Weekend

Friday night I went out for pizza with Dave, which was really good. On the way into town, a semi had flipped over, which is nothing new. Except this one was loaded with crates of beer, so there was broken glass everywhere and the place smelled like a brewery.

Today I mostly hung around the house, reading, cleaning, etc. I went into town for a bit and tried to buy a Habs jersey, which seem to be all over the place right now—I’ve seen four in the last two weeks. On Friday I saw a red one and today I saw a white one. If I see the red one again, I’m going to buy it and cut the sleeves off. I figure that if you pay less than seven dollars for it, it’s not sacrilegious to alter it!

Tonight Joe was around. He’s the guy who lived in the house with us before Christmas, but since then he’s been working in another town. We went out for a beer and kebabs at a little spot near our house. Kebabs are awesome, and for about 60 cents for a sausage, the price is right. Alright, it’s now Sunday night. I think after four years, my computer is tired. It’s giving me problems with the disk drive, but hopefully if I use a new disk it’ll be alright. If you’re reading this, it worked.

Today was fine—I just went into town to meet with Dave and watch the gold medal game. Sweden was the better team and that goal to win it by Lidstrom was as perfect a shot as I’ve ever seen, so full credit to them. Too bad for Koivu and Finland, but at least Russia didn’t get a medal. As for the Olympics overall, it was a great performance by Canada. One medal short of the COC’s prediction (men’s hockey anyone?) but we did well. Especially our women. The men were pretty weak. Too bad no skiers got medals, but five top-fives is fantastic. Too bad Grandi couldn’t pull one off. I wish I could have seen more of it, but I’ll savour it even more in four years in Vancouver.

The people who introduced me to Dr. Addae (friends of family friends who I have never met) are in Ghana right now. They have donated a lot to RUCNET, themselves and their friends, and they are here to look at what we’ve done. They’re arriving in Kumasi tonight and we’re supposed to meet with them tomorrow and travel around with them, so that will be fun.

This is long enough—you don’t need any more of me, so that’s all she wrote for today.

Monday afternoon. Not much happening today, as there have been some mechanical problems with the water tanker that need addressing. Our American friends aren’t arriving here til later today. I bought a Habs jersey for 5 bucks. That’s it.

Disk problems

It's Sunday and I'm at an internet cafe watching the gold medal game. I've got a post on disk but it's not working, so I'll try to put it up tomorrow. Go Finland!

Thursday

Well, the sun did rise today, although I think Ghana was sad about Canada losing, because I got caught in a massive storm. On the 20 metre dash from the tro-tro to the shelter of the kiosk near our house I got soaked. I then had to huddle under a tin roof for half an hour for the worst to pass.

Today I mostly just wallowed in grief. I went to the office for a bit to meet with Maxwell and discuss some stuff about the clinics. In town, I noticed a shop called “My Wife Loves All Ent.” I’m not sure I’d want to be shouting that from the rooftops. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a society that is as schizophrenic as Ghana. People are simultaneously so happy and so pissed off. There are shouting matches all the time, although sometimes it’s just people talking, not arguing. There are people singing and dancing all the time. It’s almost always quite funny. I love when two drivers get into an argument in a traffic jam about who has right of way. This seems to happen almost every day and because the traffic is so bad, people get a good chunk of time to yell at their targets. Sometimes it’s less funny, like last night after the game when I was walking to get a tro just before 10 and an argument broke out about something and one guy was chasing another with a wooden stool. I got the hell away from that as fast as I could.

On my way into town, I was in the front seat of a tro and we passed a few schoolboys who shouted at me “you should buy a car!” I laughed, but after I thought about it, I found it sadly telling. Because I’m white, I should be driving in a private car. Last night I was talking with Dave, the Canadian I met earlier this week. He is teaching here and he told me how a lot of his students feel that they are simply not as smart as the whites, something that I have heard some of the Peace Corps teachers say. I am not sure what the cause of this is. I think that it is partly due to the dependency syndrome that has grown up due to foreign aid, while it is probably also a legacy of the colonial era. But again, people here are so happy and friendly.

One last note about the Olympics. While the hockey was a terrible disappointment (and I’m still depressed about it), it shouldn’t overshadow the accomplishments of our other athletes. Not just the medallists, although they have been great. Especially Cindy Klassen—wow. I’m also proud of our skiers for 3 fourth place finishes, all from young skiers. Let’s hope for a great last weekend. And let’s hope that Russia doesn’t win hockey gold. Go Finland.

Heartbroken

This is separate because I didn’t want to put it in the same post as the story of an interesting and fun day which is detailed in the post below this one, along with six photos below that. It’s 10:45 and I’m just back from town. I went to watch the game, but there was a Champions League match at the same time and Chelsea was playing and everyone here has been a Chelsea fan since day one, or at least since they signed Ghana’s favourite son, Michael Essien. Anyways, I caught a bit of each period, including the end. Enough to see Kovalev ice it. I hate losing to Russia, far more than any other team. Although if we’d lost to any other team, I’d probably be cursing them. Either way, I’m extremely down. What a total disappointment.

Second-guessers and Monday morning quarterbacks are annoying. But Canada’s performance bordered on disgraceful, so a bit of criticizing is necessary. These guys make 100 million combined. I am certain that they are all extremely disappointed (distraught?), and so they should be—they should have done better. It’s somewhat fitting that it all ended with Chris Pronger in the penalty box. This was a terrible performance for Canada. When you compare this team to our overmatched but gutsy junior team that took out a much more skilled Russian team, the pros come away looking like bums.

BUT, in my almost-23 short years, I’ve learned that you can’t win ‘em all. These guys gave it their all, I have no doubt about that. They just didn’t have the chemistry. Gretzky put together a gold medal team four years ago and we should all be grateful for that. It didn’t work for us this time, but we’ll be back.

So in conclusion, I’m totally down. I feel like I’m in a nightmare that I can’t wake up from. Losing to cocky jerks like Kovalchuk only makes it worse. But the sun will still rise tomorrow and we’ll gradually get over it. And the next time we beat Russia, it will be that much sweeter. Still, this is a brutal pill to swallow.

Wednesday

A very interesting day: first of all, Maxwell and I went back to the village we went to on Sunday. When we got there, a town meeting was going on, with the chief, his elders, a representative from the National Health Insurance Scheme and probably 200 townspeople. We were late, due to traffic and walked through the meeting to two seats on stage, which was a bit of a surprise to me. Then Maxwell got up to the megaphone and said something, then I had to do the same, which I was not expecting. I spoke about the need for cooperation between the townspeople and us in getting the clinic going again and stressed the need for people to get registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme. It was a lot of fun and we got a great response from the people.

We then went to another village to collect money we had lent to some market-women as part of a micro-finance project. They have not exactly been the best recipients, but, as I found out after, Maxwell told them that I was the financier and that helped matters. They were all very friendly, though I can’t say that it’s super-fun to be collecting money from people who don’t have very much. But in order for micro-finance to function properly, the loans have to be repaid!

Some photos

Go Habs Go!!!

A market woman with groundnuts (peanuts)

The bamboo 'cathedral' at Owabi Wildlife Reserve

A market woman with a bucket of smelly sardines

Making fufu

The reservoir at Owabi

Monday Tuesday

It's Wednesday aft. I've had a really interesting morning and will write about it tomorrow. Canada vs. Russia tonight and it's being shown on satellite here so I'll be watching. Time to kill those dirty commies!!! It's going to be a tough one. Here's what I wrote last night:

The past two days have been same old, same old: work, reading, being stuck in traffic. Monday I went into town for lunch and had the tro-tro ride from hell. Painfully cramped, screaming baby behind me, terrible Jesus music blasting on the stereo. The speaker was mounted at the front, taunting me with “reliable, dependable God” repeated five million times with horrible background music. Then my phone didn’t seem to be working, so I wasn’t exactly in love with Ghana. But it turned out that it was working I got some good food and my frustrations went away like that.

Today I met a guy from Ottawa in town who is here on an internship with CIDA til the end of March. He’s the first Canadian I’ve met here who isn’t old, which is a bit weird to think about, although I haven’t really noticed until now to tell the truth. We’re going to meet up to watch the hockey semis.

I just got a call from Maxwell and tomorrow we have to go back to the village we went to on Sunday, so this will be posted when I’m back from that. And seeing as this will be posted on Wednesday which is quarter-final day: GO CANADA GO!!!

Sunday

Today Maxwell and I travelled back to a village we went to last week to meet with the chiefs and local officials. It was a productive meeting and we got across our point that this needs to be a partnership, not simply us providing everything. What we need from them is nothing substantial, simply some space, rent-free or cheap, and a bit of furniture. More importantly though, we need them to do everything they can to get people in the area registered under the Health Insurance Scheme. We might have a meeting with the local MP Tuesday or Wednesday—they are supposed to call us Monday with the details. At one point, I was in a taxi that needed to be hotwired to get it going.

I went back to town around 7 to watch the Canada-Finland game, which turned out to be a huge letdown. Not even a goal to get excited about. Canada has some issues, but I still have faith. Pronger stood out as being particularly bad—too many dumb penalties and he was brutal in covering Koivu on the first goal. Like I said, I still have faith that we can pull it out, but we need to gel. It is going to be a really tough road though. We’re going to get Sweden or Russia or Slovakia in the quarters. Oh well, you’ve got to beat them eventually. Where’s Belarus when you need them?

The game ended after 10 and I knew it was a bit of a risk, as finding a tro-tro home at that time is difficult. I waited at the place they come for a while and there were still quite a few people there trying to do the same. I ended up walking with some women and their children for a bit til we managed to find a tro. I was going to stay in town Monday to watch the women’s game, but since it’s Sweden, not the US, I think I’ll pass. It’s not worth the hassle.

Nature Calls

Today I went up to Owabi Wildlife Reserve, about 20 km west of Kumasi. It is pretty small, about 30 km square and it surrounds a huge reservoir that supplies Kumasi with a lot of its drinking water. You walk around with a guide and I was the only one there, following a severely cramped tro-tro ride. So Richard the guide and I walked all over the park. It is apparently really good for bird-watching, although it’s better in the early morning and I got there around noon. And I’m not exactly a huge bird-watcher. I did see some interesting birds and one mona monkey and we went to this huge bamboo forest that is called “the Cathedral” because it has these massive stands that shoot up and curve to form all these arches. Sorry for the crappy description. It was a great walk and it was so nice to get out of the city and not hear a car horn or music or people yelling and not having to breathe diesel fumes. It was well worth the trip and I think I might go back at some point.

Passing back through Kumasi, I saw we were down 2-0 to Switzerland heading into the 3rd. Not good. I also saw that the Americans lost to the Swedes in women’s hockey. That is a shocker to say the least. I was about ready to write off women’s hockey, seeing as there is absolutely no competition. I’m still not convinced, but we’ll see how the ladies fare against the Swedes on Monday. I was going to watch the game, but now I doubt I will as I’m pretty sure it will be a blowout.

Tomorrow, Maxwell and I are going back to a village we went to last week, so I won’t be posting this til I’m back from that.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Since this will go up Saturday, Happy Birthday Mom!!! Hope it’s a good one.

The rest of this post is a follow-up to my post about the cartoon brouhaha. I really worry for the future of the West when it can’t summon the courage to stand up to fascist protestors bent on bullying everyone into submission. Air Canada and Indigo have announced they will stop carrying the Western Standard because it printed the cartoons. French supermarket chain Carrefour has this in their stores: “Dear Clients, We express solidarity with the Islamic and Egyptian community. Carrefour doesn't carry Danish products”. This is shocking. Fine, the cartoons are offensive to some. But to give in to the psychos marching around with placards calling for the beheading of blasphemers and offering rewards for the murder of the cartoonists only encourages them further. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! What the hell is the matter with the media and politicians? We are sleepwalking into dhimmi-hood.

David has written an article for one of the papers at Princeton that sums up how I feel in a much better and funnier manner than I could hope to. You can read it at http://www.nassauweekly.com/view_article.php?id=433. It is a great read, and finishes well: “On Friday in Turin, the tiny Danish delegation entered the Olympic stadium, accompanied by armed guards. The flag-bearer waved the first Danish flag I’ve seen in weeks that wasn’t on fire. The Italian crowd cheered the Danes loudly. At least someone gets it.”

I was all in favour of invading Denmark after the whole Hans Island thing. But enough is enough. I see Danish engineers here every day, as DANIDA (Danish development agency) is turning the highway here into a dual carriage one. Their country does not deserve this. So everyone go out and hug a Dane or read Hamlet or eat a danish or chew some Copenhagen tobacco.

Wednesday and Thursday

AutoRecover is probably the greatest invention since sliced bread. Today I was working on Dr. Addae’s desktop and the power cut out. And I hadn’t saved in a long time. Fortunately, when it came back, I opened what I was working on and the AutoRecover meant that I’d lost almost nothing.

Yesterday, I went to town late to watch the men’s moguls finals at an internet café that has satellite. As it turned out, it wasn’t live, so when I found out that we didn’t get any medals, I left.

Getting a tro-tro after 7 can be tricky, but fortunately there is this one guy who knows me whose job is to fill up tro-tros and he saw me and got me a seat quickly, something he’s done in the past. I gave him a ‘dash’ by folding up a small bill and giving it to him through a handshake. So smooth. Also, he was wearing a black tshirt that said “Pol Pot was innocent” in red letters on the front. Maybe something from tshirthell.com? I don’t think he got the reference though.

I caught the first two periods of the Russia-Sweden game today. Neither team was all that amazing, but the Russians are explosive at times. I think that the key is to really hit them hard, as both sides look like they’d crumble under a strong forecheck. This is where Bertuzzi, Thornton and Nash among others should thrive. We’ll see. I’m excited to see the boys in action on Sunday night. The Ghanaians in the internet café seemed to enjoy the game, especially every time there was a scrap or a hard hit. There were very few of the latter, but a surprising number of the former, given the teams playing.

I think that on Saturday if I’m feeling adventurous, I’m going to go to this forest west of Kumasi to do a hike. I want to do some tourist stuff to get away from the familiarity of work and home. That’s it.

Happy "Vals" Day

Hope everyone had a good “Vals Day” as it’s known here. Ugh, the power just went out. It is pouring right now. The weather here is wild—it was cloudy this morning, sunny and hot all afternoon, then there was some thunder, then lots of wind, and now this. Repeat times 365. And now the power has returned, yet on it pours.

Internet and the Blogger website have been giving me grief lately. I didn’t make any friends this morning at the internet café when I refused to pay the full price given that I spent at least half of the time staring at a loading page. But I only rounded the price down by 500 cedis, so I can sleep easy knowing that my stubbornness probably didn’t bankrupt Supanet Internet Café.

The past few days have been full of various work tasks and meeting with various people. Alongside re-establishing our clinics, we have to work with the District Assemblies to get the people in the villages registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme. Plus we are going to try and procure a 4x4 so we can get to some of the most remote areas.

Finally, I have figured out how to watch the Olympics in Kumasi, but I’m not going to be able to watch every event that matters to Canada. The Canada-Finland game is being shown on Sunday night, so I’ll almost certainly watch that. Okee-doke, I’m done.

Ads, Blogger problems, Olympics

Tonight I saw an ad telling parents not to sell their kids. It was a cartoon and was somewhat amusing, although it underscores a pretty serious problem. It showed kids being forced to do dangerous jobs (like pulling up nets in the ocean and sell stuff in traffic), and kids being beaten, all in cartoon.

I’ve had some problems with Blogger lately, and I don’t think anything has gone up in a while. I couldn’t publish my post on Saturday; it just saved to the menu thing, but wouldn’t show up. Hopefully this will get on.

Finally, the Olympics have started. It’s not exactly big news here, but I am going to look for a place in Kumasi with satellite so I can watch some of it. I read about Jennifer Heil today. Sounds like she was awesome. What I wouldn’t give to watch some freestyle skiing right now. I talked with Julien on MSN yesterday who told me that he’s got a channel in Qatar showing Olympics 24/7. It sucks to be missing it, but in four years, I’ll be there in person!

That’s all for now.

Thursday-Friday-Saturday

Maxwell and I went to a village about 40 km south of Kumasi today. It turned out to be a lot of travel for little output. Maxwell had sent a note yesterday by car, but he got the dates mixed up and we were expected yesterday. So the chief went out farming today and there was only one minor official to meet with. Nonetheless, it was productive in one sense because we realized we probably won’t re-start our clinic there, simply because they cannot provide space rent-free. That may sound a bit harsh, but we really have no choice, when there are several other villages that are not only providing space rent-free, but providing furniture as well.

That is a perfect example of the scarcity that is ever-present here. There simply is not enough to go around. Ghana is essentially where we were 100 years ago—just starting its development—although it obviously has way more technology to help it develop.

We got back to town around 2 and I was hungry, so I went to On the Run for pizza. It was pretty damn good. Sadly I only have two pieces left. Fortunately, I’ve got some of the fried rice I made last night left over, so I don’t have to cook tonight. Unfortunately, it’s not all that good!

FRIDAY

Nothing too exciting today. Worked on a program for future volunteers for a while and watched the final of the African Cup. It was a pretty good game, although the refereeing was spotty. It’s hard to believe that the Winter Olympics are starting. Hopefully I’ll be down in Accra in two weeks for the gold medal game.

Dr. Addae is coming back Sunday, so then things will get a bit busier. We’re out of water in the house, although the tanker is supposed to be coming today. I didn’t mind it before Christmas, cause I was used to having to draw buckets from the well, but after not having done it in so long, it’s a pain.

It’s now Saturday afternoon. I’ve found an internet café with satellite, so it’s really fast. It’s a bit out of the way though. Plus there is a good supermarket below. I feel like I’m in a different world.

Something rotten in the state of Denmark

There is a post detailing the past few days below this one. This is a special post. I’ve been watching the recent riots over a bunch of cartoons on the news for the past week or so. At first, it was somewhat amusing—I mean, it’s pretty funny that everyone is mad at Denmark. David told me about seeing some guy burning a homemade Danish flag in Pakistan. This guy spent at least a few hours making a flag to burn. Way to be productive, guy.

But now people have died and this is showing no sign of slowing down. This is not just an attack on free speech, but an attack on the core values of Western society and these fascist thugs need to be stood up to.

I don’t care if the cartoons are offensive. So is South Park, the Koran, and the Bible, not to mention the vile anti-Semitic cartoons published EVERY DAY in newspapers across the Middle East. Everything offends somebody. Being offended is no excuse for violence and incitement to murder.

What is almost as bad is the pathetic response from some Western media outlets and politicians. Kofi Annan says that freedom of speech should always come second to respect for religion. Oh really? Does that mean that the Koran, Bible and Torah should all be banned? They all disparage other religions. What a joke that guy is. Or media blowhards saying that this episode shows that we need to be more understanding. Of what? The fact that a drawing has caused thousands of thugs to riot? These appeasers are a disgrace. :-( That emoticon is sad Mohammed. Uh-oh, now I’ve gone and done it.

This is an incredibly important moment. Free speech must be defended. Appeasement never works and is totally unacceptable. GO DENMARK!!!

Tuesday

Ok, it’s Wednesday evening. Nothing happened today. Maxwell and I were going to go to another village, but they weren’t expecting us, so Maxwell just sent a note by tro-tro that we would come tomorrow. This is the pace here. So here’s what happened Tuesday instead:

Today was really interesting but it didn’t start off too well. For the first time since I’ve been here, I got mad at someone. I woke up to a guy was banging on our gate at 6, looking for someone who lives in the house behind us (both houses are in the same compound). I didn’t quite lose it on him, but I wasn’t at all friendly. I managed to get back to sleep, but when I woke up, the power was still out from the storm last night. It’s still not back. Well actually it is, but the current is too low for anything except my laptop and one light. And no fan.

Alright, not a great start to the day. But then Maxwell and I went to this village about an hour away, to meet with some chiefs about re-starting a clinic. It’s a village of 4000, with no clinic at all. It was really neat. We sat in the courtyard of the ‘palace’. Really it was just a house, and no better than any other ones in the area, but it was the palace so that’s what everyone said. We were introduced to the chiefs and the local assemblyman (mayor?), which involves walking by everyone and shaking their hand, after they had done it to us already! It was quite formal, although everyone was dressed in normal clothes, not traditional robes, and everyone was very friendly. Maxwell introduced our project and the chiefs spoke a bit (all in Twi) and then Maxwell got me to say something, which he translated, although I think they understood almost all of what I said. It was really neat to take part in and we got a good reception, so hopefully we’ll be able to get the clinic running soon.

After that, I came in to town to go to the supermarket and use the internet. I saw a guy in a Habs jersey (with the sleeves cut off—un travestie!!!) and got his picture, although I think he was a bit confused. I bought some stuff to cook fried rice with, but I just ended up finishing the spaghetti sauce I made last night cause I didn’t feel like cooking by candlelight. Which brings me to now.

I hate the dog that lives here. It barks way too much, although I suppose that’s good cause it does keep intruders away. Apparently if you’ve ever eaten dog (and that would be almost everyone here), it will bark at you. One of the guys in the Peace Corps was given a dog by the previous volunteer at his site. He ate it, and now the previous owner is moving back here and wants it! Ahh life in Ghana.

Technical problems

I had a post about an interesting day yesterday, but the disk didn't work at this place. Thus is life in Kumasi. Fortunately, not much will happen today, so I'll just post it tomorrow. Til then...

Back in K-town (not the Ontario one)

I’m back home and am all alone. Dr. Addae’s in Accra. Being alone stinks, especially when you’re exhausted from getting three hours sleep on a floor with a knapsack for a pillow and 6 hours in a bus yesterday and 6 hours in a tro-tro today. No Faw-King Long buses with air conditioning this time around—we went budget, which is just as well considering how much I spent in Accra. But I don’t think I’m going to tro-tro between Accra and Kumasi again. So uncomfortable and I’m probably going to get a blood clot from it!

It was a great night though. I had an amazing double cheese burger and a great pizza and got to watch the Super Bowl. Too bad the game wasn’t particularly great. And the half-time show seemed so bad, but the sound and picture on the TV weren’t in sync, so that might have had something to do with it. I’ll be back down there in three weeks for the gold medal hockey game if Canada’s in it.

Sorry for the repetition, but I can’t remember everything I wrote this morning before I left. That’ll happen.

Super Bowl

It's Monday morning and I'm still in Accra, but heading back soon. Last night was lots of fun but I'm exhausted. The game finished around 3 and I slept a few hours on the floor of a hotel room. All in all a great night. Too bad the Seahawks lost, but the Habs made up for it by winning twice.

Dr. Addae is in Accra this week, but tomorrow, Maxwell and I are going around to some villages to start laying groundwork to re-activate the satellite clinics that RUCNET had going in the past. I'm not sure when I'll be on next. Right now all I want to do is sleep.

Friday

It’s Saturday morning right now. Yesterday the power was out for most of the day here, so not too much happened. My next project is liaising with an NGO in Seattle to set up a program for volunteers to be sent here to work in our clinics and possibly the school.

Last night I got a text from Dave, one of the Peace Corps guys, inviting me to some Bob Marley thing in Kumasi. We never ended up going. Instead we just stayed at the office and had a few beers. And we had pancakes for breakfast. It was pretty fun—those guys are hilarious. I might go down to Accra with them tomorrow for the Super Bowl if I’m feeling up to travelling 5 hours and staying up all night. Should be a fun night, if I can stay awake. Go Seahawks!

At Queen’s, Julien told us about some guy he knew named Shith Ead. Good story, but no one ever knew if it was really true. Well now I know it is. One of the Peace Corps guys also knows someone named Shith Ead. If two people have the same story, it has to be true, right?
That’s all from me for now. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post next if I do go to Accra, but probably no later than Tuesday.

Thursday, February 2

Today highlighted nicely why working from home is better than going into Kumasi every day. We had to go in to meet with someone at the office, which we did. But getting there and back took ages. In fact, it, along with the slow internet, took up a lot of the day.

I had some banku today for lunch, which I used to not like at all, but was so good. I am going to have to learn how to make this stuff, or find a West African restaurant back home. On my way back home after lunch, I got picked up by two guys in a pick-up while I was trying to get a tro-tro. They were engineers with the Ministry of Transport and really nice. I can’t say enough how good the hospitality is here. People really go out of their way to make foreigners feel welcome. It’s almost as if there is this unspoken code that every Ghanaian has to work their butt off to ensure no foreigner ever gets a bad impression of the country.

One minor complaint. The beer at lunch was pretty warm, which isn’t the end of the world, but when it’s 30, you don’t really want warm beer.

It’s now Friday morning. On the short walk (100m) from my house to the little kiosk to get some bread and sugar this morning, I probably said good morning to about 10 people, including some who shouted from some distance.

Wednesday in town

Tuesday, January 31
I saw a guy in a “Today’s Special” t-shirt today. I’m definitely not going to be guilty of gushing about things in the past that actually sucked due to nostalgia. In fact, I don’t remember much about that show anymore, apart from the mouse, Jeff, and the security guard, Sam. Where was I? Oh yeah, the t-shirt. It was funny to see.

Wednesday morning: we’re developing a strategy to re-activate several satellite clinics in rural areas. Previously, RUCNET was operating six of these, but no one could pay for services. With the new health insurance scheme, that won’t be a problem. These clinics will operate in concert with the school of natural medicine, using people trained there to deliver primary care to rural areas. We’re going into town now though, so I’m going to end this and post it when I get there.

Wednesday afternoon: I’m in town. It took forever to get here cause a semi had flipped over and was blocking the main road in one direction. Also, I saw that the Habs got shelled, yet again. What a disaster of a season this is turning into for Theodore. Ugh. Alright, that’s all for now.