Namesake

Well, it's my last day here in Africa, and I'm feeling quite blue about leaving. I'm not terribly surprised that Africa swept me off my feet just as I always thought it would. But I am a little surprised and really relieved with how much I truly enjoyed the work-side of the trip. I think I had always built up an experience like this in my head, and it really did exceed my expectations!! Of course, there were challenges (some foreseeable and many unforeseeable), but it was an amazing life experience in international research and scientific training, and I'm pretty confident Dad was right in projecting that I'll be back someday for more. I may have some more reflections as the days pass, but for now, I just feel so lucky that I had this opportunity and excited to be coming home to you all soon! Thank you all so much for your support and love along the way. This blog has been more fun to keep than I had anticipated, so thanks for following along. Here are some random pics that wrap up the Livingstone/VicFalls/Chobe circuit. I may post some later tonight with the Lusaka crew in them, but who can say...:)

Captions:
- Skulls at the entry point at Chobe National Park; Left to Right: Antelope/ELEPHANT/Impala/Kudu/Buffalo
- Microlight from the ground level (This was of the lady that took flight with Brian's vehicle after me. Her husband did also, and they flew close enough to wave to each other in the sky which I thought was cute, albeit, dangerous? Haha.)
- Bridge to the Zimbabwean side of Vic Falls
- Vic Falls from the ground level (Zambian side)
-Amazingly, there was a drink called "Under African Skies" that I found at a local hotel in Livingstone -- and it had my favorite local liqueur in it called Amarula Cream (made from the South African Marula fruit tree)! Of course, I had to give it a try, and it was delicious. For those of you who may not have drawn immediate connections about the origin of my blog's name -- the namesake is taken from a Paul Simon song in one of my all-time favorite albums (and another source of my curiosity with Africa in my early youth) - Graceland (featuring the South African band, Ladysmith Black Mambazo). If for some reason you haven't had the pleasure of listening to this awesome album yet, you should check it out right...now! :)

Live Dangerously (When Important)

My old college mentor Robert used to always sign off by saying, "Take care, and live dangerously (when important)." I think my adventures this weekend would definitely make Robert proud. After visiting Botswana, I went to Zambia's famous natural attraction -- the spectacular Victoria Falls in Livingstone, spanning both the Zambian and Zimbabwean borders and pooling waters from the great Zambezi River. Since it's rainy season here, the falls were even more full and lush than usual, and two of my friends accompanied me on the trip out to the falls. We walked the perimeter of the falls and got so soaked! I could have sworn it was actually raining, but it was just torrential downpour from the mist of the falls itself. We were trying to be all cool at first and claim we wouldn't need to rent a raincoat for 5000 Kwacha (~$1), but once we made it to the bridge that runs parallel to the falls, we realized how dumb we were being and got suited up. It was well worth the price especially since I got soaked anyway through two layers of raingear. The water was actually ricocheting up from the ground and we were getting sprayed from all directions, but it was awesome!

Then...the "live dangerously (when important)" moment came around. I decided to bite the financial budget bullet and go for the microlight ride over the falls which I had heard was incredible (confirmed!). If you haven't heard of microlight vehicles (also called ultralight aeroplanes), various DIY models have popped up since the 1900s, but the licensed one that I rode on was basically like a hang-glider wing attached to two lawn chair-like seats and a small engine and it's weight-shift controlled! It's just you and the pilot, and they don't even strap you down. You just hold on to the handles on the sides and prop up your legs and up you go! It was hilarious because I was just briefly chatting with the pilot Brian before we took off (after realizing what I had signed up for), and I had made the mistake of asking him how long he had been flying the microlights. I was preparing to be comforted before the flight thinking he would say, "Oh...12 years or so" like most of the guides I've been exposed to have said. But this young guy was different, he said...ONE WEEK. Haha, I thought he was joking with me, but after I disembarked I asked a couple of the employees there, and they confirmed that he really had only been flying the microlights for a week. I had to take a moment to absorb the news. He was extremely skilled though, and it was really a once in a lifetime experience and of course, I had made it down safely, so I had to have a good chuckle about it. (I later found out that actually he had been flying helicopters previously. Different, of course, but he had a lot of piloting experience, pheew. :)) Anyway, the ride was only 15 minutes long, but I'll certainly remember it forever. They don't actually let you take a camera on the flight, but they take pictures from a digital camera hooked onto the wing tip. It was such an amazing experience seeing the great span of the falls, the Zambian and Zimbabwean countryside and nearby Mosi-oa-Tunya park from that height. I even saw an elephant crossing the river, and it looked so small. It was very humbling to think how incredibly small I would be down there. The shadow of our craft looked like a tiny little eagle in the sky, and I quite liked that imagery too. Anyway, enjoy!! Would be happy to share more of the pics in person when I get home, but for now -- here it is!

Chobe National Park, Botswana - 2

The only animal that I was really unfamiliar with was the kudu -- antelope like with really cool twisted horns and striped bodies. (Only the male kudus have the cool horns though.) They are also in excess with antelopes and impalas. Our guide was saying that antelopes, while grazing, face in opposite directions in pairs to be on the lookout for predators (last pic).

It Means No Worries...

Had an awesome weekend -- went on a proper Zambezi River boat tour and game drive at Chobe National Park in Botswana. Despite the bleak animal forecast as it's rainy season here (less likely that the game will be traveling far to access water, etc.), I saw a lot of animals, including: lions!, impala, kudu, antelope, crocodile, hippos, giraffes, baboon, warthogs, a variety of local birds, and a LOT of elephants. Botswana (according to our guide) has one of the most dense populations of elephants anywhere, and we must have seen at least 100+ during the afternoon tour. Interestingly, elephants actually have very dark skin (apparent after they have a bath), but like to coat themselves in mud and dirt in order to protect their skin from sensitivity to sun. Hippos also protect their skin from harsh sun by staying in the water during the day. Their skin is relatively thinner, and produces a red jelly like substance that has antibiotic roles in protecting from infections in the cracked skin. Pictures will probably have to come in slow batches, again, but here's some to get you started. (Also had another amazing adventure at Victoria Falls -- but that caption will have to go on the next entry.) Hakuna matata! :)

* Good luck to my buddy Dan on his Research in Progress talk tomorrow! You will do great!!

Failed Attempts to Shut Up the US Embassy Georgetown

Went to Lusaka's World Bank headquarters a few days ago on our day off for a televised World Bank/USAID videoconference debate on the role of material incentives in HIV prevention. I was hoping to have some insights on conclusions drawn from either party, but really all I took away from it was that the US Embassy Georgetown (Guyana) are a bunch of jerks who forgot to turn off their microphone and unknowingly talked over everyone. They were clearly not listening to the distinguished moderator and guests who repeatedly asked them to shut their traps! At one point, some famous health economist from Harvard just stopped midsentence and said, "Maybe they're saying better things than we are..." Haha...I hope they were embarrassed about it later, because it really distracted the attention from the true content of the whole event. Bad news, US Embassy Georgetown!

Despite how little I was able to extract from the debate, while waiting for it to start, I did find out about a really cool Zambian tradition that I wish I could observe in person, but the timing won't quite work out. Anyway, it's called Kuomboka (you can Google Image it later, and you should!) and it's a yearly tradition that takes place in Mongu (the capital of the Western province of Zambia). "Kuomboka" means "crossing" in the Lozi (local tribe to Western province) language. Due to flooding of the upper Zambezi River, the Lozi tribe led by their king need to relocate to higher plains every year and do so in a huge zebra-stripe painted barge! The barge is surrounded by Lozi tribe men, who all row in unison. In fact, I'm told that if one member is found to be rowing out of unison, they are considered to not have allegiances to the king and are thrown overboard to drown! Yikes, talk about wanting to get that right the first time! Anyway, the center of the barge has a giant statue of an elephant which is a symbol of the king, and underneath the statue of the elephant is a private room for the royal party. With loud beating drums, I'm told it's quite a spectacle! Wish I would be around a bit longer to see it.

In general, things are pretty stable here in Zambia, it seems. I've been surprised with how remote our clinic/lab site is. I kind of expected Kigali to be like that, and our Lusaka site to be right in the thick of the city, but it's really quite the opposite. At PSF in Kigali, we were so central to everything and could walk anywhere really. Here it takes about 15-20 minutes by car to get to the nearest real supermarket. We are not really very proximal at all to local restaurants. Luckily, we have a chef at the lab that can provide lunch for $1.25! It's usually pretty good local food: some greens, some meat option (if interested), and a staple here called "inshima," which is kind of like...sticky, dense, cream of wheat/porridge? I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's cheap and extremely filling, both good qualities here. (Unfortunately, it also makes you really sleepy!) Training with the (awesome) lab staff here has just started. I spent 11 hours yesterday trying to install our two main sequencing programs on a computer, hah. It was definitely tolerance building, but the great news is that it worked, so we should be all set for the training in the next two weeks! Time is flying by. Will be home in 1.5 weeks! Hope everyone's doing well!

Caption for a few more random pics from Kigali:
- Our dashing dog, Scrappy!
- Lab director Jean, so nice and energetic about the training
- Lab photo of the individuals that I had worked most closely with during my stay in Kigali. They had taken me out to dinner my last night in Kigali. I really love them all!
- Sunset on Mount Kigali
- Visit to an orphanage that Nathan (one of our PSF staff members who I've been working most closely with for the data analysis, in red shirt) founded in the outskirts of Kigali. Houses about 24 really hilarious local boys (ages 8-17), who were able to accurately guess my age! When questioned how they were able to so clearly estimate, they claimed to collectively have a wide knowledge of Bollywood stars. When pursued further, it was clear that they really did! :) I felt quite reluctant about taking our picture and just wanted to hang out and chat (because they appeared to be genuinely curious about cultures of India and the States), but the boys insisted on a proper photo shoot before I left, so of course, I obliged. They were really nice, and Nathan told me later that he is interested expanding the project. He'd like to start finding/buying/shipping old bikes from the States and set up a sort of make-shift bicycle garage at the orphanage (or nearby) so the boys can learn to fix them up and ride them. I was surprised to hear that bikes in Rwanda were so expensive -- $200 USD, which is beyond affordable for most people. I had assumed that the paucity of bikes around was due to the extreme hilliness of the place, but perhaps it's a combination of the two elements.

In and Around Kigali -1

Didn't take a whole lot of pics within central town Kigali itself (where I stayed) because it's basically looks just like any other highly dense city - except cleaner. Most of these pictures were taken around the outskirts of Kigali and at PSF (the HIV couples counseling and testing clinic/lab whose patients our lab studies, and where I've been working the last few weeks). Sorry, but I had to downgrade the quality/size of the photos for easier posting. There are many more pics, but Blogspot is not cooperating with the Internet here. This'll have to do for now! :)

David vs. Goliath

Arrived safely in Lusaka last night, and I can safely say now that I really do miss Kigali. Rwanda might be a lot smaller in square kilometers, but I think its character fits me a lot better, so far at least. The Internet is decent, here, though, so keep your fingers crossed about the potential for some pictures posted soon! Must go to bed, but here are a couple quick updates!

Conversion Rate: 4779 Zambian Kwacha = $1
Cost of a loaf of bread: 3800 Kwacha (cost of living is still quite high, but lower than Kigali)
Interns at the project: 8-10 (vs. 2 at Kigali)
Time to loading a webpage: equivalent to tea-making time (including boiling water, steeping and flavoring stages)
Roads: muddy and definitely not as well maintained as Kigali (lot of crater-sized potholes and giant trenches for flooding, etc.)
Avocado price: $1/each (vs. $0.16 in Kigali)
Social Reform Issues: decidedly less progressive, based on what I've heard
- Did I mention that Rwanda has a national tradition called "umuganda" in which every last Saturday of the month, the whole country is basically shut down from 8-noon in order to promote community building workshops and is considered a day of community service? (And they really stick to it!) Ahh....pretty great.
Local Languages: Nyanja (complex) and Bembe (even more complex?)
Local lab staff: really wonderful!!
Distance to IAVI lab: just two buildings down the road which is going to be really convenient
What it's Known For: Nearby Livingstone - Victoria Falls! (Going to check it out next weekend for the lunar rainbow! Hopefully will also make it out to Chobe National Park just across the border into Botswana for the weekend, but plans still pending.)

Davavaye

Written: 2/11/11 approximately 10:30 AM Kigali Time

(It’s Kinyarwanda for “I’m sad.”) I’m sitting in the Kigali International Airport and feeling quite down about leaving Kigali and the people I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with here. I hope that we can keep in touch, and doubly hope that I’ll be back someday – perhaps for a longer stay. It was pretty neat to see how excited the lab members that I helped train got when looking at and analyzing their own data. The lab director, who I absolutely adore and spent a lot of time training, mentioned to me last night at my going-away dinner that he was very impressed with my teaching skills, which made me happy. I had to tell him the story about how the one class in Immunology that I had to teach for our TA position was on complement (an admittedly exhausting and BORING subject in Immunology), and afterwards a student asked Jessica (I think) if I study complement because I really seemed excited and interested in it. Haha. I really don’t see myself in academia or in education anytime in the future, but it would be cool to have more experience in international training/education. We'll see! Also, as a follow-up to a comment made previously about the tiers of Rwandese greetings and goodbyes and hoping to progress to the hug-level with my co-workers and friends, I am happy to say that many hugs were had by all prior to my departure from Kigali. :)

2/11/11 approximately 4 PM Nairobi Time (Kigali + 1)

Gosh, it’s really, really hot in Nairobi right now. Currently sitting at the Nairobi International Airport. Had a peanut butter sandwich I made this morning. Attempted to use the bathroom but gave up on the idea quickly after I realized that there was no water in any of the pipes. :/ Maybe I can wait…only another 6 hours until my flight, hah. (Follow-up: ~2.5 hours later, water has returned and bathrooms are functional again, thank goodness!) Met a really interesting lady sitting in the gate waiting for the Lusaka flight who actually is Zambian but works in Tanzania. Surprisingly, she was quite familiar with the ZEHRP project in Lusaka, remarked about how well run it was, and actually had a few relatives who had previously worked as nurses with the project. Guess promotions about the project really are effective, which is good to hear!

Stand By Me

Kigali held local community elections yesterday morning. Work started late as everyone was participating and also as a general precaution. However, I've been told elections here have been quite safe in the last few years. As to the nature local election itself, it is quite different that what we're used to back home! To preface, each district is split up into cells and each cell conducts their own election. On the morning of local elections, community members from each cell gather in a central location in the community and elect their candidates of choice on the spot! Basically, the first position is announced, any candidate running can step up to a common platform and present their stump speech. After everyone has presented, the candidates spread out in the lawn, and voters physically step behind their candidate of choice! Election committees (or random people, not sure about that, hah) then count the number of voters behind each candidate, and announce who the winner of that position is. And then they move onto the next position. So basically, if you're not physically present during the morning voting session, you don't get another chance to vote. Also, I couldn't quite get a straight answer on this, but it seems like as long as you are physically present at the election, your vote is counted without the need to physically present any documentation of permanent residence in the community. I thought that was kind of funny because historically we have had problems with votes not being counted from legitimately registered citizens. Anyway, it is a really humid Saturday morning, and I need to get some more work done. :) Have a good weekend, everyone! I leave for Lusaka, Zambia in less than a week. I will miss the mountains and hills of Rwanda, but I'm sure Southern Africa will have a completely different atmosphere and perhaps new challenges as well. Until next time!

And Here's to You, President Kagame

Yesterday was a national holiday called Hero’s Day, in honor of fallen soldiers. Surprisingly, I saw probably 100+ Rwandese volunteers out helping clean the roads and paint the curbs. On our day off, we went to visit one of the genocide memorials 45 minutes south of Kigali (near Burundi). The memorial itself was a Christian church in which ~10,000 Tutsi and Hutu-moderates were brutally tortured, raped and killed. I will spare the details of how horrifying the site was (as it was nearly perfectly well-preserved). Needless to say, it was a very emotional experience. After the memorial, we went to the first Rwandese President’s house where I learned a lot about Rwandan history leading up to the genocide of 1994.

Interestingly, the Hutu/Tutsi/Twa designation of Rwandese residents did not exist prior to the Belgian colonization. The Belgians felt more comfortable ruling through a clan structure, and generally categorized individuals to each tribe based on broad generalizations like possession of certain domestic animals (Tutsi tended to own cows, while Hutu tended to own goats, and Twa: sheep, etc) as well as facial features (measurements of nose width, etc.). They established the ID cards with tribe (even though many Rwandese were of mixed origin), and decided that the Tutsi tribe would be the ruling class, and the Hutus would be the agricultural peasant class. Tensions between the two classes basically started after this point, and after Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in 1959, continued to grow in intensity (including other isolated incidents of anti-Tutsi violence pre-1994) until April 1994. The spark to the official genocide itself is really quite interesting. Rwanda’s president’s plane was shot down and crashed on his own presidential lawn! Although the perpetrators were never caught, it is thought that they were likely his own men, who had grown increasingly extremist and were frustrated with the conflict of his anti-Tutsi rhetoric but his reluctant negotiations with the UN.

One last thing that I found out was that current President Kagame was actually one of the primary leaders in stopping the genocide and overthrowing the genocidal and post-genocidal government. Kagame abolished the ethnic ID cards and has tried to reinforce the idea that all citizens are Rwandese. He has been in office for the last decade or so and has truly been a remarkable leader in metamorphosing Rwanda in the post-genocide era. As I previously mentioned, it was his speech in 2003 advocating partner involvement that really started the nationwide awareness of HIV couples counseling and testing as a critical risk reduction strategy. It is clear in talking with Rwandese citizens that they have the utmost respect for President Kagame and what his government has done and a true sense of hope for Rwanda’s future.

I’m scheduled to be training another couple interns/lab techs in the next few days on the data analysis that I do, so I’m hoping it goes as well as last time! I’ve got LOTS of superinfection data (some usable, some not) to get through in not a lot of time. Due to logistical reasons (internet unreliability, standard work hours here, etc.), it’s been difficult to maintain the efficiency I’m used to at home. In fact, I just wasted half of today due to having no internet, but managed to borrow a internet flash-drive from my roommate to run the programs I need for work. Guess that’s normal, so best get back to it while I've got the programs running! Data, ahoy! Mwiriwe! (Good afternoon!)

Tour of an Urban Clinic in Gitega

I learned so much today while touring a local urban health center, where to begin? There are so many aspects about how HIV prevention has been addressed in Rwanda that are incredibly impressive, on a world-wide scale. We had some visitors from Guyana visiting today (through this week), and they were discussing the problems which they are having in establishing similar couples counseling and testing sites as well as prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) clinics in their country and it really put into perspective how incredibly progressive Rwanda is. The biggest problem they seem to be having is a lack of male-partner involvement in health awareness. Men there do not seem to want to be HIV-tested, come in for regular health visits, or be involved in the family planning necessary for prevention of mother to child transmission. Amazingly in Rwanda's HIV health centers, I've been told the partner involvement is >85%, largely due to President Kagame's nationwide speech advocating the importance of HIV prevention and couples counseling in 2003. When we asked some of the male patients at a local urban clinic what made them want to come into clinic with their wife, they were really matter of fact about how they want to know their own HIV-serostatus and that of their partner in order to prevent transmission to their future children. (I guess we would tend to think that's a pretty obvious reason, but I think globally from what I've heard it really isn't yet.) One gentleman explained how marriage is a partnership and he knows that his health affects his spouse's, and how that idea must start at the family/community level in order to make an impact. I think the Guyanan visitors wanted to put him in their pocket and fly him home to Guyana. :)

The key to Rwanda's success seems to be the genuine partnership between local communities and health centers, outside sponsors/NGOs and most importantly the Rwandan government, which I've learned is really quite involved with improving HIV prevention and education. Antiretroviral medication is available freely for all HIV-infected persons in need from urban health centers (without the need for any health insurance). Rwanda does have the option of a national health plan which costs $2/year (of which ~90% Rwandese possess). The insurance covers some medical costs, but not all. Our clinic offers that national health plan to all enrolled patients as well as general medical care and long-term contraceptives. Due to logistics and funding issues, the clinic is able to refer the patient back to the original health clinic that they visited initially in order to receive the free ARTs, but we are not able to provide that treatment on site. The government has a 5-year plan to eliminate MTCT transmission. In speaking with an NGO here that works closely with the government-run health centers, he also said that they are working on advocating male circumcision for all males using a new plastic device (currently being developed in Israel, as I recall) that actually kills the foreskin cells and can be removed one week later. Not totally sure on the details of how it works, but it sounds interesting as a non-surgical approach for male circumcision, which has proven to be an effective method of prevention.

And they have this really neat program of accountability called Rwanda Performance Based Financing in which the government (in conjunction with USAID and other groups), establishes certain goals and indicators (in all a lot of non-health fields as well, including education and agriculture) with hospitals and other facilities to reach within a year. For example within our field, at an urban health center, there may be a goal to HIV-test X number of couples within a year. If the goal is met, the clinic will receive Y Rwandan Francs/couple tested, and that money feeds back to the facility itself to expand operations. If you don't achieve the goal, the finances allotted to the establishment is proportional to the success of the indicator. There is a QC process where a health director from another province would come to your province and evaluate the success of the goal, and vis-versa. This idea of setting goals (I've been told) is even present at the community grassroots level where communities will establish common indicators of health (# bednets distributed, # couples tested, agriculture needs). There is a sense of competition between regions on meeting these quality of life indicators and annually, community leaders meet to discuss and identify problems they are having and ask other local regions if they have similar problems and if so, how they were able to resolve them. Pretty neat! Needless to say President Kagame is quite popular amongst the people, and has definitely made it a priority to implement accountability at all levels to improve the quality of life here in Rwanda. Anyway, there's much more I could say, but I need to get home before another terrential downpour. Forgot my raincoat at home, so it's going to be a sloppy jog home!

Good Times, Bad Times

Quite a lot has happened in the last couple days, so I'll try to keep this post somewhat bullet-pointed...

Fun things that have happened:

- Had dinner and sang karaoke (mostly back-up singing, due to the uninspired and incredibly random assortment of pop songs available) with a certain Scandinavian ambassador and his extremely quirky wife on Friday evening. They happened to be a friend of a friend of my roommate's. Still recovering from what a random experience that was! Interestingly, neither was a typical Scandinavian, both dark-skinned with dark eyes born from developing countries. The ambassador's wife was hilariously blunt and tried to lend me what she felt was genuinely critical forewarning about arranged marriages. Hah.

- I can say without a shadow of a doubt that being in our lab has prepared me for many things professionally, academically, and even socially -- one of which is the ability to stay out late dancing in clubs to music that is sometimes very poorly mixed and even occasionally, seemingly undanceable. This ability proved to be useful Friday night when my roomies took me to this club in downtown Kigali called Planet Club. I was enticed to go to the club by the prospect of a live band (little did I know it was the UN Band, comprised of UN workers stationed in Kigali). However, by the time we got to the club, the band was on their last song, Jimi Hendrix's classic single "Hey Joe!" What a tease. :/ Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

- I've noticed that there are at least three ways to physically greet each other here, with a combination of hugs, handshakes, and arm grabs. It is kind of interesting. The most complicated combination I think is one which involves a triple hug (right side, left side, right side, I think), and then is followed by a handshake. The closeness of the relationship between the people is proportionate to the complexity of the greeting, I think. ;) So far, as I am new, I've gotten a lot of handshakes and arm grabs. Hope I'm upgraded to hugs by the time I leave! :)

- Another random shopping update: huge avocados are amazingly cheap (due to their high accessibility) - $0.16/each! Guacamole galore. And there is a LOT of gouda produced in Rwanda, and as most of you know, I do love gouda.

- Was just thinking about the interesting mix of ex-pats that I've met either en route to Kigali or here in the city itself. I guess it's your typical mix of well-travelled, progressive types: UN volunteers, Peace Corps volunteers, Infectious Disease MDs working for the CDC or Ministry of Health, 20/30-somethings working on starting up NGOs or teaching English abroad. We hung out with a lot of ex-pats last night at another friend of a friend's birthday party. Again, the karaoke machine was involved, and this time when "Hey Jude" was suggested as the next song up, I felt I could not sit back and watch it crumble. Although I've sang the song probably 1000 times, what I forgot at the time of impulse in taking the microphone was that it is incredibly LONG. Good God. And we were being scored...so regretfully by the 7th or 8th "Da-da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, Hey Jude" towards the end, we were all pretty well spent. Hah.

- Things are going really well at the lab/clinic. Just spent the last few days of the week training the lab director at the site, and I think he's really got the technique that I was training on, and was so happy about it (as was I)! Still getting along well with my roommates and love everyone at work. My Kinyarwanda is improving daily, so that's "meza" (good) too.

Reality Check:
Obviously, coming here to Kigali, I had emotionally prepared myself for confronting remnants of Rwanda's heart-wrenching past. It's hard to believe that it's been 17 years already since the genocide. It is clear in talking to some of the ex-pats that have lived here for some period of time that residual elements of the tragedy are still very much an unspoken part of daily life here for Rwandese residents. Kigali does seem incredibly safe for foreigners, but even after a few days here, I can tell that there is still an air of instability and tension in the country itself. Grenade attacks are not uncommon, there is still a clear military presence in the streets, I've been told it's best to stay off of public transportation, and I've heard too many second-hand stories about the genocide itself. It has been really difficult for me to balance the regular conversations here with some of the ex-pats that have lived here for a while. Suddenly, conversations will jump from talking about the playoffs and UB40 to talking about evacuation plans and bodies found in house lofts. I haven't quite been able to adjust to the rapid change of topics.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Can't believe a third of my stay here in Kigali is already over!! Looking forward to the next two weeks and hopefully getting in a couple of day-trips here or there. I wanted to see the mountain gorillas or go on a wildlife safari, but it is surprisingly difficult to pull together those logistical details fast here. We'll see, but as Dad reminded me, I'll try not to be too disappointed if the excursions don't happen this time because I think this won't be my last time visiting. Hope everyone is doing well Stateside! And congratulations, you've made it through this long post! :)

The Land of a Thousand Hills

Howdy all! I had my main presentation this morning! I think it went pretty darn well considering the fact that I had more than a few technical snafus: could not get the Internet network to connect (meaning I did not have access to the program that I was going to train the lab on, hah), the Mac adaptor available didn't fit my MacBook (meaning I couldn't project what I did have on my computer to the projector screen) and apparently my external hard-drive only works on Macs (of which there are few in our neck of the woods). But that being said, with a little quick improvisation, we made it work! And I think the talk was well-received. Everyone at the clinic is really interested in our research at the Hunter lab, so keep up the good work, guys! :)

Kigali is surprisingly safe. I feel pretty comfortable walking around by myself after 3 days here (minding general caution). Our place is near "downtown" Kigali, so that has been convenient for grocery runs, etc. I have really liked walking around daily (don't get a whole lot of that back in ATL), and with the hills and altitude, it's been a nice leisurely built-in workout. Because the entire staff at the clinic/lab is so well-versed in English and everyone seems very amused with my attempts at Kinyarwanda, regretfully, my French has taken a bit of a back-seat. My roomies have a private French tutor that comes to the house bi-weekly, but despite my crash course in French (via Lonely Planet), I was relatively lost post general greetings and exchange of names :) I'll work on it. On a completely random note, I wish that Dijon mustard was cheaper. It's nearly $6/jar. (Decided to go with the old spicy brown mustard in the fridge instead.) Until next time!

Waking Up in Kigali

Made it to Kigali safely last night with all my luggage! My roomies are really nice (fellow ex-pat interns) and have been really kind in making me feel welcome. My first day of work was pretty great -- just got introduced to everyone at the clinic and in the lab, and spent the rest of the day working to understand the flow of how things work at the clinic starting from the very beginning with recruitment of new HIV-discordant couples. It has been really interesting to learn how the other end of the process works, since our molecular work is so far downstream of those critical preliminary steps. The basic Kinyarwanda that I learned from the SpeakRwanda series has really caused a lot of surprised and delighted faces from co-workers (and a few patients). My first "murakoze" (thank you) generated a very shocked noise from one of our data/IT co-workers. It was pretty funny. :) Surprisingly, some of the more anecdotal notes from the series have come in handy. For example, at the beginning of Lesson 3: Speaking with Children, the narrator makes this hilarious comment about the proper way to wave your hand. Apparently, the right way to wave is like a beauty queen - side to side, not fingers to palm. In my time here, that has been confirmed. I've not had the chance to speak to children, which is good, because that lesson is really hard and I still haven't made it all the way through it. Hah.

Weather is very warm, as anticipated, however I think the BBC weather was a little off with the heavy rainfall predictions for yesterday. The Internet is not that reliable, but if anyone is interested, I do have a cell phone number for which you can use Skype credit or Reliance Global credit to call. If interested in the number, let me know. Otherwise, I'll try to update here when I can. Took some pics of the intern house (amazing) and the outside of the clinic, but I think the Internet is too slow to bother posting it quite yet.

Kigali's Rainy Season

Really?! Other websites have predicted 100% humidity. Yikes. Looks like I'm in for a real "rainy season."

In the Beginning

"All our dreams begin in youth." - Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet

1/19/11:
In three fleeting days, I will head out to Africa to start the journey into international research! This dream's been a long time coming, and I can't hardly believe that I'm actually leaving...soon. Really excited about the adventure ahead and, admittedly, a little nervous. Sincere thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement! Will try to post updates, as it seems fit. Until next time!