By this time Saturday I'll be boarding a plane for the first of my three flights. I've presented my work to the MSH team here in Lilongwe, submitted a first draft of my report to them, and will be giving a presentation to the Reproductive Health Unit of the Ministry of Health sometime today (they haven't given us an exact time yet...), so there isn't much more to be done at this point!
Yesterday the power was out for over half the work day, which made things move a little slowly (oh- there went the power just now again!), but Maureen (the other GNU fellow) was kind enough to take me around the city a bit over a long lunch to eat up some of the down time. The city is so spread out! I bought some crafts and was so glad to have here there with me - in the eyes of the people selling, I have huge dollar signs over my head and they were literally chasing us to the car trying to get us to buy their stuff. I'm a bad bargainer to begin with, so it was extra helpful to have Maureen there to give me a sense of what things should really cost.
Turns out I won’t meet with RHU until tomorrow morning – which means I’m free to spend the rest of the day really wrapping up! Tomorrow is a half day at the office (just the morning) and then I’ll pack up and relax!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
The beginning of the end...
So here I am, the last work week of my fellowship is upon me. It seems as though the time has flown by, but then again my first day in country feels like it was such a long time ago.
Yesterday I spent the whole day working on the first draft of my final report. I haven't sat down to write for that many hours since working on my thesis at Carleton! It was a long day... but the first draft is done, so now I have a good starting point for finessing the thing :)
Last night I decided to try to see more of Lilongwe and ate dinner in the "city center" neighborhood. By 7pm everything except the restaurant was closed - Lilongwe is really a sleepy town. All the office buildings are in the city itself and homes are on the outskirts, so going to the restaurant at 7:30pm I felt like I was in a cab at 3am. One of the women in the office offered to take me around town tomorrow during lunch, so hopefully I'll see more life in the city then.
Today I'll debrief the staff here (using the PowerPoint I already gave in Karonga - score for recycling!) and possibly the Ministry of Health's Reproductive Health Unit - that may be tomorrow, though. They don't have a whole lot of time booked for me, so I'm not too stressed about it - should just be introductions, key findings, and Q&A - easy enough, right?
My pictures from Karonga can be seen here (even if you aren't on facebook): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028055&l=63225&id=19100336
And pictures from Mvuu Camp can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027632&l=5ef1f&id=19100336
Yesterday I spent the whole day working on the first draft of my final report. I haven't sat down to write for that many hours since working on my thesis at Carleton! It was a long day... but the first draft is done, so now I have a good starting point for finessing the thing :)
Last night I decided to try to see more of Lilongwe and ate dinner in the "city center" neighborhood. By 7pm everything except the restaurant was closed - Lilongwe is really a sleepy town. All the office buildings are in the city itself and homes are on the outskirts, so going to the restaurant at 7:30pm I felt like I was in a cab at 3am. One of the women in the office offered to take me around town tomorrow during lunch, so hopefully I'll see more life in the city then.
Today I'll debrief the staff here (using the PowerPoint I already gave in Karonga - score for recycling!) and possibly the Ministry of Health's Reproductive Health Unit - that may be tomorrow, though. They don't have a whole lot of time booked for me, so I'm not too stressed about it - should just be introductions, key findings, and Q&A - easy enough, right?
My pictures from Karonga can be seen here (even if you aren't on facebook): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028055&l=63225&id=19100336
And pictures from Mvuu Camp can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027632&l=5ef1f&id=19100336
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Back in Lilongwe
I arrived in Lilongwe Friday evening and have had a restful weekend. Friday was a long day in the car, so I ended up just crashing when I got back to Lilongwe. Yesterday I "slept in" until 6:30am, then had a nice workout and did some work before running some errands and catching up on emails and other personal things.
Today I did a 12 mile run (which wasn't too bad - Lilongwe is cooler than Karonga, but hillier) then spent some time by the pool, which was wonderful. I did some work compiling data and starting on my report and have had a lazy day since, watching movies on TV and reading.
By the end of the day tomorrow I should have a full draft of my report pulled together - another sign that my time here is winding down! In less than a week I'll be back in Boston!
Today I did a 12 mile run (which wasn't too bad - Lilongwe is cooler than Karonga, but hillier) then spent some time by the pool, which was wonderful. I did some work compiling data and starting on my report and have had a lazy day since, watching movies on TV and reading.
By the end of the day tomorrow I should have a full draft of my report pulled together - another sign that my time here is winding down! In less than a week I'll be back in Boston!
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