Yeah, hon.

I woke up this morning to an alarm clock for the first time. Generally it's just bright and noisy enough to wake me fine before 6. Just in case I set an alarm. I think the association of an alarm was what made my first thought "I totally need to hit starbucks on the way to work." Ain't no starbucks here. Only instant coffee. I need to pick up some real stuff in lilongwe tomorrow and some filters. There's not even tea always out. But there were actually bananas at breakfast this morning, which is usually otherwise bread, sweet potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. I also had this cream of wheat sort of thing yesterday that was basically boiled maize. It got all congealed and gummy after sitting for a minute. I think I'm all set with that for a while.

Day one of trainings went fine yesterday. Our car wouldn't start in the am; the battery was dead. So one of the guys at the inn drove us into town and went back to work on the car. No one has jumper cables, obviously, so he started his car, switched the batteries, and then started ours and switched them back. I still don't understand how it all worked; I just have this image of this guy playing Operation with the car battery. Then the guy from the rental place came out to check on it later on. And we're back in business.

I'm going to stay where I am the rest of the time I'm here, I've decided. There's another place in town, which is where the trainings are, and it's just kind of gross. I'll have to take a picture of what slightly resembles (and strongly smells like) a urinal...I learned from the CDC/NY Dept of Health people to gauge a place's cleanliness on its bathroom. So, I'm not staying there. Plus it's crazy expensive--like $20/night for a room! Mine's about $9 and a good hour walk away, but it's immaculately clean with great people and quiet. Well, sometimes...

I should also mention that the baseline data suggest that only 1% of respondents bought toilet paper and 3% bought soap in the last month. Granted, these are extremely poor people, but still. I don't think handwashing is a cornerstone of public health here.

At the same time, during the training yesterday on the new survey, it was really interesting to hear all the anecdotes from the team about people who are cheating the system to get more money (I'm working on what is essentially a welfare program for poverty reduction). I couldn't help but laugh and think of how universal it is--you hear stuff like the able-bodied guy collecting welfare and washing his car all day back home. People are still people.

It's actually good to be busy again. I like having purpose, at least while I'm getting acclimated. I was working until 11 last night, which will probably only be the case while C is in town--I'd rather not go crazy here. But it's good to have things to do. It's just like being new at any job and sort of twiddling your thumbs...you jump at the chance just to do filing so that you feel useful.

I also talked to the people I know in Lilongwe last night and once C leaves and things die down a bit, I'm going to head in there for some R&R. They offered a couch, tv, and internet access, which sounds totally dreamy right now, and will more so by then. They're also having two nursing students staying with them who want to rent a car and go to the lake, so I may go in on that with them. Some of the Penn people are going to the game park in Zambia, but I don't really need to go on safari again. I would love to go to Zambia, though. I'll have to go to the border to renew my visa later this month and may use it as an opportunity to go to Chipata, which is the Zambian border town (like 40kms from here).

Okay, off to day two. More soon.

Labels: malawi, mchinji