Zanzibar Revolution day seems to be an excuse for the government here to have a big parade which is shown on all the TV channels. It is now 42 years since they overthrew the Omani Sultanate. The poor Omani Arabs were stuck into dhows and sent back to Oman, it can't have been a comfortable journey, and they were not given enough water. The trouble did not stop there, with the property of some of the Indians confiscated as well. Previously Stone Town had housed all the rich, including all the Omani's who were the ruling and traditional landowning class, and [View Full Entry]

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No stool at all today, which is for me lately, highly unusual. It is related to the loperamide I am sure. I am still feeling a bit tired and weak though. Generally a quiet day, with no work due to Eid Al-Hajj. There are advantages to living in a country with two large religious groups, with an increase in national holidays. I am taking the opportunity to rest. I am reading a book on Zanzibari History, with a lot of details on their economics. Zanzibar has always had an international feel, due to the reliance on trade rather than production. It [View Full Entry]

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I had arranged an appointment to see Doctor Mariam first thing, as I been feeling tired, weak and achy lately. I am going to have another stool test done, to see if there is still something in there, although I have had several negative ones. This time the stool test will be done at Mnazi Moja. I was told off for not taking enough loperamide, and will now be taking some every six hours, which could well stop the diarrhoea. Quite what effect it will have I don't know. I am getting suspicious of the Malarone, and wondering whether side effects [View Full Entry]

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I had a disturbed night, with an early morning due to bowel pain, and visits to the toilet. Solid faeces was produced though, but with some little bits of still recognisable food. I got back to sleep afterwards. Again I did not feel very well when I woke up, feeling weak, tired and achy. I went for another Malaria blood test, this time at the Malaria Prevention Centre, they could do the thin film malaria blood slide there, which is supposed to be more sensitive. Again the result was negative. I have arranged for a visit to the Doctor tomorrow. It [View Full Entry]

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After breakfast today I had some very bad diarrhoea, and felt nausea and abdominal pain so I did not go to church. As I was also feeling achy and tired, I suspected Malaria, and went along for a Malaria test at Al-Rahma hospital (the nearest). It came back negative, as did the Widal test for typhoid. After three further bowel movements - total of seven in the day I took some loperamide. I was advised by the doctor to get some live yoghurt and green apples, as well as a thin film Malaria test elsewhere. I felt off for the rest [View Full Entry]

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Slept much better, changing the time when I take the Malarone has helped. Saturday is my day off, and after working fairly hard this week, I enjoyed the rest. In the morning I went into Stone Town, with Jenny, one of the Bishop's daughters. I brought another packet of Malarone, 12 pills for 72000 shillings - GBP36. Hopefully I will get supplies sent from Britain before too long. I also brought another 10 packets of ORS, I seem to use at least 1 packet per day. I will try to add more salt to my food to see if I can [View Full Entry]

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Friday is the day when I see the Doctor, now on a weekly basis. I'm managed a 9:00 appointment, this is impressive as the diarrhoea (or not see later) comes in the morning and this will slow me down, as well as the Malarone, which is still affecting my sleep. This time I did see Dr Mariam. She told me to try using a different brand of water, as well as stop eating any beans. I am allowed a little fat, but I think fatty foods are still out of bounds. I will eat beans almost every day, so that will [View Full Entry]

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The Malarone is still making it harder to sleep, I don't seem to wake up during the middle of the night now though, just find it harder to actually get to sleep. I got the stool test result back, negative for any pathogen, just unformed. I spent the morning finished off fixing the development department computer, it is now much improved. In the process I found more than 1200 suspicious objects (read viruses, trojan horses etc) on the hard disk, as well as this I removed many junk programs. I think some computer use training sessions are in order. Over lunch [View Full Entry]

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Again, I did not sleep all the way through the night, waking up early in the morning. Although Malarone is supposed to be the safest of the prolactics, clearly it is not entirely without problems, unless it is to do with the fact that the deoxycycline made me more tired. As they owed me one, I took a stool sample to Al-Rahma hospital for testing, the lab is bigger than I credited it, with several more staff. I just only saw one on my first visit. I will get the result tomorrow. Again I had diarrhoea, several times, I wondered if [View Full Entry]

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Once again, I did not sleep all the way through the night. When I woke up in the morning, I have diarrhoea, of the type where it floats and there is froth. I will visit the Doctor again on Friday. As a result of my diarrhoea, I went into Town late in the morning. The water shortage (bottled water) had evidently not affected there, and I was able to buy plenty of water. As I had run out of shillings again, I needed to get some more money, I was going to change some of the remaining travellers cheques. For this [View Full Entry]

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