Blessings

It's been a busy few days. Anu is really helping us revamp our study in order to get good and very useful data. Instead of simply taking samples from schools used in a previous study, we are going to see if we can get blood smaples from children in schools along the stream that passes through the dump site and continues on into town (I hope). Obviously it's tough to think that I have already been here for about 3 weeks and we haven't got a single sample to show for it. Which is fine, I think. I guess it's just important that we are getting through the red tape and that we recognize that simple getting blood samples to do a prevalence and education study will be a great accomplishment.

On top of that, my ticket to South Africa did not exist until this morning... even though I bought it in early June. Apparently getting a reservation confirmation number doesn't mean much at all. It's good to be in science, it makes you really anal. Luckily, everything worked out. I went to the South African AIrlines office today and they laughed because this happens all the time. When I showed them the email I received about a month ago, thay saw my desktop, a picture of my neice, Noa. They asked me how many children I had and I explained... Then the blessings started rolling. For a while. Like 10 minutes. It was awesome.

Living Jewish is a very religious country is really good. When it comes down to it, many of our interpersonal beliefs are similar. There are, of course, differences, but when anyone says Gd bless you, you should always answer amen. I think one of my brothers-from-another-mother, David Osband told me that. No matter what, accept the blessings. And boy are there blessings here.

On Shabbat I was doing my regular chilling. Wearing a white shirt and light khaki pants, I was reading a book in the sun when Jeffery Luboga's, Dr. L's son, fiance called to me. She had come to the house to clean Jeffery's room and do his laundry (I want a wife), and we struck up a conversation. She thought I was a seventh day adventist, but I explained I am Jewish. We had a great converstaion about Jerusalem and how important Gd is in our lives. It's cool to be able to share Gd with someone else. Someone who is completely different from anyone you've ever met before. It's important for us to recognize our similarities with other people from around the world. And then maybe all of us can take it a step further and reach out a hand to help them. Whoa, am I getting preachy. Enough of that...

Last night was a typical Kampala trip. After arguing with a matatu conducter about how much we should pay to go to the bottom of the hill of Mpererwe, normally its 200, but he saw 4 mzungus (that's the correct spelling) and thought he could ask for 500, we went to the local internet cafe...if you could call it that. I was downloading email at about 500 bytes per second. I can write faster than that. So we buy only 40 minutes because we have 2 emails to send. Right after signing into my gmail account, the power goes out. The lighting that we were admiring from a distance all night suddenly decided to get closer. It was crowded, the ground was muddy, the only light we had was from our flashlights, the bodabodas, and some matatus who finally decided it was dark enough to turn on their lights (only a few), and the ground was super muddy. But still, nothing slowed down. The only reaction to the power going out was an "aaw" from us mzungus. So after running the gaunlet (read: crossing the street), we made it into a "supermarket" and got out of the area ASAP.

On Thursday(I have to write more) I met a young man named Joseph who loves across the street from the Lubogas. He sold me a few paintings, I'm a sucker, and he returned on Friday to sell some to Lauren. She wasn't home, but we spoke for more than an hour while we watched the sun go down (I had already prayed mincha, the afternoon services). I learned a lot of Luganda from him and a lot about the plight of the young Ugandan man. I don't think it's appropriate for me to share with you all that he shared with me, HIPPA... But I can tell you that he is working himself to peices trying to raise money so that he can attend Makerere University in August. It costs about 500,000 shillings a semester... about $312, so it's $614 for the year. When he asked me how much I pay for school, I told him about $50,000. He was dumfounded. He said that I should take out the loans and move to Uganda and live like a king. Hmmmm.

The hardest part of being so far away from everyone is FOMO. I know some of you know the term, but for those who don't, FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out. It's what keeps you kids awake when they know you are having people over among other things. I have a lot that I am missing out on. My neice is going to become a big sister and grow 3 months older. I really just thought about making my trip end a bit earlier.

The further away from everything you know, the faster things seem to change.

Whoa!

So lets talk about how much I love bureaucracy.

Great, next topic. Today I was grilled for about 1/2 an hour by the Ministry of Health, loop number three. I think I did pretty well, but the best part is that his assistants were super friendly and eager to help. They were so excited to see someone doing this research. Everybody seems to be aware of the dump in Mpererwe, but not a lot of studies have been done on it's effect on anything but the environment. Nobody knows if this translates into problems for the children.

I was reflecting on the study, and I think the best part is our 2nd visit to the schools, when we give a health education day. That is the most important thing we can do. Hopefully, the information will spread and fewer people will have a problem with lead.

Anu, Dr. Natasha Anandaraja from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Global Health office came last night to Uganda! Very exciting that MSSM is so devoted to our project. She seems to think that we have a real handle on the project and with the situation... little does she know... Anyway, she is staying at Betty's house, right down the block. Betty went to Oxford and got a degree in Horticulture, she now owns 2 garden supply businesses and has the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. She grows all of her own food, too! I wish I could do the same.

I was thinking a bit about the "recycling" system they have here in Uganda. If you want to drink a bottle of coke (no cans here), you have to drink it at the stand and return the bottle or pay for the bottle as well as for the coke. Also, if you want to buy a 1L bottle of coke, you have to bring a bottle in it's place. Maybe we have too much money in America and things are just too disposable. Glass is non-porous, why not just rinse it out with some soapy water and reuse it right then and there? I think this might go back to my rant on progress. If Uganda succeeds in becoming a wealthy nation, will they stop this "recycling system?" Will they start disposing over everything like we do? Also, is it worth not succeeding to maintain the status quo? Will somebody do a literature review? I don't have a lot of time.

Bug story: So I've seen jumping spiders, huge cockaroaches, a scorpion, and a bunch of ants... Last night, however, I saw the worst bug; the bug you can't manage to catch and is now somewhere in your room. NOT COOL. I was baking the laffa (yes I bake it on my own), this week its so much better. Softer and it rose more too.

Lastly, I think this is the first week without my friends the Weinbachs in Hillside. Hillside misses you!

OK it's 4:10PM and Shabbat is coming fast. Have a wonderful weekend.

Cool pic of the malaria lifecycle in mosaic (from Makerere Uni)

APPROVAL!

I can't talk very much now, but I wanted to report that we have IRB approval!

-Danny

Finally some pictures!

I tried posting the pictures in order, but don't feel like spending too much time on that. I think everyone would rather that just posted more pictures.

Do you ever wonder where your straws end up?

The cows in the dump drinking untreated water... these cows belong to someone who can not afford to get water for his cows and because of that, his family will pay by eating all the chemicals and contaminants

Lauren, the med students, and out tour guide at the water treatment plant

Yam farm, on the bottom you can see the barbed wire fence of the dump. We are trying to get some of these yams and test them for contamination.

My birthday feast in progress, thank you Lauren.

Shabbat setup, those are the laffa I was telling you aboutOur backyard, crazy birds all the time

View from the back of a matatu or shared taxi... everyone is gathered around a TV watching a soccer game

Dr. Luboga's Bday party

Mpererwe dump with the St. Stephen's ambulance

I always use protection in bed

more about the dump...

So there were a number of things I have yet to report about the dump. Like how I saw cattle drinking from untreated water. Or how there was a yam farm just beyond the barbed-wire fence. How about how the sludge that is separated from the water is dried in the sun and then used as fetilizer by people in the local communities (that's bad by the way). We have a lot of work to do here. I think it starts with reporting to NEMA (you remember NEMA, right?). More to come.

The B word

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I mean Bureaucracy of course. People, people… let’s try to keep it clean. So we got a letter of support from the Director of Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, but they have some friendly suggestions. They are: The Ministry of Health, The Kampala Clerk’s office, and advance notice to the schools. Makes sense, right? No. Because if we wait for both of those offices, we will not have time to give advance notice to schools. Hmmmm. I think we opened Pandora’s Box. On that note, one of my favorite websites is Pandora.com on which you can listen to all types of music without commercials.

This morning Lauren made me banana pancakes. AMAZING! I was hovering around her like a hawk, I felt like the Kosher Police…which I was. So the pancakes were amazing, then we made baked ziti for lunch (not baked), and tonight we are making stir fry. Now I am sitting at a café drinking freshly squeezed juice and eating fresh cut watermelon; oh the good life. Did I mention that we now have running water? I forgot the best part!!! So, travelling Jewish in a foreign land is complicated as many of you know. But it’s especially complicated when people want to give you stuff for your birthday… we were going to bake a cake from scratch and double wrap it to bake in the Luboga’s oven…if you don’t understand that, find someone wearing a yarmulke and ask them. BUT, instead we found ICE CREAM! Gd bless Shoprite of South Africa. So for my birthday cake, which is a real luxury, I am having cookies and cream ice cream with a Shabbat candle on top (thanks Mom).

I hope to write about progress in our research soon… but for now, suffice it to say we are working hard on getting things together so that we can work harder. We’re even hiring research assistants at the Makerere medical and dental schools. Hahahahaha (evil laugh)! I love the perks of being a PI (principle investigator)!

So. Now I would like to respond to some of the comments I’ve been getting. A caller from Hillside, New Jersey asker me to describe the people and culture here. I was also asked constantly to post photos. Thanks for asking. Pictures are a little hard to manage. You see, internet is really slow here and my SD drive in my computer is not working with the card that I have... I will try to fix it and will try to post pictures, but for now I can't post a thing. People in Kampala are really friendly and helpful. Everyone greets you with an "Olyotya", "Hi, How are you?" so if you just say hello to someone they will answer "fine, and you?". Everyone hear recognizes that you are a mesungo and probably have a lot more money than they have, but very few try to rip you off (except some cab drivers), there is a sense of what is fair and they keep to it. Otherwise, when walking around Kamapala, especially at night, there are tens and possible hundreds of little children begging for money. We were told by Faith, our host sister, that their parents teach them to beg and check if you have money. If you show any money you are cased and might be pickpocketed later. The best way to deal with it is to walk away. Which hurts. Here are obviously poor children who aren't going to school and only being taught how to beg and I , a "rich mesungo" walks away. I feel like handing out food. On that note, there is not much to report about the food here except that the fruit is AMAZING. I feel like anywhere but the US the fruit tastes like it should. More culture... I am going to a drum factory soon... should be great.

No internet, no water….no electricity?!?!

Monday, June 30, 2008

So, that’s not completely true (the title). I had water for this morning, but it was gone by the time we came back for dinner. The electricity went out for a little while, but came back on the same day… No, I’m still not complaining. I had my hot sponge-bath (the water smelled a little like burning, but no, I’m not complaining.

In other news, Lauren and I went to the Mpererwe dump today, tooks lots of pictures which I am still unable to upload due to internets speeds that rival a sloth moving in slow motion. There were tons of birds eating the trash and just hanging about, but more importantly, there were tons of people. People were sifting through trash to find useful items, planting their vegetables, and working in the water treatment plant. Yea, you read that right, people were planting fruit and vegetables in the dump that is leaching tons of horrible chemicals into the land and water. Three words for you: COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION! I know the pictures will make things clearer so I am going to go to a café with really fast connection speeds and make sure to get them up tomorrow.

The COBES students, medical and public health students from Makerere University, were with us at the dump and they too had never seen it. They remarked about how dirty the “treated” water was, how disgusting it was that a cow was drinking from the untreated water, and were even scared of breathing in lead. So basically, we did what all medical school professors do; we simply told them about a problem affecting the development of children (lead, you know that’s what I’m studying here), and now everyone is sick with lead poisoning… I still think I have some disease that I can’t pronounce or remember, but I learned about it in physiology. I think I might start lecturing to medical students and then providing them with the cure (not covered by insurance) to their psychosomatic ailments. I’ll call it beer.

We also heard back from the Ministry of Education and Sports… they are excited with and interested in our study and they have some good ideas for us. No, I’m not dumb, just really optimistic. Their could be thinking “wow, what a great way to make the government spend tons of money on a dump instead of something more positive.” But they could also be thinking “what cool people, gee, I think we should give them a grant and start a kosher restaurant for Danny.” Hey, you never know.

So tomorrow is my birthday. I thought about that for a while today. I haven’t spent a birthday at home with the family in 7 years. Family, my birthday will be celebrated with a BBQ upon my return…please? I am craving meat, chicken, hot dogs (don’t be fooled, they don’t count as meat), pizza, and fresh vegetables. Yup, still not eating fresh vegetables though on Sunday I still got hit with some pretty intense…nevermind.

On that note…I think I hear the water cistern filling up again which can only mean one of three things; 1 it’s raining outside, 2 there is a croc in the cistern, or 3 WE HAVE WATER! Wow, now that I smell like burnt tea (water is heated on a wooden stove and is put in the same containers we serve tea out of…no I’m not complaining) we have water. I will complain about showers. One of these days I will not have to wonder if taking a washcloth to a filthy body and then rinsing it into clean water makes the clean water dirty, too dirty to use to wash the rest of your body. Half my tan is dust I simply can not remove.

It’s late, goodnight. I’m off to flush the toilet.

It’s filling back up… tomorrow is going to be a great day.