Unfortunately No Brangelina
4/18/ 2007
I’m currently sitting outside my room enjoying another beautiful African sunset and appreciating the chance to be in Southern Africa again. This is the end of my second day here and although I am still groggyfrom the journey, I’m remarkably coherent andproductive for this time of night.
It’s good to be back in Africa. I was really mixed about coming back, not so much that I didn’t want to come to Africa, but the timing wasn’t the best forthe rest of my life. However, I’m finding myself feeling right at home, almost to the extent that it doesn’t feel "foreign" to me, and that is nice.I’m enjoying reuniting with many work colleagues and meeting the new people who have come to this growing office.
So far my time here has been spent in the office, either in meetings or training the person who will be helping with the materials development for this project, so I haven’t been out much. However, since I will be here a bit longer this time, I’m determined to get out of the city a bit and see a bit more of this beautiful country - even if its just a quick trip. I did manage to see about 15 baboons onthe side of the road on my way from the airport, so if all else fails, I can count that as part of a wildgame drive.
I’m staying at the Tamboti Guesthouse which is a small bed and breakfast here in Windhoek. It is run by a German couple and has 13 units. The rooms are pretty simple, but the grounds and the hospitality are fantastic. Ziggy, the owner, is very friendly and immediately helps you to feel at home. She has taken a genuine interest in me and what I’m doing here, making sure I have what I need which is nice, always good to have someone looking out for you in a foreign country. And, of course there is the dog, Schlumpy (said “Schloompy”). He has shown me around this evening, making sure I knew where to pick up my Coke Light and showed me all the good places to take a picture. Outside my room I have 1 carved rhino, 2 warthogs and a giant 8 foot tall mask which greet me as I go in and out. Overall, it’s pretty nice and I think my time here will go fast.
Aside from work, I’m having a good chance to catch upon the finer points of the Cricket World Cup which is on every time I turn on the TV. I still cannot figure out the game and am coming to terms that I may not ever understand it. Jetlag has also led me to discover that there is such a thing as the World Darts Championship and that it is popular enough to actually be broadcast on TV (in the middle of the night, but TV nonetheless). Who knew?
19 April 2007
So today begun with a lovely walk to work. Another consultant here is staying in the same place as I amand he walks to work each morning and today I decided to join him. It’s about a 10 minute walk and was a wonderful way to start my day.
This trip my role is to finalize the documents from the IMAI adaptation that I worked on last year. IMAI is a programme that is designed to take the burden of caring for and treating HIV off the limited numbers of doctors in the country and empower more nurses, especially in remote settings to do more acute and ongoing care. It’s a complex programme and equally complex training. There have been some stalls and delays in the project over the past year, including national polio epidemic so things have not gone as smoothly as we had hoped. And, due to some communication breakdowns, it was necessary for me to come here to clarify some things face to face. Initially I was a bit anxious about the prospect of coming here again with all the troubles surrounding the project, but luckily things have been very positive thus far. The materials I’m working on and mentoring a consultant to work on are going very slowly. Its some what frustrating and tedious work andI spend a lot of time solving technical problems instead of actually integrating the revised content. But, hopefully once the documents are correctly formatted, we will have some great looking, and more importantly, highly useful documents.
I also attended a digital video conferencing presentation this morning by Dr. Katjitai (for those who might remember last year, this is the doctor who had elephants breaking down his fence regularly). The conference included medical professionals from 3 different remote sites in the country and all were able to watch and interact with Dr. Katjitai. I was very impressed with the use of the technology and am excited to see more ways in which it can be used. It’s an amazing method of reaching even very remote clinics and giving the clinicians there very important training that they would most likely miss out on if it required flying a doctor to them or them to the doctor for the same training session. At the end of the training I was asked on the fly to say a few words tothe participants about IMAI. Thank goodness for adrenaline and all the things it helps you to make up as you go when speaking to large groups of total strangers. But, luckily I didn’t embarrass myself and the country hasn’t lost faith in the person helping with their programme. Dr. Katjitai invited me to join him in rounds during my stay here and I’m hoping to have time to do so. I would love a chance to see Katatura hospital and the HIV ward specifically which I’ve been told is a model for the country. Keep your fingers crossed that time will be kind.
Overall things are good and I feel quite blessed to have things going as well as they have been thus far.
Keep well,
Lisa
I’m currently sitting outside my room enjoying another beautiful African sunset and appreciating the chance to be in Southern Africa again. This is the end of my second day here and although I am still groggyfrom the journey, I’m remarkably coherent andproductive for this time of night.
It’s good to be back in Africa. I was really mixed about coming back, not so much that I didn’t want to come to Africa, but the timing wasn’t the best forthe rest of my life. However, I’m finding myself feeling right at home, almost to the extent that it doesn’t feel "foreign" to me, and that is nice.I’m enjoying reuniting with many work colleagues and meeting the new people who have come to this growing office.
So far my time here has been spent in the office, either in meetings or training the person who will be helping with the materials development for this project, so I haven’t been out much. However, since I will be here a bit longer this time, I’m determined to get out of the city a bit and see a bit more of this beautiful country - even if its just a quick trip. I did manage to see about 15 baboons onthe side of the road on my way from the airport, so if all else fails, I can count that as part of a wildgame drive.
I’m staying at the Tamboti Guesthouse which is a small bed and breakfast here in Windhoek. It is run by a German couple and has 13 units. The rooms are pretty simple, but the grounds and the hospitality are fantastic. Ziggy, the owner, is very friendly and immediately helps you to feel at home. She has taken a genuine interest in me and what I’m doing here, making sure I have what I need which is nice, always good to have someone looking out for you in a foreign country. And, of course there is the dog, Schlumpy (said “Schloompy”). He has shown me around this evening, making sure I knew where to pick up my Coke Light and showed me all the good places to take a picture. Outside my room I have 1 carved rhino, 2 warthogs and a giant 8 foot tall mask which greet me as I go in and out. Overall, it’s pretty nice and I think my time here will go fast.
Aside from work, I’m having a good chance to catch upon the finer points of the Cricket World Cup which is on every time I turn on the TV. I still cannot figure out the game and am coming to terms that I may not ever understand it. Jetlag has also led me to discover that there is such a thing as the World Darts Championship and that it is popular enough to actually be broadcast on TV (in the middle of the night, but TV nonetheless). Who knew?
19 April 2007
So today begun with a lovely walk to work. Another consultant here is staying in the same place as I amand he walks to work each morning and today I decided to join him. It’s about a 10 minute walk and was a wonderful way to start my day.
This trip my role is to finalize the documents from the IMAI adaptation that I worked on last year. IMAI is a programme that is designed to take the burden of caring for and treating HIV off the limited numbers of doctors in the country and empower more nurses, especially in remote settings to do more acute and ongoing care. It’s a complex programme and equally complex training. There have been some stalls and delays in the project over the past year, including national polio epidemic so things have not gone as smoothly as we had hoped. And, due to some communication breakdowns, it was necessary for me to come here to clarify some things face to face. Initially I was a bit anxious about the prospect of coming here again with all the troubles surrounding the project, but luckily things have been very positive thus far. The materials I’m working on and mentoring a consultant to work on are going very slowly. Its some what frustrating and tedious work andI spend a lot of time solving technical problems instead of actually integrating the revised content. But, hopefully once the documents are correctly formatted, we will have some great looking, and more importantly, highly useful documents.
I also attended a digital video conferencing presentation this morning by Dr. Katjitai (for those who might remember last year, this is the doctor who had elephants breaking down his fence regularly). The conference included medical professionals from 3 different remote sites in the country and all were able to watch and interact with Dr. Katjitai. I was very impressed with the use of the technology and am excited to see more ways in which it can be used. It’s an amazing method of reaching even very remote clinics and giving the clinicians there very important training that they would most likely miss out on if it required flying a doctor to them or them to the doctor for the same training session. At the end of the training I was asked on the fly to say a few words tothe participants about IMAI. Thank goodness for adrenaline and all the things it helps you to make up as you go when speaking to large groups of total strangers. But, luckily I didn’t embarrass myself and the country hasn’t lost faith in the person helping with their programme. Dr. Katjitai invited me to join him in rounds during my stay here and I’m hoping to have time to do so. I would love a chance to see Katatura hospital and the HIV ward specifically which I’ve been told is a model for the country. Keep your fingers crossed that time will be kind.
Overall things are good and I feel quite blessed to have things going as well as they have been thus far.
Keep well,
Lisa
posted by jacob at 1:47 AM
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