We are in Quelimane! It's a wonderful little tropical town with tons of palm trees, coconuts, marvelous tree-lined streets, fresh fish markets, feral dogs that scrap like its world war III, and a friendly neighborhood rooster who crows every morning at 3am. I know what you're thinking..."maybe the sun rises at 3am." I assure you it doesn't. And this "galo" as they say in Portuguese must be stopped. Amy and I have three options: kill the rooster, relocate the rooster, or feed him melatonin in an attempt to reset his internal clock so he begins crowing at a reasonable hour, like 7am.
I recall an incident that occurred 3 weeks ago, one brisk evening on the beautiful shore of Lake Michigan. A certain John Egan told me to jump in the 57 degree lake stating, "you can look back on this when you're sweating in the jungles of southeast Africa." Well, turns out that it's still winter here, the weather is beautiful (in the 70s), and we don't have hot water. So every night is like jumping into the Big Lake. Had I known this, I would have backed down from Egan's dare.
Our project is coming along nicely! Amy and I are spending our mornings harassing the Vanderbilt IRB and Mozambique Ministry of Health. Our afternoons involve attending Olivia's Portuguese bootcamp. By the end of the day, I feel like I've been flogged with a Portuguese dictionary.
We've met wonderful people including a Brazilian doctor who runs the clinic at Inhassunge, a Spanish doctor who runs the clinic in Gile, and various staff here at FGH. And let me tell you, these people are connected! One of our advisors is BFF with the president of Mozambique. Another guy can pretty much move mountains with a single phone call...we suspect he's either related to Spanish royalty or is in the Spanish mafia. So Amy and I have compiled a list of FANTASTIC emergency contacts! If there is a coup or I'm wrongly imprisoned or I want to wire money into a Swiss bank account under an alias...I'm totally set!
In other news, I'm going to be an uncle! Sarah and Adrian are having a boy!
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3 comments:
Wait... If Sarah were having a girl would I become an Aunt?!? Today must have been a 3 a.m. rooster wake-up call :)
Sounds very nice over there, and good people too (except the evil witchdoctors). You guys are doing good work. Remember, it's not waht you know, it's who you know. Move them mountains.
Glad to hear things are going well. Hope the rooster's fate wasn't too harsh. (and Kate, you're making me participate in your technology)
I had no idea it was Winter in Africa right now! Glad to know you guys got there all right. I enjoy reading about your adventures. 4th you started off rocky, mostly because I am not a social worker and have no idea how to handle all the crap that goes along with discharging a patient. Why don't they teach you how to fill out TPN and PICC home care orders in 1st or 2nd year?
I did pass step II though which is awesome! So turns out studying on the beach is not a bad thing.
Love John
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