First weekend

First, thanks to Am for buying me a pro account on Flickr. Now all my photos will stay up!

I worked on the survey all Friday afternoon trying to make sure all the coding and skip patterns were right, as well as numbering all the new questions without disturbing the variable names of all the repeat questions. That was sort of a challenge. I got home feeling really worn out, and it was about ten seconds before I totally broke down. I managed to not really cry the whole week since I was so busy, but the thought of being lonely all weekend was just too awful to deal with. That and just thinking about how I was going to figure out these minibuses and my stupid phone and all this weird new crap, I just felt so overwhelmed. But all is well, and my weekend was quite busy.

Friday night I watched all three episodes of Dexter I had left. Omigod, they were so friggin great. Seriously, people, this is a show to pick up on DVD if you haven’t seen it.

I had trouble getting to bed that night. And by trouble, I mean it took me all the way to 11 to get to bed. I got up after 7, which I think is the latest I’ve gotten up since I’ve been here. I went down to see if breakfast was ready, and while I waited a few minutes, I talked to Fred. He asked what I’m doing with work, and I told him how I was working with a group that does HIV/AIDS stuff. It became a kind of mini-education session as he started to ask about why mosquitos don’t transmit the virus and if sharing razors does. Then he asked me if I thought that God had brought the virus. I said that it was hard to know what God does. But for us we tell people that they can do things to keep from getting the virus. It was an interesting slice of all the issues we deal with in HIV prevention, the misconceptions and cultural beliefs that come into play.

Breakfast was good. My egg was scrambled today. I brought a magazine down with me so I could eat and read… it’s become damn near impossible for me to just eat without doing something else. No one else was at breakfast, although I thought I saw multiple plates being prepared. Maybe everyone else just eats later, or maybe it was for the guys who work here. A mystery, this place.

K came to pick me up with her daughters in tow. One is eight and a half and seemed kind of surly at first, but she got to be in a better mood and seemed to like me a lot once she figured out I would talk to her. The other is five, a little redheaded sprite with a funny cute accent I assume she picked up at school or somewhere, because mom and dad have very American accents. We went to a place that is a fair walk from mine called the Four Seasons center. It’s a combination of shops, a couple of restaurants, and some gardens. So that’s good to know about. Then we went to where the Foodworth’s is to get a video for the, to recharge my phone with more minutes, and to grab some groceries. The youngest had a birthday party to go to, so we dropped by their house and I met K’s husband. He’s cool. Kirsten gave me a French press they have that they don’t use, and a couple of plastic plates since I only have a bowl.

Then we went to the birthday party. I think the original plan was just to stay a little while and then bug off so K could take me home and get her husband to hang out at the end of the party. But I ended up being there the whole time and hanging out with the girls while K picked up her husband during the party. The party was at this ridiculously nice house in the neighborhood where all the ambassadors live. It had this huge backyard garden place where they had a big inflated slip’n’slide set up and one of those bouncy castle slide things. Most of the people there were involved with some kind of health or development program. There was all kinds of food and a really well-stocked bar for these parts.

I’m glad I got to go to Foodworth’s in a car, so I could get some oranges, which are a bit heavy to transport that far without a car. I didn’t get anything that needed refrigeration really, since I don’t have a fridge, which was good since my bags were in the car for a while. But I did buy a chocolate bar that got really melty, but resolidified. It was delicious.

I went out to see the Capital Hotel, finally, since it’s like a two-minute walk. It has nice grounds, and a pool, and a couple of restaurants and a few shops (and they sell recharge vouchers for my phone, which is good to know). They also have a business center there with internet. Oddly, things at the hotel seem to have more hours Sunday than on Saturday, which is really backward from the rest of the city.

I talked to Fred again when I got back. Fred would really like to find a better job or go back to school to become an electrician or driver. He says that maybe I have been sent by God to help him accomplish these things, but I think he’s pretty good at making his own luck. He’s definitely become my go-to guy for cultural interpretation. This afternoon, however, we talked about action movies. Someone in his village has a DVD player and they watch all kinds of action movies. His favorite? Chuck Norris. He’s never seen Walker, Texas Ranger, though, so I need to figure out a way to get him some episodes, because it’s really the only thing to do for someone who clearly loves Chuck Norris so much.

We also talked about how in Mulanje, where he’s from originally, Europeans parachute off the big plateau there and scare the crap out of the villagers below.

One thing I’ve noticed here is that people are a little bit nosy. Maybe some of it is just being protective. I don’t know what it is. But the driver for BRIDGE, whenever I am going somewhere from work, he asks where I am going. On Wednesday, I brought some oatmeal in for lunch (I’m weird, I know, but it was easy to bring), and he was like, you should try some food from here. It was in a polite way, but it was still kind of like all in my business. Likewise, at the Villa, people always seem to want to know what I’m up to when I’m headed to the gate for a walk. Fred is the nosiest (and will often then stop me to talk to me for a while), but they’re all kinda that way. It’s very odd!

Saturday night, I went out to dinner with K, her husband, and this guy who is doing some stuff with the project next week. We went to this Mediterranean place that was pretty tasty. We just ordered their giant appetizer thing where they basically brought out every appetizer they have. The consultant guy is usually in Zimbabwe, so we talked a lot about how much it sucks right now. We also talked about how it is customary here for there to be a lot of greeting, and there’s this whole illusion of wanting to see how someone is doing, and then you preface your actual point with, “By the way…”

Sunday, I lazed around all day, even taking a nap a few hours after I got up. Then I went over to the hotel and emailed some folks. I went down to the garden restaurant and had some wine and a salad and just chilled. It was nice. I went to K and B’s for dinner with my advisor, which was tasty fun. After dinner we had this liqueur called Amarulla, I think, which is basically Bailey’s with a bit of orangey fruit flavor infused. It’s pretty great.

This morning I was about to go downstairs for breakfast when I heard a knock. It was breakfast! In my room! I kinda like that much better, because then I can watch the news. They showed the weather map of the nor’easter that is all over the east coast. Gross. It’s already hot here today before 8. Today I am going to pay the Villa for me first week, and I discovered that they charge like 12 dollars for laundry. At first I felt like maybe I don’t want to pay that and I should just do laundry at Kirsten’s, but now I’m thinking that if the grant is paying for the hotel anyway, maybe I don’t care. Now that I’m here, I, of course, wish I had brought a different distribution of clothing. But it will get cooler, and then maybe some of these longer sleeved shirts will be useful.

Oh! It’s Patriots Day! Boston Marathon is going to suck hardcore today. I watched it on TV a few years ago when I was stuck in the hospital for that diet study, and it made me tired to see people run all the way from Framingham to downtown. That’s a long drive!

Gotta go to the workshops now!