what i do at work

so, in response to great demand (read: one comment), here is what i do at work.

i am assessing the degree of accuracy a survey tool has in identifying people at high risk for becoming infected with hiv (in infectious disease lingo, these folks are known as 'seroconverters'). these high-risk people come to the counseling and testing center that projet san francisco runs in kigali. they are considered high-risk because they are the hiv-negative partner of an hiv-positive person. so, anytime they have unprotected sex within the relationship, they are at greater risk than people who are concordant negative (as opposed to the aforementioned discordant couples our project is most interested in). besides this, i am also looking at some of the other measures with which we track risk for seroconversion. i'm comparing the coital diaries (yes, couples are supposed to record their sexual acts in this diary) couples maintain against vaginal swabs of women for errors in self-report. also, i'm examining how much sperm is detected when a patient self-administers a vaginal swab vs when a nurse administers a swab vs when a nurse performs a speculum exam.

all fun stuff: i will be using sas (the bane of my existence during fall semester last year) to analyze a bunch of data, periodically. i'm writing a modified consent for female patients who may just be crazy enough to have 3 vaginal exams done during the same clinical visit. and, i'm going to hopefully be doing some quality-control activities (this may change).

that is what i do at work. i'm looking forward to never being employed by this organization, though. yay!

le beau monde

so, we had a somewhat eventful day today. it started off with me getting a full 12 hours of sleep (yes, 12!). then, we went up to the market that was set up outside the PEPFAR conference (held in kigali this year) at the serena hotel: think white tents vomited all over the hotel grounds and massive security (yes, police with *rifles*).

i bought some stuff from the local sellers - there were people there from an organization which employs people living with hiv/aids (PLWHA). i got some earrings and postcards. those of you who gave me mailing addresses...

my friend, ajanta, got sick from the food (possibly) we had at 'salt & pepper', the poorly-lit cousin (we think) of 'ice & spice', the indian restaurant at which we celebrated emily's birthday a few weeks ago. emily, taylor (housemate), and i had stomach issues, too. our PI, who is visiting for the next 9 weeks (and referenced before on this blog), raved about s & p as 'cheap and good, a tradition!'. it will not be a tradition i engage in.

*end of tangent* so, ajanta calls on ty's phone to tell us she is sick. 5 minutes later, ty's phone (which had been in my backpack) is gone. so, yes, i got pickpocketed. at the stupid street fair i had already dropped $10 at, to patronize local businesses. so, now i get to go a) buy a new cell phone (~$50), and charge it with 20,000 FRW (~$40).

then, we went to a prime people-watching spot, 'bourbon coffee'. i don't know why i go back (we've only been once before) because its clientele is the beau monde. seriously - gorgeous expat women with beautiful expat children and husbands. i walk in (typically) having taken my last shower two days prior, with skirts that have not been washed in 3 weeks, and having forgotten deoderant. but it also reminds me that i won't ever be a beautiful expat. which i'm fine with.

we also made crepes tonight, which turned out great! unfortunately, in the process, we made the batter in a plastic bowl that had a crack in it, and then ended up squirting milk all over my skirt (finally, a reason to wash it!).

up next (that's right, the night is not over!) is 'cadillac', a club in kigali that bunch of folks from the project are going to...i'm a bit ambivalent. on the one hand, the day could end on a great note. on the other hand, it could be an extension of what i've already experienced in the workplace - except that the passes in this case would be made in a dimly-lit nightclub, as opposed to the fluorescent data room.

in order for the good juju to flow, as i type this, at the admin building i spend every work day and night in: toto's 'africa' is blasting from my computer.

not happy.

i have spent the last 24 hours being alternatively stressed out and apathetic. i may have spoken with some of you (my friends) about the PI of our project. she is a nice woman to socialize with, but a bit difficult, professionally. i had my first run-in yesterday. i maintain that if i am ever as busy as this woman is, i will still verify what my graduate students are doing before hitting 'reply to all' on an email and embarrassing her while questioning her productivity.

*sigh*

more to come later tonight.

recap (cont.)

saturday: we explored the commercial side of kigali. that's right! shopping extravaganza! no, actually, kate, the new lab intern (she will be here for a year, possibly more, running the main lab) arrived a day late and we took her out to show her the town (aka the western shopping center with its ridiculous amenities at ridiculous prices) and then we went to the craft fair (no more long parentheticals, see below) and the batwa pygmy pottery center.

the craft fair: about 20 stalls of exactly the same handicrafts. apparently there is not much in the way of arts and crafts that are still practiced here in rwanda (i maybe wrong on this, but this statement is based on second-hand or third-hand information and my own observations). what rwanda is known for: baskets. loads and loads of beautifully-woven baskets...with stripes and other patterns - they're really nice. there were a bunch of african looking masks which i'm told could be imported from anywhere (tanzania, zambia, kenya, uganda), along with purses and bags made of brightly colored cloth (not woven or printed here) and jewelry from all over (egypt, kenya, etc). i ended up going generic and buying 'ethnic' salad tongs. it can be part of my hope chest. uh, ya.

the abatwa pgymy pottery co-op thing: the batwa pygmy once lived in hills/mountains of rwanda/uganda. then the abahutu and abatutsi moved into the area, and ended up becoming the dominant peoples. the governments, later, didn't do much to favor the twa pygmy - they've been dispossessed of their ancestral lands, which have been turned into national parks. in the meantime, here in kigali, there is a pottery co-op which allows them to sell their wares - apparently (they speak french, their story was translated), before the 'war' (how the genocide is referred to, locally), they made distinctive pottery - vases, pots (narrow- and wide-mouthed), other necessities. nowadays, it's modern stuff: mugs, plates, vases, soft-boiled egg-holders...i wasn't sure if they really meant the genocide or another war, but it seems a bit crazy to think that 14 years ago, they made 'traditional' pygmy pottery and 2 years later, bam, it's 'modern'. i bought a mug. which i have yet to drink coffee out of, because my stomach is still on bedrest.

l.a.k.s.h.M.I.A

i've been out of action for the last few days with a stomach bug, thanks to either a) some nasty tomatoes b) tainted chapattis (oh, how you've failed me, chapattis) or c) undercooked eggs. ironic, considering my last post on food. thank goodness there aren't any pictures of my less than ideal stool. yes, i just went there.

so, now that i'm recovered, i thought i'd post on the stuff i did, even though i was probably somewhat delirious at some or all points during the following activities:

friday: so we strolled down to the american club, which is the social arm of the american embassy, here in kigali to take in a movie ('freedom writers' - i avoided it on the plane...but i'm watching it here for the same reasons i watch grey's anatomy - it's a social undertaking) and dinner...

i had some reservations. first, i have hated everything that hilary swank has been in outside of 'boys don't cry' and 'million dollar baby' (um, ok, i've only seen 'the core'). second, it's the american club. i mean, i have been quite happy doing what we've been doing - family style dinners, movies, out for drinks with some of the other interns' friends, and generally having a low-key lifestyle. i didn't need more americans around me on a friday night to make it a good night. i thought i'd give it a chance, though.

dinner: passable. not to toot my (read: our) own horn but, the food we've made at home was soooo much better than the buffet we got at the ac. pasta, more pasta, some sort of bean salad, fruit salad, pasta. oh, and fanta orange.

movie: first shot - a boar screaming wildly as it is pursued through a tropical-looking forest and i'm all, "shit, this ain't no 'freedom writers'! this is 'apocalypto'!" seriously. out of the frying pan, into the fire, anyone? i had vowed not to watch this movie - i was morally opposed to it. not just for mel gibson's shenanigans, but because i just don't do ridiculously violent movies. i mean, i didn't see 'passion of the christ', though i'm sure it would have rounded out my knowledge of christianity which thus far is based on 'monty python and the holy grail' and 'indiana jones and the last crusade'. also, because of the blood and guts. at least it got semi-good reviews. but, 'apocalypto'??! hells no. and that is why i walked (and possibly dragged emily) out 15 minutes after the movie started (though i maintain i could have made it home alone - the taxi drivers know english!). fifteen minutes of bloodletting and heart-eating and 'look, iron-paw put an inflammatory salve on his penis to increase his fertility but really, this is just a pre-columbus blowjob joke'. i mean, seriously, i have nothing against novel ways of imagining the lives of those who've gone before us, but putting aside my distaste for gratuitous violence (really, mel, why don't you just let it all out with words? oh, wait, you have, with less than stellar results), nothing in the first tenth of the movie would have persuaded me to stay for the rest.

on a more serious note, i couldn't fathom sitting there for another two hours watching this gruesome movie, because it hit me that 13 years ago, the genocide took place in this tiny country i'm in. there's enough bloodshed for vile purposes in the real world: i don't need to consume any more of it as entertainment.