A lot has been going on at the lab this past week...except the electricty - haha. The power has gone out numerous times, and when that happens, and generator is supposed to switch on. There was a problem with a switch earlier in the week, which went on for a few days. For this reason, the power goes out, and everyone starts running around trying to decide what to do about the tests that are running the machines. Monday, we had only enough power for one machine to be running at a time, and since viral loads were top priority, we had to be anticipating the amount of time each batch would run for in each machine so we could try to switch off the power to that machine in place of the next one, so we wouldn't lose the samples! Needless to say, I know a lot more about the timing for each step in the machines now, and how fast you really can trasport samples back and forth! It's really fun and challenging working in the lab because there are so many things you have to try to calculate and think about in your mind, that you don't have to consider when working in the states. The people in the lab are so resourceful though, and because everyone helps eachother out, things actually do work out in the end. Everyone in the lab continues to be very welcoming, and two of the lab techs, Jeffrey and Cornwell, call me Bupe (boo-pay), which is nyanga for "gift"! Eugene continues to call me mboya, which means cousin or grandmother, he chooses which one depending on the day, and says either way it means we are related, so in this culture he can make fun of me and laugh at me and I can't do anything about it! Then he tells me that the only reason he laughs so much is to extend his life. He has been reading up on things he says, and being happy and laughing helps you live longer. Everyone is just so nice; they also express their gratitude when I attempt to speak their language and they always ask me how I am doing, if I need anything, if I'm hungry, etc.
Despite some electricy issues, we've been running a great deal of viral load and HIV tests. Both tests have three steps - extracting the DNA, amplifying the DNA, and detecting the virus at the end. Ngambo and I have been starting earlier and running all the viral loads in parallel, meaning while one batch (23 samples) is in the extraction stage, another is in amplification stage. In the beginning it's simple to keep track of, but once the day gets going, it gets really busy and it also involves a lot of timing.
Something else exciting from the lab is that a woman from the bush (about 5 hours from here) came in to ask Ngambo and I questions about the PCR lab - about the equipment used, safety precautions, procedure of tests, amount of space needed, etc. She is starting up a PCR lab out there, and there has never been one there before! She asked my boss if we could both go out there for about a week to help set it up - which would be suuuuuch a cool experience - and he said he's completely behind it!
Also, Monday I was able to visit the Kalingalinga school. This school has grades 1-9, and sees over 30 classes each day. For the younger grades, school is only a few hours, so there are 3 shifts: morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon. There are 15 classrooms, and while the rooms are small, each class has over 60 students in it! I spoke with the headmaster to see if they had a place for a library, and she said there is no room for one. Indeed, the classrooms are all right next to one another, in the shape of a horseshoe, surrounding the ground that the children play on. The rooms all face this area. The roof on top of the rooms leaks when it rains, and of the few desks in the room (picnic table size) few of them are functional (not broken and splintered, having benches) There are no books. There are no bookshelves. Since there isn't a room free for a library, I was thinking of trying to raise money to put a bookshelf in each room, with a few books for kids of that grade level. The headmaster said they are severely lacking in books for the younger children, like ABCs and simple stuff. People build and sell furniture on the streets, so I could pay them to build some shelves and I already have looked into shipping prices of books, and children's books here. One of the guys at the lab is actually starting a foundation to raise money for food at the clinics, which he is still getting approved. He hopes to be able to provide lunch a few days a week. (many people come from so many miles away and wait all day to be seen. he is thinking of doing peanutbutter sandwiches because so many are malnourished, so it would be a good source of protein.) We are still looking into the prices and the creating of the website, but I know a lot of people have asked me how they can help out, so i was going to post information when the site is up and running for whoever is interested!
A strange thing is, while the school doesn't have books, there are places so closeby that are extremely modern and obviously have a lot of money put into them. One example is the movie theatre. When you go in, it's just like home, comfortable seats, good lighting, etc.
The days in the lab are really busy, but I look forward to going into work as much as I look forward to getting home and cooking and doing my own thing. I love the first few minutes when I'm off of work because we hop on this pick-up truck like vehicle that makes a few stops around town. I sit in the back with other lab techs and just let my hair blow in the wind and the only sound I can hear is the air whipping past. I watch the sun setting as the truck speeds through town and when my stop comes I jump off and then walk home :) The days are getting so busy and packed and it's really hard to get to the market for food and what not during the week, so all these errands get saved up for the weekends.
This past saturday, Laura and I went to an orphanage called Mother Teresa. We walked a few miles and then caught a bus the rest of the way there. The kids were so adorable and the babies just wanted to be held forever! We wrapped fabric chetenges around us so we were able to carry a baby on our back and then hold two in front. It was a lot of fun and it was so cute because they are trying to train some of the little kids to go to the bathroom on the toilet, and you walk into this room with these tiny kids all lined up on these tiny boxes, and they look so bored, and about 5 were actually asleep!
Later, we went to a kitchen party, which is what people call a bridal shower here. One woman my friend works is the cousin of the groom. As you have probably figured out, you don't have to know anyone there to be invited! Only women attend and there were well over 200 people there. I have never seen so many pots and plates in my entire life. Someone even gave her an oven and a table with chairs. The bride's family sits on one side of the room and the groom's family sits on the other. To ask for the woman's hand in marriage, the grooms uncle must go to the woman's family and ask and negotiate a price. The groom's family pays money, and throughout the entire ceremony that side of the family just keeps giving her money. Once they are married, the groom must pay again to be welcomed into the family.
In the beginning they had a lot of drumming and laura, alanna, and I held the babies for the women who were drumming. (this was my idea. the babies were completely fine on their clothe, but i was on a roll after the orphanage and they just looked so huggable!) Then everyone gets food and the bride's group of friends escort her in with singing. She is covered with fabric, and she walks slowly to the front. Everyone is singing and dancing around her and finally the groom's best man uncovers her. The bride must be completely silent and have no facial expression during the entire event as a sign of respect, even with people right in her face! (yea, i've already determined I would make a horrible zambian bride!) The groom then walks up and presents her with money. Then he sits down a little bit away from her and she gets up slowly with the other woman, kneeling and standing back up as she goes and presents him with flowers. Then they both kiss, and the hostess of the party separates them, and they are told to kiss again and the hostess again separates them. All the while, people are screaming and singing! Next comes the point when the hostess opens each present, one at a time, and the person that gave that present must come up and dance or sing about the gift, showing what the bride must do with it. For example, the woman who gave an iron, danced around with it and was moving the iron around her shirt as she did it. We gave a casserole dish but had to leave early (we stayed there already for over 3 hours and we had dinner plans) We tried to just walk out and they were like no no no you MUST dance, you must you must! so they pulled us on stage and we had to do a dance in front of all of these people. it was a little bit scary, but really really fun! we were trying to move our hips like they do, and i tried to simulate a caserole dish in my arms hahaha. people were screaming like crazy when the three of us americans were dancing, and afterwards everyone was hugging us and telling us they love us and saying how happy we made them. Lisa, the woman we went with, told us it didn't matter that we didn't know what to do, but that all of the women were so happy that we were embracing the culture.
Looking around and seeing all of these people who are so grateful for what they have is really so beautiful. I went to the same church today as last week and this one church member's story was told today. This woman and her family came from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were refugees and her husband was killed on the way. She said that she and her son had basically no money and were starving when they got to Zambia. She attended a service last year but did not plan on going back or staying in contact with any of the people she met. But she said the women she met that day had something different in mind. They never stopped visiting her house and praying for her. She told us that they would not allow her family to fall. They said they would not let her family go. A few months ago she began coming to church again and actually a few days ago she got a job. She is very involved with the church now and her son actually is in the hip hop youth group that danced today, which was really really good.
I remember thinking, I don't even have to listen to the sermon today to feel the difference being in the room. Sitting with these people all around me, coming from these lives so so different than mine...hearing their voices sing and praise God, their voices are deep and rich....seeing them cheer eachother on - it's exactly what I think God calls us to do, to truely and deeply love and care for one another. We sang this song afterwards, all of the zambian people holding hands, and holding hands up in the air, eyes closed, happy and singing:
I stand in awe of you, Holy God to whom all praise is due.
Anyway, it was truely a beautiful day, and I look forward to the week! much love and God bless
dimanche 9 septembre 2007
dimanche 2 septembre 2007
Kalingalinga Lab work, etc!
Hello everyone! it seems like so long time since I last posted; so much has happened since the roach and gecko fight...which..I wish I could tell you was an isolated incident, but unfortunately I don't have much say in the matter as there is a pretty nice size crack under our doors and these critters seem to know the place better than we do haha. I will tell you that I was chased out of my room by a jumping insect the other day...Erik claims it was just a cricket, but we all know crickets don't look or jump like that. Erik also saw this critter enter my room, but failed to notify me...hmm..call for revenge?...
Anyways! Working in the lab has been very very busy these past two weeks. It's been wonderful to be able to contribute my time and i have learned so much being there!
The first test I have been running is the HIV-DNA test, which tests for the presence of the actual HIV virus. For this we get simply a positive or negative result back (or "equivocal" if something goes wrong!) One of the main things we are working on in the lab is quality control regarding the dry blood spots that we receive. There are five blood spots on each patient's sample card, containing the patient's ID information, which we receive from the surrounding clinics. We use hole-punchers to punch exactly 6mm of this into each individual sample vial in order to run the tests. These small amounts of blood are ideal for testing infants so that they do not have to give up too much blood. It's important for the blood spots to be in the right amount (contained in the marked circles on the card) or the patient will have to have blood drawn again. Rejecting samples to be re-done should be avoided for a number of reasons. 1) this is a waste of time for the people in the lab and the nurses drawing the blood, but especially for the patient. Many people walk 10-20 miles to clinics that are far enough away from their homes so as to avoid being seen by others and the stigma that comes along with attending these clinics. 2) This shows the lab in a negative light. There are endless rumors and false speculations concerning the lab, and when others hear about people having to be bled numerous times, they are often less likely to want to have blood drawn themselves (more on this later!) So, in conclusion, it is very important to be able to keep track of the samples that come in and the clinics in which they comes from. I've had the opportunity to be helping in this in creating logs and recording percentages of samples rejected. This way we can track not only the number of samples being tested each day, but also if it seems a large number of rejected samples are coming from a certain clinic, we can notify and possibly further train the nurses at those clinics about taking correct blood samples. Keeping track of samples is important for another big reason: charting the number of samples coming in helps us to predict the increase in samples coming in for future months...and therefore can give insight in the ways the lab needs to continue to grow to accomodate! The clinics started giving out free ARV treatment in 2004, so the idea of getting tested at no cost of the patient is relatively new. While it has taken a little bit of time to spread the word and for people to feel comfortable trusting their information with the nurses (as this is true for anything new), now the number of samples being tested each month is growing significantly! As a matter of fact, in the next year, the number of samples will double. This will happen again the year after that. Ordering the correct amount of supplies to handle this growth, taking more people on to work, and starting night shifts are all important things to think about in the up and coming year.
The viral load test is designed to test for the quantity of the HIV virus in the patient's blood. All of the samples in this case come from HIV positive people, and for this reason, the result of this test is a number, and there are cut offs to determine what is ok and what is not. When the amount of the virus is too high, the patient may be progressing to a further stage of the sickness, may not be responding to the medication he is on (and therefore may need to change), or may not be taking the medications appropriately. This test utilizes two machines: the Ampli-prep(for extracting and preparing samples) and Amplicor(for amplifying samples and detecting the amount of RNA virus). Both of the machines require correct preparation and loading of reagents. In my next blog entry, my goal is to be able to describe what the machine is doing, and what the reagents are each for! Also, I am typing up a standard operating procedure for the DNA Dry Blood Spot test, so i will hopefully have more of a handle on that one as well!
Performing the two tests here is a very different experience than performing them at home. There are a lot of things to take into account! It makes me glad that I am being challenged and more informed of how things are. it also makes me homesick for the comforts of home!...for the people who know me well, and who I feel like I can talk to about anything! Last year, living with all of my friends at college park and my wonderful roomies ...I felt like I never had to really worry about things, everything was right there - classes, food, friends it was so comfortable - and after a long day, we'd come back and sit on eachother's beds, and talk for hours, or eat cookie dough and have a spur of the moment dance party! Here I have to think about things, determine the best thing for myself. Like drinking water- must be boiled first, bubbling for at least 3 minutes!- buying food- I walk to the nearest market and carry it home..going to work, I either have to time the transport, or I walk(which I enjoy, but it takes like 1.5 hours to get there)... walking in general, we're supposed to avoid it when it gets the least bit dark...showering - it happens when there is water and better when that water is hot (this one i like b/c there is little pressure to smell nice and some of you know I'm not the biggest fan of taking showers...haha)
Thinking about things you wouldn't normally have to is also true for the lab. As I said I have been helping to create logs and records for the number of samples that come in. Friday, in between running tests I was trying to determine the number of viral load test kits to order for the next two months. Because some of the records showed different numbers, and some of the records were actually non-existent, this definitely took longer than expected. Ordering the supplies as mentioned earlier involves charting the amount of samples received in the previous months and predicting the projected amounts of samples for the months to come. Also, an 8-10% of additonal supplies are purchased as a buffer for unforseen events (i.e. the machine breaks down in the middle of a run and samples need to be run again, but the reagents have already been used, or more samples are received than predicted.) One might think we should just order 100s of kits to be kept in the fridge just in case. But cost and expiration of supplies need to be taken into account! Test kits are very expensive - its roughly 800$ for each test kit. The DNA test kits run 86 samples (plus 10 controls) and the viral load test kits run 45 samples (+3 controls). This means that each DNA test costs roughly 8 dollars and each viral load test costs about 16$. These numbers do not even include all of the man-power and consumable lab materials such as pipette tips and gloves. For this reason, it is extremely important to make sure just enough supplies are kept on hand so that the test kits do not expire (800$ down the drain) because they could not be run due to lack of adequate lab materials.
Working in the lab has been wonderful for a number of reasons.
1) I am learning a lot about the science behind the lab procedures (which I find to be very ineteresting!)
2) I feel like I am able to work hard and contribute in different ways to the lab
3) I love talking to my fellow lab techs! It's a great way to find out more about them and the culture!
The two people training me and working along side of me are Eugene and Ngambo. They are both very nice and really efficient workers. They take a lot of pride in their work. Also, we have had some very fun and interesting conversations. One day Ngambo was telling me that she is trying to eat more so that she can get bigger. She puts her hands around her like in a big circle and she's like "I want to be BIGGG!", and as she says this, her eyes get wide! Ngambo is this beautiful woman who is naturally very thin and it's funny as she says this because I told her when I came in to start working, I felt a bit big next to her. She started laughing and she is like "You are crazy! I eat and eat to look like you, but nothing ever happens! I felt too skinny next to you!" And I was laughing because I was like do you understand that people in the states pay embarrassing amounts of money to look like you with all their dieting? I was telling her that she would fit right in with the celebrities in the U.S. and would be the definition of what men find attractive! Also, she was saying that people here bleach their skin and spend lots of money on creems to make their skin darker. Again, I told her that she would be perfect in the states because everyone else is getting skin cancer to have darker skin. Everything got funnier when Eugene told me later as I was pipetting some mastermix that his wife is FAT with a capital F. I gave him a look and I was like, "Eugene! she just had a baby!! give her some time!" and then he goes - "no i mean i love it!"
Everyone at the lab is just so nice and warm. I got homesick one day and Eugene kind of slapped me on the back and told me not to cry! erik said he WOULD give me a hug but he didn't want to contaminate me, how thoughtful, haha. Aleen, a woman who works with a lot of Quality control type-stuff is also very sweet. She is 36 and has these two little cute kids and lives with her husband just 5 minutes from the lab. She invited me, as well as the other interns, to her house for dinner last friday and took me to a book club a few nights ago. At her house, I ate buffallo tongue!! Also, Ron, someone who works for CIDRZ at a different location, had a party the weekend before and we all ate wharthog! I love dancing at these parties! The music is loud and I feel so free and wonderful.
I will share one more lab story (afterall this entry is entitled kalingalinga lab work!). Thurs of two weeks ago was amazing, by far one of my favorite days here! The lab is very number oriented; we deal with samples and results, and the community is all about these people, their faces, their families, their stories. It makes sense that people would wonder what goes on in the lab. ARV treatment, as I said before, is relatively new and when new things happen it is always common, and healthy, to question. However, false and negative ideas not only prevent people from being tested, but perpetuate further stories, that can get a little bit out of control and lead to unsafe situations. For example, the common question is, what does the lab do with the blood taken, and why do we have to take so much blood for the different tests. Rumors about satanistic activity have spread, like the people in the lab drinking all of the blood received. This lead to talk about people breaking into the lab to destroy the machines. In response to this, my boss invited over 100 religious leaders from around the community to come and see the lab firsthand. People got to come in and walk through and I got to be a part of it! They asked a lot of questions and wanted to see everything going on with the tests.
I admired the lab leaders so much that day. They did an incredible job of providing information and also emphasizing the point that this is not our lab to run our own experiments, but it is a lab for the people. They said the lab is always open to the people and that they should feel welcome anytime. My boss also said that he took a survey of what the community felt they needed the most, what was most urgent. He said they reported that they needed new bathrooms in the Kalingalinga school. During the rainy season, with the inadequate bathrooms they had, it was very easy for sickness to spread. My boss then announced that he heard what they had said, and that he has gotten permission and raised money from the states; there will be new high quality bathrooms installed before the rainy season comes this november. It was such an amazing thing to me, that he did not decide to do what he thought was best, but instead listened to what the community actually needed. By the end of the day, the community people and lab people were intermixed, talking, planning. It was so wonderful to see!
I think the connection to the people we serve is so important. It adds such a humanistic side to the work done in the lab, and helps me to further understand and see the importance of things like quality control...how these things directly affect the people. (like before when I was talking about trying to increase quality of samples to avoid having to make people come to get re-tested. At first it seems like a stat. But, what really makes that stat so important? I can think about how re-testing someone takes that extra time, may subject those people to stigma...those things i mentioned earlier...) Seeing people come together at the lab was truely meaningful and was something that gave me hope for the future!
All of the housemates are wonderful :) Everyone is just so sweet and it's fun to be sharing this new experience with them! The other night, Laura, Kim, Connor, Nikki and I went to this Indian place to eat and then got ice cream and yesterday I went into town with Laura to buy some fabrics to make a chetenge, the traditional skirt (you just wrap and tie fabric around your waist) We also went to this comedy show last night and it was soo funny because we understood the jokes at the beginning in English, but then when they were speaking in Nyange, the whole group of us were lost. Personally I kept laughing because everyone else was, and also because all of the interns had confused looks on their faces!
Today was soooo great! This past week I was getting a little bit homesick and missing my bible studies. Today I went to this Christian church here and just felt like I came home. It felt so great to be able to pray with all of these people, some who don't speak my language, but to know that we have these beliefs in common. I loved singing the songs, some in nyange and some in English. The homesick feeling kind of went away today, it felt like it was kind of filled up.
Hope you are doing well:) I think of everyone often! Also, I really realllllly love reading your comments on the blog although i don't know how to respond and I really really love getting emails! have a superb labor day and rest of the week!
Anyways! Working in the lab has been very very busy these past two weeks. It's been wonderful to be able to contribute my time and i have learned so much being there!
The first test I have been running is the HIV-DNA test, which tests for the presence of the actual HIV virus. For this we get simply a positive or negative result back (or "equivocal" if something goes wrong!) One of the main things we are working on in the lab is quality control regarding the dry blood spots that we receive. There are five blood spots on each patient's sample card, containing the patient's ID information, which we receive from the surrounding clinics. We use hole-punchers to punch exactly 6mm of this into each individual sample vial in order to run the tests. These small amounts of blood are ideal for testing infants so that they do not have to give up too much blood. It's important for the blood spots to be in the right amount (contained in the marked circles on the card) or the patient will have to have blood drawn again. Rejecting samples to be re-done should be avoided for a number of reasons. 1) this is a waste of time for the people in the lab and the nurses drawing the blood, but especially for the patient. Many people walk 10-20 miles to clinics that are far enough away from their homes so as to avoid being seen by others and the stigma that comes along with attending these clinics. 2) This shows the lab in a negative light. There are endless rumors and false speculations concerning the lab, and when others hear about people having to be bled numerous times, they are often less likely to want to have blood drawn themselves (more on this later!) So, in conclusion, it is very important to be able to keep track of the samples that come in and the clinics in which they comes from. I've had the opportunity to be helping in this in creating logs and recording percentages of samples rejected. This way we can track not only the number of samples being tested each day, but also if it seems a large number of rejected samples are coming from a certain clinic, we can notify and possibly further train the nurses at those clinics about taking correct blood samples. Keeping track of samples is important for another big reason: charting the number of samples coming in helps us to predict the increase in samples coming in for future months...and therefore can give insight in the ways the lab needs to continue to grow to accomodate! The clinics started giving out free ARV treatment in 2004, so the idea of getting tested at no cost of the patient is relatively new. While it has taken a little bit of time to spread the word and for people to feel comfortable trusting their information with the nurses (as this is true for anything new), now the number of samples being tested each month is growing significantly! As a matter of fact, in the next year, the number of samples will double. This will happen again the year after that. Ordering the correct amount of supplies to handle this growth, taking more people on to work, and starting night shifts are all important things to think about in the up and coming year.
The viral load test is designed to test for the quantity of the HIV virus in the patient's blood. All of the samples in this case come from HIV positive people, and for this reason, the result of this test is a number, and there are cut offs to determine what is ok and what is not. When the amount of the virus is too high, the patient may be progressing to a further stage of the sickness, may not be responding to the medication he is on (and therefore may need to change), or may not be taking the medications appropriately. This test utilizes two machines: the Ampli-prep(for extracting and preparing samples) and Amplicor(for amplifying samples and detecting the amount of RNA virus). Both of the machines require correct preparation and loading of reagents. In my next blog entry, my goal is to be able to describe what the machine is doing, and what the reagents are each for! Also, I am typing up a standard operating procedure for the DNA Dry Blood Spot test, so i will hopefully have more of a handle on that one as well!
Performing the two tests here is a very different experience than performing them at home. There are a lot of things to take into account! It makes me glad that I am being challenged and more informed of how things are. it also makes me homesick for the comforts of home!...for the people who know me well, and who I feel like I can talk to about anything! Last year, living with all of my friends at college park and my wonderful roomies ...I felt like I never had to really worry about things, everything was right there - classes, food, friends it was so comfortable - and after a long day, we'd come back and sit on eachother's beds, and talk for hours, or eat cookie dough and have a spur of the moment dance party! Here I have to think about things, determine the best thing for myself. Like drinking water- must be boiled first, bubbling for at least 3 minutes!- buying food- I walk to the nearest market and carry it home..going to work, I either have to time the transport, or I walk(which I enjoy, but it takes like 1.5 hours to get there)... walking in general, we're supposed to avoid it when it gets the least bit dark...showering - it happens when there is water and better when that water is hot (this one i like b/c there is little pressure to smell nice and some of you know I'm not the biggest fan of taking showers...haha)
Thinking about things you wouldn't normally have to is also true for the lab. As I said I have been helping to create logs and records for the number of samples that come in. Friday, in between running tests I was trying to determine the number of viral load test kits to order for the next two months. Because some of the records showed different numbers, and some of the records were actually non-existent, this definitely took longer than expected. Ordering the supplies as mentioned earlier involves charting the amount of samples received in the previous months and predicting the projected amounts of samples for the months to come. Also, an 8-10% of additonal supplies are purchased as a buffer for unforseen events (i.e. the machine breaks down in the middle of a run and samples need to be run again, but the reagents have already been used, or more samples are received than predicted.) One might think we should just order 100s of kits to be kept in the fridge just in case. But cost and expiration of supplies need to be taken into account! Test kits are very expensive - its roughly 800$ for each test kit. The DNA test kits run 86 samples (plus 10 controls) and the viral load test kits run 45 samples (+3 controls). This means that each DNA test costs roughly 8 dollars and each viral load test costs about 16$. These numbers do not even include all of the man-power and consumable lab materials such as pipette tips and gloves. For this reason, it is extremely important to make sure just enough supplies are kept on hand so that the test kits do not expire (800$ down the drain) because they could not be run due to lack of adequate lab materials.
Working in the lab has been wonderful for a number of reasons.
1) I am learning a lot about the science behind the lab procedures (which I find to be very ineteresting!)
2) I feel like I am able to work hard and contribute in different ways to the lab
3) I love talking to my fellow lab techs! It's a great way to find out more about them and the culture!
The two people training me and working along side of me are Eugene and Ngambo. They are both very nice and really efficient workers. They take a lot of pride in their work. Also, we have had some very fun and interesting conversations. One day Ngambo was telling me that she is trying to eat more so that she can get bigger. She puts her hands around her like in a big circle and she's like "I want to be BIGGG!", and as she says this, her eyes get wide! Ngambo is this beautiful woman who is naturally very thin and it's funny as she says this because I told her when I came in to start working, I felt a bit big next to her. She started laughing and she is like "You are crazy! I eat and eat to look like you, but nothing ever happens! I felt too skinny next to you!" And I was laughing because I was like do you understand that people in the states pay embarrassing amounts of money to look like you with all their dieting? I was telling her that she would fit right in with the celebrities in the U.S. and would be the definition of what men find attractive! Also, she was saying that people here bleach their skin and spend lots of money on creems to make their skin darker. Again, I told her that she would be perfect in the states because everyone else is getting skin cancer to have darker skin. Everything got funnier when Eugene told me later as I was pipetting some mastermix that his wife is FAT with a capital F. I gave him a look and I was like, "Eugene! she just had a baby!! give her some time!" and then he goes - "no i mean i love it!"
Everyone at the lab is just so nice and warm. I got homesick one day and Eugene kind of slapped me on the back and told me not to cry! erik said he WOULD give me a hug but he didn't want to contaminate me, how thoughtful, haha. Aleen, a woman who works with a lot of Quality control type-stuff is also very sweet. She is 36 and has these two little cute kids and lives with her husband just 5 minutes from the lab. She invited me, as well as the other interns, to her house for dinner last friday and took me to a book club a few nights ago. At her house, I ate buffallo tongue!! Also, Ron, someone who works for CIDRZ at a different location, had a party the weekend before and we all ate wharthog! I love dancing at these parties! The music is loud and I feel so free and wonderful.
I will share one more lab story (afterall this entry is entitled kalingalinga lab work!). Thurs of two weeks ago was amazing, by far one of my favorite days here! The lab is very number oriented; we deal with samples and results, and the community is all about these people, their faces, their families, their stories. It makes sense that people would wonder what goes on in the lab. ARV treatment, as I said before, is relatively new and when new things happen it is always common, and healthy, to question. However, false and negative ideas not only prevent people from being tested, but perpetuate further stories, that can get a little bit out of control and lead to unsafe situations. For example, the common question is, what does the lab do with the blood taken, and why do we have to take so much blood for the different tests. Rumors about satanistic activity have spread, like the people in the lab drinking all of the blood received. This lead to talk about people breaking into the lab to destroy the machines. In response to this, my boss invited over 100 religious leaders from around the community to come and see the lab firsthand. People got to come in and walk through and I got to be a part of it! They asked a lot of questions and wanted to see everything going on with the tests.
I admired the lab leaders so much that day. They did an incredible job of providing information and also emphasizing the point that this is not our lab to run our own experiments, but it is a lab for the people. They said the lab is always open to the people and that they should feel welcome anytime. My boss also said that he took a survey of what the community felt they needed the most, what was most urgent. He said they reported that they needed new bathrooms in the Kalingalinga school. During the rainy season, with the inadequate bathrooms they had, it was very easy for sickness to spread. My boss then announced that he heard what they had said, and that he has gotten permission and raised money from the states; there will be new high quality bathrooms installed before the rainy season comes this november. It was such an amazing thing to me, that he did not decide to do what he thought was best, but instead listened to what the community actually needed. By the end of the day, the community people and lab people were intermixed, talking, planning. It was so wonderful to see!
I think the connection to the people we serve is so important. It adds such a humanistic side to the work done in the lab, and helps me to further understand and see the importance of things like quality control...how these things directly affect the people. (like before when I was talking about trying to increase quality of samples to avoid having to make people come to get re-tested. At first it seems like a stat. But, what really makes that stat so important? I can think about how re-testing someone takes that extra time, may subject those people to stigma...those things i mentioned earlier...) Seeing people come together at the lab was truely meaningful and was something that gave me hope for the future!
All of the housemates are wonderful :) Everyone is just so sweet and it's fun to be sharing this new experience with them! The other night, Laura, Kim, Connor, Nikki and I went to this Indian place to eat and then got ice cream and yesterday I went into town with Laura to buy some fabrics to make a chetenge, the traditional skirt (you just wrap and tie fabric around your waist) We also went to this comedy show last night and it was soo funny because we understood the jokes at the beginning in English, but then when they were speaking in Nyange, the whole group of us were lost. Personally I kept laughing because everyone else was, and also because all of the interns had confused looks on their faces!
Today was soooo great! This past week I was getting a little bit homesick and missing my bible studies. Today I went to this Christian church here and just felt like I came home. It felt so great to be able to pray with all of these people, some who don't speak my language, but to know that we have these beliefs in common. I loved singing the songs, some in nyange and some in English. The homesick feeling kind of went away today, it felt like it was kind of filled up.
Hope you are doing well:) I think of everyone often! Also, I really realllllly love reading your comments on the blog although i don't know how to respond and I really really love getting emails! have a superb labor day and rest of the week!
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