UgandAshis 38 Mad Professor

UgandAshis 38

July 23, 2009

Fort Portal, Uganda

Mad professor.

Yesterday I met Professor Ecke. A German pediatrician and public health specialist with 100’s of years of experience in Africa. He has worked in at least 30 countries and is currently attached to the Mountains of the Moon University. As we were swopping stories I was informed that hunger makes the devil eat flies and if you are in Congo rats and cockroaches become delicacies. The fat of the cockroaches is highly nutritious and is called embryonic fat. He hops around Africa and Germany. Nowadays he spends 4 months in Africa a year.

His latest affiliation is with the Mountains of the Moon University. And yesterday we started off by chatting in the Tooro golfclub. It is the oldest golf course in Eastern Africa and a beautiful one. We talked about African art that he collects, the methodologies of teaching and the acceptance of the difference in reasoning in the Western and African mind. Proper cross culture reasoning and his way of making it all work: no more questioning, blanking the mind and accepting what is.

When you work in Africa as a European it is very likely goal will want to change everything, make things more efficient, smooth and polish things up. You can wonder however if what you achieve is sustainable as mentalities differ; saying yay and acting nay is a piece of cake. As you leave the scenario what you perceived to be a permanent change is often temporary. Then you start questioning everything and seeking for the answers. A new stage of confrontation following this can be a letting go. To paraphrase the professor: “It will give your wings wind and make you fly.”

Back to the school he is infectiously positive and has asked me to prepare for 5 lectures with him. He prefers paper and pen, hands and feet instead of power points and it can work. What should be fun is the dual presentation one coming from the clinical angel and one from the public health angel. His biggest strength is grant fishing. He is labeled the grant shark in Germany. He was a professor by 32 has a multitude of degrees and in the end is a very humble, wise and funny gentleman. It should be great to learn from him.

Today we put him in front of a camera and we talked about art, medicine following our common passion the river Nile. He is like an encyclopedia of Africa. We talked and talked about malnutrition, schistosomiasis, tuberculosis. Onchocerciasis, rural Africa and how to remain positive in a setting often seen as so dark and violent. To end with another quote: “When you come to Africa you love it or leave it!” He came at age 16 with a car through the Sahara and has never left it.

Namaskar,

Ashis