Frank in Africa ‘08

Today I bought things I need for the journey, about 100 euros worth. lets first start with the things I did manage to get:

• Anti sumburn cream, 2 bottles (factor 50 and 30), I only plan to use it the first week or so.
• Aftersun lotion, 1 bottle, not much of a believer, only helps for a few minutes.
• Mosquito/insect repellent, 2 bottles (50 DEET), 2 sprays (40 DEET), I wonder how good this stuff is, it was expensive.
• Emergency kit, a small box with bandages and such, so I can play doctor.
• Water resistant bandage, need those to keep my wounds from getting infected.
• 8 Needles, various sizes, if I was on heroin this would be great, but since I’m not I don’t like the idea of having them used. No Hepatitus B for me (that rhymes).
• Diarrhea suppressor, for long trips, so I won’t be shitting on people.
• ORS, stuff to get your salts/minerals back to normal after you’ve lost a lot because of diarea/vomiting.
• Toothbrush (needed a new 1), still got to make a dentist appointment.
• Toothpaste, the fancy type that promises extra white teeth, even though its the same stuff as all the other ones
• 10 Hair elastics, I lose about 50 of these every year.

I couldn’t get my Malaria pills because the doctor forgot to include his full address on the recipe, this is exactly the kind of behaviour I expect from doctors, happy to see this new guy managed to keep the reputation up.

Being a doctor means guessing what’s wrong with a patient, giving that person some different medication, and hope 1 of those solves the problem. Doctors don’t actually “know” whats wrong with a patient, their guess is as good as anybody who’s read a medical book, mine might be good at this guessing game, but he can’t even write his address on a piece of paper…!!!

So after the meeting at college I went back to Breda, to the doctor, I got there at 4:59pm and they were closed, oh well, tomorrow is another day…

Tags: Planning //