What else

Ok other than the magnificent 'Uniturtle' there were a couple of other details that were quite exciting. I do realize that it is now Thursday and I am still posting about Sunday but, hang with me. On the way back we saw a little line of monkeys crossing the road, I wish that it had been a crosswalk because it had potential to have looked something like the primate version of The Beatles classic shot. In retrospect, it is a dang shame that I did not get to my camera in time. Hey, hey, they were the Monkeys? Ok, maybe not.

The second little bit was the half dozen of so legitimate ox-drawn carts. I figure if they had wooden wheels instead of tires you could have believed that you had warped back to the late 1800's. Many of the smaller towns that we passed through had at least one of these ancient gems. Pretty neat to see actually. Not neat enough to embrace the Amish way of life or anything but, neat nonetheless.

Now, maybe for a few bigger picture things. Livingstone is terrific and there are lots of nifty and really inexpensive little lodges to stay in when you are there. The place we stayed, other than being a might toasty as there is no air conditioning, was very friendly with lots of atmosphere. They had a pool that made getting away from the soaring temperatures possible. We took advantage of that the first night. Internet was fairly cheap though, as expected, quite sluggish. I met a few fun folks that passed the evenings jovially over a couple drinks. There is something very unique about the backpacking crowd. It was fun to get to learn a little about it. I feel more prepared to backpack Europe now. Have wanted to do that for a while now. I know that the time will come but, not yet. One adventure at a time, right.

Got up early after that first night around 5:45 (kill me, there is more to this story than I can tell just now). I got up and took a shower and headed down for some breakfast. I ordered French toast and waited... and waited. Just as the bus was loading at 7:00 they produced my means of breaking the overnight fast. They kindly wrapped it up and I munched on it on the hour long drive that we had before we got to the Zambian boarder. Our driver has done this countless times and knows his way around this hot mess of a boarder extraordinarily well.

Got my exit stamp and moved toward the ferry that would shuttle us to Botswana. Here is a bit of madness for you. There is a ridiculous number of trucks lining the roads waiting to cross on one of two ferries. There is an extremely organized system that works here at these crossings. They avoid taxes at the boarder office by bringing little wooden canoes along side the floating bit of road and receive goods from the truckers before the boat gets to the Zam side. If one has more than five tv's then they are taxed but, if the two guys on the canoe each bring five tv's through and the trucker hangs on to five, well you see the chink in the process. The thing that I found so fascinating as well as saddening is that this procedure is well known and no one does anything to stop it. I suppose anyone that would have the authority to stop would likely be Zambian and would want a cheaper television too.

Boarded the ferry and listened to the whir of the prop muffled through the water propelling the barge into another country. Unloaded and hopped into a safari land cruiser. this thing was awesome! and we had it all to ourselves. It had room for at least ten but, we were just the four and none joined. The whole thing was executed very well. The truck took us by the immigration office and we received our welcome to Botswana stamps and cruised toward the Calahari Tours main office. Botswana is a very clean place and seeing as they have a port and diamonds there are resources to enforce laws. I paid my dues and then came to this absolutely fabulous Chobe lodge. The structure was thatch but, it was massive! Very nice with lots of couches and a beautiful pool overlooking the Chobe River where I would get in a boat that takes me real close to the variety of beasties. They had these terrific benches where they used old wooden canoes, cut one side out of, built a legs and tossed some cushions on.

Even though that is not quite to end of the story it is where I will have to leave you for tonight. I hope to finish tomorrow and I can catch you up on this nutty week that I have had here at work. I do pray that all is well with you and I will post again very soon. As Paul Harvey so eloquently put it. But I will save that for next time. All is well.

That is the bridge that I want to bungee jump from!

The elephants

These animals are absolutely magnificent. So amazing to get to be this close to them. There is an interesting story about where these elephants are. The elephants shown in the video below are actually in Namibia. The Chobe River that we are floating divides Botswana from Namibia. There is a great island in the middle that is concentrated with all kinds of fantastic creatures. Botswana was able to claim the island because the depth of the river identifying the island from the Botswana side is about three meters deep where the soil lies something like seven meters below the surface making Namibia the runner up.

I am hopeful that it will take a terribly long time to load the six minutes of video that I have to load. The connection here dictates that I crush the video to the point where I am not totally satisfied as to the quality. Again, maybe a few of you can see it in it's full glory when I get back. Others, sorry this is about the best I can do from over here.

Hoping that you are all very well. Today was pretty ridiculous and cost me the option of staying up and continuing this post. I will make my best effort to give more details here very soon.

Memory of the day: Sometimes even when you do everything correctly you will take bullets. Took a hit for a study plan that someone else wrote. Remember that it's not personal, it's business. Just make the adjustments and keep on rockin'.

All is just fine

Victoria Falls

A few shots that I got of the falls. They are so beautiful. I want everyone to be able to stand there at the edge and have the chance to marvel at the beauty and power of this place. Really one of those things that you have to see and feel and smell. I found myself gazing at it the same way that I do those fires we used to build Pappy. Where you can just throw a stick in there and watch it turn to ash and the time in between just sort of disappears. It was absolutely an amazing experience.

 

A shot at the beginning of the trail

A Little further down 

There really are about two hundred pictures that I have to sort through but these were the first two that I thought might give you some taste of how huge the gorge is. TIA, so you could walk right up to the edge of the sheer faces and take video or pictures. Because the falls were dry we were able to stray a bit off the path and make our way along the top of the falls. Wading through the cool water as it made it made for the drop was a pretty fantastic experience.

There you go folks, it is me... alive... at the top of Vic Falls

I have not yet even gotten into how amazing the animals were in Chobe, Botswana. There is some video of the monkeys that I want to share but, it will take a little time to edit and publish. Some of you will get lucky and I will visit you over Christmas and you will get to see them all. the rest of you will have to wait or just live without seeing the awesomeness. 

The sun beginning to set from the top of the falls about 5:30

I was thinking about how many people don't ever get to see this magnificent bit of creation, it is true that there is beauty no matter where you are but, this really was awe-inspiring.

Do believe I fell in love with the piece of Botswana that I got to see. It seems so much cleaner than Zambia. Even though that is unfair as Lusaka is by far the dirtiest place in Zambia. The folks that we went on the game drive and boat ride really knew their stuff and it was just really neat to get to see the animals that are unique to this place across the big blue. I will have to steal from pictures from Katy or direct you to them from here as my camera battery ate it about twenty minutes into the day at Chobe. It's might actually be better as Katy has become a pretty skilled shutterbug. I do have a bit of video of the first group of elephants that we saw that were actually in Namibia. The Chobe River which turns into the Zambezi River when it crosses into Zambia divides Botswana and Namibia. We were no more than a few meters from real live wild elephants and it was just an amazing thing to get to see. I will clean that bit of moving picture up first and try to have it posted shortly. 

I hope that you all had a splendid Monday and that you, at least, look at hopping  plane to see the falls! All is pretty great right now but, no telling what work tomorrow is going to look like. No wait... Work tomorrow doesn't know what I look like. I think I have this one in the bag. I keep getting closer to seeing you all, my dear friends and family, I can't wait. Have a blessed day.

Initial reflection

I am sitting in Livingstone, Zambia at a backpackers lodge called Jollyboys right now looking at a quote on the wall by Earnest Hemmingway ‘I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up and I was not happy.’  That certainly must be the case if you only come here on holiday. This long weekend to here has been fantastic. Going back to Lusaka tomorrow will not be easy.

Trying hard to think of the best way to tell you all of what has happen this weekend. I think the best way is to start a series of three each sort of telling a new piece or a different angle of the unique places in this part of this wide world. I will try and start with a few little details that might slip my mind if I wait any longer and then give a more general overview later on. I know that is sort of counter-intuitive but… well I like being unpredictable.

The sunset at the falls yesterday was absolutely breathtaking. The little birds that burst out of the cliffs below when you approached the edge of the gorge were a deep blue with a yellow tinge at the tip of the tail. The roar of the falls was majestic and cool water at the bottom of the falls in a place called the ‘boiling pot’ felt heavenly to dip your feet in after the long walk down. Would have been nice to have after the long walk up too but, I will be thankful for the one. The baboons are not as friendly as they are depicted in the Lion King. Just know that they do not want to be disturbed and all should be fine.

I ran into a pretty good sized group of the little red butts as the group made their way down crossing a little bridge. They were all in the trees and playing in the dried up bed where, in the rainy season, water makes it’s way down to feed the Zambezi River after it has taken the beating of tumbling over Victoria’s heights.

I climbed to a little rock out-cropping for a better view up-stream of the tremendous gorge. The view was absolutely unequalled. I wish that I could explain it in more detail. You could see the little bits of green that managed to cling or crawl up the sides of the rock and where it did not manage you could see the orange-rust rock that defied the pressure, so far, to slip down and join the more gravitationally obedient brethren. The water rushing between and over the boulders creating this ’boiling pot’ was fierce and I could not help but wonder what it was like when Livingstone and those early explorers , that did not have nice steps to make their way down to the base thought when they first came to this place. Obviously they thought enough of it and were sufficiently intrigued by the awesome power and beauty to settle a village and live here.

Ok, I have two random bit here too that I would to add as I thought that they were pretty great. One, there is a business legitimately named ‘Uniturtle’ I am not terribly sure what it means or what they do but, I do know that I know have to come up with a new name for my organization in order to be original now. ‘Ambitortoise’ a bit of a mouthful but, I think it will serve as a suitable replacement. So if I see a place with this name here in Africa I will just pretend that I didn’t and I certainly will not document it so I can still keep my aura of creativity. The jig is already up, you guys know that I am not creative, that’s why I went into science! I don’t have to make things up I just have to present the data.  Two, I had a soft drink (or softie as they call them here) today called ‘Iron Brew’. Took me back to being a kid (a few weeks ago) When you get the fountain drinks and are not quiet able to decide on any one drink so you just prepare a little concoction we called the ‘suicide’. Had a bit of Big Red, Root Beer (Barq’s I believe), coke, and a touch of ginger ale. How could it not be delicious with a  solid name like that?

Alrighty, I know that this is an evil teaser and there is much more that I want to share but, I am exhausted and I need to get some rest. I hope that you all enjoyed a great weekend. I will be back in Lusaka tomorrow afternoon.  I am going to try and reset for the week and remember that Christmas is coming. All is well. Working on being able to use Mr. Hemmingway's quote as my own.

Hello from Jollyboys

Quick post just to let you all know that I am still alive. I am about to run out of internet time but, I wanted to let you know that I am still kickin. hope you all have enjoyed as beautiful a weekend as I have! All is pretty awesome!

The state of jake

 I don't have my own state yet... but, I will admit that it is on the bucket list. Things are going well at work for the most part I think. I have learned to roll with the under-staffed-ness and ridiculous deadlines from organizations that should know better. Still dread opening Outlook every morning but at least I have enough experience now that I am able to contribute something significant to the inevitable string of queries about things that happen long before my time here. State of Jake: feeling like I can maybe pull this thing off

Traveling here in Africa is a pretty big deal! Katy, Kahler, and I have been planning this trip to Livingstone this weekend. It is going to be a blast but, this planning phase is a bit of a headache. It takes so long to get from place to place because of both the windedness and the terrible condition of the roads. Things are very touristy and thus unjustly priced. State of Jake: broke

Kahler and I were able to get a new kind of permit. It is still not what we really need but, the word is that the document that we need will arrive by the first week of November. I am not going to hold my breath but, I remain hopeful. Today at the immigration office turned out to be quite an ordeal. I learned a lesson though... just keep your mouth shut even if it makes zero sense. The lame part is that I actually know that lesson it was just time for my... annual... monthly... ok weekly refresher. State of Jake: humbled

So, here in the Zambian Immigration Headquarters you kind of cross your fingers and pray for a list of things to be going your way.

1. get transportation to the immigration office (hint: make sure the driver knows where that is)
2. pray that the office is open because it is not uncommon for them to just close when ever they are feeling like it.
3. do your darnedest to get your name in that sign in sheet early so that you can continue to entertain that little hope of this being a quick 'in and out' trip (as it well should be)
4. find the guy you need. now this seems pretty straight forward but, I swear it is actually a pretty big deal. I will star this and add a fun story below*
5. hope your man-behind-the-desk feels like he wants to do his job today
6. wait for him to look through some cabinets with what looks to be a total lack of aim for your really important document
7. ideally he will ask few questions the answer of which are in the documents lying right in front of him
8. also it is a good thing to look like you do in your passport photo, he asked me three times whose passport the one that I gave him was.
9. ok this is the big one, get ready. do not under any circumstances stop him as he is finalizing your paperwork to ask why the expiration date of my permit is three weeks earlier than your buddies who was submitted at the same time. just don't do it.
10. when you do make the afore mentioned mistake try to not let the irritation show too much, I think that they get off on that.
11. try not to figure out why the idiot man behind the desk sent you to see someone who you have been told is out for the day.
12. just appreciate the variety of smells as you stand in line to see the fella that you want to bury again.
13. let the lady that he guides you to think that she is brilliant in her reasoning for the date discrepancy.
14. stand in line again and have what would have been done 45 minutes had you not spoken, done.
15. get out of the immigration office with all documentation. mission to immigration office semi-successful

*So I walked to the area where we had gone previously to have passports re-stamped. The individual that we need to see is Mary. Well I was told that Mary was out ill today and that I needed to see one of the cats on the other side on the room. Upon reaching other cat #1 he told me that I needed to see Mary, when I told him that Mary was out ill he said oh 'are you sure, I don't know that, she could be back'. No sir, her neighbor there has said that she is not here at all today. Sigh, stare at nothing for a good three minutes with you standing right there looking at him wondering how the H you are going to make it through this. He finally asks me what I need (this felt like a pretty legit stare down victory and the folks gathering in line behind me breathed a little easier once the silence was broken too). I explain the situation and he says that I need to talk to this guy right outside at desk 12? What/where the eff is desk 12? Did he just make that up?! Genius! Save, now I kinda want to kill him. Finally, I wander my way to 'desk twelve' where I met the guy that gave it his most lethargic effort to complete step six above. State of Jake at this point: boarder-line postal

Summary: The immigration office is one of my least favorite places in the world.

Here on the other side Kahler pointed out to me that this is a 'Temporary Permit'. What we need is a 'Work Permit'. So here's to more tangible proof that I did, in fact, spend a year in Zambia. Here's to realizing that where you are works nothing like you expect and you should just learn to plan for worse that your worst case scenario. State of Jake: whatever

Kahler and I held the weekly lab meeting this afternoon which is always gets a bit hectic around showtime, especially when you spent at least five times longer than you had expected at the immigration office. It is always good to have all the lab folks in the same place at once and hear their insight and concerns. I think that mine and Kahler's primary issue at this point is staffing. We have to begin training new techs nos so that the time the vaccine trail is under way we have at least a few more personnel on the bench. State of Jake: focused and ready to fight for the department

At the end of he day, I feel like I got a lot done in the face of an entire system that did all but totally disallow any sort of productivity. State of Jake: pretty dang accomplished

All is pretty ok

Here we are in Zambia

It is kind of the inside joke told whenever something supremely strange or just all backwards happens. And here we are in Zambia. A more specific variation of the classic TIA, I suppose.

Apologies as it has been some time since I have last posted. I have lots to tell you about but, I also want to sleep so this is going to be a compromise of those two desires.

First, I have a sweet tan from getting to go swimming in Dr. Conkling's pool on Monday morning. It was pretty fantastic. Though the water was not quite clear and a bit chilly it was wonderful.

We had a little mayday at the IAVI lab on Sunday afternoon. We were eating lunch with the Daka's (formerly Mr. Duck) and I got a call from Jacquee, the intern on call, the -80 freezers were screaming like banshees and she didn't know what to do. I walked her through all of the obvious options but, no real progress was made. Mr. Daka dropped us all off and Kahler and I headed over to see if we could help. We had one of the general workers come up and he began to just play with all of the circuits in the back next to the generator, which was a quite disconcerting but, it was better than nothing I guess because should we have to move these samples it would be a complete nightmare/disaster. We happen upon the big inverter which had one tiny switch in the middle as that was flipped Kahler and I rejoiced at the silence and ran inside to make sure that our ears were not deceiving us. All was well again at the IAVI lab.

We had planned to go to Bible Study that afternoon but that unfortunate little incident put us outside our time line and I took a nap instead. I awoke and talked to a few very important people for a while on skype and then got to bed at a decent hour.

After the swimming party mentioned above we dropped by Manda Hill to look around and I left a few letters at the 'postnet' there which, incidentally is just exactly like our post office save the fact that I did not wait for an hour to receive the necessary postage. Then it was off to have dinner with Theresa and her friend and gun enthusiest, Darrel. I grilled the burgers and we enjoyed a fairly american meal of cheeseburgers, ranch beans, and a salad with some Peach cobbler and ice cream to top it all off. It was a great time. I have definitely been blessed with some terrific relationships in my time over here thus far. We went over a few options for this next weekend in Livingstone (we are traveling with Theresa) and got some advice from Darrel who used to live in Livingstone and had the inside scoop.

Today it is back to the grind and I am going just a bit more wildly than usual. I am attributing it to the abbreviated work week but, is could be anything. I mean, here I am in Zambia.

I miss you all and hope that your week is proceeding with remarkable speed and that your weekend stores something as exciting as mine does. All is well

Communications technology

This will be a quick post. I do not think that I need try and explain to this particular audience the importance of effective communication. Well Wednesday was not a great day. Kahler and I had two very important phone conferences to attend. The thing with phone conferences when you are in Zambia is that you really need a functional phone line for them to work just right. I am sure that you all have already beaten me to the conclusion of my little tragedy.

You guessed it! The phones were down for the day and we had to postpone one call and find another tactic to get the details from the other. It is the most frustrating thing to have people counting on you to be some where or to get something done and despite your most genuine efforts you are handcuffed to failure.

It looks for now as if we have the issue ironed out and we will set up the meetings for the upcoming week. Usually being a little bit late is not really a big deal to me or moving a time doesn't bother me but, it is when you are totally powerless to make the decision that you want to make.

It is the way that having the option sometimes gives you the strength to make it through just because you do not feel so trapped any more. I felt trapped and that is among the feelings that I like least in this world.

I do have a bit a good news to try and level out that devil of a Wednesday. It look like Theresa is going to take us to Livingstone to see the Falls this next weekend (Oct. 23)! I am pretty pumped! I think that we are going to make a little trip over into Botswana to Chobe to see the elephants, hippos, and hopefully a few lions. We are going to see the falls, of course, and maybe do a little camping. I can't wait! There is a bungee jump off the bridge over the falls, don't worry mom, I am not crazy... So I will send everyone else the video of that bit of awesomeness.

I know this is brief but, I need to snag some shut eye. I hope that you all have a fabulous week's end! I will write again shortly. All is quite well!

This is what we do

Today there was a group of folks that came to take a look at the ZEHRP labs. There was a Texan, friendly fella with a handlebar mustache, a Minnesotan, rotund man with a pretty serious scowl to him, a Zambian man and an American woman. The latter two had very little to do with the lab introduction while the Texan and the Northerner were my key audience. This is one of those times when the site director walks in ahead of the group, looks over at my desk to find me battling though a journal article and says hopefully, 'we were told that you would be expecting us'.

The fact is that I was expecting them but, I did not quite know how to go about preparing for such a visit. I know what to do in the case of an audit but, visitors are quite new to me. Kahler had given me the heads up. It is handy when you work with somebody that you know well enough that just from the 'they are on their way' you know exactly what kind of visit it is going to be. The 'cowboy' was a super sheepish nerd guy who spoke in little bursts. The big boy just gave his view of why this or that organization was making these or those decisions, that is to say that he had all of his own answers.

Gut check time Pry. Time to fake it like a champ and fool them into thinking that you understand this place. The truth however, is that I now much more about this place, or the main lab at least, than I was aware. Initially I was a little worried when the big guy, Kenneth, was not going to be there but,  I think between Dr. Kilembe and myself we were able to answer most of their questions. In reality it would not have been a huge deal if I didn't know anything about what they asked. So I suppose it was more just an affirmation for me that I do know a little about the job that I have to do here.

I left the gate this morning and said so long to Mr. Bebey and then Steven a fella that I just met randomly on along the road a couple weeks ago yelled good morning as he was walking the opposite direction on his way to work and I began to feel for the first time as if I actually have a place here for at least a little while. That is not to say that there is anything on this crazy earth that could keep me from getting back to the states but, just that it felt less foreign.

I did battle last night with my first animal foe here in Zambia. It was a pretty decent sized spider that thought it was hidden under one of the legs that hold up my Godsend that is an oscillating fan. At first I wanted to try and catch it to find out what it might be and then as it began to tear toward my bed I put my foot down and well that is the end of that chapter. I was able to find identify him as a Neoscona spider, they have pretty nifty tiger stripe kind of markings on their eight crazy legs. Spiders really do not bother so much at all, I mean obviously I don't want them in or around my bed but, snakes are the real enemy. God help me if I ever see a snake in my room.

It was great to hear some happy news about my grandmother finally wanting to meet her first born son that she put up for adoption some sixty years past. It is kind of neat the way that all turned out. For those of you that know you will appreciate this and those that don't should just ask mom I am sure she would be thrilled to tell the story.

Ok, now down to business, I need orders! What is it that you would like from Zambia? I will coming back before too long and I want to bring a bunch of neat stuff with me so let me know specifically or you will get a bag a coffee cause that is always the go to, haha.

I hope that you are all getting through your hump day with remarkable speed... that is unless work is especially enjoyable or you don't have to work at all. Today was a good day and all is well!

Away

Went this morning to Emmasdale Baptist. Got there at ten so we could grab a seat away from the fly swarm. I had a bad experience. We were successful and found a place in front in the comfortable chairs. It was much warmer today than it has been making the zephyrs through the new stain glass windows absolutely priceless.

I didn't get a ton of sleep the night before but, I wouldn't have traded that for anything. It did however, make the service feel a touch longer than usual and those prayers... man there is a dude that prays before the sermon that should be in contention for the longest public prayer badge. It is beautiful but, man it takes some focus to listen and keep up during the prayer. My mind moves much faster than his words and it takes some effort to keep my mind on track even when it should be just about dead from sleep deprivation.

The message was on the family. We have been on this subject since we first visited the church. Ninety-nine percent of the message was addressed to the husband. He did a good job of outlining the responsibilities of the man in the married relationship. It is a daunting list however, the whole thing can be boiled down to love. That is, of course, over simplified as the entire Bible can be wrapped in that command but, it was good to see this consistent do this because of love or don't do that because of love. It is love that makes the sacrifice possible. Humble sacrifice has to be one of the most difficult things in the entire world.

Work this past week was a little more like a blur than five individual days. There is always something to be done but at times finding the place to start or setting up the meeting take so much more time then you thought it ever would or should. I know that many of you can relate here. It is the pieces of the job that you expect to be rough that you expend your energy and find the items that you had written off as too simple choke the machine.

I am catching some of the 'he is new, lets see what we can get away withness'. What I have found effective so far is asking questions and never making an on the spot change to the whole system. There are certainly things that need to be changed however I have to catch myself and ask why this process or system set up how it is. There may be a little catch underneath that is not obvious on the surface. This is when the folks that have been with the project for years are absolutely invaluable. Just Saturday a fella wanted to alter the system for my QC of the laboratory requisition slips. His point seemed valid enough. It turns out though, after a talk with the senior, Mr. Macuacua, that the system works just exactly as it should because of the second round QC for which the medical counselors are responsible.

Today looks like a good day to go grocery shopping and get some gre studying done. It is very nice not being on call. I am not so sure that the little zoo place is going to make it to fruition. We had a soccer game scheduled for yesterday. Kahler and I got suited up and mosied over to the main clinic, where the bus was to pick up, but a little chat with the guard confirmed the, already steadfastly grounded, idea that organization is found wanting in when it comes to ZEHRP football. I came back and had a nap instead, I must say even though I was disappointed, that little snooze was pretty sweet.

I have been looking a bit more at my institutional options for my PhD program and was able to send an email to the assistant dean (after having been in the academic realm in a capacity other than a pupil, I know that an email to the deans or associate deans will never find their mark as they are filtered through secretaries or pushed to the rear of schedule, which is synonymous with being indefinitely marked as unread). We will see what kind of response I get, that is if I get one at all. I will, as always, keep you updated. 

It was wonderful getting to talk to my family yesterday evening. I miss you all very much and can't wait to see soon. Until then know that all is well and that after the weekend of October 23 you should get to see some African animals as that is when I am planning to head to the great Livingstone and see Victoria falls! Hope that you are all off to a great week, I know that I do not always get to respond to the things that you write or post but, please know that it means so much to me. So thank you

The grind

This week has been a little rough, to be honest. There is just a lot going on and there is never a time when there is not at least one person or group that wants something from the lab. It is just the product of being part of a fairly large project in a place where research is well sought after. This vaccine trial that we are trying to get under way is a ferocious amount or paper work and form engineering. There is a report due here, a draft revision there, or the favorite 'hey give this a glance and tell me what you think' on a forty page document. Those always result in a, 'looks good', just don't put my name on it.

I am lucky that I get to work with someone that despite the most abject chaos I can communicate effectively with. I think that things are beginning to work as they should. The repository is an infamous problem area but, I know that there is a solution, it is just hiding better than we are able to look at the moment.

The weekend is nearly here though and with it I think may come a few glimpses of African wildlife though there is a chance that it will have to wait until we head down to Livingstone.

I have had the flat to myself the past couple of weeks as my room mate has been in Atlanta at a conference and now she is house sitting for someone here in Lusaka. It's pretty great having free reign, I won't go into the specifics but, you will just have to take my word that it is something that will be missed when Jacqee returns next week. Speaking of, I think that we are due to get a couple new interns here very soon. A fella named John Tucker is claiming the third bedroom in my flat four and there is another CVCT intern hopping on in flat one.

It will be a blow to lose my very own shower and bathroom but, at least I get to share it with another dude so I will not lose my bar of soap among the countless tubes and bottles.

After reading Katy's blog I don't think that I could be more excited about coming back for Christmas. There are so many things that are going on back home that connect me to such fond memories. I know that I will get to make some terrific new ones here but dang, I sure would be ok with standing for four hours at mid day screaming AAAAAA until I lost my voice and never ever spelling TEAM.

I hope that you all are enjoying the joys of Texas Autumn for me. Happy Friday, hope that you are off to a splendid weekend!

All is well

Training day

ZEHRP has one day a month that it clears the client schedule and dedicates to training the staff. There always seems to be a back log of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to review and competencies to assess. We in the lab have at least half of the SOPs for the entire project, data, clinic, admin, and CVCT make up the remainder. It is something else to read and field questions on processes that you know little or nothing about. But, I think between Kahler and I we were able to put on a decent show. There was quite an issue with the exam or quiz that we were provided to check comprehension. We presented a PowerPoint that we have never seen before and then administered a quiz that either had the answers already written in or included detail not discussed in the PPT presentation. It certainly could have been better / will be better in the future but, it was not a total loss. It was a great chance to actually interact with the lab instead of just sitting behind a desk working on QCs and typing up validations.

I noticed yesterday sitting down in a little open air fried chicken place on Cairo Rd. (‘in town’ because there is a difference between in town and downtown?) with Kahler and Katy, on what turned out to be a not so great day, that I am getting fairly accustomed to everything being dirty. We sat down at a table that had all kinds of little crusties on it and the fella came over to wipe it down with a cloth designed not to clean but to even distribute the disease just as you would use an inoculation loop on an isolation plate. Despite that eerie and slightly terrifying analogy the uncleanness is no big deal any more. I mean I am not going to volunteer to lick the table or anything.

In the same vein, Katy was noticed, as we all sat at this same microbe nirvana, that she is beginning to thirst like a Zambian. That means you can drink a cup of water once in the morning and once and the evening and be good to go. I used to drink Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda at a record setting rate and now, I dare say that I am able to make it through meals now on twelve ounces. I am adapting in a way that I thought I never would/could.

 There is a train that comes by around 9:00 every evening that reminds me of that sweet College Station horn that you could hear from anywhere on campus. Though this horn sounds a bit more sickly, to say the least. I don’t know that I actually noticed the train until I was talk to my brother and he asked what that noise in the background was. I guess I do not notice because I am so used to it from home.

I just got home from the Management Meeting, which, needless to say, goes much smoother now. Save that one of my eyeballs nearly popped out when I tried to keep from laughing while Dr Kilembe (site director) was talking about some medical/data issues). Kahler and I are good for about an hour of solid attention and then if nothing interesting happens we make our own fun. It is like the time that we spent in the GCLP conference passing notes trying to muffle our laughter by clinching our teeth or putting our head down. I know this might be construed as juvenile but it is what separates me from the robots. That being said, ill-timed chuckles can land you in some hairy situations.

I am finding that being the boss just means that you occupy nearly 90% of your time putting out the fires and slaying the dragons that are protocol from this organization or the other. Turns out that if you manage to slay the dragon or at least scare it away there is just a ‘way to do your job’, no damsel. All those fairy tales are so misleading!

Victory: survived not one but, two mini-bus rides this past Monday! The one into town was not so bad but on the way back I am quite certain that there is no way that they could jam even one more body in the stink box. I mean there is a sense of accomplishment in that; well I can check that off the list. They are very cheap and do save a good bit of time despite my previous justification that walking on foot is more timely.

I have forgotten to put my address up despite several requests so I am going to stick it up now for all to see. The designations are a little strange. Oh and I just want to say that sending the package express has not proven to get the parcel here any quicker. Just send anything the cheapest way possible and at most it will take only few days extra.

Jake Pry
112 Vubu Road ZEHRP
P/Bag 891 Postnet 412
Lusaka, Zambia

If you want to send it to Dr. Pry I am sure it will make it to me also, haha… actually, it might not.

I hope that you all are enjoying a beautiful hump day afternoon!

All is very well!

Oh ya, and I am working on two abstracts, one for the AIDS Vaccine conference in Thailand next October and an HIV evolution abstract for a symposium (Whistler, British Columbia) in March. There are a few others that I would like to develop something for but, I don't know that I will have the time. I am hopeful, we will see :)

Palm strike not karate chop

When you are trying to open a bottle of your favorite beverage using only the surrounding environment you want to be sure that you employ the palm strike rather than karate chop. The chop will break your hand... so I have heard. It has become something of a game to find things that can be used to open the glass bottles that are every where over here.

I have not yet told you about the little bbq (Braai) that was held at the church on Friday evening. The get together was scheduled to begin at 5:30 and even though we know well that there will be no one there until 6: 00 at the earliest we made our way from work at 5:20 or so. Walking into the compound was just about exactly as expected, no one save the grounds keeper who has only just begun to pour the coals into a little grill. I started a conversation with Conrad, the grounds guy, who quickly took an interest in America and talked about how Americans are good people.

I do not know how to respond to this just yet. Katy, Kahler and I just kind of looked at each other waiting for someone to deliver in a gentle way that lots of Americans are not, in fact, great people. I tried to tell him that we are not typical Americans, unfortunately,  none of those that come over to Zambia for missions work or for research really fit the American norm. All I could do was tell him that we are glad that we are here and that we have found a great church. Kahler was enlisted to help carry the crates of cokes back from the little store and Katy was whisked away to the kitchen with the ladies. I was left to talk to Conrad about family and the man's role in relationships and how sharing the Gospel and bringing glory to God in all that you do is the most important thing in this life. Something so simple yet, is so easily forgotten or ignored.

This past week was a long one. It feels as if Michelle left a few weeks ago. Kahler and I both have to present standard operating procedure information at the training day this next Tuesday. I will try and give that a glance before I get up there are read the slide verbatim. There is work to be done on seeing that the Zambian lab supervisors are given the chance to take the reins. The goal at the end of my time here is to make my position obsolete.

We made it to the Sunday market today and it was neat to be able to look at things through eyes that have been in Zambia for a little while. Last time I pretended to be French (which was really fun) but, this time I actually had a great time talking to the vendors. They all say that they do the carving and painting of the goods that they have on display at their stand. Many of them just buy them or sell them for the actual artist I am sure but, maybe there are a few that actually make their own goods.

I found the way to move on from one vendor to the next was to introduce myself and ask them their name. Every time i did this they were thrilled and let me by without following me all the way down the line. I was looking for the perfect carved hippo and I think I found it. I have not named him yet but, he is awesome. I bought him from a fella, Jack. When I reached out to shake his hand and grabbed a piece of 40 grit sandpaper that gripped mine like a vice. I decided that when he told me that he did all of his work that he was not lying. I found a few other things that I want to pick up before I come back for the holidays. All in all it was a great trip to the Sunday market complete with some lunch at a neat little place called the Mint Cafe and a ride home courtesy of one of our Baptist Mission Zambia contacts, Ellen.

I am sitting now on the front porch of Katy and Kahler's flat and I am flipping back and forth between watching how my fantasy football team is doing (it turns out that they were all invited to the suckfest and accepted, they even held to the valley girl theme and wore skirts) and writing this blog post.

Tomorrow morning is gre practice test time and some good study time.

All is pretty great