the constant gardener



I watched it this evening. Have been looking for it since Dr George recommended it. Thanx ser for helping me rent it. :)
It kinda gets you thinking about what pharmaceutical companies are after when they give out free medication to people in 3rd world countries? This movie talks about the conspiracy behind exploiting the Africans with TB, HIV and getting these people to take a certain drug as a drug trial, covering up all the deaths due to side effects, even before the drug is safe enough to be out in the market. It's quite an interesting show.

kidos!
haa some of the kidos i've gotten to know while i was there
Ian is a boy who went to climb the hills w us on our first few days in kisiizi, unlike the rest of the kids he never once asked me for money or anything.. he just followed us up the hill, we just chit chatted, n everytime he sees me outside the GH/in the hosp he'll come up to say hi.. a nice n quiet kid.
matthew n judy
dr jo & moses 2 younger kids.. there is still jojo they are so so cute.. i really love them. judy was really shy at the beginning but towards the end, we became such gd frens
edwin & his fren - 2 kwashakior kids.. edwin took our hearts away when he came to us n grabbed our hand his tiny hand.. he's so cute n every mouthful of egg he takes, 10% of it drops out haa.. his fren, is really cute too.. but i never found out his name
alan is sis ruth's son.. cute!!
ethan- dr denise & dr tonny's elder boy... he's so active and playful but i really like just wrestling w him.. haa on the grass patch outside moses' place heh he's a v smart boy
timothy- a v smart kid.. his mummy is one of the physiotherapist in charge of the ortho camp..
ye gang- son of korean missionary dr lim. wh really likes him alot. me too! he's so cute, the first boy to compliment me and say "i like your shirt" haaa n i was pleasantly surprised n told him i like his too.. baby pink n baby blue look nice together haha


well he's kinda short so i like to squat down so tt we're at eyelevel but the cute thing abt him is he likes to imitate me n squat down too.. haa so i tink this is a really cute pix showing us.


more photos of banet! :)

i really like this pix. NY took it the last day banet was ard. well i knew he was leaving tt day because i did the discharge for his ahgong. but i was stuck in theatre the whole day. after the last case suddenly NY appeared in the OT to tell me tt Banet was getting into the car w his family n leaving for good.. i was like OMG.. i just yank off my cap my mask and ran out in my scrubs n the OT boots! (which i'm so not supposed to) well together w the patient's notes/med chart which i'm supposed to write and went to him. well i kinda left the OT staff abit stunned n Sis A was abit pissed cause she cant lock up cause i hafnt changed and the S/W staff cudnt find the notes cause i had them. q paiseh.. but anyway i saw Banet for the last time.. carried him for the last time.. and said goodbye. he was abit aloof tt day hahah guess he didnt know tt this will b the last time we're seeing each other. but i'll always b grateful tt NY came to get me frm OT to say goodbye to him :)


banet... he's the 2nd boy that has a special place in my heart after Emmanuel. I really love cuddling him and i'm always on a look out for him everytime i step into surgical ward ha. he's the grandson of a patient and he's mr Kaypoh haaa that's y everyone loves him.. he'll go ard w the nurses during their hand over and during ward rds.. he'll just come and grab my hand or py's or hang on to dr robert's leg macam like tree trunk.. then he'll just b the 3rd medical student and finish the rds w us haa. we'll i've watched him laugh, watched him cry, watched him bathe and all i really really like him. i'll write to him, well he's kinda too young.. but i've got his aunt's add. mayb we'll b in touch till he grows up haa.


well Dr Robert is this MO who's always teaches us during ward rds.. he's like one of the few drs who will quiz us abt stuff n get us to read up on the topics and the next day quiz us again.. making ward rds really long.. (sorry sisters) so doing rds w him always meant there's alot of reading up to do but i dint do my part in reading up on all tt he told me to. but anyway he's Mr. Bacilli haa (aka Baksai). He likes to ask "you get?" and laughs and runs in a strangly funny way, tells us that his fren once said, "prostate cancer is more common in males" and he loves kids. he's kinda shy in front of the camera, but all in all i really enjoyed working w him.

this picture was taken just as we were leaving the guesthouse in lesster's car. all the house girls who took care of us so well and had been our fren for the past 2 mths. thnx so much. i miss u all. -olivia.gauda.jackie.leticia.generous.stella-


stella is the guest house manager.. she frowns subconsciously when she's deep in thot. she is to me a big sister who is v sensitive towards our needs.. she'll b one of the first to notice if anyone's feeling down and offer a listening ear or a push on the swing to cheer u up. she has planted 2 trees in the garden and they're so tiny. one has got 2 leaves, the other has 3. mayb i'll go bk one day after many yrs to find 2 hugh trees in the garden of rose cottage.


generous is like a mummy to us.. she, together w the other house girls, takes care of all our needs in the guest house. she's a great cook and will cook anything we like for us, avoiding those we dont like. she'll quietly take our shoes that are so dirty and dusty and intended to b thrown away at the end of elective, to wash till it's so clean tt it almost looked brand new haa. i really miss her. she's so nice to hug~!


andrew! who is dr sutherland already..
i miss andrew and his funny expressions :) he's such a wonderful fren who we've gotten to know.. cause his medical elective started a wk before ours n ended a wk before as well.. so basically the 5 of us were on elective together. it's cool chatting w him and he LOVES white chicks like us. haaa well none of us were brave enuff to tell dr robert "wat a beautiful chocolate man" but it was really funny. the elective would not have been the same w/o andrew.


paul.. our first non-african fren we gotten to know in kisiizi. he kinda arrived 1 hr after we did and he had been here 30 yrs ago, so he brought us to the waterfall and mast the 2nd day we were visiting.. haa he's also an interesting and the 4 singaporeans have a rather unique relationship w him.. i kinda miss hearing his "isnt it lovely?" and i'm sorry to disappoint him because i didnt get my hair braided haa


alan is an interesting fren i've gotten to know staying at the guesthouse. he's frm kampala and came by to fix the internet for us.. :)

i took about 16 gig of photos this trip. here are some :)


the 4 of us @ kisiizi.. me peiyun bingzhu ningyi.
actually i do miss the times we spent facing each other 24/7 for almost 2mths.


this is the view frm chapel.. u can see paeds ward below, maternity ward above in the foreground and isolation ward below w medical ward above in the bkground..
it's a beautiful place w lovely flowers blooming in lots of places :)
kisiizi hospital.


surg ward.. where we learnt that if we dont run the rounds no one would cause the surgeons came by to list them and ll b stuck in theatre the whole day.. but it's a place w alot of memories, banet one of my fav kidos, being exasperated by things not getting done aft u told the staff but at the same time see pts u help during the operation recover n discharged..


this is medical ward.. where we take care of patients, do rounds, do ecg and enjoy the company of the lovely staff


6 of us - ningyi, bingzhu, wenhann, jialin, peiyun and me
and of coz lesster.
these are the 5 other meddies i travelled to africa + hongkong w... i found this trip a great experience to know more abt my frens more and to know more abt myself, i'll always remember them and i'm grateful for these pple to be there for me when we r so far away from home..
and of coz lesster and mei. i'm really grateful for them to take us in and take so good care of us in Uganda when we were total strangers just a few mths before and have only communicated via email. thanx for everything, your friendship, hospitality, advice and care!


this picture was taken at the ground floor of our apartment in hongkong, we were on our way to the busstop to take A11 to the airport. it reminds me of the planning before the trip, the packing before the trip, the throwing out stuff at the airport before the trip, lesster and mei, making our way to nyakishenyi bus w lotsa black pple grabbing us our 2nd day in kampala, packing & unpacking countless of times, the 40kg load we brought bk w us n hiding loads of heavy stuff in our handcarry so tt we dont have to pay for excess baggage, the thrill of going home.

well i love this poster most, out of all the sex and the city movie posters, probably because it reminded me of me and my girlfriends.. how we go out together to hang out, shop, drink, have fun, laugh over the silliest things and at the back of my head i just kinda know that we will continue doing it all till we're old and dying. i really like the last bit of the movie when they gave a toast for samantha's birthday and a toast to the next 50 years.

i had a fantanstic saturday.. started off w a swim at serene's place, well a great part of the time was spent chatting and laughing in the pool and a little tanning. it was a great relaxing way to spend a day haa.. then i had tsui guay and the salad, ser tossed that was really nice, and of cause lotsa love and attention from tanahbear.

then there was shopping, the kfc craving and the movie watching.. it's really sweet to see rows and rows of 4 girls coming in to watch the movie, seated in front and behind us four... sex n the city is a very girly show and it just reminds me alot abt gang and other girlfrens.. how we grew up together, in search of the many good things in life, and how we are there for each other during both good times and bad. and it seem like a prelude into the future, how we'll have to deal w marriage, family, work and all. and when i got home i received a wedding invitation.. the first to be from a classmate! see marriage! well we're there at the age where wedding invitations will keep coming in and the it's such a coincidence that eunice's jc classmate is the groom. congratulations to chyan ying and teck chuan!

haa anyway i kinda missed my last train home, luckily my erge sent us back :P kinda reminded me of the days me n serene will have to run to catch the last train at dhoby ghaut because we r out drinking n having fun :P

truly i'm grateful to have my girlfrens :) i love u girls..

heh new blog template. well i've been wanting to change the template of my blog since alot of friends told me they have problems tagging and also the nice font usually doesnt come out in most computers. but i've been procrastinating because i cant seem to find a blogskin i like, those new free blogskins i find are usu too angsty for my old soul haa. then there is always the horror of having to edit the template u dl to have those links n tagboards and it's a pain for a low-tech person like me. until i decided to try out the customize your blog thingy frm blogger. it's kinda easy but now i'm not sure if i can use my own template next time haa oops.

still organising the photos frm uganda/hk wow i've damn alot of photos. will try to post them soon.

tadaima!
hellohowareyoui'mfine
i'm finally home after 10 weeks. yes please.
ehk?!! i shall no longer flick off your head, rearrange your face or qiak si ni.
haha

my room felt abit foreign when i first got bk home but now i've unpacked and finally settled down. uganda feels like a lifetime ago and hk is really mai dong xi, chi dong xi. haha the amt of shopping i did is almost equivlaent to the amt of things i'll buy in abt a yr or two if i'm in singapore. and i ate alot of good food!! most of all i'm grateful to have fantastic travel mates that made my trip so fun.

thnx py jl bz wh ny for making these 10weeks so fun and worthwhile. i'll miss facing u guys everyday haa..

last day in uganda. haha i'm all ready to go home. it's actually a pretty nice place, friendlier in village kisiizi than city kampala but staying in lesster's place in suburban bunga is v nice too. cool chilly fresh air, that's not too humid minus all the dust is a nice weather. wonder when i'll b bk but meanwhile byebye africa! hello hongkong! :)