Hello hello,
Looks like my blogging attempt has yet again fallen by the wayside. Here's an update, however delayed beyond the writing schedule I had hoped to keep:
On my first day of work, I got a quick tour of the "FHU" (family health unit) where all of the antenatal care visit happen at the hospital where our study team is based. The clinic is packed, full of women and babies dressed and draped in the brightly colored chitenge fabrics. It's not often that I have to navigate through the crowd so densely packed in North Carolina. I got a tour of the clinic and a crash course on the electronic medical record (EMR) system, and saw first hand how it has been simultaneously helpful and frustrating for the already overburdened clinic staff to start using (instead of only using paper charts).
The hospital where I work is about a 15 minute drive away from where I stay at the UNC guesthouse. I originally was getting transport with the lab specimens that get sent from one hospital to the other , but it ended up eating up a lot of time due to the lack of set schedule for when a car would be driving from one place to the other. "Transport is leaving in 15 minutes" inevitably turned into an hour on average, and I'm just not that good at waiting, especially when I have things I need to be doing while the sun is up and people are available. While I was initially reluctant to plunk gas money into driving myself when there is a car that goes between the two campuses, it has been worth it to have the schedule flexibility and predictability.
Overall, I'm very glad I came here and have had the chance to work with the study team on the ground as we started enrolling participants. Some days are great-- inspiring, productive, and fun. Other days are frustrating on a number of levels that is hard to quantify. Last week my gristly cube of beef at lunch matched the gristly feeling I had about work that day, seeming to be something that got even more mangled despite my careful attempts at separating the chewable protein from the much less chewable fat and fascia. Maybe a non-top quality beef bit is a plug for vegetarianism, but overall the lunches here are really good, especially for the price. Generally, the BBQ chicken is the most reliable and is actually really darn good, but they were all out that day.
Anyway, as I sat at the table seeking the perfect ratio of nsima (think grits made with less water so you can pinch off a lump with your fingers), sauteed pumpkin leaves and grizzlebeef with each bite, I felt a gradual sense of unwinding about the research-related items that were grating on me. A few years ago while in Zanzibar, my mentor and I were discussing our research team members and how the work had been going so far when she said it took her a while to realize that it's important to know when not to use yourself as a baseline for how you evaluate whatever's at hand. I too have found it to be good advice, but sometimes struggle to identify whose perspective to use if not my own.
During the ongoing attempt to figure out which cut of beef my gristle came from, some portions out of view by the onions and tomato skins of the stew it was cooked in, I thought about what comes to mind with our research team from Zanzibar now, 5 years later. I realized that having everyone on the current team feel positive about their contributions is probably more important at this point than addressing every specific mistake in our operations. I like addressing those little things in the same way that scrubbing the bottoms of the cooking pots until they're shiny makes me oddly satisfied, but it's not always the best use of my time or elbow grease.
Did I approach nirvana in gristle-filled beef? (and is nirvana allowed to involve the sacred cow in its butchered form?) Okay, so maybe not nirvana, but at least a healthier approach to the situation. The afternoon felt easier after that lunch. I don't think I'll get the beef again, unless for therapeutic reasons.
Only three weeks left here until a bit of time with the family in Maine. I'll try to write again, if only to give an update on the lunchtime thought wanderings.
To end on a high note, I found Stoney Tangawizi (ginger beer that I love) here in Malawi. It wasn't here two years ago, and I fully support this version of Coca-Cola-ization, because Stoney's just so darn good. Like many packaged food items available here, it's packaged for sale in South Africa, having the price in rand and some slang I don't understand. But that super spicy ginger flavor is divine, and is well-worth the sneeze that it usually causes because it's so peppery and fizzy.
Looks like my blogging attempt has yet again fallen by the wayside. Here's an update, however delayed beyond the writing schedule I had hoped to keep:
On my first day of work, I got a quick tour of the "FHU" (family health unit) where all of the antenatal care visit happen at the hospital where our study team is based. The clinic is packed, full of women and babies dressed and draped in the brightly colored chitenge fabrics. It's not often that I have to navigate through the crowd so densely packed in North Carolina. I got a tour of the clinic and a crash course on the electronic medical record (EMR) system, and saw first hand how it has been simultaneously helpful and frustrating for the already overburdened clinic staff to start using (instead of only using paper charts).
The hospital where I work is about a 15 minute drive away from where I stay at the UNC guesthouse. I originally was getting transport with the lab specimens that get sent from one hospital to the other , but it ended up eating up a lot of time due to the lack of set schedule for when a car would be driving from one place to the other. "Transport is leaving in 15 minutes" inevitably turned into an hour on average, and I'm just not that good at waiting, especially when I have things I need to be doing while the sun is up and people are available. While I was initially reluctant to plunk gas money into driving myself when there is a car that goes between the two campuses, it has been worth it to have the schedule flexibility and predictability.
Overall, I'm very glad I came here and have had the chance to work with the study team on the ground as we started enrolling participants. Some days are great-- inspiring, productive, and fun. Other days are frustrating on a number of levels that is hard to quantify. Last week my gristly cube of beef at lunch matched the gristly feeling I had about work that day, seeming to be something that got even more mangled despite my careful attempts at separating the chewable protein from the much less chewable fat and fascia. Maybe a non-top quality beef bit is a plug for vegetarianism, but overall the lunches here are really good, especially for the price. Generally, the BBQ chicken is the most reliable and is actually really darn good, but they were all out that day.
Anyway, as I sat at the table seeking the perfect ratio of nsima (think grits made with less water so you can pinch off a lump with your fingers), sauteed pumpkin leaves and grizzlebeef with each bite, I felt a gradual sense of unwinding about the research-related items that were grating on me. A few years ago while in Zanzibar, my mentor and I were discussing our research team members and how the work had been going so far when she said it took her a while to realize that it's important to know when not to use yourself as a baseline for how you evaluate whatever's at hand. I too have found it to be good advice, but sometimes struggle to identify whose perspective to use if not my own.
During the ongoing attempt to figure out which cut of beef my gristle came from, some portions out of view by the onions and tomato skins of the stew it was cooked in, I thought about what comes to mind with our research team from Zanzibar now, 5 years later. I realized that having everyone on the current team feel positive about their contributions is probably more important at this point than addressing every specific mistake in our operations. I like addressing those little things in the same way that scrubbing the bottoms of the cooking pots until they're shiny makes me oddly satisfied, but it's not always the best use of my time or elbow grease.
Did I approach nirvana in gristle-filled beef? (and is nirvana allowed to involve the sacred cow in its butchered form?) Okay, so maybe not nirvana, but at least a healthier approach to the situation. The afternoon felt easier after that lunch. I don't think I'll get the beef again, unless for therapeutic reasons.
Only three weeks left here until a bit of time with the family in Maine. I'll try to write again, if only to give an update on the lunchtime thought wanderings.
To end on a high note, I found Stoney Tangawizi (ginger beer that I love) here in Malawi. It wasn't here two years ago, and I fully support this version of Coca-Cola-ization, because Stoney's just so darn good. Like many packaged food items available here, it's packaged for sale in South Africa, having the price in rand and some slang I don't understand. But that super spicy ginger flavor is divine, and is well-worth the sneeze that it usually causes because it's so peppery and fizzy.
