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!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
On the launch pad
We are about to leave for the Maputo airport, on our way to Quelimane. We met Dr. Troy and Dr. Emelio. Found out that Quelimane is the rat capitol of Mozambique. But fear not, Troy assured us that we'll think of rats as squirrels in no time!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Use your words
By: Kate, August 9
The day began with Amy and I getting yelled at on the street. Some guy wanted to get our attention so he yelled, "hey whites!" He then proceeded to chat with us about life as we strolled down the street. Very pleasant guy. He especially enjoyed when I told him to have a bom fin de semana. He reminded us of when Borat was talking to the feminists and said, "hey pussycats, why you no smile for me, eh?"
Walked around town and found the Igreja Catolica (catholic church). Got capolinas (wrappy dresses that I love so much) at "casa elefante." Studied vocab and played a game of trivial pursuit. Decided that when I say, "cabeleireiro," I sound like a car engine that won't start. And when Amy says, "maravilhoso," she sounds like she's choking on marbles.
The day began with Amy and I getting yelled at on the street. Some guy wanted to get our attention so he yelled, "hey whites!" He then proceeded to chat with us about life as we strolled down the street. Very pleasant guy. He especially enjoyed when I told him to have a bom fin de semana. He reminded us of when Borat was talking to the feminists and said, "hey pussycats, why you no smile for me, eh?"
Walked around town and found the Igreja Catolica (catholic church). Got capolinas (wrappy dresses that I love so much) at "casa elefante." Studied vocab and played a game of trivial pursuit. Decided that when I say, "cabeleireiro," I sound like a car engine that won't start. And when Amy says, "maravilhoso," she sounds like she's choking on marbles.
Profound thought....the sequel
What is instant coffee? How does regular coffee become instant coffee? Does it have the same caffeine content as brewed coffee? I realize these questions are on par with my "what is nougat" question. In a way, instant coffee is my new nougat. Delicious and mysterious.
We got schooled!
By: Kate, August 8
Amy and I were invited by Mohsin to sit in on one of his lectures to the 2nd year med students. It was like being back at Vanderbilt! Before class, a handful of girls pointed and laughed when we walked by them. Amy thought they were making fun of my dress--but when we looked up the word they said, we found out they said, "padlock." Which was a snarky comment about the giant lock on Amy's backpack. Then as we stood in the hallway surrounded by med student clicks, a friendly face approached us and offered us help. "You lost?" he said in broken English. We explained that we know Dr. Sidat and we'll be attending his class. The boy smiled and walked away. What a kind Samaritan, we thought! Our opinion changed a minute later when he started shushing everyone in the hall. Yep, he's the class shusher. One of the brown-nosers. Sits front and center in class and constantly raises his hand.
There was also the front row girl who nods her head all through lecture and engages the professor in one-on-one conversations like there aren't 105 other people in the room. There's the girl who volunteers to write on the board (act as scribe) during discussions. And there's the guy who helps set up the computer and troubleshoots lecture I.T. problems. There was the back row that only half paid attention. There's the girl towards the front who kept turning around and glaring at people.
He introduced us, handed us the microphone and told us to say something...so naturally we stood there beet red, sweating, while the mic made that awful feedback noise.
A friendly guy turned to us and said, "tell me about your childhood." Obviously the future psychiatrist.
And what would a med school class be without the people who take notes on everything that is said or written on the board, like they are recording the only history that will sustain the test of time. A medical papyrus or dead sea scrolls. 6,000 years from now, people will discover the relics of a lecture amphitheater and a handful of rotting pages with the krebs cycle etched into it. They'll probably call our species Anal Retentivites--a descendant of Homo Sapien.
Whether in Nashville or Maputo, med students are exactly the same!
Amy and I were invited by Mohsin to sit in on one of his lectures to the 2nd year med students. It was like being back at Vanderbilt! Before class, a handful of girls pointed and laughed when we walked by them. Amy thought they were making fun of my dress--but when we looked up the word they said, we found out they said, "padlock." Which was a snarky comment about the giant lock on Amy's backpack. Then as we stood in the hallway surrounded by med student clicks, a friendly face approached us and offered us help. "You lost?" he said in broken English. We explained that we know Dr. Sidat and we'll be attending his class. The boy smiled and walked away. What a kind Samaritan, we thought! Our opinion changed a minute later when he started shushing everyone in the hall. Yep, he's the class shusher. One of the brown-nosers. Sits front and center in class and constantly raises his hand.
There was also the front row girl who nods her head all through lecture and engages the professor in one-on-one conversations like there aren't 105 other people in the room. There's the girl who volunteers to write on the board (act as scribe) during discussions. And there's the guy who helps set up the computer and troubleshoots lecture I.T. problems. There was the back row that only half paid attention. There's the girl towards the front who kept turning around and glaring at people.
He introduced us, handed us the microphone and told us to say something...so naturally we stood there beet red, sweating, while the mic made that awful feedback noise.
A friendly guy turned to us and said, "tell me about your childhood." Obviously the future psychiatrist.
And what would a med school class be without the people who take notes on everything that is said or written on the board, like they are recording the only history that will sustain the test of time. A medical papyrus or dead sea scrolls. 6,000 years from now, people will discover the relics of a lecture amphitheater and a handful of rotting pages with the krebs cycle etched into it. They'll probably call our species Anal Retentivites--a descendant of Homo Sapien.
Whether in Nashville or Maputo, med students are exactly the same!
Profound thought of the day...
Instant coffee really isn't that terrible. In fact, it's kind of growing on me. The only thing that freaks me out is powdered creamer. It doesn't dissolve really well in the instant coffee. And I think it might be carcinogenic.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Boa tarde!
By Kate:
After a series of long flights and layovers, we arrived safe and sound in Maputo on Tuesday Morning, August 5th! Air India got us over the pond with a little help from some curry chicken and Indian comedies as our in-flight entertainment. British Airways ushered us down the continent of Africa while we indulged in tea (with cream and sugar...in honor of the Brits), and a couple fantastic movies. "Son of Rambow" was excellent, capped off with "The Big Lebowski."
Our first two Portuguese challenges were a total flop. A woman at the airport in Johannesburg asked us if we could translate between English and Portuguese for her and a customer. We didn't even attempt it. And then two business men traveling to Maputo asked us if we "fala" ...aka do we speak Portuguese. At which point Amy starts yelling "falo! falo!" while I stumbled over a phrase that roughly translated into, "me would like more ice creams." I'm chalking that up to sleep deprivation. But we did manage to navigate from the airport to the hotel, which was a personal victory.
After surviving Tuesday and Wednesday in a complete jet-lagged haze, we're finally being productive today. Had a wonderful meeting this morning with Dr. Mohsin Sidat, who is helping us finalize our proposals and get research approval from the Mozambique Ministry of Health ethics committee. We have a lot of work to do over the next couple days, before heading up to Quelimane.
Oh! And Amy got hexed at an ATM. It was hilarious! Some witchdoctor looking guy came up to her and looked like he was going to make the sign of the cross on her, but kind of mumbled something, made a gesture, and then walked away. It was great!
After a series of long flights and layovers, we arrived safe and sound in Maputo on Tuesday Morning, August 5th! Air India got us over the pond with a little help from some curry chicken and Indian comedies as our in-flight entertainment. British Airways ushered us down the continent of Africa while we indulged in tea (with cream and sugar...in honor of the Brits), and a couple fantastic movies. "Son of Rambow" was excellent, capped off with "The Big Lebowski."
Our first two Portuguese challenges were a total flop. A woman at the airport in Johannesburg asked us if we could translate between English and Portuguese for her and a customer. We didn't even attempt it. And then two business men traveling to Maputo asked us if we "fala" ...aka do we speak Portuguese. At which point Amy starts yelling "falo! falo!" while I stumbled over a phrase that roughly translated into, "me would like more ice creams." I'm chalking that up to sleep deprivation. But we did manage to navigate from the airport to the hotel, which was a personal victory.
After surviving Tuesday and Wednesday in a complete jet-lagged haze, we're finally being productive today. Had a wonderful meeting this morning with Dr. Mohsin Sidat, who is helping us finalize our proposals and get research approval from the Mozambique Ministry of Health ethics committee. We have a lot of work to do over the next couple days, before heading up to Quelimane.
Oh! And Amy got hexed at an ATM. It was hilarious! Some witchdoctor looking guy came up to her and looked like he was going to make the sign of the cross on her, but kind of mumbled something, made a gesture, and then walked away. It was great!
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