The system is down

Sunday After Church
I am sitting on the steps of the IAVI clinic. This is the only place that maintains an internet connection after the wifi that was working perfectly at the flats was fixed. Hopefully they will have it back up by Tuesday (TIA, not holding my breath).

The normal pastor was away at a conference in Zimbabwe today so the associate pastor gave the sermon in his stead. It was one of the most wandering messages I have heard in quite some time (It might be more accurately relayed to some who understand when I say that the Monte principle applied… in spades). We made it through and chatted for a while to some folks outside the church after our reception line was completed.

Peev: Why do people ask you if you remember their name? I wish they could just skip the drama and introduce themselves again because if you are asking if they remember the answer is usually (always in my case) no. So if you are one of those people that does that… cut it out! Makes people like me dance and make up absurd stories (oh, maybe that’s why they do it).

It feels terrible to be separated from everyone with the interwebs acting up. I miss talking to you very much and can’t wait to see, hear, or read you again. For now I am making little trips to IAVI for short doses of those sweet, sweet webs. Hoping that you have a fabulous Sunday!

 All is well!

Friday Evening 7:30
It’s been a while since I have been without an Internet connection, and now that I am, I am faced with the challenging task of finding something to do with my time while it is away. So I am writing this blog entry in Word and will post it when it has returned. Apparently someone has taken the wireless router to have it ‘harmonized’? Instead of talking with friends and reading journal articles I have passed the time with a hacky sack, eating, and settling into my new room. It has not been so terrible but, I am now exceptionally aware of how much those little interwebs mean, even if they are a little sluggish.

This morning started out with following up on a possible sero-conversion (the negative partner in a discordant relationship has been found positive for HIV antigens or antibodies) that was discovered yesterday afternoon on one of the ELISA tests. These sero-conversions are quite precious to the project and the standard operating procedures outlined for this event is thorough and tedious. I held up the laboratory’s responsibilities but, the community worker that was sent out to bring the client back in reported that the individual had ‘shifted’ or moved. Made the am hours somewhat anti-climactic. It was good to go through the process and get some experience on how the whole project changes gears to respond to the lab findings. Honestly, it is neat to be the first line in detecting the most important result the project ever encounters.

After work (6:00, lame) I made my Coke run to Esprite. Slung my bag over my shoulder, popped my ipod in (a little Jimmy Eat World) and made my way down the dusty road.  On the way back there was a women walking toward me on the road staring at me… Now I am the only muzungu around so this is not so strange. I called hello, and she returned the greeting and proceeded to ask me if she could have my phone number. All I could do is laugh and keep walking. That is certainly a first for that! She followed me for a bit, I guess it just took her a little longer than I hoped it would to figure out what my laugh meant. I guess I will have to talk to a friend back home about how to let them down with a little more class. The next thing is to learn how to elicit this sort of response from some amazing chick back in America, haha.

Food for Thought: How bad would it be to begin introducing myself as Tom Cruise?

Tomorrow is the Friday of a three-day weekend! I have not yet taken my comp day from the GCLP training a couple of weeks ago.

I am trying hard to remember to soak in the fact that I am in Africa. I found myself today looking around in amazement of where I physically am on the globe. I am so many miles from all that I have known in my life thus far. I want to do my job well but I do not want to forget where I am. After lunch this afternoon on the short walk from the medical building to the lab I saw a tiny bird standing on one of the shards of glass that tops the brick wall around the main clinic compound. It was brilliantly colored blue and grey with a bright orange beak and feet. It was like nothing that I have seen in Texas and I was reminded then and there where I am. I hope that little thing like this will continue to jog my mind, even when things get hectic and I am apt to put the blinders on and become callus to the beauty that is all around me. Now this goes for the states as well. Be observant even on the path that you have walked a million times. I guarantee that there are things that you have yet to really take in. And to those of you in new places, try to appreciate the differences in your fresh surrounding (from Cub Food to Rainbow). Routines are not bad however, they tend to foster the idea that one has seen all there is to see and that’s just not true. As I was just arriving back to the lab the yodel-man came over the loud speaker with his prayer. It was my reminder to thank the Lord for all that He has blessed me with, from amazing family and phenomenal friends to the vision that allowed me to see that little bird and even the huge legged-snake at Lake Kariba.

I hope that all is fantastic in your life and that you make a new observation about the same ol things sometime this weekend. Have a wonderful weekend! I miss you all very much! All is pretty good