Dr. Stockley - this may be crude but it's what he really said!

So we didn't have morning class today and it was wonderful to sleep in. I put some laundry in the washing machine and had a yummy breakfast of Nutella on toast and pineapple.

Dr. Stockley came at 10 to talk to us about safety in Uganda. We were warned before he came that he was a character and that the offensive things he might say are not Food for the Hungry supported. I found the guy hilarious. He made a few comments about Americans being ignorant, but I know that it is often true, so I wasn't offended.

Dr. Stockley has been in Uganda for over 30 years. He has never had malaria or gotten sick with anything more serious than an amoeba. He said that most of the clinics here will diagnose any fever as malaria, so we should come to him and he will be able to give us a more accurate diagnoses. Here is what we learned:

1. Motor vehicle accidents cause the most deaths out of anything in Uganda. (cars, matatus, and boda bodas)
2. Murder is the 2nd cause of death. To avoid being murdered, don't get involved in politics, money laundering, drug deals, or going out with the wrong people.
3. The leading cause of why people end up leaving early is chronic fatigue. In the first month of being here we have no immunity and will almost definitely get diarrhea. Many people feel tired and sick for a long period of time and start to believe that there is something wrong with them, so they go home. He said we shouldn't try to be heroes, if we are tired, go to bed! We aren't going to save the world while we are here and we can do more if we take the time to rest when we need it. (very good advice)
4. HIV, STDs and other sexually transmitted diseases are easily prevented by not having sex. DUH! He said, "if you can't keep your knickers up, don't come to Africa". While the statistics say that only 9% of people have HIV, the people who have infections are the ones that are most likely to be the ones that tourists would sleep with because "if the aren't safe, they're interested, and if they are safe, they wont be interested". Probably wont be an issue for our group, but he said that many tourists who believe they are smart about stuff like this easily fall pray to the charming African men who in reality sleep with a different easy Mzungu every night. enough said
5. 30% of us are going to get an amoeba here. We will come in for our end check up and give a stool sample and some blood and then get treatment for what we pick up here. Great... Now I am paranoid.. I can't wait to experience my first case of diarrhea.. not! Haha Dr. Stockley said when it starts coming out both ends, the best thing to do is just lay in the bathtub and rinse it off when you are finished.." hahaha I hope none of us get to that point

We talked about how the Ugandan medical system is really bad. In order for Ugandan to be able to say that their doctors were superior, they lowered the pass score to a 30%. The doctors here are often incompetent. Needless to say that after all of this I will be visiting Dr. Stockley for anything I need here

one last thing: Mom, you will be happy to know that the Doxycyline I am taking actually prevents 12 diseases that I could pick up! And the typhoid tests are not accurate becasue they test for antibodies, which we all have after getting the typhoid vaccine...so even though we wont get it, we would test positive.. interesting