Just a quick update as I have not posted an entry for a while. The tests revealed nothing unusual, with the stool tests negative. However the malabsorbtion has been continuing. There are times when I feel rough still, and I still have much less stamina than I used to. I have improved significantly over how I was when I first arrived back in the UK and I am now much stronger and able to do more, but I am still taking things fairly easy, and trying to avoid doing too much. I have stopped finding the UK so cold now - [View Full Entry]

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I'm now back in the UK, which has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, here the risk of dehydration is much lower, but I feel cold everwhere as I am now using to living in a tropical dry season. I am back with my family, but they are busier, so they cannot give me as much time as Patrick and his family could. It is also actually a bit easier to see a Doctor out of hours out in Tanzania - out there I could afford Private Healthcare which was 24hrs, though in the day they tended to be very busy. Also [View Full Entry]

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I am now back in the UK, to recover here, have just about managed the flight back on Friday. [View Full Entry]

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After another bout of diarrhoea in the night, at about midnight I decided to try to get back to the UK as quickly as possible. I phoned home to tell them. Patrick was awake, and a contact of his allowed us to work out there was a flight that morning, leaving at 9:45am. I packed my bag, to prepare to leave. I slept very little, only one hour after midnight. I was very worried about whether I would be able to get on the plane. I did not eat any breakfast and imodiumed up to avoid any diarrhoea. I said goodbye [View Full Entry]

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Today was marked by the return of bad diarrhoea, evidently my digestion system cannot take pilau now. My night was disrupted heavily, waking up every hour or two for further diarrhoea. This left me tired and weak. I went to see Dr Otito again, and also arranged to see an ear specialist in the afternoon, to sort out my ears. On the way back, the heat made me dehydrated again, and I was not able to eat any lunch. The ear specialist cleaned my ears, and gave me some drops, but said I was able to fly. I went back to [View Full Entry]

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Having had the return of both bad faeces (probably technically not diarrhoea) and earache, I had decided it was time to see the Doctor again. When we got to the hospital, the Doctor was not there, so we were going to Patrick's office. On the way we spotted a familiar face. Emmanuel Mungongo, my Kiswahili teacher from Britain. He had been in Moshi - near Kilimanjaro, his home town, but I think he had returned to Dar the same day I had arrived. I had not seen him though until today. It was very good to see him, and I most [View Full Entry]

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We went to visit Dar Es Salaam university first thing in the morning, to sort out something for Patrick's job. Patrick is a self-employed accountant/auditor (which gives him flexibility useful to fit in hospital visits etc). We went to the University because Patrick was supposed to be teaching a class on some accounting software, for three days, but the lecturers had not phoned. We went to the head of department, a nice guy who had studied in Southampton, and took an interest in me and what I am doing. This is a trait I see often, and I have been made [View Full Entry]

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Being Sunday, today I went to church with Patrick and his family. The service was early, starting at 8:30, although that is not at all unusual here. Patrick and his family are Pentacostal, so it was a very different service from the Anglican ones on Zanzibar, and it was also actually in English. (They have a Kiswahili service later) Yay! It was only my second English service since leaving the UK. In some ways it was more similar to StAG back in the UK, but I would place StAG roughly between the Cathedral and Patrick’s church. Although the sermon was more [View Full Entry]

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I didn’t go into the city centre today. Again a day of rest, with more use of Patrick’s computer, helping him install some more games. Patrick actually had to work for some of the time even though it is a Saturday, and went into the office for the morning. He came back by the afternoon, and took some more pictures on my camera. In the evening I walked with Patrick to the market at Ubungo, about 1km away from the house, to buy some pineapples and bananas. A bit different from the market on Zanzibar, less formally laid out, and a [View Full Entry]

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Today I went into Dar centre quite early, going to see the Doctor first thing. The results of the tests were ready. All of the tests were normal, except for the stool test. The stool test showed roundworm. So the Doctor gave me a prescription for various drugs, levamisole hydrochloride for the worms, omidazole and epirazole in case of ulcers. The drugs actually cost more than I ever paid for the Doctor. I felt well enough to go to an internet café, so I was able to catch up on email, and update my travelblog. One hour of surfing for just [View Full Entry]

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