it's Christmas at our house!

I told myself you didn't really need a Christmas tree or Christmas decorations for it to feel like Christmas, but let's face it. Those were just silly lies I was telling myself! And holiday-themed stores popped up in town, in Tororo, and it was so easy to buy a little plastic tree and string it with fruit-lights!

Thank goodness we had power last night when I brought it home, because without the lights it's just a scrawny piece of green plastic.

It's adorable. They literally sat like this for at least 5 minutes, which must be some sort of record. <3

Jess Bloome's uncle sent this ridiculously awesome package full of kids' toys, like, pills that you put into water that turn into a train, a spinning spaghetti fork, and an animation praxismoscope (??). So we wrapped everything up and put it under the tree!!

Once we put the presents under it, Hope just looks longingly at the stuff she's not allowed to open. I'm actually really surprised they haven't been ripped into yet.

YAY CHRISTMAS

I'm super busy at work, and everything seems to be going wrong. Not with my experiments per say, but I can't analyze the data I'm getting from the experiments because literally everything in my technological warchest has imploded. SO. The next two days before I leave are going to be totally crazy busy.

And then I'm off to Zanzibar!!! Yay!!

my amazing friends

Hi all,

My posts are usually quite silly and never seem to focus on what I came here to do (work, science, etc). So I thought I would mention that I've recently added the links to several blogs by my extremely awesome, smart, dedicated friends. Katie's blog (adventuresinuganda) might parallel mine a little bit, since she's my roommate! Mara is based in Kampala, and has some really amazing stories related to the clinical trial she helps run in Kiboga, Uganda. (Her job is sorta what I wanted to do with my year off...but plans change!) Her blog gives great descriptions of the challenges faced in public hospitals here.

Topher is in South Africa, Emily is in Botswana, and Laura is in Peru - all Doris Dukers (Doris 4 lyfe). Oh and Melike in Malawi. Another amazing blog.

Obviously what everyone's working on varies - in fact, it ranges from malaria (me) to HIV (Mara, Topher) to pneumonia (Emily) to obstetric fistula (Melike, globalsurgery) - but it's all global health and it's all super inspiring. And if you have a sec, please go to Melike's blog and donate!

There are several great things about taking a year off to do research, and one of them has been getting to meet all of these amazing people. The Fogarty program put us (not just these blogees, but so many people!) together for 2 weeks in Bethesda and I've rarely vibed with a group so automatically. Can't wait to work with them as colleagues when we all decide to go ahead and finish our formal training =).

kla-BAM

Things have slowed down in the lab recently, so I didn't have much to do this past weekend to maintain my cultures since I only have 2 running currently. So I planned an excursion to Kampala, motivated mostly by my desire to eat non-rice-and-beans and buy SOMETHING dressy to wear in Zanzibar. Oh, and to hang out with my awesome Fogarty Kampala friends! Shout out to Devan for putting us up and taking us around. He really went above and beyond. As Jess Bloome said, his mother would be proud. Haha.

Our first night we went to Khana Kazana for Indian food. It was aaammazing. It was so good, I almost cried. No joke. Look how excited I look! 

Less excited about what I see on the menu at Kyoto, where we went for drinks later:

 We went to a going away party for Devan's friend Matt that I had met briefly in Jinja over Halloween. That's Devan giving quite the goodbye hug on the left there...Matt got cut out! It was a super fun time with tasty drinks and shisha too. Everyone else in the picture is REALLY excited about the salt and vinegar chips that were purchased at the end of the night.

 

I had seen Devan's fb photos of boxing at a gym he frequents, and I wanted in. So I had my first boxing training ever! It was 30 minutes of jumping around (thank goodness I've been working out, or that alone would have killed me) and 30 minutes of trying to jab when the instructors told me to. The hitting part was really, really fun. I'd love to do it again sometime. 

So intense.

Ready to go

I don't know why it's the East Coasts boxing gym. Which coasts?

 Then we had big big plans to eat lunch, go to the pool, and THEN go to the market. Mara invited us over for a really delicious brunch, but then it started raining and we all decided to forgo the pool and focus on the market. Good choice us! It was fun, and totally crazy. Devan held our bags and chatted to the sellers in Luganda while I tried on clothes over the clothes I had on. Hilarious times.

This doesn't really capture the craziness that is Owino. People often walk up and down these aisles with huge bags and stuff that will hit you in the head/eye if you're not careful.

Most stalls didn't have mirrors, so we took pictures on my camera so we could check ourselves out. I have a lot of photos like this, all just about as silly. I bought this dress for 5$ I think.

After the market we all went home to wash our feet (haha, totally necessary) and then regrouped for dinner at Mediterraneo. It was really Italian food, and it was soooo good. I had this amazing salad, and then cheesy pasta with bacon, and a chocolate souffle for dessert! I mean, really amazing food. Very expat-y place...with an amazing ambiance. If someone took me to a place this beautiful for dinner in the States I'd be so impressed!

Fresh salad?? Omg yes plz.

Then on Sunday we woke up, got hair cuts (mine actually turned out really nice!) and did a MASSIVE grocery shopping spree. I mean massive. You can get things in Kampala you just can't get here, so we packed our private hire full. I even got dog treats/bones/dishes/food for Ellie! Hooray!

I also got flea shampoo. So when I got home, we gave Ellie a much needed bath. She didn't like it much, but at least there was power so the water was warm. I have a bunch of hilarious pictures of our poor poor puppy, who by the way is a giant now. 

Anywayyyys. Puppy interlude was necessary. Going to Kampala was a really nice change of pace, although it doesn't feel at all like the Uganda I know. Luganda isn't really spoken out here, so I don't know any of the language, we don't take public taxis (matatus) here much because the town's just not big enough to have routes, and we certainly don't have Kampala's crazy traffic, crowds, and stores, or a huge expat community. Very different, which made for a fun visit. I'll definitely be back again!

Katie brought a card reader for my camera back from London, so I can get photos off of my point and shoot camera again! Hooray!!! So look forward to a post about Halloween and one about water/power that I wanted to post forever ago!