Yet again, so much has happened in just one week. Harvard's Doris Duke program sent us to Durban, South Africa for an HIV conference, and we turned it into a five-day glorious Global Health Camp reunion. Eleven of us doing Doris Duke fellowships in Africa rented a huge beach house, and we took full advantage of the enormous waves crashing 30 ft from our doorstep. Alex was man enough to rent a 9-person party van to transport us back and forth to the conference (see picture).
After conference hours, there were many more hours of grilling (called having a "braii"), swimming in the ocean, and making bonfires on the beach (woo team Dartmouth!). On Saturday, Melike (Doris Duke in Malawi), Jon (Doris Duke in Ghana), and I rented a car and drove 2.5 hrs to the Drakensberg mountains. The car was a manual, which made for a very interesting experience for 2 people who sorta thought they could drive stick, and one person (me), who'd never done it. Let's just say that by the end of the trip, we were all experts! Okay, not experts, but I feel confident enough to temporarily move the car in one direction, and I think Melike mastered not stalling at each toll booth.
The 7 mile hike was incredible. I kept wanting to sing songs from the Sound of Music (hence these pictures of me frolicking). We came across waterfalls with crystal clear swimming pools so clean that all hikers drank from them. I even climbed one of the tiny waterfalls not to look like a wuss after Jon and Melike did it. It was terrifying, and all the pouring water basically took off my shorts...
It was so great to see everyone and hear about cultural experiences and hear the echo of "Yeah...things are going pretty slowly". That made it a little easier to come back to Bots to find out that my IRB (what needs to be approved before I start collecting my data) will be delayed another 2-3 months. Long story short, things in Africa move a LOT slower and less efficiently. I'm trying not to be too frustrated about it, and luckily, the big boss researcher here came up with a few other project ideas that I can do in the meantime. They sound pretty exciting and are actually pretty similar to the other project, except they already have IRB approval.
In other news, Sarah and I are officially moved into the posh palace, and it is glorious. Somehow we are living in semi-luxury...with down comforters. Yesterday I came very close to forgetting I was in Africa until I saw the colony of ants setting up shop in our jacuzzi. Okay, not really jacuzzi, but it could definitely hold 3 people.
To give you a sense of my hood, I took a few pictures of Main Mall, where we sometimes go to the grocery, bank, restaurants, etc. This is Bots baby!