Showing posts with label Asyut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asyut. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
A little publicity
These are two of the recruitment posters for the Assiut Students' Scientific Association 2005 Tropical Medicine Summer School. Comes highly recommended.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Cairo introduction
Hello friends, and greetings from Cairo!
How are you all? Have you had a good week? I've been having an unusual one, having finally got the chance to explore the capital. In many ways it's so different from the rest of the country.
I arrived here on Saturday night, after my final week in Assiut. The boys' dormitory was pretty quiet without all of my friends from the summer school (most of them left for their homelands a few days ago), but we did have one final adventure together. We had walked around most of the city during our time here, the area behind our hostel was full of residential side-streets that we hadn't traversed, and four of us (H, M, S and me) decided to see what was there. After choosing progressively narrower and narrower roads until we were walking down small alleyways, we suddenly stumbled across this wonderful street bazaar. It was typically Arabian, with all manner of wares sold in tiny stalls packed tightly together, the high-pitched cries of the merchants and the lovely smell of fresh coffee and spices. It seemed to be the first time the traders had seen foreigners in the bazaar, and everywhere we were greeted with warm smiles and hails of 'Welcome in Assiut' or 'China? Korea? Indonesia? Where are you from?'. It was such an unexpectedly great place and we were just thinking of what to buy as souvenirs of the trip when out of nowhere around fifty little street kids, all aged between five and ten years started following us and shouting to each other excitedly. My features are similar to those of many Egyptians so I was mostly ignored as a funny dressing native, but the children were transfixed by H, M and Sas (H is originally from Hong Kong, M is French-Canadian and S is Dutch). My Arabic is terrible but I think they were saying 'Hey, look at those strange looking people. Have you ever seen anything like it? I dare you to talk you them.' So they did, and asked us all our names. Once they found that out and none of them could think of any other questions they could ask in English, they decided to touch us, staying by our side as we tried to get past them. It was all very innocent, but then things started to get a bit hairy. H and I were standing just behind the girls and attempting to stop the kids from harassing them, but the noise they created attracted some older boys, and they ran at us from the sides, got in-between us and started pushing and prodding the girls. A few even tried to pinch their bottoms, and H and I had to literally ram our way to the front and run out of there with them. Not very nice. Not nice at all.
That said though, most of the people in Assiut, not least all the ASSA students who looked after and befriended us, are so nice I was sad to leave the city. On my final night there we went to one of the Egyptian student's sister's wedding, and after lots of singing and dancing attended one more morning of training at the hospital before packing my bags and heading for Cairo.
The train journey took five hours and was a really good chance to see daily life by the Nile (on the way to Assiut last month we took a night-train). I also got talking to my neighbour, and now I've more than doubled my Italian vocabulary. He was an Egyptian businessman who had spent some time in Italy and so could speak some of that language, but no English. Youssef proceeded to tell me all about his former life there in Italian, whilst I would look confused but try to string some kind of response in French. Cue much fun and some very bemused expressions on both sides.
Cairo itself is a great city. It's home to around eighteen million people and the area around the main railway station, Mahattat Ramses, is the major crossroads. I arrived in the middle of the rush-hour (which usually lasts from seven in the morning till ten at night), and it was like downtown New York on speed. Every which way you looked there were cars, bicycles, cats and the odd donkey, and accompanied by a Cairene it still took two minutes to cross the road. The second summer school I was to attend didn't begin until the following morning and the Students' Scientific Society (SSS) of Kasr Al-Ainy, the coordinators of the program, put us up for the night in a different hotel to the one we would be staying at for the rest of the training period. This was in the heart of downtown but a bit further from the hospital, and the next morning we decided to take the metro there. It was the first time I had walked in the city during the daytime, and it was intense. The thing that caught my eye most though was this old Egyptian guy with a typically traditional appearance (sun-drenched face, small moustache, rotten teeth) except that he was wearing a pristine white t-shirt with the words 'Support British Farming' emblazoned in big letters on the back. I still don't know what I'll leave behind if I end with more than twenty kilos.
Riding the metro from one of the major hubs of the city to another in the middle of the morning rush is weird. The trains are generally fast, clean and efficient, but they are even more packed than the most crushing London Underground carriages. As soon as a train stops at a station people pour in to the carriages, regardless of the commuters that have to get off. But this means that half of them have to return to the platform again as people shout that this is their stop, and because the driver only waits at each station for a few seconds, heedless of whether or not passengers are still getting on, lots of the metrogoers end up back where they started. So some streetwise users of the train use a different approach. They stand towards the back, around four metres from the carriages, and just before the signal is given for the doors to close they run at them at full speed, suitcases in hand, leaping off the edge of the platform like Olympic long jumpers. Their momentum carries them safely into the carriages regardless of how full they are, though some orthopaedic surgeons might be a bit busier than they should do.
The hospital itself is pretty different from Assiut University's. It's easy to see that the institution has far more money - there are no patients lining the stairs and the wards themselves are much wider and better equipped - and there is the buzz of working in a busy teaching hospital. We were met on the first day by the assistant head of the tropical medicine department, a really nice man who outlined our training schedule and gave us a quick tour of the faculty of internal medicine. Unfortunately the program is different to the one most of us envisaged as the incidence of tropical diseases in the capital is low, and we will spend more time in the gastroenterology and hepatology departments. It's a pity, but the doctors seem eager to teach, and what with grand rounds and journal club meetings to attend, we should learn lots. Oh yeah, and the wards here are much cooler. That's fantastic for us, but even better for the patients - they don't really believe in giving people intravenous drips here unless it's absolutely necessary, but half the patients end up being quite badly fluid depleted most of the time.
The evenings during the training period are set aside for the social program organised by the SSS committee, but it's a lot less packed than Assiut's. This being a much bigger and varied city they want us to explore it ourselves instead of having to be shown all the sights, which is fair enough. So all of us in the exchange and summer school programs have been roaming the area together, and have so far walked through the downtown, Islamic and Coptic regions. And as long as we don't get run over or go broke (Cairo is way more expensive than anywhere else I've visited in the country) we'll head over to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar the day after tomorrow to get all of our souvenir shopping done. So let me know what I can get you.
That's all for now.
Moc
How are you all? Have you had a good week? I've been having an unusual one, having finally got the chance to explore the capital. In many ways it's so different from the rest of the country.
I arrived here on Saturday night, after my final week in Assiut. The boys' dormitory was pretty quiet without all of my friends from the summer school (most of them left for their homelands a few days ago), but we did have one final adventure together. We had walked around most of the city during our time here, the area behind our hostel was full of residential side-streets that we hadn't traversed, and four of us (H, M, S and me) decided to see what was there. After choosing progressively narrower and narrower roads until we were walking down small alleyways, we suddenly stumbled across this wonderful street bazaar. It was typically Arabian, with all manner of wares sold in tiny stalls packed tightly together, the high-pitched cries of the merchants and the lovely smell of fresh coffee and spices. It seemed to be the first time the traders had seen foreigners in the bazaar, and everywhere we were greeted with warm smiles and hails of 'Welcome in Assiut' or 'China? Korea? Indonesia? Where are you from?'. It was such an unexpectedly great place and we were just thinking of what to buy as souvenirs of the trip when out of nowhere around fifty little street kids, all aged between five and ten years started following us and shouting to each other excitedly. My features are similar to those of many Egyptians so I was mostly ignored as a funny dressing native, but the children were transfixed by H, M and Sas (H is originally from Hong Kong, M is French-Canadian and S is Dutch). My Arabic is terrible but I think they were saying 'Hey, look at those strange looking people. Have you ever seen anything like it? I dare you to talk you them.' So they did, and asked us all our names. Once they found that out and none of them could think of any other questions they could ask in English, they decided to touch us, staying by our side as we tried to get past them. It was all very innocent, but then things started to get a bit hairy. H and I were standing just behind the girls and attempting to stop the kids from harassing them, but the noise they created attracted some older boys, and they ran at us from the sides, got in-between us and started pushing and prodding the girls. A few even tried to pinch their bottoms, and H and I had to literally ram our way to the front and run out of there with them. Not very nice. Not nice at all.
That said though, most of the people in Assiut, not least all the ASSA students who looked after and befriended us, are so nice I was sad to leave the city. On my final night there we went to one of the Egyptian student's sister's wedding, and after lots of singing and dancing attended one more morning of training at the hospital before packing my bags and heading for Cairo.
The train journey took five hours and was a really good chance to see daily life by the Nile (on the way to Assiut last month we took a night-train). I also got talking to my neighbour, and now I've more than doubled my Italian vocabulary. He was an Egyptian businessman who had spent some time in Italy and so could speak some of that language, but no English. Youssef proceeded to tell me all about his former life there in Italian, whilst I would look confused but try to string some kind of response in French. Cue much fun and some very bemused expressions on both sides.
Cairo itself is a great city. It's home to around eighteen million people and the area around the main railway station, Mahattat Ramses, is the major crossroads. I arrived in the middle of the rush-hour (which usually lasts from seven in the morning till ten at night), and it was like downtown New York on speed. Every which way you looked there were cars, bicycles, cats and the odd donkey, and accompanied by a Cairene it still took two minutes to cross the road. The second summer school I was to attend didn't begin until the following morning and the Students' Scientific Society (SSS) of Kasr Al-Ainy, the coordinators of the program, put us up for the night in a different hotel to the one we would be staying at for the rest of the training period. This was in the heart of downtown but a bit further from the hospital, and the next morning we decided to take the metro there. It was the first time I had walked in the city during the daytime, and it was intense. The thing that caught my eye most though was this old Egyptian guy with a typically traditional appearance (sun-drenched face, small moustache, rotten teeth) except that he was wearing a pristine white t-shirt with the words 'Support British Farming' emblazoned in big letters on the back. I still don't know what I'll leave behind if I end with more than twenty kilos.
Riding the metro from one of the major hubs of the city to another in the middle of the morning rush is weird. The trains are generally fast, clean and efficient, but they are even more packed than the most crushing London Underground carriages. As soon as a train stops at a station people pour in to the carriages, regardless of the commuters that have to get off. But this means that half of them have to return to the platform again as people shout that this is their stop, and because the driver only waits at each station for a few seconds, heedless of whether or not passengers are still getting on, lots of the metrogoers end up back where they started. So some streetwise users of the train use a different approach. They stand towards the back, around four metres from the carriages, and just before the signal is given for the doors to close they run at them at full speed, suitcases in hand, leaping off the edge of the platform like Olympic long jumpers. Their momentum carries them safely into the carriages regardless of how full they are, though some orthopaedic surgeons might be a bit busier than they should do.
The hospital itself is pretty different from Assiut University's. It's easy to see that the institution has far more money - there are no patients lining the stairs and the wards themselves are much wider and better equipped - and there is the buzz of working in a busy teaching hospital. We were met on the first day by the assistant head of the tropical medicine department, a really nice man who outlined our training schedule and gave us a quick tour of the faculty of internal medicine. Unfortunately the program is different to the one most of us envisaged as the incidence of tropical diseases in the capital is low, and we will spend more time in the gastroenterology and hepatology departments. It's a pity, but the doctors seem eager to teach, and what with grand rounds and journal club meetings to attend, we should learn lots. Oh yeah, and the wards here are much cooler. That's fantastic for us, but even better for the patients - they don't really believe in giving people intravenous drips here unless it's absolutely necessary, but half the patients end up being quite badly fluid depleted most of the time.
The evenings during the training period are set aside for the social program organised by the SSS committee, but it's a lot less packed than Assiut's. This being a much bigger and varied city they want us to explore it ourselves instead of having to be shown all the sights, which is fair enough. So all of us in the exchange and summer school programs have been roaming the area together, and have so far walked through the downtown, Islamic and Coptic regions. And as long as we don't get run over or go broke (Cairo is way more expensive than anywhere else I've visited in the country) we'll head over to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar the day after tomorrow to get all of our souvenir shopping done. So let me know what I can get you.
That's all for now.
Moc
Friday, July 30, 2004
Road trip II
Sorry it's taken a while to write again, but I've been working like crazy the last few days, and have been trying to make the most of my final week in Assiut. I'll try and reply individually as soon as I can, but it might take a while. Anyway, I've just read over this mail and it's quite sombre - I saw something very sad this morning and am still recovering. Details to follow.
First of all though, a bit more about the week long trip to Aswan, Abu Simbel, Luxor and Hurghada. It was organised by the Egyptian students from ASSA (Assiut Students' Scientific Association) who are looking after us during our time here, and was a quick tour of some of the spectacular sights and sounds of Upper Egypt. We began the trip just over two weeks ago, but due to some of the same security problems mentioned in the last email (a police escort to the outskirts of the city was compulsory), we departed one and a half hours late, in the early hours of the morning. Alas the booming voice of one of my friends woke up half of our floor in the hostel, and we left to a cry of 'Shut up, you donkeys!'.
We got to Aswan early the next morning and drove to our hotel first thing to set down our bags and freshen up. Only the hotel didn't want us! When they saw that we were not all Egyptian students they wanted to charge us 50% extra and, after a bit of arguing we decided not to stay there. The rooms still weren't that much by European standards but it was the principle of deciding to surcharge foreign guests that riled us, and after an hour of searching in downtown Aswan we ended up finding a hotel a cheap hotel in a small alleyway, sandwiched between a butchers' shop and an outrageously priced convenience store. It had a great view of the neighbouring area and there was air-conditioning, which we were so grateful for, as it was incredibly hot in the city. Even wearing tourist-style clothes and with litres and litres of cold water, walking around in temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius is really energy sapping. The sun here doesn't shine, it burns.
After a shower we quickly went exploring as we only had two days in the city. We started off by visiting the Botanical Gardens, a small peaceful plot on this really beautiful island on the Nile. Then we went to the temple of Philae a superb shrine to the goddess Isis begun by Nectanebo I and added to for over six hundred years. As well as the vivid hieroglyphics there were lots of nooks to get lost in and we had a good time. The hieroglyphs were also more intricate than some of the later ones we saw, with the pictures embossed rather than chiseled into the stone.
Many people in Aswan are of a much darker complexion compared to Egyptians in other parts of the country, having descended from native peoples south of the present day national border, and they have a distinct language and culture. They are known as Nubians, and to get a feel for their way of life and to make some much needed cash, many Nubian villagers open up their mud brick homes for tourists to have a look around. They are all brightly coloured and uniquely adorned (the one we visited had five baby crocodiles in a tank which the younger boys proudly showed us), and it was a really interesting if slightly intrusive feeling experience.
The next day we left early to catch the police escort to Abu Simbel, a small town in the deep south of the country that's home to my Pharaonic favourite sites in Egypt: the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to his wife, Nefertari. They're massive structures (the former is 30m high and 35m wide) and when you get close you have to crane your neck to the sky to see the crowns of the statues. You really can't help being overwhelmed by the audacity, planning and commitment required to complete the thirty year project. Built around 3,000 years ago it must have been an incredible moment when it was rediscovered two-hundred years ago, a vast structure in the desert almost completely buried in the sand. I know it's no that vivid a description but I think it's one of those sights that have to be seen to be really appreciated. Go!
Later that afternoon we headed back to Aswan to visit the Aswan Dam, the magnificent High Dam and the Nubian Museum. We wanted to do something memorable on our final night here, so afterwards three of us (me, Shobhit and my Canadian friend Dan) went to explore the Old Cataract Hotel. It's said to be the finest hotel in Egypt, and parts of the movie 'Death on the Nile' were filmed here. After having juices and fruit tarts on the balcony, which offered a wonderful view of the Nile, we managed to sweet-talk the night-manager and got to see one of the best suites in the hotel, the Agatha Christie Suite. It had massive rooms with luxorious carpets and furniture, and every amenity you could think of. It's a shame we had to head straight back to our student rooms.
We left for Luxor the following morning, a large city north of Aswan containing the highest proportion of Pharaonic monuments in the world. We visited the Karnak and Luxor Temples the first day and all of the West Bank the next, but just when we were getting overwhelmed by the rows upon rows of intricate carvings ... disaster! Because it's so bright outside but very dark in many of the siderooms and inner chambers of temples, I was wearing my prescription sunglasses but had my regular specs hooked on a button on my shirt for easy access. Just as we were climbing up some rocks to enter an inner room the glasses fell from my shirt and one of the lenses cracked. Nooo! I'm really short-sighted and so for the next five days we forced to wear my sunglasses everywhere. It was a bit of an inconvenience and I got lots of amused glances when I wore the shades in darkened restaurants and the like (I must have looked like some kind of wannabe Indian badboy), but it wasn't really a problem until a few days later. I was showering when all of a sudden there was a power-cut and the hotel was plunged into darkness. I couldn't see a thing, and putting on the shades made things even darker. With a really dodgy budget-style bathroom to contend with my sore backside from the diving got a lot worse before I managed to get out.
Anyway, after two action-packed days in Luxor we moved on to the final leg of our trip and took our minibus to Hurghada. The city is a rapidly developing resort on the Red Sea coast, and one of the best sites in the country for snorkelling and diving. After spending the afternoon of the first day relaxing on the beach, we left early the next morning for a long boat ride to some of the Rad Sea's many coral reefs. None of us had a diving license so we couldn't do that, but the snorkelling trip was nevertheless an incredible experience. The fish in the Red Sea are so beautiful, varied and colourful that even without specs it was easy to see loads of spectacular one. After an hour or so we went to a beach to do some swimming, but there followed another disaster! A few of us were running along the sand when we stepped on some very sharp coral that cut up our feet, and we decided to wash our wounds in the water. I was happily doing so when I realised that my camera was still dangling from my shoulder and was immersed in the water. Despite many drying attempts it hasn't worked since.
Some of our group went from Hurghada directly to Cairo as their planes were leaving earlier than ours, so the Fellowship was much smaller by the time we got back to Assiut. It was a sad occasion, and since then the city has been as slow as usual, but we have managed to get a lot more training done. I've been going in to hospital in the evenings as well as the mornings as also got to visit the obstetrics/gynaecology and accident and emergency departments. A&E in Assiut is very different to London though. First of all, almost all the patients present with trauma wounds. The incidence of alcohol and drugs misuse is so low as to almost non-existent so there are no cases of overdose or injuries sustained following abuse, but the variety of trauma accidents here is worrying. Of the first ten patients I saw one had his hand sliced by a scythe, another had his hand crushed in a machine and a third had sustained head injuries following a motorcycle accident. That's not surprising considering that most people don't wear helmets when riding - the only form of protection I've seen are construction hard hats worn without strapping. The department was adequately staffed but the resources weren't very good and the team was always working under trying circumstances. The doctors did their best but sterile procedure was difficult to maintain and I'm worried that many of the patients will go on to develop septicaemia. That and a lack of monitoring meant that one patient on the ICU went into massive cardiogenic shock which was discovered when it was too late for intervention. A tough way to end the day.
OK, I'd better get some reading done.
All the best,
Moc
First of all though, a bit more about the week long trip to Aswan, Abu Simbel, Luxor and Hurghada. It was organised by the Egyptian students from ASSA (Assiut Students' Scientific Association) who are looking after us during our time here, and was a quick tour of some of the spectacular sights and sounds of Upper Egypt. We began the trip just over two weeks ago, but due to some of the same security problems mentioned in the last email (a police escort to the outskirts of the city was compulsory), we departed one and a half hours late, in the early hours of the morning. Alas the booming voice of one of my friends woke up half of our floor in the hostel, and we left to a cry of 'Shut up, you donkeys!'.
We got to Aswan early the next morning and drove to our hotel first thing to set down our bags and freshen up. Only the hotel didn't want us! When they saw that we were not all Egyptian students they wanted to charge us 50% extra and, after a bit of arguing we decided not to stay there. The rooms still weren't that much by European standards but it was the principle of deciding to surcharge foreign guests that riled us, and after an hour of searching in downtown Aswan we ended up finding a hotel a cheap hotel in a small alleyway, sandwiched between a butchers' shop and an outrageously priced convenience store. It had a great view of the neighbouring area and there was air-conditioning, which we were so grateful for, as it was incredibly hot in the city. Even wearing tourist-style clothes and with litres and litres of cold water, walking around in temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius is really energy sapping. The sun here doesn't shine, it burns.
After a shower we quickly went exploring as we only had two days in the city. We started off by visiting the Botanical Gardens, a small peaceful plot on this really beautiful island on the Nile. Then we went to the temple of Philae a superb shrine to the goddess Isis begun by Nectanebo I and added to for over six hundred years. As well as the vivid hieroglyphics there were lots of nooks to get lost in and we had a good time. The hieroglyphs were also more intricate than some of the later ones we saw, with the pictures embossed rather than chiseled into the stone.
Many people in Aswan are of a much darker complexion compared to Egyptians in other parts of the country, having descended from native peoples south of the present day national border, and they have a distinct language and culture. They are known as Nubians, and to get a feel for their way of life and to make some much needed cash, many Nubian villagers open up their mud brick homes for tourists to have a look around. They are all brightly coloured and uniquely adorned (the one we visited had five baby crocodiles in a tank which the younger boys proudly showed us), and it was a really interesting if slightly intrusive feeling experience.
The next day we left early to catch the police escort to Abu Simbel, a small town in the deep south of the country that's home to my Pharaonic favourite sites in Egypt: the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to his wife, Nefertari. They're massive structures (the former is 30m high and 35m wide) and when you get close you have to crane your neck to the sky to see the crowns of the statues. You really can't help being overwhelmed by the audacity, planning and commitment required to complete the thirty year project. Built around 3,000 years ago it must have been an incredible moment when it was rediscovered two-hundred years ago, a vast structure in the desert almost completely buried in the sand. I know it's no that vivid a description but I think it's one of those sights that have to be seen to be really appreciated. Go!
Later that afternoon we headed back to Aswan to visit the Aswan Dam, the magnificent High Dam and the Nubian Museum. We wanted to do something memorable on our final night here, so afterwards three of us (me, Shobhit and my Canadian friend Dan) went to explore the Old Cataract Hotel. It's said to be the finest hotel in Egypt, and parts of the movie 'Death on the Nile' were filmed here. After having juices and fruit tarts on the balcony, which offered a wonderful view of the Nile, we managed to sweet-talk the night-manager and got to see one of the best suites in the hotel, the Agatha Christie Suite. It had massive rooms with luxorious carpets and furniture, and every amenity you could think of. It's a shame we had to head straight back to our student rooms.
We left for Luxor the following morning, a large city north of Aswan containing the highest proportion of Pharaonic monuments in the world. We visited the Karnak and Luxor Temples the first day and all of the West Bank the next, but just when we were getting overwhelmed by the rows upon rows of intricate carvings ... disaster! Because it's so bright outside but very dark in many of the siderooms and inner chambers of temples, I was wearing my prescription sunglasses but had my regular specs hooked on a button on my shirt for easy access. Just as we were climbing up some rocks to enter an inner room the glasses fell from my shirt and one of the lenses cracked. Nooo! I'm really short-sighted and so for the next five days we forced to wear my sunglasses everywhere. It was a bit of an inconvenience and I got lots of amused glances when I wore the shades in darkened restaurants and the like (I must have looked like some kind of wannabe Indian badboy), but it wasn't really a problem until a few days later. I was showering when all of a sudden there was a power-cut and the hotel was plunged into darkness. I couldn't see a thing, and putting on the shades made things even darker. With a really dodgy budget-style bathroom to contend with my sore backside from the diving got a lot worse before I managed to get out.
Anyway, after two action-packed days in Luxor we moved on to the final leg of our trip and took our minibus to Hurghada. The city is a rapidly developing resort on the Red Sea coast, and one of the best sites in the country for snorkelling and diving. After spending the afternoon of the first day relaxing on the beach, we left early the next morning for a long boat ride to some of the Rad Sea's many coral reefs. None of us had a diving license so we couldn't do that, but the snorkelling trip was nevertheless an incredible experience. The fish in the Red Sea are so beautiful, varied and colourful that even without specs it was easy to see loads of spectacular one. After an hour or so we went to a beach to do some swimming, but there followed another disaster! A few of us were running along the sand when we stepped on some very sharp coral that cut up our feet, and we decided to wash our wounds in the water. I was happily doing so when I realised that my camera was still dangling from my shoulder and was immersed in the water. Despite many drying attempts it hasn't worked since.
Some of our group went from Hurghada directly to Cairo as their planes were leaving earlier than ours, so the Fellowship was much smaller by the time we got back to Assiut. It was a sad occasion, and since then the city has been as slow as usual, but we have managed to get a lot more training done. I've been going in to hospital in the evenings as well as the mornings as also got to visit the obstetrics/gynaecology and accident and emergency departments. A&E in Assiut is very different to London though. First of all, almost all the patients present with trauma wounds. The incidence of alcohol and drugs misuse is so low as to almost non-existent so there are no cases of overdose or injuries sustained following abuse, but the variety of trauma accidents here is worrying. Of the first ten patients I saw one had his hand sliced by a scythe, another had his hand crushed in a machine and a third had sustained head injuries following a motorcycle accident. That's not surprising considering that most people don't wear helmets when riding - the only form of protection I've seen are construction hard hats worn without strapping. The department was adequately staffed but the resources weren't very good and the team was always working under trying circumstances. The doctors did their best but sterile procedure was difficult to maintain and I'm worried that many of the patients will go on to develop septicaemia. That and a lack of monitoring meant that one patient on the ICU went into massive cardiogenic shock which was discovered when it was too late for intervention. A tough way to end the day.
OK, I'd better get some reading done.
All the best,
Moc
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Citius, altius, fortius
The first week that we were in Assiut, the university was hosting Pan-Middle Eastern Disabled Games. Here are some of the championships’ stars. They certainly put me to shame with their athletic prowess.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
First impressions of Egypt
Hi all
I tried to send this mail a couple of weeks ago, but I think lots of you didn't get it, so I'm resending it. It explains why we're all here. Enjoy, and reply sooon.
Moc
Hi folks
How are you? Sorry it's taken a long time to get in touch. I'm staying in quite a small town at the moment, and have really bad Net access. This is only the second time I've been online since arriving here a week ago, and the connection is pretty slow. Anyway, where am I? In Assiut (or Asyut), Egypt! I know I didn't get in touch with lots of you before I left, but the trip was a completely last minute thing. A couple of weeks ago I was surfing the Net and randomly came across a chance to complete a Tropical Medicine Summer School for three weeks, starting on July 1st. There was to be a week's travelling all over the Pharaonic sites afterwards, and it seemed like a great chance to have a holiday, learn some tropical medicine, meet great people from Egypt and the rest of the world, and to improve my Arabic. The details are here. Check it out. So I called up some of my buddies from med school, and two of them (Sho and H) were free during July. Just as we were organising all that, another friend told me about a summer school in Cairo beginning on August 1st, and seeing as I was in Egypt anyway, and that we have four months holiday this summer, I thought why not go to that as well. Unfortunately Sho and H won't be able to come for both programs, but the Cairo school should be great fun too.
Anyway, after some last-minute packing the three of us got here a week and a half ago, only to have a few problems at the airport. I already had a visa from London, but even then they confiscated my passport for 'security' for twenty minutes. Then it was my friends' turn. The problem is there is next to no signposting at Cairo International, and people here don't queue. After twenty minutes they were told to buy their visas from somewhere else and join the back of the line again. Almost two hours after landing we were out of the airport, and following a bit of bargaining we took a taxi to the main train station, as the training was beginning the next day so we needed to get to Assiut asap. Riding a taxi in Cairo is an exhilarating experience though, even more than taking a rickshaw in Mumbai! The drivers here all treat other vehicles as moving objects in a high-speed slalom course, to be claxoned and cursed whenever a close shave is avoided. Hypertension and great entertainment is guaranteed every time, but you know, we haven't seen a single accident so far.
Within the first hour we were already introduced to the unusual habit of tipping (HK was asked for 'baksheesh' for being handed a paper towel in the airport toilets), but buying anything here involves bargaining, a skill so frustrating but so much fun that I'll tell you about it at length later.
Once we got to the Ramses Station we were tired and wanted to get second class a/c seats. We were told they weren't available, and to try another office where 3rd class tickets were being sold. These were also unavailable, and we were now ushered to the first class booths. Alas they were all gone, and we were pointed to the queue for sleeper seats, at $50 per person. Catching on, we managed to grab hold of a tourist police officer, and finally got the seats we wanted (v cheap with an ISIC card – definitely bring one if you're visiting). Taking the 10pm train we reached Assiut at 3am, to be met by four of the summer school coordinators. They are all really nice, and are rooms are fine. As for the town itself, after a week and a half Assiut is still a bit of an enigma. It's on the banks of the Nile, geographically centrally placed and with good transport links to the rest of the country. The fact that it isn't a tourist city (Lonely Planet lists the orphanage(!) as one of the tourist attractions – insensitive, huh?) and that there isn't too much to do is more than made up for by the Egyptian students' company and the other medics on the course. There are twenty of us in total, (a Frenchman, three Ukrainians, five Slovakians, a Czech, two Canadians, an Indo-Bulgarian, a Dutch woman, a Colombian and two Poles and the three of us from London), and we're having a great time. We've formed a special bond and are often up talking until three in the morning. I'll tell you much more about them over the following three weeks.
Every day there's a social program organised by the ASSA team, usually involving sitting by the Nile and later a restaurant outing, which can feel a bit repetitive, but there is always a fun twist. I sometimes feel that the Egyptian students are doing too much for us and that we are taking up all over their evenings, but it being the summer holidays these guys just don't sleep at night, when it’s nice and cool.
Getting from place to place in Assiut, and quite a bit of Upper Egypt, however is a mission. In the 1980s Assiut, and the university in particular, were hotbeds of a religious uprising, and the guy that killed Sadat had strong links with the university. Though this is now long forgotten and all the Copts I've spoken to (there's a very large Coptic community here) say they suffer no prejudice at all, there remains a massive police presence in town, and they keep an eye on things from these five metre turrets scattered round the city. Wherever we go we are followed at a discrete distance but by a truckload of officers, three for each student. We know they are there for our safety but it gets tiring pretty quickly and we’re always discussing strategies to evade them.
The medical program itself is brilliant. On our first day we were a bit apprehensive, as the hospital is a typically underfunded place with overworked doctors and patients queuing on the stairs and corridors, but the teaching is amazing. The team here is genuinely honoured that students from all over the world have chosen Assiut to complete their training, and are always willing to teach. I think we've had more personal teaching here than in all our third year firms back home. They struggle with most of our names though, and it’s always interesting how they pronounce them. My friend H decided to use the name his godfather gave him, Joshua, to make things a bit easier, but it caused even more havoc. The first doctor, after struggling once, said “Oh, that is too difficult. We must make it easier. I will call you Shoo. Shoo, you are welcome to Egypt”. Classic
I went diving yesterday. I’d never done so before, but the sports facilities here are amazing, and I thought it would be fun to give it a try. The only problem is that the boards here are seriously high. Wee attempted jumping from the second highest board and the air-time was just incredible. Screaming when diving is expected here, so I did so when I jumped, only to find I was in the air for so long I was out of breath about two thirds of the way down, and had to breathe again, just as I hit the water, and swallowed half the pool. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh…..breathe…bre…splash, splutter. It was great fun, but my ‘unique’ technique was agony for my bruised backside.
Oh, a word of advice - don't try a sheesha pipe prepared for an Egyptian. They're lethal! Relaxing with a water pipe is a big part of many Egyptians’ lives, and the Assiut students have taken us to ‘kahwas’ quite a few times. I decided to try it for the first time a couple of days ago (in fact, the first time I ever had taken any form of tobacco) and after one puff I spent the next morning recovering. Also, it's the single biggest route of transmission for TB in these parts, but I only found that out yesterday.
Anyway folks, I’d better be off, as I need to get some sleep. The university is hosting the fourth Pan Middle Eastern Games for disabled athletes, and these guys only get going at midnight, once their competitions for the day are finished. They all gather their wheelchairs in the courtyard outside our dorms and chat and laugh for a few hours. They’re all really welcoming and we’ve joined them a few times. And once the travelling circus/dance troupee join us next week things will be even more lively.
Take care y’all, and hope to hear from you very soon. We have quite a bit of time off this week and it’d be good to hear what you’re all up to. Oh, and remember to let me know what you’d like from here.
Yours,
Moc
I tried to send this mail a couple of weeks ago, but I think lots of you didn't get it, so I'm resending it. It explains why we're all here. Enjoy, and reply sooon.
Moc
Hi folks
How are you? Sorry it's taken a long time to get in touch. I'm staying in quite a small town at the moment, and have really bad Net access. This is only the second time I've been online since arriving here a week ago, and the connection is pretty slow. Anyway, where am I? In Assiut (or Asyut), Egypt! I know I didn't get in touch with lots of you before I left, but the trip was a completely last minute thing. A couple of weeks ago I was surfing the Net and randomly came across a chance to complete a Tropical Medicine Summer School for three weeks, starting on July 1st. There was to be a week's travelling all over the Pharaonic sites afterwards, and it seemed like a great chance to have a holiday, learn some tropical medicine, meet great people from Egypt and the rest of the world, and to improve my Arabic. The details are here. Check it out. So I called up some of my buddies from med school, and two of them (Sho and H) were free during July. Just as we were organising all that, another friend told me about a summer school in Cairo beginning on August 1st, and seeing as I was in Egypt anyway, and that we have four months holiday this summer, I thought why not go to that as well. Unfortunately Sho and H won't be able to come for both programs, but the Cairo school should be great fun too.
Anyway, after some last-minute packing the three of us got here a week and a half ago, only to have a few problems at the airport. I already had a visa from London, but even then they confiscated my passport for 'security' for twenty minutes. Then it was my friends' turn. The problem is there is next to no signposting at Cairo International, and people here don't queue. After twenty minutes they were told to buy their visas from somewhere else and join the back of the line again. Almost two hours after landing we were out of the airport, and following a bit of bargaining we took a taxi to the main train station, as the training was beginning the next day so we needed to get to Assiut asap. Riding a taxi in Cairo is an exhilarating experience though, even more than taking a rickshaw in Mumbai! The drivers here all treat other vehicles as moving objects in a high-speed slalom course, to be claxoned and cursed whenever a close shave is avoided. Hypertension and great entertainment is guaranteed every time, but you know, we haven't seen a single accident so far.
Within the first hour we were already introduced to the unusual habit of tipping (HK was asked for 'baksheesh' for being handed a paper towel in the airport toilets), but buying anything here involves bargaining, a skill so frustrating but so much fun that I'll tell you about it at length later.
Once we got to the Ramses Station we were tired and wanted to get second class a/c seats. We were told they weren't available, and to try another office where 3rd class tickets were being sold. These were also unavailable, and we were now ushered to the first class booths. Alas they were all gone, and we were pointed to the queue for sleeper seats, at $50 per person. Catching on, we managed to grab hold of a tourist police officer, and finally got the seats we wanted (v cheap with an ISIC card – definitely bring one if you're visiting). Taking the 10pm train we reached Assiut at 3am, to be met by four of the summer school coordinators. They are all really nice, and are rooms are fine. As for the town itself, after a week and a half Assiut is still a bit of an enigma. It's on the banks of the Nile, geographically centrally placed and with good transport links to the rest of the country. The fact that it isn't a tourist city (Lonely Planet lists the orphanage(!) as one of the tourist attractions – insensitive, huh?) and that there isn't too much to do is more than made up for by the Egyptian students' company and the other medics on the course. There are twenty of us in total, (a Frenchman, three Ukrainians, five Slovakians, a Czech, two Canadians, an Indo-Bulgarian, a Dutch woman, a Colombian and two Poles and the three of us from London), and we're having a great time. We've formed a special bond and are often up talking until three in the morning. I'll tell you much more about them over the following three weeks.
Every day there's a social program organised by the ASSA team, usually involving sitting by the Nile and later a restaurant outing, which can feel a bit repetitive, but there is always a fun twist. I sometimes feel that the Egyptian students are doing too much for us and that we are taking up all over their evenings, but it being the summer holidays these guys just don't sleep at night, when it’s nice and cool.
Getting from place to place in Assiut, and quite a bit of Upper Egypt, however is a mission. In the 1980s Assiut, and the university in particular, were hotbeds of a religious uprising, and the guy that killed Sadat had strong links with the university. Though this is now long forgotten and all the Copts I've spoken to (there's a very large Coptic community here) say they suffer no prejudice at all, there remains a massive police presence in town, and they keep an eye on things from these five metre turrets scattered round the city. Wherever we go we are followed at a discrete distance but by a truckload of officers, three for each student. We know they are there for our safety but it gets tiring pretty quickly and we’re always discussing strategies to evade them.
The medical program itself is brilliant. On our first day we were a bit apprehensive, as the hospital is a typically underfunded place with overworked doctors and patients queuing on the stairs and corridors, but the teaching is amazing. The team here is genuinely honoured that students from all over the world have chosen Assiut to complete their training, and are always willing to teach. I think we've had more personal teaching here than in all our third year firms back home. They struggle with most of our names though, and it’s always interesting how they pronounce them. My friend H decided to use the name his godfather gave him, Joshua, to make things a bit easier, but it caused even more havoc. The first doctor, after struggling once, said “Oh, that is too difficult. We must make it easier. I will call you Shoo. Shoo, you are welcome to Egypt”. Classic
I went diving yesterday. I’d never done so before, but the sports facilities here are amazing, and I thought it would be fun to give it a try. The only problem is that the boards here are seriously high. Wee attempted jumping from the second highest board and the air-time was just incredible. Screaming when diving is expected here, so I did so when I jumped, only to find I was in the air for so long I was out of breath about two thirds of the way down, and had to breathe again, just as I hit the water, and swallowed half the pool. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh…..breathe…bre…splash, splutter. It was great fun, but my ‘unique’ technique was agony for my bruised backside.
Oh, a word of advice - don't try a sheesha pipe prepared for an Egyptian. They're lethal! Relaxing with a water pipe is a big part of many Egyptians’ lives, and the Assiut students have taken us to ‘kahwas’ quite a few times. I decided to try it for the first time a couple of days ago (in fact, the first time I ever had taken any form of tobacco) and after one puff I spent the next morning recovering. Also, it's the single biggest route of transmission for TB in these parts, but I only found that out yesterday.
Anyway folks, I’d better be off, as I need to get some sleep. The university is hosting the fourth Pan Middle Eastern Games for disabled athletes, and these guys only get going at midnight, once their competitions for the day are finished. They all gather their wheelchairs in the courtyard outside our dorms and chat and laugh for a few hours. They’re all really welcoming and we’ve joined them a few times. And once the travelling circus/dance troupee join us next week things will be even more lively.
Take care y’all, and hope to hear from you very soon. We have quite a bit of time off this week and it’d be good to hear what you’re all up to. Oh, and remember to let me know what you’d like from here.
Yours,
Moc
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Reading up, feeling down
I spent this morning looking up some information on Assiut, the town in Egypt where I’ll be attending a tropical medicine summer school beginning next month. It’s smack bang in the middle of the country, nearly 400km (and a five hour train journey) south of Cairo. I’ve only just begun doing my research but so far it doesn’t look to promising a tourist spot. An “ugly agglomeration of high-rises that resemble an Eastern European new town rather than an ancient Egyptian entrepot and trading post”, the city is apparently a hotbed of nationalism and most foreign visitors have a police escort throughout their time here. The ‘Rough Guide’ introduces the city with:
“Every country has one city/town that is despised by its inhabitants, Assiut is that city in Egypt.”
Yeesh! It’s not all bad though. I’m going with two good university friends, and the details of our trip have now been finalised. The Egyptian student we’ve been in contact with sounds really friendly, and for only 170 euro for a three week stay including all accommodation, food and teaching it should be a cheap summer. And Egypt is such a beautiful country I’m sure we’ll have our fair share of spectacular sights. I went there when I was seven years old and images of the pyramids at Giza, the Great Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and narrow, winding walkways of Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili are still imprinted on my mind.
Well, better get going,
Moc
P.S. Have any of you been to Egypt? Any tips will be much, much appreciated. Thank you!
“Every country has one city/town that is despised by its inhabitants, Assiut is that city in Egypt.”
Yeesh! It’s not all bad though. I’m going with two good university friends, and the details of our trip have now been finalised. The Egyptian student we’ve been in contact with sounds really friendly, and for only 170 euro for a three week stay including all accommodation, food and teaching it should be a cheap summer. And Egypt is such a beautiful country I’m sure we’ll have our fair share of spectacular sights. I went there when I was seven years old and images of the pyramids at Giza, the Great Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and narrow, winding walkways of Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili are still imprinted on my mind.
Well, better get going,
Moc
P.S. Have any of you been to Egypt? Any tips will be much, much appreciated. Thank you!
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