is currently going in to prepare for this change. It's odd, because so far, my family is one of the few things that has remained relatively constant. As a direct result, I'll also be moving out of my brother's place and into my own.

Big step, my first property. Something, if I'm honest, I'm really looking forward to. All the issues with my current living situation not being ideal aside, I can't help want a place of my own. It's been so long since I've really had a place to be alone, a space that belongs to me, in which I have control and can reflect in. I know that too much reflection is bad for me, but still. Right now, everywhere I go I have to deal with some kind of dynamic, be it friend or family- I'm really looking forward to not having to be around people when I don't want to be, and having some place which is actually mine. A Home in Leeds, rather than just a bed to sleep in and a room to work in. While where my mum and dad are, will always be home in one respect...my room there means nothing to me really...it's more like a loaned space. Something to call mine, that's different...both a freedom and a responsibility. Hopefully it'll make me feel more like an adult, and less like the youngest member of my family.

Any-way I'll leave it there, not quite as reflective as might like overall...too much info to catch up on...and surprisingly not in the mood to talk about the future or my feelings. I'm sure I'll post again about changes...I would say soon, but I mean next time, whenever that is! In the meanwhile... Happy New Year Everyone!

Another day that I can't find my head; My feet don't look like they're my own.

It's been over a week since coming out the hospital, so I thought I'd reflect on it. I can't say I've really done much this last week, nothing much I can do really. I suppose I should have been doing my project, though, as usual, somehow I've managed to avoid it despite nothing else to occupy me. I have been keeping up with my physio exercises, which are sometimes a bit of a struggle, but I guess no pain, no game. My favourite thing in the world right now is a frozen bag of peas (or similar), it really does help with the swelling.

Overall I've been pleasantly surprised; in a lot of ways I was expecting this whole knee thing to be a lot harder. I haven't really had any pain with it, which was surprisingly pleasant...not somatic pain any-way. Certainly not touched the boxes of codamine I carted back from the hospital with me. But instead of pain, there's a general tightness and heat with the knee, to be expected really considering the amount of inflammation. The resulting restrictive dull ache you get is the type you can generally ignore while you run off pulled muscle while you warm up for a match. The kind of ache you get on your third evening of a Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition, which you block out because you know its not important.

And while I'm usually quite good at dealing with that kind of sensation, the problem presents with the period of time. When you know there's an end in sight, its easy to focus it away, but after several days of the same ache, without any reprieve, it becomes much harder to do so. It's not so much the ache itself so much as it's constant nature, unrelenting and inevitable...slowly gnawing away at resolve. Gnawing is the right word, it's gnawing in every respect...like an itch you just can't quite get at, making it hard to sleep or function. And that's how I've felt..in part. The whole experience thus far has been a bit schizophrenic really....which makes it all the more annoying. The first couple of days were easy enough, with me simply ignoring the inconvenience; but after that it started to get to me a bit, like Chinese water torture. Coupling this with the my actual physical limitations at the moment...the inability to move anywhere at will, the dependency on crutches, the increased transit time for everything, the discomfort of being in any one position for too long, the simple inability to move my leg where I want it...it all somehow merges into this immensely annoying, tight restrictive situation. The feeling of powerlessness that comes when your unable to go fetch yourself a glass of water is profound.

But I think I'm making this sound worse than it is. Like I said, schizophrenic...some mornings I still wake up with all the juice and determination of a Shonen-Jump character, vowing to overcome my circumstances in a feel good way that no-one could ever top...Or at least I think about how I can easily do this, and that my leg's going to be as good as new eventually, noting the swelling has gone down and my stability has improved; Which it has...there's no doubt things have improved as far as my leg's concerned, since I've come home. Other days, I really can't bring myself to drag myself out of bed...thinking about how little I can do anyway, that I got no sleep because this damn aching won't stop, and how I seem to have hit a brick wall in terms of progress, with the inflammatory bruising getting worse. Or worse still, I start to worry about damaging the graft, and permanently screwing up my chances for a normal leg...I mean it would be easily done in these first few weeks without me noticing. Sometimes I just want it over with, half joking to myself about getting a wheelchair, and moving on in life...but I get over that thought pretty quickly.

It does give me a new found appreciation of people with chronic pain and/or permanent mobility disabilities...I mean this is but a minor watered down taster of the kind of life an amputee with phantom limb syndrome. I honestly am amazed how they can find the strength and sheer force of will to go on with their day to day lives...People say you have to cope, but honestly...sometimes it feels like you don't. Living years with this kind of gnawing growing pain...honestly, I couldn't have begun to imagine what that was like before..I may have sympathised, but now I guess I can actually empathise. This almost sounds like a "Personal and Professional Development" journal...and I thought I'd finished with those last year!

But yeah, other than my random mood swings, I've been generally ok... I think its a bit of an odd time for most the family. My mum, especially, is having a hard time with it I think. She's trying to help a lot, doing things for me, but in doing so is making me feel a little bit like an invalid...(patient autonomy and all that)...I've snapped at her a few times when I know I really shouldn't have... Just providing a channel for frustration rather than anything else, and it was unfair on her... she's trying to make things easier after all.

Saying that, I'm doing a lousy job of getting on with things, not really made any progress with my project write up yet, and I've opted to spend much of these last few days backing up my hard drive and watching Frasier reruns on paramount comedy (enough to lift anyone's spirits! if only for a bit!). Saying that I am doing my exercises regularly and in the right amounts...I'm hoping I'll feel like doing more once some of the swelling goes down. I've decided finishing my travel journal won't happen this holiday, I'll type it up at some point after my project deadline...I've promised myself it's not going to end up unfinished like my Peruvian equivalent...whether this holds true is another matter.

What's My Age Again?

So I've just got out the hospital...well came home last night. While I'm definitely pleased to be discharged, my stay in the plastered white and green halls weren't too unpleasant...I certainly remember having worse, even if I was very young at the time. It was certainly weird being there as a patient, after being so used to being on the other side of the fence. It was interesting viewing the whole power dynamic from the inside though...white coat syndrome really does have a significant effect; it's hard to overstate the degree to which these patients feel totally reliant on health professionals, and as such feel reluctant to ask for more or question anything, no matter how innocent or trivial the question is. I mean I'm a medical student, and as such my knowledge on the topic gave me some power to question. But beyond this, the other health professionals to some extent treated me with slightly more openness, perhaps even caution, as they understood that I understood what they were saying; nevertheless I felt the effect of the inherently weighted relationship, and at many times hesitated to ask a question I know I should ask. I mean even little things like asking a nurse to change my drip bag; when everybody walks around with such purpose and so self absorbed, you feel like it'd be an imposition to ask, after they've done so much already and without a functional leg you can do little yourself or help them in any way. Even when you remind yourself it's their job, it doesn't come easy by any means...I can only imagine it gets harder the more elderly you get, with people, particularly in hospitals, treating you with more casual disregard.

Some of the health professionals don't help things either. There was one particular consultant that I saw once on the ward, who was bitter, sardonic and very dismissive...much like a less attentive and more effortless House. And while I enjoy House as a TV character, in real life it was not at all funny, in fact it was quite quietly horrifying. The gentleman he spoke to was acting quite a bit like a schoolchild being scowled at by his headmaster, while the consultant treated the elderly gent more like a disobedient half deaf dog...and despite this the patient was brave enough to stutter a few questions that were obviously important to him, and quite sensible too, only to be batted away and ignored. once the consultant left, I made a point of talking to the patient, who expressed the exasperation of his situation...claiming all he wanted to know was what was going on with his tests, and why he was still here- which is surely reasonable enough?! It's not like he was a heavily confused half sedated guy with dementia; he was clearly very alert, even astute and intelligent, and just wanted some clarification on his situation. Even if they hadn't much to tell him yet, they could have at least have told him that; he certainly would have appreciated it. But despite all this the patient didn't feel right raising the issue with the doctor, and opted to stay quiet...it really speaks volumes in itself.

Honestly, I'm glad that doctor wasn't MY consultant. Unfortunately I didn't see many other health professionals, mostly likely on account it was a weekend admission, and hospitals run on skeleton staff on the weekend. The surgeon who did my operation, who I have met on a number of occasions and is a thoroughly nice bloke, came to see me a few hours after the operation on Friday. Though his timing was impeccable, turning up just as the morphine's side-effects kicked it, with me spewing up half a litre of crystal clear water just as I sat up to listen to him. Needless to say he skedaddled off! The only other doctor I saw was the on-call resident who I saw very very briefly on Saturday night...not surprising really, I imagine there's not much to do on an orthopaedic ward with no new admissions, but from what I saw the on-call guy seemed like a nice enough guy; he even answered a question I had about anti-inflammatories.

The nurses were also a bit of a mixed bag. They seemed to be split between 3 groups, those who were really really motivated, and clearly cared a lot and tried to be as considerate as possible, those who appeared to hate their job and did everything with an air of disdain, complaining at anything and everything, and those who were always very pleasant but when it came down to it, didn't really care about anything other than their tea breaks and getting through the day. Or so was my very judgemental, drug tinged window on the staff during 3 days. I suspect the first group cover the vast majority of nurses in the NHS, however, again being the weekend, the proportionality wasn't there due to the lower numbers. Regardless of who you ended up speaking to though, you generally had to ask for things at least a couple of times, simply due to the fact they were doing more than one thing at once, and it was easy to let something slip from their mind. This was particularly true with regards to my fluid drip, which I had to keep pointing out was running out...I eventually started switching the tap of myself, and would have happily replaced the bag myself if they'd left me one. But for obvious and sensible reasons I think that's against hospital policy, and exception making isn't a good thing to start. The post op physio for the ward was actually fantastic, really nice guy who clearly enjoyed his job, with a knack for it...being able to motivate through his dry, yet encouraging, wit. I was actually very impressed.

So what did I actually during my stay? I can confidently say, not a lot. The ward was relatively quiet, with me the only gentleman under the age of 50. There was about 5 other men on the ward, all quite elderly. This coupled with my severe mobility problems and my complete reliance on others to bring me food and the such, made me feel like I should have been a lot older, both reflecting on how out of place I was in context, and the fact, surely I shouldn't be in such a state at such an age...it doesn't seem to fit. But I guess that's life, anything can happen to anyone! I didn't really talk much to the other patients save the gent in the bed next to me. He was an incredibly friendly and genuinely nice bloke, who was really intelligent. We talked about all sorts of things, and he told me stories of his past, with him seeming to have lived a very exciting life, with even a bit of a wild youth. Most interestingly he'd also had problems with his knee from his 20s and he'd been into hospital a number of times, and it was interesting to here exactly how the hospital itself had changed, as-well as the medical profession. it's hard to believe patients used to be given Guinness and cigarettes on the ward not so long ago, and that doctors used to have drinking problems and gambling problems without being pulled out of practice or red-flagged by colleagues.

So yeah, I guess I spent a fair time speaking to him over the weekend as a whole. I brought a novel to read and my work to do, but I didn't end up touch either. Most of Friday was spent asleep after all, and Saturday was split between exercising my leg and sleep, and Sunday was more of a half day. My parents and my brother came to visit multiple times, which was nice. My other brother also phoned on my bedside phone thing, which was considerate. I only used it once to call out, due to it being quite expensive; there was also a screen attached which had pay-per view TV and internet...again very expensive. Capitalising on the boredom of bed-ridden hospital patients I guess! I used the internet very briefly for 20 minutes, but couldn't be bothered with the TV...opting for sleep instead. The food was surprisingly ok, you occasionally got something quite nasty, but then you usually got something quite nice to counter it. It was certainly nice you had a choice and a menu; I quite enjoyed the cups of vanilla ice-cream for desert. I also drank more hot chocolate this weekend than in the rest of the year, with the hot drinks trolley coming by approximately every2 hours.

All in all I was definitely looking forward to going home, mostly due to the boredom, but also the desire to sleep in my own bed, have some more privacy, and eat home cooked food. Getting into the car was a bit of a comedy moment, as my leg was still in the splint, and they insisted on wheeling me down, despite the fact I now had my crutches and can use them. But I have certainly enjoyed this last day at home more, even if it has a lot photos being taken of me on crutches...I mean what's so interesting about a bandage and some crutches I ask you? It's not like I've now got some cybernetic leg....if only. But yeah, it's definitely been a learning experience. Fingers crossed I'll take some of the lessons across with me to my practice of medicine!

Laptops and Retail Stores

I know this isn't my usual style of post....no song lyric or video or general narrative on my life, thus somehow not a proper update...but I had a few musings while out today, so I thought I'd write them down....


I'm sure most of you know by now, but in case you didn't...my beloved laptop, Pedro, unceremoniously died of an electrical fault at the end of this last academic year (quite conveniently just after handing in my last assignment for the term...though there were troubling signs while I was writing it; clearly luck was on my side). So I sent it off for warranty fix-ation through PC world (whose online store I bought it from) about a month before heading to Malawi. The "Tech Guys" who had been handling it had been pretty ok to be fair; they phoned me about once a week to let me know what was going on. It took them about 3 weeks to let me know what the exact problem was, but that didn't bother me so much, seeing as a)I already had deduced what the problem was but didn't have the parts or money to fix it myself and b)I imagine they constantly have a number of weeks of backlog to catch up on.

Any-way last I heard was the laptop would be returned about the same time as I arrived back from Malawi, as they were awaiting a part order, I.e. my new motherboard. However on my return it would appear they got in contact while I was away, saying that the motherboard and the model of laptop I had are both out of production and as a result I should pick out a replacement equivalent laptop from my local PC world store. So I phoned them and a very helpful lady explained exactly what the swap process entails, as-well explaining that they've had 300 sendbacks on the same model for the same fault (you would have thought they'd just stop selling it...I'm surprised nothing came up on customer reviews when I looked up the model on the internet!). But most importantly she sent me back my hard-drive from my old laptop, intact and unwiped, free of charge. Win. The hard-drive as-well as the 7 quid 2.5inch sata to USB HD enclosure I ordered off amazon has already arrived, and upon testing it works...so not only have I got all my data still, I effectively got a portable 120GB harddrive for 7 quid...certainly the best I could have hoped for given the situation.

Any-way, the relevance of all this is that today, I went to the PC World in Doncaster in order to pick out my replacement...which, while taking longer than expected, was an interesting experience. The prices were generally about 10% marked up from their internet store, which while annoying (since I wasn't allowed to buy my replacement online due to the logistics), was tempered by the fact I could pick a machine of equivalent price...so being 6 months on I should get a better machine, even considering the fact I got a pretty good deal on Pedro. So I stood there analysing the machines in my price range for a good hour or so, like a sensible little consumer. Inevitably a number of shop assistants approached me in that time, and I politely brushed them off with a smile and a "just looking thankyou" as I always do, secretly wishing they would leave me alone, and cynically believing they probably know less about computers than I do.

However after rounding my options down to 3 machines (well maybe 4, but mostly 3..) I became stuck, due to lack of technical specs. So I wearily approached the closest shop assistant and asked questions I fully well didn't expect him to know the answers to. And he didn't, but what I was surprised about that he had a clue what I was talking about..and was being genuinely friendly, rather than mock-sales assistant friendly. While he couldn't reel off the specs I wanted off the trop of his tongue, he did make his case in that he said not many people ask about that kind of thing, thus there was no point remembering it, which I can imagine to be true- especially coupled with the number of machines here...He was being pretty straight forward about it, which I was impressed at. And what he did do, was go away and in a couple of minutes come back with printed full list technical specifications of all 3 machines, which was especially useful. And upon expressing doubts about the video card specs, he actually ran some benchmarking programs to see how good they were. Impressive, most impressive. While we waited we also ended up talking about animé as-well as computers, which was nice (I was wearing my animesoc hoodie, which he noticed, himself being a fan, little younger than me and still doing graphic design and animation at uni).

My point being that it was a pleasant buying experience...and I don't have many of those, and also it was at PC world, the place I always expect so little from in terms of customer service. It really did seem odd enjoying picking out a computer and meeting a genuine computer salesperson, who knew what he was on about and was enjoyable to converse with...I mean, hath hell frozen over?! When I did eventually pick out the model, it turned out that only the display model was left, but since it seemed to b in good nick and the battery hadn't been used, I decided to go with it anyway...unfortunately this meant they had to do a master reset, which would take a couple of hours...it actually turned out to take more than a couple of hours, but they were quite busy, so I felt less inclined to blame them, even if that didn't make the last hour or so drag less.

I spent most of this waiting wandering around PC world browsing, as-well as venturing to the other nearby shops in this retail outlet, making random observations as I went. The first shock to the system was the PC games aisle. It seems to me the price of games has plummeted...never would have I thought I would see a brand new copy of FarCry for 99p in PC- World, and not even on special offer or in the bargain bin. I know its a few years old now, but 99p is something else...and there were dozens of other games, decent high selling games, between 1 and 4 years old, which were selling for under 5 quid...in PC world....Another one of my retail perceptions shattered. even the brand new games were £25 or £30...console games varied much more, ps2 prices finally seeming to drop a bit as a result of the ps3, but still not going much under 15 quid for even the poorest of titles. I was quite tempted to pick up MGS4, as it lay there in front of me, but it would've been pointless with no access to the PS3 to play it on.

Upon eventually exhausting PC world, I reluctantly wandered into the Comet next door, as I felt I may get a little more consumer hassle. It was empty...I mean, t was full of electronics, crammed full in fact...barely enough room to walk between shelves...but there were no people, none at all...and this was retail primetime. It wasn't a small store, but I was pretty sure I was the only one in there...all I could hear was the hum of electronical equipment, fridge freezers and the air conditioning joining together in unison. I counted about 8 members of retail staff, they weren't really wandering around- just standing there in silence or quietly talking to a colleague...I've no idea how the store was still running- they even looked mildly surprised to see me. Inevitably I got a few "do you need any help?"s, but after a brushed a couple aside I think the others got the message. As much as I don't particularly like busy shops, the extent of quietness freaked me out a little, and I found myself making the quickest possible cursory glance through every aisle, not really looking, before hastily walking out the shop in what seemed a normal and collected manner, but was in my mind a near-sprint.

Curry's was a little more like retail reality, less busy than PC world, but still busy...I generally spent my time admiring the big screen HD TVs. The staff here were quite surprising though, they seemed not to notice me, which I didn't mind at all...but what surprised me was their age...they all looked about 18, perhaps younger in some cases. I don't know about you, but I've always thought of curries as the kind of store that has middled aged sales assistants; the kind of half-way not quite got to a retail manager kind of person. But the staff on the whole was exceptionally young, and there seemed to be a semi-arrogance attached to them as a result, with them talking and jeering amongst themselves happily ignoring the customers. The kind of attitude you get from a group 8 or 9 Year 10 boys who are hanging outside a cinema or on the corner of a street outside their school. I mean what's happened to the middle-aged electronic store retail assistant!? It's an institution...it seems the workforce is getting younger and younger in a heavily ageing Britain...I suppose its cheaper that way!

Upon eventually picking up my ready to go home computer, I filled out the mountains of relevant paperwork associated with a warranty swap; and gladly departed the retail outlet after far too many hours there. I'm currently typing this up on the new machine, which I'm generally very happy with. While the screen isn't as big or as nice, the specs generally are better (with the exception of the graphics card) and the laptop as a whole seems better built...sturdier, but not ugly, just slightly more low key.It certainly seems to cope with vista a lot better...that extra gig of ram really makes all the difference. Though I've still set everything up like windows 95...it's less fussy that way. Despite not being a packard bell, I've still decided to call him Pedro2...for the simple fact it goes with my p-theme for my phone (pablo) and my ipod (picasso)...incidentally, they all have a semi-matt black finish now too...certainly not intentional believe me, but still kind of nice. And now I've realised how much I've ranted, and this was meant to be quick post with a few random thoughts >.<

I guess me and short and blog don't gel! Well Pedro the Second and I are signing off for now...that travel blog will come eventually.

Malawi Travel Blog 2

These journal entries shall include details of my actual *travelling*
exciting stuff i know.
Coming Soon (ish)

Malawi Travel Blog 1

Day 1 (6/6/08) 2115 (Local/UK)

So here I am, waiting to get my plane to Addis Ababa… Am I feeling nervous? I guess…a calm sort of nervous though. I think I’m psyching myself into the whole reflective field analyst thing… The excitement I was feeling yesterday has kind of died…I’m sure it’ll surge up again when that warm Malawian breeze hits me.

The day’s gone remarkably quickly to say I’ve done very little. I usually find the journey down to the airport takes forever unless I’ve got company, but I didn’t this time. Not to say it wasn’t boring. After doing my last minute things, like double checking my bag and showering (nothing like a farewell shower…) I left the house at 130ish, and waited at Doncaster train station, somewhat aware of my huge rucksack, eventually catching the remarkably prompt 1415 to London’s Kings Cross. I aimed to sleep through this first leg and for once succeeded… Upon arriving in London, I had to navigate the hell that is the London Underground. As if this confusing mess of colours and tubes wasn’t bad enough, there were complications...

Yep, you’ve guessed it, delays… Not to strengthen the stereotype of Asians and bombs too much, it does seem me coming to London, particularly the London Underground, fares too well… When backpacking in Europe in 2005, the first leg of the journey was also down to Kings Cross and through the tube. It was the 6/7/05…yeah, literally the day before the 7/7 bombings in remarkably similar locations. I still thank God that I hadn’t been there the day before. This time it was an unexploded WW2 bomb the police had found, which led to closure of one of the lines I could take and severe delays on the other two. To add to problems a burst water main had cut off my equivalent bus route. Fantastic.

But all’s well that ends well…after waiting 40 or 50 minutes, which involved me pacing up and down platforms trying to find out what was happening (The Fitness to Practice Guys ain’t wrong about the Underground Staff…) I eventually got on a City-Line train to Paddington, where I caught a very swish Heathrow Express to the airport.

I somehow managed to go through check in remarkably quickly, perhaps half an hour if that, and encountered no real problems (I had to throw away my expensive dermatological shampoo because it was 125ml instead of 100mls in volume, but hey…it’s shampoo…) This left me with approximately 4 hours to my flight!

So how did I kill them? To be fair, I’m not sure… I texted a few people while pacing around…called a few other people, and faffed about with the camera my brother’s lending me (I tried taking some myspace style self-portraits and failed horribly…I’ve yet to decided whether I class this as a good thing or not…either way, clearly I need more practice) I also had a nice light dinner at Yo Sushi, which surprisingly wasn’t any more expensive than it’s Leeds equivalent. The whole airport area stuck me as condensed Leeds actually…Borders, Starbucks, Yo Sushi, WhSmiths, a bagel shop, TGI Fridays, O Neills, random clothes shops (as-well as the usual duty free affair..); it seemed like an airport designed by Kate. I Didn’t Spend much time in the shops…especially after I found out that Dixons was charging 5 times the going rate for a normal 2GB SD card…yikes!

Any-way that’s pretty much it… I found my Gate with no problems and am currently waiting to board…We’re already past scheduled departure time…oh dear. Well I’ll see you at the other end of this flight, lots of reading and sleep to be had.


Day 2 (7/6/08) 0700 (UK) 0900 (Local)

So here I am again, this time waiting for my plane to Lilongwe at Airport Gate 5 of Addis Ababa International Aiport. Only should have half an hour or so to wait, since my first plane arrived and departed an hour late. Tried texting home with no success…picking up signal, it just won; send texts. I hope this is an Ethiopia thing, and it’ll resolve once I’m in Malawi. O2 promised me that they had lifted the international bar on my sim and that the handset would work fine over here. Then again that’s what 3 said about my phone when I took it to Peru…Let’s not hope for a repeat performance. Briefly looked at SD cards, no cheaper than the UK really…if I need a spare one, I think I’ll be looking outside an airport.

The journey over here was pleasant enough…It was an older plane, everything looked a little less shiny, had a slight yellow taint and rattle about on take off. Though when it was in the air it was smooth enough. I was most impressed by the seat upholstery,.. Ethiopian airlines saying no to neutral greys and pastel colours… I particularly like the crazy patterns.

One thing that did strike me on the plane…the entire staff was African. Now I know this sounds stupid, and captain obvious would happily point out that the fact it is an African airline flying to Africa. But even still, it was a bit of a culture shock. I mean I’ve been used to being served by a majority Caucasian staff all my life, especially in the airline business. Not to stereotype too much, but it’s generally tall slender Caucasian ladies and handsome Caucasian gents…even when flying to India or the middle east or south America, this demographic still seemed to make up most the crew… I guess it was the first real indication that I’m going to Africa.

The flight itself was pretty boring.. I tried to get some sleep, but it was patchy at best. Ironically I think I sleep better when I feel movement like in a car or a train. Of course multiple children crying through the night is hard to ignore, even if the children aren’t your own. I was contemplating striking up a conversation with the interesting Ethiopian lady sitting next to me, but much like the rest of the plane she seem pretty focused on getting sleep; so I was spared that monumental first social hurdle…it always takes a while to get used to speaking to strangers again…

The in-flight entertainment was some bad 90s movie with Queen Latifah and what I thought at first was Dick Van Dyke, but alas turned out not to be. There was also a Katie Holmes look a like, or perhaps even Katie Holmes with curly hair, who knows…( and frankly who cares..) It also seemed to be playing off VHS, lines and all. I hadn’t seen a VHS movie in so long, II forgot it had its own crappy charm. As sorely tempted as I was , I vouched for (non-existent) sleep.

The on-board meal was surprisingly good. I got one of those special halal affairs, chicken khorma and pea rice. As much as I would have liked to have tried something more Ethiopian, it was welcome enough, if slightly salty. Breakfast was your usual continental affair.

Overall I was generally impressed, the service was pretty much as any other flight I’d been on; courteous staff and not skimping on anything. I’m glad I didn’t go with a more expensive equivalent.

Addis Ababa airport seems pretty sparse, but it’s pretty in a minimalistic way…kinda like a construct from the Matrix. It’s when that slightly warm tepid breeze hits you that you know your not in Kansas anymore...The southern hemisphere humidity takes a little getting used to, but I’m sure I’ll cope. Right now it’s pretty pleasant.

Oh and now they’re boarding for my flight! Convenient timing…I’ll see you when I get there!

(7/6/08) 1530 (UK) 1630 (Local)

So I’m currently on a 4 hour coach journey to Blantyre…My flight to Lilongwe was pretty uneventful. Surprisingly I managed to sleep through the vast majority of this flight, despite the fact it was only 3 and a half hours long and during daylight. We did get lunch though, and I got my wish for something more Ethiopian. A weird, but surprisingly tasty spinach and tomato quiche like thing (and chips). Desert was also bizarre, a bitter-sweet banana soup…that’s the only way I can describe it, yummy though!

Landed down in Lilongwe about 40 minutes late, seems the permanent delay on my life at the moment. I walked off the plane to a surprise; no linking corridor, straight onto a dry sandy runway, warm breeze blowing…however I’ve done this before,., it was the fact that I was surrounded by miles of savannah and tropical trees and plants. After taking a short bus ride to the terminal, I soon realized how colourful everything was, I was expecting all browns and greens, but I was wrong. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on hand at the time. The airport was nice in a completely different way to Addis Ababa…it was small and homely, all fake wood effect and imitation leather, with a guy standing around in a leather jacket vaguely checking passports and waving people by as a form of security.

My baggage came through without problems; Ethiopian Airlines 1, Air Canada 0 .
After going through the most casual custom check ever. I found my pick up no problems. Te driver Didn’t speak much English, but he did his best to try answer my questions and we had a few laughs along the way.

Soon enough we were at my contact’s son-in-law’s place (Just to note now, I’m going to avoid using real names for this blog unless I’ve somehow asked explicit consent prior..). It was pretty impressive, a garden- well kept, quite a big building,, a complex out back, several cars..it could have been California if not for the sand dust driveway and the barb wired lined walls.

The inside was even more impressive, widescreen TV, leather sofas, multiple bathrooms all tiled and plumbed. When I realized they had servants and the enclosement outback was for them, I couldn’t help but think it smacked a little of colonialism...i.e the remnant of the “ideal” lifestyle and it’s trappings that we had left as an imprint among the native people. But I’m not here to judge, in fact I’m hardly in a position to do so considering I’m from the UK and living a similar style of life myself, minus the servants. I’m sure he worked hard to obtain the life he has and he seemed to treat his help well enough.

The man himself was very friendly and hospitable, welcoming me immediately. The afternoon passed quickly, with a lot of conversation. This guys spoke perfect English pretty much; even his 3 year old daughter seemed completely bilingual, and had very advanced speech for her age, speaking in completely sensible and relevant, grammatically correct sentences (they nicked named her Tutu, she was entirely adorable and very affectionate, even to strangers..) This really hit home how much of gateway to empowerment education is, perhaps more so than wealth, although it’s hard to tell as the two often go hand in hand. His wife, my contact’s daughter, told me about her plans to go study in the UK. She already had an MA in accounting, but clearly she wasn’t finished yet.

The guy was pretty well traveled too, both within Africa and further abroad. He had visited the UK a number of times on account of him having relatives there. We ended up talking about each other’s countries, sports, politics, culture, food, media, history- you name it we taked about it. All the while we were watching the Hilary Clinton stuff on his satellite TV, which seemed kind of odd after discussing the lack of international news that reaches Malawi and it’s people- wealth makes exceptions I suppose.

Any-way apart from that I ate my second lunch with their family, rice and curries, not too different from home. Though clearly Malawian rice is a different grain to what I’m used to…tasy though. I also grabbed a shower and got driven around town to convert some money and buy a coach ticket. 295 Kw to the pound, not bad considering you can get meals out for 100-150Kw.

Then around 4pm I said a fond farewell to the family to catch the bus. I can’t help but think that this would be the perfect example of a future family of Malawi…it actually turned out that the guy was a civil engineer, so he got well off by helping build the infrastructure of Malawi and helping those more in need than himself. So despite remnants of the old imperial style household, it seems there’s plenty to feel good about; smaller, more educated, forward looking families, looking to the economic and structural future of Malawi. I guess you could argue whether this is desirable or not, on the basis it may lead to the sacrifice of more traditional culture bases…I’m not sure yet, as far as I can see the two kinds of living could well be married, and perhaps with time (and more money), the concept of a subservient population will die away…it’d be nice to see it in my lifetime, But I’m not naive enough to think that’s plausible.
Any-way I’m going to stop writing on the bus, it makes me feel odd…as in slightly queezy.

(7/6/08) 2200 (UK) 2300 (Local)

So my third entry- what can I say, It’s been a busy day... The coach journey was uneventful. I spent the daylight part trying to take pictures through the window. Obviously the extra layer of glass and movement meant perpetually blurred pictures, with the blue reflections of the curtain occasionally creeping in, but I think I still got some pictures worth keeping.

The scenery was really beautiful, stretching fields and trees and dusty hills. There’s always something happening by the side of the road as-well, people carrying things on bikes, bartering, mother and children fetching water. I was stunned by how quickly in turned dark…absolute high sun at5, pitch black at 6. By 7 the previous bustling streets are dead, no people, no cars, no lights…complete silence. The night sky more than makes up for it though; it’s completely filled to the brim with stars. Full of constellations I’m not even used to seeing, shining bright. It really does seem, like every inch is covered, and the crescent moon seems more horizontal than vertical, which just pushes it right onto the bizarre scale.

Talking about bizarre. The in-coach entertainment was just a bit. At first they were blaring the best of Westlife over the speakers, while the TV played the accompanying videos. But thankfully after a little while they switched to a slightly less annoying loop of about 7 hiphop videos… However occasionally these were broken up by trailers for what I assume to be the local film industry movies, Malawi’s answer to Bollywood…They were horrifically entertaining, all seeming to feature the same actors and having such great titles as “When God, Says Yes!”, “Romantic Affection” and “Arrested By Love”, not to mention every one was described to be full of “drama, suspense, action and intrigue”… sheer brilliance!

Any-way after falling asleep again, I finally arrived in Blantyre around 9pmm, where my contact picked me up. We were talking all the way back in the car, he seems like a genuinely lovely bloke, whose passionate about NGO work. Before long we were at his son’s house, which was much like his son-in-law’s place only slightly bigger. Soon I was inside and completely at ease, eating a home made meal (noodles with halaal beef mince) and watching the turkey VS Portugal match via satellite with my contact, his son and one of his son’s friends. It almost felt like I was back in England; it could’ve been any-one’s house. There was one difference however…during the match there was a lively discussion going on about Malawi’s economy. It was really interesting stuff, apparently the son works for an oil company, and details aside, the main focus was about economic and structural change from within multi-nationals vs taking a bottom-up grass roots approach, starting at micro-management. There was clearly a very real and genuine, but not at all hostile, debate going on between father and son here, it just struck me as something we don’t do very often in the UK, debate seriously…Particularly if there’s football to be watched. But more importantly, I think it really shows through that a lot of people that a lot of people are thinking, and thinking hard, about the future of Malawi and the direction it should take, and that can’t be a bad thing.

After the footy I decided to wish everyone goodnight. Since, I’ve put up my insecticide treated net to keep the mosquitoes out and now I’m ready to hit the sack…my contacts coming round early tomorrow to pick me up…
We’re going to Mangochi, hopefully the last bit of major traveling I’ll have to do for a while…fun stuff.

Day 3 (8/6/08) 2200 (UK) 2300 (Local)

It’s been a long day if relatively laid back compared to the hectic traveling of the previous two. Last night I slept like a baby (I even had a number of surreal dreams involving pretty much everyone I Know in Leeds, and a number of people who aren’t even in Leeds anymore- for some reason my dreams always become a lot more vivid when I’m traveling), to awake at the reasonable hour of 8am. After sorting through all my things for another journey and freshening up, I went to have breakfast with my contact’s son. Fried eggs and chips, an odd, but delicious start to the day. I also tried Malawian “Chumba” tea…it was much like the PG-tips style of tea only slightly more bitter…while not unpleasant ?I don’t think I’ll become an avid fan… I mean it’s not Coca Tea or Jasmine Tea or even Green Tea. All the while we had a general conversation about life, jobs, general interests…the standard affair… BBC World new was on in the background, and this is when I heard about the horrible incident in Akihabra. I Don’t really know what to say, other than how horrifying such random and terrible acts of violence are. It inevitably made me wonder how Jess and Tony were doing, and then the Animesoc as a whole for that matter.

Any-way after a little more relaxing, my contact swing by around 10am and we headed to the bus station to catch the mini-bus to Mangochi. The Word mini is truly applicable, they were basically old converted combo-style vans, much like the equivalent transports in Peru (and they also stop anywhere on the road like their Peruvian counterparts). With no real timetable, it seems these simply go as soon as the bus is packed, and I mean sardine-style packed. Though even with my massive bag I was relatively comfortable, particularly considering the journey was just shy of 4 hours long. The bus actually had to be pushed to get it going, but once it was going boy did it go. It was like being in a tiny-tin rollercoaster, I imagine the suspension gave out years ago.

The journey itself was pleasant enough and passed relatively rapidly. I was chatting away to my contact for most of it; talking about health systems and development, exchanging ideas and discussing issues both in general and more specific to Malawi. It was refreshing to get a different view of things, especially from somebody who is working on the ground. Remarkably we seemed to agree on a lot of things, though a lot o grey crept in when we started thinking about financial emphasis on different aspects and how to balance issues. It was interesting to learn that bicycles, which are seen in abundance on the road, actually cost 7000-8000 Kw, where the average income of the a villager is only 100 Kw per day. Even this bus-ride I was taking cost 780 Kw, despite being one of the most important trade routes in the country.

The scenery en route was beautiful, much more forested and colourful than the journey between Lilongwe and Blantyre. But being stuck in the middle of the crowded bus, I didn’t even try and take any photos. With the windows open and a warm breeze blowing it was a most relaxing journey. There was also the most beautiful bald baby girl sitting next to me in a frilly lime green dress- she had the most curious wide eyed stare I’d ever seen, far too cute…needless to say she provided me with much amusement throughout the journey.

Upon arriving in Mangochi the first thing I noticed was how busy and bustling the streets are…constantly full of people, market stalls everywhere- selling everything any anything. It made for a really lively and colorful scene. However we passed through and headed straight for my contacts house here, which is about 5 minutes from the main street, within the enclosed hospital encampment (his wife is a nurse).

After meeting the rest of his family and having a traditional Malawian lunch (which was very similar to Indian cooking with rice and an oil based chicken curry, though the salad was different being fried cabbage in a spiced tomato-pulp sauce, all very delicious!) I got shown to my accommodation, which is the medical student hostel just 2 minutes away, still in the enclosure. When I saw my room I was blown away… almost twice as big as my room in Leeds, double bed, huge wardrobe, table, chair, desklamp, mosquito net, ceiling fan, meshed windows and a clean ensuite bathroom ( with a working fixed shower, flushing toilet and sink/mirror), and all for just over 3 quid a night! If it had an internet connection I’d consider it to be perfect!

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful, spent either relaxing in the courtyard or buying a few essentials from the market. Unfortunately I didn’t get he chance to do a proper exploration, but preliminary highlights include a local cinema made entirely of thatch and bamboo with the projectionist sitting on the roof, and the epically named Dr.Hard’s Stationary Store, which is more amusing than it has any right to be…it seems so intrinsically Engrish even if it doesn’t meet the actual criteria

About 6pm I met, seemingly the only other occupant of the hostel, a recently qualified Malawian doctor who is doing a community based management placement. With the Malawian medical course only being 4 years long, it actually only made him a year older than me. He speaks perfect (American) English and we hit it off almost immediately. Clearly a very down to earth, intelligent guy, he seemed relieved there was another young person about as he was bored out of his skull. After a few minutes we decided to head to a local restaurant for some dinner. We were talking the whole way, though I’m not sure what about- it was the kind if casual friendly banter with no actual content, that I’m used to enjoying with friends back home. It was a welcome relief from the interesting, but intensive, intellectual conversations I’d been having so far.
Upon getting to the restaurant we promptly ordered our food and sat down to watch the Euro 2008 Croatia match, but just as-soon as the match was about to stat, the power cut out. After a bit of confusion in the dark, we went to the tables outside and sat by candle-light as the chef now cooked on an open fire outback all within sight. Obviously this meant our food was longer to come, but there was no rush. We spent the next 3 hours drinking coca-cola and eating in the orange glow while talking to the locals. He was trying to sweet-talk one of the waitresses which amused me no end. I also finally managed to try the national dish, nsiem- which is white maize starch rolled up into balls which you break up with you hands and dip into dishes. It was very soft and dough-y and very yummy indeed. I had it with a spicy bean dip, that was almost Mexican in nature, as-well as spinach…I say you dip it, but its more like naan bread in that it’s used to pick up whatever’s in the plate. It was very enjoyable, and like a true tourist I took a photo of it.

Come half 9ish we decided to head back and had the accommodation warden come pick us up in an ambulance/mobile clinic, which was novel to say the least. Since then I’ve done little other than take a shower. The crickets are chirping outside, which I’m finding surprisingly relaxing…I would have thought the constant noise would annoy me, but apparently not. Overall I’m quite happy with my home for the next 15 days…it definitely could be far worse… I better be off to bed actually, up at 7ish to see people tomorrow morning (believe it or not most Malawians are awake by 5, so 7 is late, crazy people) I really nee to get used to this whole sleeping early/waking early thing…so not me! Oh well, Night.

Day 4 (9/6/08) 1900 (UK) 2000 (Local)

So today’s been pretty relaxing. Had yet more strange drams last night… I think it’s going to become a regular fixture. Up at 7 and after a cold shower ( my hot water wasn’t working) I went round to my contact’s place. Soon we were out on the road; first stop the Southern Malawian Water Board to have a little discussion with the project scheme manager. Managed to get some useful background info out of him, though it took him a while for him to actually understand what I was doing. I think generally research has focused more on statistics and quantitative measures out here, i.e. coverage and sanitation frameworks, Still it was interesting to see where they intend to take provision in the future. Also got a better picture of how different organizations and departments interact around this area, which may end up being an important factor. I think my contact was getting a little confused about exactly what I was trying to accomplish, and had a tendency t interject . It wasn’t such an issue now, but when we start the interviews proper it may lead to him unintentionally biasing the data retrieval- I’ll have to sit him down and set some ground rules.

After we finished up here we walked to the other end of town to the government ofiice. We were walking down the roadside, much like yesterday, but I was getting a lot more strange looks and general attention. Difference? I was wearing a shirt and tie (I though I might as-well since as I was going to see governmental officials and managers and the like). It’s surprising exactly how much difference clothing makes…I’m sure I didn’t exactly blend in before, but the majority of people were happy to pass me by, maybe the occasional casual nod or and adventurous “hello”; but today the children stared warily, the younger men gave me the evil eye, young mothers looked curious and the occasional old woman begged…surprisingly the first evidence of begging I’ve seen since I got here.

Any-way after arriving at the local assembly office, we met up with the District Officer for water and sanitation, and got driven to her office in a Unicef truck. The conversation was quite similar to the last one, except she got a lot more of what I was asking/saying straight off, and as a result I got a lot more relevant info out of her. I was mildly surprised at how many questions she didn’t have an opinion on or an answer for… it seemed less that she was towing the official line, and more it was something that simply hadn’t been considered.

After finishing up and nicking a few useful documents off her, we walked back through town while buying a few essentials like bottled water. Since it’s a Monday, the wholesalers was open, which was considerably cheaper than the “weekend shops”. I was surprised to the extent to which I knew where I was going...it feels like I’ve got to know the town a little better over these last two days…certainly not like the back of my hand, but still. It’s odd actually, even though this is a “town”, it’s a lot more spread out than it’s English equivalent. There are a few really long streets which have shops dotted all along them, apart from the shops and even houses are spread out with large spaces…the only street that seems concentrated is the main market street with it’s stalls.

We got back to the hospital at 11, and after exchanging a few thoughts we decided to meet up again at 2pm to meet the District Environmental Officer and went our separate ways. It soon came to my attention a group of 9-ish doctors from the UK had just arrived to stay for a week, so I went to say hello. It turned out they were doing their tropical disease management course, and were here for a community based placement. They seemed a good enough lot, and wee of varying ages to newly qualified to consultants. I spent the next hour chatting and eating lunch with them (the cook was now on-site that there were more tenants, but of course you had to pay him- very cheap though- today was a standard rice and curry affair), although to be honest I didn’t say much; they had been together everyday for the last 3 weeks and wee clearly quite close so I felt a bit like an outsider or an intruder (more so here, ironically, than among the Malawian medical staff). It did make me wonder if I would be doing a similar course 3-4 years from now.

2pm came quite quickly, however it appeared that the environmental officer couldn’t see us, so I ended up with an afternoon off. First port of call was an afternoon nap. Then about 4pm I went for a wander downtown; I was going to take some decent pictures and go all the way down to the lake, neither of which I’ve had an opportunity to do since I got here, but sod’s law it was overcast, so I decided to head to the local internet café instead. After checking my mail for a few minutes for the first time since I left the UK, I got to work typing these journal entries up, but before I knew it, it was past 5 and time to head back to the hospital before it got dark.

Since then I’ve been slouching in the common room, watching the Euro2008 match with the Malawian medical student I met yesterday. France Vs Romania- it just finished, I’m currently in between matches and eating dinner (beef curry and chips). Oh kudos Romania by the way, great solid defensive performance. Plans for the rest of the night? Watch Italy Vs Nederlands and then get an early night. Heading to monkey Bay bright an early!

*edit* Wow that was unexpected, 3:0 to Holland! I’m glad Holland did so well though, I was afraid they’d be muscled out without a decent fight by the two favorites France and Italy, such a tough group…I’ve always liked the guys in orange. The first goal was clearly offside but the other 2 were magnificent. Italy was seen to, good and proper. A night for upsets (and yellow cards) it seems!

Day 5(10/6/08) 2200 (UK) 2300 (local)

So it would seem that I’m settling into a routine…up at 7, out the compound by 8. This time me and my contact were heading to monkey bay at last. Back to the combo station then, to board a minibus to our destination, and so we did. But you know I said they don’t go till they are fully packed, well it appeared today was a slow day for travel… By the time the bus left it was past 9. Furthermore, rather oddly, the minibus traveled relatively slowly and sensibly. I’m sure it didn’t help that most of the main road to monkey bay was closed for repair, and we had to take the winding side roads which ran parallel, but still, this was very slow- I couldn’t even feel the bumps… The bonus of this was, since I was sitting in the front passenger seat, I could get some less blurry and obscured photos- needless to say by now the route was stupidly pretty- so much variation, savannah, mountains, lakes, forests…

By the time we actually got there it was past 11. since we were already late we headed straight for the ICEIDA (Icelandic International Development Agency) office, where I proceeded to talk to the monkey bay project manager. He was really helpful, very forthcoming about information surrounding the project and general opinions. He also seemed very keen to work on the project with me, seeming to have a clear grasp of what I wanted to do. After talking to him about exactly who I could include in the study, I started getting a clearer picture of the logistics and the direction I could take this, which was little fuzzy till now. After drawing up a rough interview timetable, we decided to head off as we had a re-arranged appointment at 2pm, with the District Environmental Officer who we couldn’t see yesterday.

So after less than an hour in Monkey Bay, we set back off to Mangochi, and guess what…it was the same vehicle we came in, not to mention the same driver….inevitably we ended up running at the same speed…I was pretty exhausted and ended up falling asleep, but then…BANG. The bus came to abrupt stop. I opened my eyes just in time to see the right wheel fly off the axel and travel one third a mile into the undergrowth by the side of the road- no wonder he’d been driving so slowly! It was quite impressive, the right bumper had pasted itself into the road and the bus was smoking a little- I suspect the axel was a completely lost cause.

With no time to loose we started to walk by the roadside (we were about two thirds of the way back), eventually we thumbed a lift which got us the rest of the way to the hospital. Surprisingly we were only half an hour late. The meeting itself seemed to go pretty well. Not to bore you with the details, but the Environmental officer seemed like a lovely chap who was very interested in what I was doing. He clarified a lot of things and added a lot to my background knowledge of the district area as a whole.

By 4 I was finally back to my room, where I, in true party fashion, spent the next 2 hours writing background notes and w preparing for the interviews proper, tomorrow. Since then I’ve been watching footy and eating dinner (there’s that routine again). However joining me and the Malawian student was 4 Dutch students who just arrived today. Apparently these 4 girls are doing a 7 week internship in Malawi…1 week here. Added to the 9 Brits from yesterday, that’s now 14 foreigners now, while it was just me 2 days ago…It’s almost like a Hotpoint for global medicine all of a sudden- a mini international village. The new 4 seemed very friendly, and we ended up playing cards during the football and having a few laughs exchanging stories.

After the matches finished (which were frankly a bit boring today…though a few of Spain’s goals were pretty), everyone decided to head to bed, so I followed suit. Starting the interviews proper tomorrow, up at 6am to make sure I get there on time, gotta love it.

Day 6(11/6/08) 2300 (UK) 0000 (local)

So today was busy, though I’m not sure how much I can say really-twas mostly work related stuff…I’m keeping a separate research journal for “reflecting” on research issues, so there’s not much point me replicating it here, and besides I doubt it would interest many of you anywho!

Got up at 6 today to avoid being late to Monkey Bay- me and my contact were at the combo-station by 7am. However we ended up getting in a truck that was heading that way, as it seemed like it was heading out first (since it was already half full of people). This logic of course was completely flawed. 8 o clock still not set off…I suggested moving lifts; no, no…my contact assures me we’ll be getting off soon…half 8 and I’m started to get a little annoyed, I could have slept an extra hour/hour and a half…9am, still sitting in a non-moving truck, I’m starting to silently fume…again, switch lifts? No, no…we’re bound to get off any second… Oh and here we go…no wait, the driver decided to drive round the block instead and park up in the same spot, while shouting at the cars he’s blocking off by parking there. Half 9 we’re still sitting there….I’m not sure the last time I’d been so quietly angry…at the drivers, my contact…at monkey bay for being so damn far away. I mean seriously, what is this… I have more important things to do, I sacrificed MY sleep, it’s just not on… Finally close to 10 we finally set off…needless to say I didn’t voice my anger, and the journey soothed me somewhat, but still…

We finally arrived into monkey bay around 11, over 4 hours after we “set off” from the hospital. Any-way, we started the interviews an hour and a half later than anticipated, and as a result had to cut it short by one. The interviews as a whole went pretty well, we got useful info out of all of them, though later ones flowed much better than the earlier ones…getting in the swing and all that.

Any-way, by the time we finished it was approaching 3pm, so we decided to get a bus back, which we managed remarkably quickly…we were back to the compound by 5pm.\

After discovering there was a student computer room here, I decided to type up the rest of my journal entries here instead of paying to do so at the internet café. Though the ‘puters aren’t connected to the internets, so I’ll still have to go over to upload ‘em. Also, another convenient things is they’re open 24 hours unlike the café which closes at 6 (and you have to effectively have to leave at half 5 if you want to get back before nightfall).

The evening was spent eating dinner, watching football with the dutch girls (the Malawian student was strangely absent this eve.), transcribing my interviews and writing research notes. With my traveling taking out half the day, it seems I’m going to spend every spare minute of the day doing essential field research stuff. Especially considering that I’ll have many more interviews to transcribe and analyze from tomorrow… Oh and we’re setting off at 6am tomorrow to “make sure we get there early”, so up at 5am… and I still can’t sleep. It sounds like I’m whinging (which I am), but somehow I’m still glad to be here! Go figure!

Day 7(12/6/08) 2300 (UK) 0000 (local)

So it would seem that karma is in force today- had a really great day which kind of made up for how annoying parts of yesterday were. Up at 5 today, yes its getting an hour earlier each day it would seem…needless to say I was a bit groggy after only 3 and a bit hours sleep, but I managed to stumble out the door with my clothes on and all my necessary items.

Me and my contact decided to grab a roadside lift instead of one at the bus station…well, my contact decided really. We found one going to Monkey Bay quite quickly, so we got on. Then 5 minutes later a 2nd potential life showed up, and contrary to the philosophy of yesterday’s waiting game yesterday, we swapped vehicles immediately.

Within half an hour the 2nd truck had set off for Monkey Bay (with us on it). We were there early for once, arriving in town around 8,30am. 4 interviews later (which went very well by the way) it was barely half 10. After wandering around the NGO complex for a while, we took up an offer from one of the field workers to go out to one of the project villages. It was quite interesting, they were actually in the process of burrowing a “shallow-well”, which is basically a concrete reinforced hole which allows ground water to rise (since it’s near the coast and normal “earth” walls would crumble). The hole village was helping to dig, as-well as training up to build the walls themselves. Twas all very impressive…the village was beautiful too.

After a while we decided to call it day; it was still early but there was no other staff we could interview right now. We managed to catch a lift back quite quickly; it was a pick up truck again, except this time we were in the back not the cab section. Soon we were picking up more and more passengers, and before we knew it we had a small army, It wasn’t exactly the world’s largest pick-up truck, in fact it was small to regular at best. It was certainly an experience…I counted 21 (24 including the 3 in the cab)…epic.

A crowded few hours later I was back in Mangochi. After a quick shower, I decided to go a-sploring, So I spent the afternoon just randomly walking about Mangochi. I finally got a chance to head down to the lake, which I hadn’t seen properly since I got here. It was narrower than I thought, but since we’re at the very end of it here in Mangochi, I guess its more of a branching river than a lake…I certainly could see spread wider as it stretched North. Regardless it was pretty, and I stood around for a while on the bridge trying to get a decent photo of the sunlight reflecting off it. I didn’t stay for too long though, I was all too conscious of the locals being amused by the random non-white tourist loitering on the bridge…I got more “hello!”s in 10 minutes than I had for the last couple of days combined. It was actually a surprisingly busy bridge with about 60 people and 30 bikes on it at any one time ( I didn’t count this time, just a completely made up number..) I also crossed over the bridge and found a second market, considerably less linear too. So I wondered around for a bit, and did a little haggling. I didn’t buy much though, just bread and peanut butter…toast tomorrow morning then.

By the time I finished my wandering it was just after 5; I dropped by the internet café to upload my blog entries, but the power was out. This was mildly unfortunate since I’m not going to have another chance to upload them till next week, due to me planning on staying in Monkey Bay over the weekend-but that was hardly going to put a damper on my day. Since it was now getting close to sundown, I decided to get on one of the bike transports back to the hospital…I hadn’t tried one yet, and I’ve got to say it was quite fun, something quite liberating on being on the back of a bike and not actually riding it…twas also surprisingly quick, these guys must have legs of steel-still for the most part I think I’ll stick with walking.

I haven’t done much since I got back. Sat down to dinner and football with the Dutch girls (the Malawian student was there for a bit, but then he decided to head for the local bar). The Dutch girls are actually heading to Blantyre tomorrow, to finish off their internship. Though we’ve agreed to meet up in Zomba, since we both finish our “work” around the same time and freakily both decided to head to Zomba first in our free travel time, our paths, or at least plans, diverge after that though. After the match I stayed up with one of the dutchies as we were having quite a good conversation. We talked about our experiences of Malawi so far, and that somehow led us onto talking about people, our lives back home, the nature of society and other ridiculously philosophical topics- it was nice: I always enjoy those kind of conversations, but especially when I get over-reflective while traveling-it was nice to share it with someone, even a relative stranger.

About 11,30pm we both decided to call it a night, but much like last night I can’t seem to stop, so I’ve decided to write this instead. Up at 5 again tomorrow

Day 11(16/6/08) 2200 (UK) 2300 (local)

So what happened to the last 3 days you ask? What can I say, I’ve been busy/ I spent a 3 day weekend in Monkey Bay, and beautiful as it was, It wasn’t for a holiday…I was doing my village based interviews for my research project. I hardly had a minute to myself, hence the lack of updating… I very much doubt I can remember all the details, but I’ll try and give an overview of the last 3 days, and today of course.

So Friday we (me and my contact) set off at 6 (so up at 5 again…I was shattered). We managed to stumble across a pick up truck that was about to leave. Catch? It was full, and I mean full-full. Marginally more people than Thursday’s ( I counted…23 (or 26 including cab people). This time I had to sit on the rim of the cargo area…something I’d never ever do in the UK. But somehow the huge dusty roads with endless run-off, the lack of other traffic and the road and the fact we barely got over 15mph (due to the sheer weight the truck had to cope with…) made it seem safer. Though after 2 and a half hours, I’ve got to say my arse wasn’t coping well with the steel ledge.

Upon arriving in town and heading to the NGO office, we did a few remaining staff interviews, before some of the field workers drove us out to the village. It seemed the villagers had been expecting us, everyone had gathered outside the chief’s house to greet us…it was bit embarrassing really. I mean I was planning on trying to disrupt daily village life as little as possible…a village meeting with me as the focus of attention was not the plan.

Any-way, after the initial commotion had died down, I proceeded to interview the chief, followed by a couple of members from the water point committee. The interviews were slow going, with answers to questions often seeming irrelevant to the questions…I suspected the meaning was lost in translation. I was constantly re-assessing whether the translator understood the question and was phrasing it correctly, but with no avail…and the initial briefing seemed to go so well! Nevertheless I still got some useful information out of them, which is the important thing.

By the time we finished interviewing and got back to the interview me and my contact were staying the night it was already dark. It was just off the bay, and while the hotel wasn’t the best, the bay itself was beautiful. I tried to get some decent pictures, but my hand was nowhere near steady enough to take and decent night shots on the camera. After a shirt break for dinner, we got straight down to work, transcribing the interviews…I was quite gutted to be missing the France Vs Holland match (from what I’ve heard since it was a bit of a corker) but it had to be.

Transcribing was horrifically painful; it soon became apparent that my contact/translator had not been translating literally on either end. Despite going through the importance of keeping everything as accurate as possible and keeping within the neutral analytical framework, he seemed to be doing the same things everytime…needless to say we went through it again a number of times that night. He seemed completely focused on teasing out meanings and provoking answers. In his own words he was “trying to give us what we want”, despite my protests that we don’t “want” anything…the potential pitfalls of this kind of qualitative research currently seem vast and all too real. The insistence to translate the interviewee’s speech on the tape with qualifiers that weren’t there, integrated into his own thoughts about “what they meant” in contrast to what they actually said, was starting to annoy me. We literally had to go through every sentence about 5 times before he’d even to attempt to translate it literally. Beyond this his questions on tape didn’t match up with my own…sometimes subtly different but with a clearly different meaning like “how responsible do you feel” Vs “how do you feel responsible”, while other times they were just completely different and unrelated to what I said. We spent many hours going through the questions, and exactly how we should phrase and translate them tomorrow. By 2am, we had transcribed a total of 1.5 interviews. He then went to sleep while I stayed up the rest of night and transcribed some of the English interviews to clear some tape space for tomorrow.

On Saturday we set off for the village around 7am. This day we were interviewing young mothers who use the waterpoints. It seemed to go down pretty much the same way as it did the day before…slow, at times painful, with some clear misinterpretation going on. But still plenty of useful information was collected. We managed to get around 5 interviews done before heading back to the hotel around 6pm; we got a pick-up back as the field workers had already gone home. Transcribing this night was somehow actually far worse than the night before. It seemed clear that despite understanding and agreeing on everything we talked about yesterday, my contact had done exactly the same thing, and was even more stubborn while translating, often arguing the point and claiming I was “needlessly criticizing and attacking him”…it was hard going. We worked till 2aam, and I think I kept my temper in check quite well, calmly explaining how it was meant to work and what exactly had gone wrong every 5 minutes…inside I was really boiling up though. I mean how hard can it be to translate a sentence literally…sure language is complex and I understand it can be hard to provide an exact meaning sometimes, but simply adding comments, ideas and sentences that aren’t there, simply isn’t on. Once he went to sleep at 2am, I worked all night on English transcriptions again.

Come morning on Sunday, I hadn’t cleared enough tape space for the day, but since we were getting a lift in, we headed to the village any-way. I spent the morning continuing to transcribe English interviews while my contact and a field worker, who spoke quite good English, sat down to retranslate my questions to see of they could get them more accurate. By the time afternoon came around, we only had time for 2 interviews. Frankly they went exactly the same way as the last 2 days, and the “re-worked” questions seemed to be exactly the same judging from the responses. At least they were consistent in their inaccuracy, By the time we finished it was already dusk, and no pick ups or combos seemed to be passing by. We watched the roadside for an hour in the dark, and eventually a pick-up truck stopped…

Apparently there had been a market up the road which just finished, and I’d never seen anything so overloaded… The base of the cargo area was filled with about 20-30 man-sized bags of rice, and on top perched lots and lots of young men, literally hanging off every space. Apparently there was room for 2 more…who knows when the next truck would come along, and walking at night in Africa just isn’t done…I was jammed between multiple people and rice bags, literally couldn’t move an inch. From the number of people I could see it was 42 young men in total, but I can imagine there were more hiding between rice bags and of course there were 3 more in the cab…I’ve come to the conclusion that the number of Malawians that can fit in the back of a pick-up truck tends towards infinity! Despite my right leg having no circulation for most the journey (my foot had slipped underneath a rice bag and my thigh was pincered between two guys and another rice bag) it was actually kind of fun. I didn’t have to speak Chichewa to understand how ridiculous everybody thought this was. 42 young men on a back of a truck, the more warped amongst you I know will inevitably impose some homoeroticism on this, but it was just plain lad-style bonding…it was kind of like a rugby team tour bus minus the arrogance… though I admit taunting the bigger truck who was stuck behind us most the way was probably not the brightest idea.

About 2 hours later we got off the truck at a village along the way, where we managed to score a lift to Mangochi. Ironically this was a much bigger truck, and there was only 3 of us in the back. Oddly this felt far more dangerous, since the truck could actually travel fast instead of 5mph, and there was room to slide and bump around, with no soft protective wall of people and cargo to stop you from going flying. Not to mention a corrugated steel floor doesn’t compliment a bumpy ride as-well as a rice bag… Still I made the best use of the space and lay on the flat of my back for most the journey, staring at the full moon and the stars of the southern hemisphere. We actually got back to Mangochi remarkably quickly; by half 9 we had reached the hospital and not soon after I was bed…utterly shattered.

So what of today? Well I can hardly say it’s been eventful. I got up late (around 10am), had a nice long shower and proceeded to sort out my room, my bags and my research materials. I then started transcribing English interviews and writing general notes. Come 3pm I still hadn’t left the flat, so I went for a wander. First off to the bank to change some money, then I headed to the wholesalers to buy some ultra-cheap biscuits…final port of call was the restaurant down by the lake for a lunch/dinner combo meal, since the chef hasn’t got any ingredients in for me tonight. I had sun-dried chambo and nsiema…it was quite nice. I got back around 5pm and haven’t done much since, other than watch a little TV and do some more research stuff. I have a feeling I’m going to have a boring couple of days…necessary though. Just about to head to bed.

Day 12(17/6/08) 2300 (UK) 0000 (local)

So today has been pretty boring. I literally haven’t left the compound all day, only having briefly left the flat. I woke up late again around 10am. After dosing around for a bit I got down to some work. The whole day has been a mixture of transcribing research notes, reading and satellite TV… It’s odd, I could almost completely forget I was in Africa completely, if I hadn’t caught one or two glimpses out of the window every now and then. I can’t think of anything significant to talk about….it’s going to be a dull couple of days for this journal, but I guess it has to be done. Feeling slightly melancholic today, and missing home a little. I’m blaming the lack of busyness and/or new experiences. That’s all really…the football was pretty dull today. I was expecting more from France Vs Italy. I’ll be heading to bed soon, I’m sure I’ll update you more on my research-hermit ways tomorrow.

Day 13(18/6/08) 1800 (UK) 1900 (local)

What can I say? It’s been pretty much a repeat performance… Got up at 10, grabbed a shower, then got my plan together for the day. First port of call I though I’d go down to the computer room and type up the weekend blog entries before going down to the internet café to upload them. However after about 15 minutes of typing I felt quite suddenly nauseous with stomach ache. First time I’ve felt even relatively ill since I left home. I couldn’t think what it could be. I mean I hadn’t eaten anything different or drunk unbottled water and had slept plenty. I sat around for a few minutes, hoping it would go away, but it just got worse. So I decided to very slowly and tentatively walk back to my room, to avoid provoking my stomach…I would’ve stayed put, but I always find looking at computer screens always aggravate me when I’m already feeling ill. On the way back I started feeling better almost immediately, my only thoughts were that it must be related to the rooms’ air-conditioning. By the time I got back to my room, I no longer felt sickness at all, but still had that odd kind of “weak” feeling and now also a headache, so I decided to lay down for a bit. Surprisingly I fell asleep almost immediately…I only had gotten up a few hours ago, and it wasn’t like I had been feeling tired.

By the time I got up again it was half one and I felt fine. Ever since, I’ve been transcribing tapes and writing research notes, as-usual. Haven’t felt ill or anything at all, so it seems to have been a one off…an unexplained mystery. Right now I’m eating dinner (chambo and chips) and watching “The Raccoons” on TV, how awesome is that. I wish they still aired “The Raccoons” in the UK! No big plans for the evening…more work, might head back to the computer room (and see of the queasiness comes back). Tomorrow should be slightly more interesting (if potentially more aggravating) as my contact should be coming back from his trip to Blantyre, so more translating again..

Here It Goes Again

So......regular updates right? XD

I've got to admit, I've been slacking somewhat on the blogging front....10 Months of slacking approximately! I do apologise to everyone who reads my blog... which is approximately zero people...at its height, I think it was 3, but many months of dwindling posts and eventually silence will kill any audience! Still my apologies anyway!!

So why am I picking it up again now?? Well, I'm off to Malawi in a matter of days (more on this later..) and I plan on documenting my trials and adventures to some degree...so what better excuse to resurrect my latest excuse for a blog?! I would promise regular travel blog updates...but I did that with my last blog when i went to Peru, and it just didn't happen! There simply wasn't time when I'm out there, and its likely I'm gonna have less opportunity to access the wonderful internets in Malawi, than I did in Peru. Neither will I promise a comprehensive summary when I get back, as, once again, as experience dictates, this is unlikely to happen...despite my sincerest of my intentions. I think according to my old blog, I never technically returned from Peru! What I will promise though, is some form of documentation of Malawi, however trivial or brief this is! But before this, I thought it only fair I provide some context, and a brief summary of the last 10 months of my life...

Effectively an entire academic year has passed, with me entering into summer vacation period again, so I'm not really sure where to start....I guess where I left off is a good a point as any, and I'll see where that leads me. Please do note, this isn't going to be in any detail whatsover, and I'm likely to miss out most things and recall very little...However it might provide some semblance of a general overview of this last year...a patchy picture is better than no picture at all I guess!

So... the rest of that summer pretty much went the same way as the part documented...many long hours worked at VUE, gotta love those 13 hour shifts! Though, it wasn't half as bad as it sounds, got to make some real good friends there, and unless it was a really quiet day, which is really only Sundays during the summer hols, the day just flew by...and some fun and mischief was usually had along the way!! My whole cash-handling was getting better and better too, a few times i was spot on...I was quite impressed! All my hours were compressed into 4 days too, so i generally had 3 days off at some point which was quite nice...and the days that I worked close, usually meant i go the most the day to myself!!

Any time away from work was either spent sleeping, catching up on animé and general downloading or playing video games, though remarkably I didn't really have much time for the last one, barely starting Xenosaga 2 and making very little progress with Final Fantasy Tactics. I generally also took the opportunity to go visit Ben and Phil in their house once or twice a week, which was nice...especially since B. Chris seemed to decide to live on their sofa, and H. Chris usually also popped by, as-well as Charlie-chan. Didn't really get to see much of anyone else...Taylor was mostly at home home until the very end of the holiday, saw bits of Jean when she briefly came back mid-holiday...Kate was in London or abroad for the entirety of it, Katty left for Brazil (for forever!! :O), and Gio, Rach, Linz, Stara, Mono, Liz, Jess and anyone else I haven't mentioned was either away from Leeds or busy working at those Job-things! The exception being Jamanna who were remarkably elusive, although they did go back to Belgium for a bit!

Overall it was a pretty pleasant but non-eventful summer. However it was very very long, the longest I'd had since the end of A-levels I think...so come term time, I was glad to be going back. Nothing worse than a life completely lacking structure, and of course I was looking forward to seeing everyone again, as-well as to studying an entirely fresh subject.

September was hectic and was pretty much a month of change. I cut down my hours at the cinema to a couple of shifts a week (come Christmas I eventually had to quit entirely, due to uni work commitments...which was a real shame, though if I get the opportunity at some point, I wouldn't mind going back to work there, as long as there's still some familiar faces.) Obviously I started up with lectures and seminars again, which seemed really strange after a year of clinical placements and a summer of working. I'll talk more specifically about the academic side of things later, but it was certainly nice to be back on campus...I hadn't felt like such a student, since, well forever...even as a first year, it seemed i had been a little more segregated than i was now. And last, but certainly not least, there was all the Animesoc stuff I had to do, as the then, still quite fresh, president...it was thoroughly enjoyable, but it kept me busy!

Organising the showings and the freshers fayre was first up on the agenda, and I couldn't help but be surprised by the moxie of our crack PR team. The committee worked their socks off, and we had a huge recruitment drive and a fairly big presence round the uni in terms of advertising. Beyond his, pretty much everyone else in the society chipped in with various bits and bobs, either with cosplay or the stall or racketing people into having fun in the lounge. I think it really shone through how much of an actual society we were, and exactly how much fun we had! Literally made of awesome. But even I was surprised by the measure of the response, the next two weeks were filled with Animesoc events of various kinds...we literally ran out of space, despite booking two of the union's largest rooms for the Give it a Go! It was a really busy, but such a fun two weeks. In the end we ended up doubling our membership, which inevitably had a large impact on the entire year....

We've had a huge influx of new active members, it's been unreal!! I don't really know where to start, since there's so many, but to name a few who have become very good friends of mine...Aaron, Alex, Chad, Jason, Kevin, Kirk, Liam, Matt, Mike and so many more... Inevitably we've lost some of the old regulars which is a shame, some to graduation, others to the lure of foreign countries (I've already mentioned Katty, Jess eventually left for Japan, to join our small army out there...Tony, Yoshi, Gaz..), and a few others like Phoebe, Christie and Harriet to unknown forces...(perhaps caught up with final year stuff?)

But the Lounge became alive again, filled with new faces as-well as old....(I say new they've become so familiar, it seems odd to refer to them as "new", it certainly seems like I've known them for more than 9 months) The Lounge itself soon became a refuge for DSs and Laptops, with even myself getting a laptop for work (and play..) with some of the money I had earned over summer... Lounge hours also extended, with sessions often lasting till 7 or 8 in the evening. We've been through many phases, but somehow we've settled into the odd combination of Guilty Gear and WoW (for those of who play..) Personally, I'd rather get rid of the WoW and replace it with Risk, which lasted for a while...but hey. I've gotten pretty ok at Guilty Gear too, which was new to me this year really, but I still pretty much play at a casual level...Rupert remains in a level of his own in the lounge, though when he's off-form I can still steal the odd match off him! (I'd explain what these crazy computer games are, but it'd take to long, and you do have Google at your disposal!)

In lounge related business, Liz and Sara have set up their very own Housemaking Society, which not only is an official society, but was a blistering success, and has retained a fair whack of members for their first year! They learn really useful things like cooking and sewing and knitting and crochet and general useful household things....I'd even consider attending myself if it didn't get in the way of my Guilty-Gear-ing (yes that is a verb...now) and perhaps the fact I'd be the only boy there... I should probably mention East Asian Cinema Soc too, which is less lounge related, but is also a brand new and very successful society, which was set up by our very own Jamanna...it has showings much like our own, and I've become a semi-regular attendee on a Wednesday night!

Our very own Parapara troop, Team AB, has also gone from strength to strength. With Katty in Brazil, Kate's taken on the unofficial mantle as group leader (it Was initially Mono and Charlie, but Mono sustained a back injury and Charlie got busy with uni-stuff!) I don't really dance myself anymore, due to my dodgy knee, but the group has expanded some what, including both older and newer animesoc peoples and their repertoire of tracks have also expanded...alas, there's been no more fantastic videos as of yet!

Getting out the Lounge, the general Animesoc social events have been great, with lots of stuff going on, like gaming days, the Xmas meal, a pseudo comic-con, karaoke, a cinema showing and stuff. I couldn't make the weekend away this year, which was coincidently during the week and simply known as "Barge!", but I heard it went down a storm, with our biggest ever troop, including new faces and old...I heard many an amusing story, which i don't think I'll retell on this blog...don't want to break the monotonous tone after all!

Of course there's been plenty of just general hanging out at people's houses too. Admittedly its been relatively quite on the social front lately, but people, like myself, have gone home for the summer after their exams... Though just last week I had a post-exam birthday celebration. Much like last year, it was after most people had finished, and was joint with Jean (and also Aaron this year, who I guess is new, but is already a very close friend!). We went to Thai-cottage, where the food was very nice and cheap, and the service was remarkably prompt...especially considering there was 24 of us! Then later in the night, after the showing, we went back to Jean's house for a party full of cake and kiddy's party games...it was nothing short of a lovely evening... a quiet night spent with he closest of friends!

As for the actual uni-work side of things, it's been good....I'm thinking International Health was the right choice. It was exactly what I needed, the structure of the course was a complete change from medicine, both in content and structure. Instead of rote learning and endless lectures full of facts, it was taster lectures to introduce topic issues, then interesting discussion style seminars to discuss issues. Not only did I find the content really interesting, and beyond this important to me... but the very fact I was encouraged to formulate my own opinion, and debate and readdress, not only was it a challenge but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Beyond this, the degree to which it was self directed, and the principle of using your project ideas based on topics of interest, to explore more general issues and learn about more in depth context specific issues, was brilliant. It literally bred passion for a topic that 9 months ago I knew scarce little about.

Kudos to the course-directors, apart from the occasional slip up here and there, it was very well organised and clearly well thought out. At times the whole openness of the whole thing left you a bit clueless or lost, but a little nudge here and there, pretty much everyone found a niche...and peer-debate seems to be one of my favourite ways to learn. The complete lack of definitive textbooks to go back to seemed a little frustrating at times, but the very fact that to readdress and analyse situations with regards to philosophy, economics, epidemiology and politics was exhilarating..the wider your reading the more things clicked, and the more aware of how every term and ...even though it also meant that the less clear a "simple solution" became...

All in all I enjoyed this year immensely...it actually makes part of me wish I had done a BA or a social science instead, perhaps philosophy or history, or a joint honours like politics and philosophy/ philosophy and economics/ philosophy and sociology...though I am glad to be going back into 4th year to, back to seeing patients, all very exciting. Though I wouldn't be surprised if my future moves in the direction of international health...I don't think I'd like to be a public health director, that seems to disinvolved...I'd want to be on the floor, working from the bottom up. Perhaps once I finish training, I'll go out and work as volunteer and planner at an NGO, or perhaps an advisor/medical planner at some random developing world institution. One thing's for certain, after 4 or so years of being an advocate for so many things, I was getting tired of politics...and thus me dropping out all of my representative positions for this year...but if anything, this course has re-awoken the advocate in me, and perhaps he's more informed and slightly more pissed off than he was ever before...Sure, I have no more faith in the current systems than i did before, but I now have more potential ways to produce solutions, and I realise more than ever how important politics and being aware of it is..and how important it is to try and change things, even if it seems impossible.

So overall these last 10 months have been great..I really enjoyed my time as Animesoc President, and frankly am having a slightly difficult time realising I'm not still responsible for everything or anything (having handed over the mantle to the very capable hands of Taylor and the new committee, I'm sure the society is going to go from strength to strength). It's also been great being a student again, being on campus, going to the library, playing Guilty Gear in the lounge or roleplaying in my spare time! (sorry i forgot to say that my roleplaying tendencies have gone up a notch or two, with me being in several campaigns now...mostly due to an influx of other keen roleplayers in the society!) And last but not least, studying International Health, which has been not only interesting but genuinely fun...my only regrets being I didn't get to know some of the international health students as-well as I would've liked to, particularly the non-Leeds ones, but I always seemed to busy when group bonding was afoot!

So what's this about Malawi?? Well technically unlike everyone else, I've not finished my year yet...My "topic of interest" as it were, which I've been researching all year, building up ideas, doing literature reviews on and basing various analytical works on, is Water & Sanitation in Malawi...and after much reviewing and analysis, I've focused down further still on Community Participation in Water & Sanitation in Malawi. The reasons are various, and I shan't go into detail here for risk of boring you all, but suffice to say little practical research has been done in this area and i have ideas and thesis. Any-way I'm off to Malawi for just under a month, to do a piece of original research on this topic, in the field, as this is the "final project" my BSc is built up around, doing a useful bit of original field-research! How am I feeling?? Both stupidly excited and nervous...I mean, I'm finally going to Africa, and not as a tourist either (well as less of a tourist...we'll not get onto the topic of medical tourism..>.>), and I'm doing my first piece of original research...I've been involved in research before, but it's generally been both based on previous research and supervised by someone else, like a medical research....Plus it's in the field, finally getting in their and getting my hands dirty...getting to meet new people from a different culture, and see what they think of things, and how they see the world...what better way to broaden my own horizons?? It's been tricky to organise, lots of fail attempts, so I'm still a bit sceptical at the moment...but I'm sure that'll mostly vanish once I get out there...and you never know, my results may even be significant of use to someone, spawning future research...but it's still early days to be thinking about that!

Any-way, I think it's best I end it there...I've not really been doing anything of note recently to chime on about other than preparing for Malawi, sleeping copious amounts, watching daytime TV and wasting time on the internet ! My boredom nearly re-ignited the desire to write fiction again, but it was a false start...there's not really enough time for me to work on my story before I head out now...Maybe I'll work on it in my spare time out there...after all the last time I made any real kind of progress on it was when I was out in Peru! Travelling always makes me more introspective.....it's less inspiration and more refreshment or reanalysis!

Still this is me signing off for now! Sorry again for the lack of updates, and the general monstrous length of this post...Next time I post, I may be in Malawi!! How cool is that!XD

(OK Go- Here it Goes Again....[the video for this song is particularly awesome! check it out..])