Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
FLY BAIT
I am always amazed by what I learn from noisy pubs and eateries. Unlike those up-market establishments where you have to cover your mouth just to burp then wear this apologetic face, it is all systems go in these places. You can burp from whatever orifice you wish and no one will notice.
In these places you will meet all the loudmouths who are more than willing to demonstrate to you that lighting a candle will banish those pesky flies from your table as long as they know that the candle is on the house. Only problem is the flies will only take a hike when you wave your hand or blow out the candle in exasperation then moments later they land again with a vengeance!
I was therefore skeptical when the waiter calmly came to our table, wiped it clean then sprinkled some pellets at one corner of the table. He then poured some water on the pellets and walked off to his business!
When I protested he turned and lamented that some people are just dumb and can't know when someone is trying to help them. I told him he was just stupid and what does he know, at which point he wiggled his bottle opener at me and told me to shut up!
Soon flies started landing on the pellets in droves and I was preparing to shout an insult at him when strange things started happening. One by one the flies started dancing on the table!
What kind of spirits had this crazy waiter summoned on our table! I put on my spectacles and squinted hard at the flies. In johny's name, what the hell... one by one the flies started falling on their backs!
This was too much. I called for the satchet and quickly read AGITA FLY BAIT from Norvatis active ingredient- Thiomethoxam 1%. Well, knock my head.
I poked one of the flies with a toothpick and it was dead. Dead as a dodo and the rest of the gang were still dancing and dropping fast. Soon the whole floor and tables were covered with dead flies and the cocky waiter just had to shush me as he wiped them off!
Later on, while doing my rounds on the internet, I followed up this lead and let's just say, i'm buying that stupid waiter a beer next time.
That stuff works.
In these places you will meet all the loudmouths who are more than willing to demonstrate to you that lighting a candle will banish those pesky flies from your table as long as they know that the candle is on the house. Only problem is the flies will only take a hike when you wave your hand or blow out the candle in exasperation then moments later they land again with a vengeance!
I was therefore skeptical when the waiter calmly came to our table, wiped it clean then sprinkled some pellets at one corner of the table. He then poured some water on the pellets and walked off to his business!
When I protested he turned and lamented that some people are just dumb and can't know when someone is trying to help them. I told him he was just stupid and what does he know, at which point he wiggled his bottle opener at me and told me to shut up!
Soon flies started landing on the pellets in droves and I was preparing to shout an insult at him when strange things started happening. One by one the flies started dancing on the table!
What kind of spirits had this crazy waiter summoned on our table! I put on my spectacles and squinted hard at the flies. In johny's name, what the hell... one by one the flies started falling on their backs!
This was too much. I called for the satchet and quickly read AGITA FLY BAIT from Norvatis active ingredient- Thiomethoxam 1%. Well, knock my head.
I poked one of the flies with a toothpick and it was dead. Dead as a dodo and the rest of the gang were still dancing and dropping fast. Soon the whole floor and tables were covered with dead flies and the cocky waiter just had to shush me as he wiped them off!
Later on, while doing my rounds on the internet, I followed up this lead and let's just say, i'm buying that stupid waiter a beer next time.
That stuff works.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
PUSH EMAIL
The good thing about technology is that it always makes life so much easier and, quite often, cheaper. Once you get the hang of it, that is!
Today I want to discuss push email. Since the day we started hyping the millenium bug, we all become aware of computers like never before. That was some fancy advertising. Even my semi-literate grandmother (God rest her soul in peace) once asked me about it. It all came to pass without a single blip on a monitor!
Since then every self respecting kenyan has registered for an email address (because it is free, of course!). Whether it is active or not is a story for another day.
The good thing about email is that your mail is delivered within minutes to any destination in the world. Not just that, with instant messaging you can actually chat to someone in real time. It gets even better when you use a social networking site like facebook where you can post a comment and your friends can view them and post their own comments as well.
But perhaps the best thing that has happened is the mobile internet. For a modest amount you can get a wap-enabled phone. It is now possible to access most websites on your phone. You can read newspapers, check university websites, download music, pictures and videos and best of all access your email. Now you do not have to travel to a cyber cafe to check your mail.
Perhaps the biggest hindrance to people using email is that you have to go to a cyber cafe to access it. This has been a major obstacle until now.
However, even with email access on your phone you still have to open the phone browser and log in which most people do not remember to do. The result is email accounts with 256 unread messages! How on earth do you go through all these? Imagine that number of letters in your post office box!
Luckily there is now a solution to all this. Push email.
If you have a smartphone or one of the more advanced phones such as the Sony Ericsson K810i or Nokia N and E series or the dazzling Nokia 5800 you can setup push email and assign a ringtone to your account. Push email gives you an always-on connection so that your phone notifies you when you have a new message, just like an SMS! You can then read the message and respond to it at once right on your phone. You can even attach a picture that you took with your phone camera to the reply! How cool is that?
Just one thing though, currently push email only works as a free service with gmail accounts (negligible operator charges apply). Yahoo! offers this as a premium service and this is a standard offer on all blackberry smartphones.
The beauty of it all is that sending an email from your phone will cost you less than 50cts!
In these tough economic times a good quality phone is not just a fashion statement. It can save you alot of money and time especially when using a 3G network (it will drain your battery though so turn it off when you are done). In kenya 3G is available on Safaricom and Orange and by next year it will be available on Zain as well.
To setup push email simply go to your phone's message menu and change your email settings to:
These settings work fine on my Sony Ericsson K810i. I am still trying to figure out where the problem is on my K750i, anybody know?
Today I want to discuss push email. Since the day we started hyping the millenium bug, we all become aware of computers like never before. That was some fancy advertising. Even my semi-literate grandmother (God rest her soul in peace) once asked me about it. It all came to pass without a single blip on a monitor!
Since then every self respecting kenyan has registered for an email address (because it is free, of course!). Whether it is active or not is a story for another day.
The good thing about email is that your mail is delivered within minutes to any destination in the world. Not just that, with instant messaging you can actually chat to someone in real time. It gets even better when you use a social networking site like facebook where you can post a comment and your friends can view them and post their own comments as well.
But perhaps the best thing that has happened is the mobile internet. For a modest amount you can get a wap-enabled phone. It is now possible to access most websites on your phone. You can read newspapers, check university websites, download music, pictures and videos and best of all access your email. Now you do not have to travel to a cyber cafe to check your mail.
Perhaps the biggest hindrance to people using email is that you have to go to a cyber cafe to access it. This has been a major obstacle until now.
However, even with email access on your phone you still have to open the phone browser and log in which most people do not remember to do. The result is email accounts with 256 unread messages! How on earth do you go through all these? Imagine that number of letters in your post office box!
Luckily there is now a solution to all this. Push email.
If you have a smartphone or one of the more advanced phones such as the Sony Ericsson K810i or Nokia N and E series or the dazzling Nokia 5800 you can setup push email and assign a ringtone to your account. Push email gives you an always-on connection so that your phone notifies you when you have a new message, just like an SMS! You can then read the message and respond to it at once right on your phone. You can even attach a picture that you took with your phone camera to the reply! How cool is that?
Just one thing though, currently push email only works as a free service with gmail accounts (negligible operator charges apply). Yahoo! offers this as a premium service and this is a standard offer on all blackberry smartphones.
The beauty of it all is that sending an email from your phone will cost you less than 50cts!
In these tough economic times a good quality phone is not just a fashion statement. It can save you alot of money and time especially when using a 3G network (it will drain your battery though so turn it off when you are done). In kenya 3G is available on Safaricom and Orange and by next year it will be available on Zain as well.
To setup push email simply go to your phone's message menu and change your email settings to:
- Address: your full email address i.e *****@gmail.com
Connection type: IMAP4-
Incoming server: imap.gmail.com
Username: *****@gmail.com-
Password: your email password -
Outgoing server: smtp.gmail.com -
Check interval: off
Push email: on
Encryption: incoming server TLS/SSL-
Incoming port: 993 -
Outgoing port: 465 -
GPRS APN: your internet profile (e.g Safaricom internet)
Email alert: choose a ringtone.
These settings work fine on my Sony Ericsson K810i. I am still trying to figure out where the problem is on my K750i, anybody know?
Monday, October 19, 2009
MBALE PROVINCIAL RURAL HEALTH TRAINING CENTRE
The oldest health facility in this town currently headed by Mr Odipo, the clinical officer in-charge who is the executive officer.
It is situated next to the District Hospital and provides primary health care (PHC) services to the residents of Mbale and beyond.
Like any typical health centre, it has an administration department headed by the Hospital Administration Officer (HAO). He handles all administrative issues such as staff leaves, deploying non-clinical staff, maintaining buildings and ambulances, correspondence etc.
The maternal, child health and family planning clinic (MCH/FP) is under the Nursing Officer who is in charge of all nurses in the health centre. The IMCI clinic is also situated here and headed by Mr Mwasawa, a clinical officer who is assisted by nurses trained in IMCI.
The outpatient department provides general medical care to all non-paediatric patients except on weekends and public holidays. The Clinical officers and nurses here work together assisted by auxiliary staff.
The laboratory is next to the outpatient department and is headed by Ms Judy, a laboratory technologist. Tests carried out are blood slide for malaria, widal test, sputum for AAFB, urinalysis, VDRL, full hemogram and Elisa for HIV.
The inpatient department has 5 wards- a male ward, a female ward, delivery and MVA room and two paediatric wards.
The pharmacy stocks supplies from the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) which include antimalarials (artemether/lumefantrine), analgesics, antibiotics, deworming tablets and syrups, antihypertensives and dressing materials, antiseptics and detergents.
A public health technician (PHT) has an office at the health centre which is next to the Clinical officer and nursing officer in-charges' offices. However, administratively he reports directly to the District Public Health Officer (DPHO) rather than to the Clinical officer in-charge because PHOs are posted to a region, not a health institution.
The cartering department takes care of meals and other cartering services to the patients, staff and students on rural attachment from the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), private colleges and universities. The student hostels can accomodate 40 students at any given time.
Staff houses are located across the fence.
Services offered include:
It is situated next to the District Hospital and provides primary health care (PHC) services to the residents of Mbale and beyond.
Like any typical health centre, it has an administration department headed by the Hospital Administration Officer (HAO). He handles all administrative issues such as staff leaves, deploying non-clinical staff, maintaining buildings and ambulances, correspondence etc.
The maternal, child health and family planning clinic (MCH/FP) is under the Nursing Officer who is in charge of all nurses in the health centre. The IMCI clinic is also situated here and headed by Mr Mwasawa, a clinical officer who is assisted by nurses trained in IMCI.
The outpatient department provides general medical care to all non-paediatric patients except on weekends and public holidays. The Clinical officers and nurses here work together assisted by auxiliary staff.
The laboratory is next to the outpatient department and is headed by Ms Judy, a laboratory technologist. Tests carried out are blood slide for malaria, widal test, sputum for AAFB, urinalysis, VDRL, full hemogram and Elisa for HIV.
The inpatient department has 5 wards- a male ward, a female ward, delivery and MVA room and two paediatric wards.
The pharmacy stocks supplies from the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) which include antimalarials (artemether/lumefantrine), analgesics, antibiotics, deworming tablets and syrups, antihypertensives and dressing materials, antiseptics and detergents.
A public health technician (PHT) has an office at the health centre which is next to the Clinical officer and nursing officer in-charges' offices. However, administratively he reports directly to the District Public Health Officer (DPHO) rather than to the Clinical officer in-charge because PHOs are posted to a region, not a health institution.
The cartering department takes care of meals and other cartering services to the patients, staff and students on rural attachment from the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), private colleges and universities. The student hostels can accomodate 40 students at any given time.
Staff houses are located across the fence.
Services offered include:
- General medical care
Paediatric care (IMCI)
Family planning
Post-abortion care (MVA)
Filling P3 forms
Immunisation
Wound care and stitching (surturing)
Pharmaceutical dispensing
Community outreach, Education and public health
Voluntary counselling and testing
Teaching medical students on attachment
Supervising dispensaries and other community based activities.
In-patient care
Maternity/delivery
Circumcision
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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