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.