Roll on Monday

Little one feeling better now.

 

So much for a relaxing weekend. I want to go back to work for a rest.

Rose's little baby got sick. She brought him over Saturday morning and we took him to the children's polyclinic next door. Turns out he has malaria, which costs a small fortune in medication. It makes me so angry in this country that kids are just left to get ill because their mothers can't always afford the medical costs. Problem being that, in order to have a free health service, you need enough of the population to earn a decent, taxable wage to cover it. People in developing countries just don't earn that much.

Then there's the free health focus of NGOs, but what's more important? Malaria is a childhood killer on a grand scale, and far more people die of Hepatitis than of AIDS, but AIDS has become media friendly and thus gets the sponsorship. People in the West can relate to AIDS after Eastenders, but who the hell cares about malaria?

It's suggested that around 40 million (2004, USAID) people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS at the moment, just over half the population of Britain, although largely concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In contrast, a child in Africa dies every 30 seconds from malaria and around 500 million people in the world have hepatitis B or C, more than 12 times that living with HIV/AIDS (more than 8x the population of Britain). Always interesting to think about.

I decided to meet up with Drew at the Jazz Festival being held at the Mille Collines last night. Roald, the dishy Dutch bloke, was there too. It was his last night, he's flying home today. A couple of ex-VSOs were also there: Lies and Izzy. Drew didn't turn up until very late. He had his new intern in tow, staying with him for a couple of months whilst doing his MA in Public Health. Nice guy, looks scarily like my brother.

The music was very good indeed but it ended early, around 11pm. We had another drink in the Mille Collines' very cramped bar, listening to live music there. It's always good music but the drinks are off the scale price-wise, and it's too much like being a sardine in a tin to be that enjoyable.

Drew, intern and I headed off to Cadillac after that. Strangely, it was absolutely empty for a Saturday. Even an umuganda (community service) Saturday. It filled up a bit more later on. I went for a quick boogie - literally ten minutes - and when I got back, Drew and co. had buggered off! He had looked seriously 'need-to-go-to-bed-now' wasted, but still, very pissed off with him. Not cool leaving me there on my own. I hung around for a while and danced with a couple of people, but then hooked a moto and went home around 1am.

It was a very average night all-round. I would probably have enjoyed staying home more. I invited D to the jazz fest, but he's not a party goer and it was good to have some space. I'm just mustering up the courage to go and get some food now. Started reading Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, which I've wanted to read for ages. Dad just posted it out.