East Africa Day 82 (Wed Aug 3): The Centre for Tropical & Travel Medicine

I haven't been feeling well. I wasn't confident that the doctor that I saw at the Nairobi Women's Hospital last week had properly diagnosed me, so I got a referral to another medical facility in Nairobi, the Centre for Tropical and Travel Medicine. The Centre is not open on Sunday, so I had to wait until Monday to call to schedule an appointment. I decided to go today, because I finished up the medicine that the Nairobi Women's Hospital prescribed me, yesterday. I figured if that medicine worked, then I should be better by now. And if not, then it was time for a second medication.

I took the bus to CTTM today, and felt better as soon as I walked into the Centre's waiting room. It looked very professional. I was given the option of seeing the most well-known doctor in the practice, a man, or the other doctor in the practice, who is a woman. I chose to see the female doctor.

She sat me down in her office and asked me if I'd been "in the bush". When I told her where I'd been this summer, she nodded as if to say "yeah, you've been in the bush." She carefully listened to me list all of my symptoms, which I had fortunately been documenting. I felt much better after speaking with her.

She sent me next door to the CTTM Lab, where I pre-paid for my lab work, and then gave my samples. I made an appointment for the following day, to get my results. I left already feeling much better.

I headed back into "town" to meet up with a former Kiva Fellow, Nila. Hung out in the lobby of the Hilton hotel, reading "The Road" while Nila was in a meeting in an office nearby. Our schedules didn't wind up matching up, so we rescheduled for tomorrow.

In the evening Angela, Laney and I met up in the CBD ("town") for dinner and a movie. We found a traditional Kenyan restaurant not too far from my apartment or the movie venue, and caught up over dinner. I had "chips" which I'd been craving earlier in the day. (Very fried french fries.)

We then walked around the corner to the Alliance Francais building. It has a really nice feel to it - kind of reminds me of the San Francisco Public Library in Civic Center, including the movie theater inside the venue:) The Indonesian film we went to see, Naga Bonar Becomes 2 (Naga Bonar Jadi 2) was screening for free as part of Nairobi's ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Film Festival 2011. Fortunately it had English subtitles:) It was funny, and just nice to sit in a movie theatre, laughing with friends. Unfortunately I couldn't find a trailer with English subtitles ... so here's the synopsis, grabbed from a website:

Nagabonar Jadi 2 (Nagabonar Becomes 2) is a comedy movie starring Deddy Mizwar and Tora Sudiro as father an son. This movie is a sequel to 1986 hits movie Nagabonar. The story is still about Nagabonar (Deddy Mizwar), a pickpocket who becomes a general during independence war. But now Nagabonar lives in the big city with his son Bonaga (Tora Sudiro). Bonaga is a businessman. Along with his three friends, Pomo (Darius Sinathrya), Ronnie (Uli Herdinansyah) and Jaki (Michael Muliadro) they run a big business. Conflict comes when Bonaga wants to sell his father palm plantation. Monita (Wulan Guritno) a consultant to Bonaga’s business tries to settle down the conflict between Bonaga and Nagabonar.

and the trailer ...



Back tomorrow to CTTM for my test results!