Running in dust storms…

When I was in the US, I always enjoyed running off road on the Charles River Trail or other various places around Waltham. I figured it would be the same here. Since most of the roads are dirt roads, I thought it would be better on my knees and a pleasant experience. I just got back from a three mile run (I think) which was harder than any run I have done in the States. I think I ate a gallon of dust during my run and I was really ready for water when I got back. I was also ready for a shower, which unfortunately, the water is not running today. However, one of the guards obligingly got me a bucket of cold water, which felt great, so I could take a shower. I have no idea where he got that water…

The next few hours of my afternoon were taken up by scrubbing my dirty clothes which have been piling up for two weeks. I really appreciate washing machines. The people here are supposed to clean my clothes, but I came home yesterday to one shirt on my bed that had been cleaned and the rest of the clothes were still sitting in a pile on the floor. Since I am moving out of the school on Sunday, I needed to clean my clothes….

Starting on Sunday we are going to be headed to the west of Rwanda to Nyamasheke and Rusizi which border the DRC and Burundi. We will be staying there all week and then I am going to go to Bukavu to visit Tshali Kabanga’s parents for the weekend before going to the next work site in the west of Rwanda the following Monday. The school wont let me keep my things in my room so I am packing to put them in an office here and I will just sleep at the school on weekends until we finish the research.

Our research is going well and we are collecting really interesting and important data. I am really enjoying my time in the field. I finally took some pictures which I have posted here. I am always conflicted as to how to capture the people, especially when so many that I see are sick. Walking into a hospital and snapping pictures doesnt seem like the right thing to do. So most of my pictures are people doing their daily activities– biking, walking, etc…

Below are a few pictures, but they take a long time to upload, so sorry there are so few.

I will be out of connection for the next two weeks so hopefully more pictures and stories coming in a few weeks.

 

I saw Musevini (president of Uganda)

The last three days have been the East African meetings for economic development which were held in Kigali. Yesterday afternoon as I was getting in a taxi to head back to my house a wailing siren pierced the tranquility of the afternoon as an impressive convoy of cars, Hummers, Land Rovers, etc… sped through the northern end of Kigali escorting Yoweri Musevini back to his home in Uganda. All the cars pulled off the side of the road as we waited for them to pass. It was interesting.

So taxi’s in Rwanda… You have to get into these minivans which hold approximately 15 people. however, the problem is that they wont leave until they are full. That makes planning for time a little difficult. As we were sitting in one waiting for our driver, my friend Richard decided to play a trick on them and pretend he was going to get a motorcycle. However, this only worked to get the driver to pull ahead so that he couldnt talk to the motorcycle taxi. By the way, riding a motorcycle taxi is a fun experience. I am going to try to take a video next time I ride one so that you can vicariously experience it.

I have spent the morning working to unlock a cell phone that was already supposed to be unlocked (Thanks a lot shady T Mobile Store in Waltham) and transfering phone numbers to a new phone while simultaneously avoiding the mandatory service Saturday. I finally unlocked it succesfully thanks to internet hack codes. Anyway, I am looking to move into a house with a family now that I am getting more settled in the area and it will save me a lot of money.

Research is going well. We are in the process of writing and re-writing the questionnaires, which is an arduous process, but well worth learning. I am rooting for the Texas Rangers to get to the All-Star break over .500 so we can make a run at the AL West title! Also, does anyone know a good cheap way to transfer money to Rwanda? I am still searching for the best way.

 

Cold Showers, Rwandan Socialism and my Research

I didn’t expect the shower to be cold… but it was. For those of you who have lived in Africa, you are probably surprised at my American leanings. However, I have been back in the USA for two years and was kind of getting used to having warm showers every day. Ok, I lie, I have never had to take cold showers for any period of time more than a month in my life. The fact that the light trickle of parasite infused water also happens to be freezing makes me want to shower less often. Now I have relegated myself to sponge baths with a little bucket of tepid water.

I am living at the school of public health of the University of Rwanda except I am starting to think that no one attends this school. I see random people around, but I have no idea what anyone is doing. It doesn’t help that they are either speaking in Kinrwandan or French, neither of which are my specialties. I am learning a lot of French though and am already much improved in a weeks time. They have a place to eat here, where I eat breakfast and dinner, but I am usually the only one there, which is kind of weird.

My first few days here consisted of traveling around to most of the government offices in Kigali with Angelique, a Rwandan Ph.D student at Brandeis, trying to get approval for our project. We have already been approved and funded, but apparently Rwanda has a bunch of hoops through which one must jump if they want to collect data in the country. For example, CNLS, the AIDS branch of the government approved our project and gave us a letter. However, we are now supposed to get approval of the Ministry of Health, but they said they wont give it to us until the Bureau of Statistics approves our methodology. We are also supposed to get approval from the Ethics people. On top of that we sat in the Ministry of Health trying to get data on the country’s Community Based Health Insurance coverage only to be told a few hours later that they don’t have that data electronically. We started to look through stacks of randomly compiled papers only to realize that it was futile to try to compile data on all 393 health centers in Rwanda for July of 2006. Anyway, this all goes to show you the beauty of bureaucracy. There is no way I could do what Angelique does getting all these appointments–she literally knows someone at each government agency. We start going to health centers in a week most likely, barring any government intervention…

I have also been working on matching health centers from the intervention group with our control group, creating a questionnaire to evaluate integration of HIV/AIDS services and organizational efficiency, and refining and turning in my masters proposal. I will explain our study in as succinct a manner as possible…

We hypothesized that HIV/AIDS money, estimated $10 billion USD in 2007, is actually hurting the overall health system if it isn’t integrated with other health services. Initially, all HIV/AIDS money was put into stand alone centers that paid their staff much more than the country’s health system. Naturally, a lot of the talent of the country went to those projects, and in essence abandoned the overall health system. Rwanda made integration a law in 2006, so we are taking a cohort of health centers who implemented in 2004, 2006, and not at all and studying the differences between them. We are interested in issues of efficiency, the value of integration and resource diversion. Anyway, that is essentially my masters thesis…

I am also in the process of working out an internship for the other half of my time that isn’t on this project and it looks like it will either be Millennium Village Project’s AIDS tracking unit or UNAIDS doing research with them.

Rwandans love to make laws… Welcome to Socialism. No, not really, but they love laws. From motorcycle helmet laws to compulsory community service on the last Saturday of the month– usually fixing roads– Rwanda really stands apart from other African countries I have been to. I dont know if it is in a good way or not… no pictures yet… and no I haven’t seen the hotel.