#mental health in africa

[ewan-mo]

Back in the warmth of Uganda.

Friday 15th Sept 2023

This last week was meant to be quiet and relaxed as we made our preparations for our Uganda trip, which includes running a 4 day workshop for 30 people next week. You know that quote about best-laid plans of mice and men -? 

Our geriatric summer cycle tour is one of our year’s highlights. Ewan devises a wonderful route, this year in Burgundy, around Dijon, and through the glorious rolling Morvan landscape. Each day the four couples set out, taking it in turns to drive the support car or accompany the driver.

On this occasion my left knee was too painful to allow for cycling, so I was in the car every day. But then you get the fun of stopping for coffee and people watching, and shopping for a French picnic lunch and finding a happy spot on the cycle route, by a river or somewhere else agreeably scenic, and often complete with picnic table on the village green.

On the way up to Calais on Saturday 9th to take the shuttle, our dear old campervan came to a slow stop with flashing lights to match and we had to be taken off the autoroute by a big truck. (For the interested car technos, it was the fuel filter spraying fuel.) Saturdays and Sundays not best days to obtain Parts! 

Insurance came up trumps, thankfully, and we were accommodated in a small hotel where we could get on with the work needed for Uganda – thank you, Internet – and after a final night in St Omer we left early on Tuesday morning to catch the shuttle and drive home.

 

Working to music en-route and once we have arrived

This left us with two days instead of that quiet and relaxed week to get ready for Uganda! But here we are, sitting in the peaceful garden of the Guinea Fowl Guest House, a favourite of ours in Entebbe. We are glad to be here after the long day flight from Manchester.

Though it was fun taking advantage of Special Assistance and being wheelchaired over those long airport walks. The young people doing the pushing and other ferrying were charming. 

[mansorus]

Wunna 2 JoBurg

[zestingbloodorange]

The thing that has been getting to me the most in these mental health conversations these days, is westerns who keep acting like we are being insensitive to their disabilities and mental health issues when we say it's not an excuse to be ignorant or to be silent and to do nothing and to keep a blind eye for comfort and for some to not to trauma dump on palestinians and on pro palestine people of color on social media.

People keep assuming that palestinians and pro palestine people from other parts of the region that have been destroyed by the west are able-bodied and have ok mental health just because they don't talk about it much or don't talk about it. we have suffered and we are suffering because it doesn't end with a ceasefire it doesn't end when you grow up it doesn't end when you leave the country it doesn't end when you get help it doesn't end even if you were born outside of those countries and never stepped a foot on your mother land it doesn't end.

and we are still privileged because palestinians in gaza are keeping us updated and are keeping up with the west bank and with the rest of the world whilst being under one the worst bombardments in history and going through a genocide that in itself should make you feel embarrassed to even bring this up.

I grew up with American airstrikes non stop dropping on my neighborhood and my SCHOOLS because we kept evacuating from schools because they kept getting bombed, watching my family and friends and classmates and my neighbors get kidnapped and killed get blown up to bits watching limbs fly into our house and into our school playgrounds then watch almost everyone i know that lived flee the country in the worst conditions possible then live through daesh...etc I could go on and on for months and I'm only in my early 20s and we didn't get mental or physical help. my uncle just died a couple days ago because of his disability he was poor and he got diagnosed way too late he lived such a hard life that when he died it was relief. most of us don't have access to the most basic human rights which medical help and therapy.

and we are expected to always be well spoken have patience and be comforting for people that we are spoon feeding information or otherwise we are aggressive and barbaric and ungrateful and we are pushing people away from our movements.

I keep seeing people send anons and dms of their suicidal thoughts because of the news to every palestinian i follow on every social media platform and some other pro palestine people of color including myself which is crazy because I don't even have a big following, the news that they have the privilege to turn off because for the gazillion time western countries are committing massacres far from the west especially americans who are in the stomach of the beast.

Have shame.

[sheilababi]

If you can’t feel me thinking about you, you're not the One for me.

[treasurem]

The Interview

Just a moment, thank you 🌱🧎🏿

[markllockwood]

How to heal Anxiety and Panic

What 24 years of research have shown us about anxiety is that all anxiety is separation anxiety, and we've got to get this now to heal anxiety

How to heal Anxiety and Panic instead of just Coping What 24 years of research have shown us about anxiety is that all anxiety is separation anxiety, and we’ve got to get this; it’s separation that is necessary, as Carl Jung used to say. What you learn in the first half of life is not going to serve you in the second half. In other words, the personality that you’ve created, part of that through…

[estrogenism]

"safequeers" dni btw, you actively make queer spaces unsafe for other queer people. you have no right to claim that you're "safe."

[tribejourney]

Pretty much . . .

[snom-in-space]

cc . )___\ Just a reminder that you should stop comparing yourself to people more successful then you!

cc . )___\ Yes Steven Spielberg was only 26 when he made Jaws, and Michael Jackson was 24 when he recorded Thriller. But a big part of that was luck, movies and songs take a lot of work and money to make, produce, and market. It isn't as easy as just work really hard

cc ^ )___\ Especially for creatives a lot of the time success hinges on being in the right place at the right time! It isn't that you're less driven, they just got lucky at a very young age, that's all

cc . )___\ Stop comparing your success to the most successful people in the world. You'll only feel worse about yourself, maybe you might even stop doing that thing you're comparing yourself to them for, and then you wont get anywhere

[manelisimanellie]

Kraal Alleen by Lady Skollie (Everard Read Gallery)

[fearlessbloomingflower]

Mental Health: An emerging public health issue in Africa

Take time to do what makes your soul happy 🙂 The idea of health as a holistic concept is widely acknowledged. World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to contribute to his or her community. The slogan ‘no health…

[morap111]

[lifeofthegem]

Caroline Manya

[mansorus]

[ya-world-challenge]

Book Review: Beasts of Prey (🇨🇫 Central African Republic *inspired)

[image 1: book cover: a teenage Black girl looks ahead with a determined face, beside her, a teenage Black man faces us with a softer look, they are surrounded by jungle-like fauna, tagline says “The hunt begins”; image 2: map showing the Central African Republic; image 3: Mbeli River falls - whitewater rocky falls surrounded by lush greenery; Source: wikimedia commons]

Beasts of Prey

Author: Ayana Gray

YA World Challenge read for 🇨🇫 Central African Republic

Seeing as I could not find a book for the Central African Republic, I chose Beasts of Prey as a fantasy world to represent this region. The author’s notes indicate that she wrote the book as a pan-African world, without narrowing it to a specific region of the continent and using inspiration from various areas. CAR, with a myriad of ethnic groups and smack in the middle of continent, seems a fitting enough setting.

First line

Baba says only wicked things happen after midnight, but I know better.

Review

Koffi is an indentured servant at the circus-like Night Zoo, working alongside her mother to pay off her late father’s debts. Ekon is a candidate in training to become one of the city’s elite guard. They are of different peoples, different castes, but their fates collide when they both decide to undertake a common goal, each for their own personal reasons. The goal: to track down and kill the Shetani, a beast responsible for hundreds of deaths that lurks deep in the Greater Jungle.

I do love the world in this book and especially the jungle. And this gorgeous cover!! I wonder if reading so many diverse books is spoiling me into not fully appreciating the uniqueness of these worlds. Many of the various beasts / inhabitants of the jungle that Ekon and Koffi encounter are based on African folklore and I love the colorfulness there. (Arachnophobia trigger warning for a brief but creepy scene with spiders!)

The narrative goes back and forth between Koffi + Ekon, and a girl somewhere in the past named Adiah. I found I liked the Adiah chapters more. I feel like the first-person view with her made her more accessible and interesting than the third-person chapters with the other two. For that or some other reason I never really connected well with Koffi and Ekon or their motivations. I found the ending sort of jumbled and anti-climactic as well. It does end on a cliffhanger, so warning, if you are reading and enjoying the first book, get ready to have the second on hand!

It was unexpected to find another OCD rep. At one point, Ekon gets unreasonably angry at having plans change, and as someone familiar with the condition I could appreciate this honest portrayal - that there is a dark side beyond the “quirky counting”.

I did like Adiah and the worldbuilding and I wanted more adventures in the jungle. I just didn’t connect with the rest of it and wasn’t excited at the ending. It is definitely interesting enough to give it a try, though, and I would pick up the second book out of curiosity if I had the time.

★  ★  ★    3.5 stars

Other reps: #mental health (anxiety / OCD) #straight

Genres: #fantasy world #adventure #magic

Read it at  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon