6-4-09-Thursday

Today started off beautifully: I got to the clinic at 7am, in time to catch the prayer ceremony from start to finish. It seems like only the receptionist (nick-named KG because it is way too hard to pronounce his name) come this early and begins only with the help of one other staff member. Anyways, they are speaking in setswana so I have no clue what they are saying, but about 5 minutes into it, the head Mma asks me to come forward. She introduces me to the group and I seem to get the adoring smiles of the children and mothers who woke up at who knows what time just to come to clinic. She asked if I wanted to address the group and I did. I spoke slowly and clearly; I said hello to all in setswana and asked how they all were this morning in English. They all smiled and gave their respective replies. I get no where near this level of attention in the states, it was a nice feeling. I proceeded to tell then that I was glad they were all here and that I hope their lives are treating them well and that I hope to see all of them again. They all smiled, and clapped for me. The head Mma repeated what I said in setswana followed by another round of praise. The head Mma turned to me and said “thank you my brother, those were kind words”

I know I am the minority in Botswana and I know that there is racism against whites, but I felt accepted by this micro population and that made me feel welcomed into their lives. This was one of the most heart warming experiences I have ever had and I will remember it forever. I plan to go tomorrow and ask the group if I could take pictures. The morning prayers progressed with song (surprisingly harmonized) and dance.

Then it was off to work for me. First task; scholar’s meeting. I met with Ryan (associate director; PAC doc from the states), Lindsay (clinical psychologist and a local), Lisa (roommate; PhD in pharm), JW (roommate and junior at Georgetown), Stu (sophomore at Mich. St.) and Dr. Dwight (education coordinator and Advanced HIV lecturer).

All small tasks that the COE needed to get done were handed out (even I got to delegate some of my project to the undergrads ). When it was all done, Dwight announces that he is leaving and he needs me to take over the education coordination. I said OK not knowing what I was getting into. I now am in charge of making sure the Advanced HIV curriculum (given to Medical Officers (equivalents of 1st year of residency in Bots) and Bots MDs) gets taught every Tues and Thurs; that everyone gets a copy of the lecture; and I have to make exams for each lecture. It turns out that Bots doctors are not well versed in molecular biology and, as a first year medical student grad, I should be. On top of this, I am coordinating the normal HIV curriculum for my case-based lectures as well as converting it into a new version for South Africa to use. Once I am done, Ryan is personally flying the hard copy down there to them.

Needless to say, I am swamped with work and by tomorrow, I have to present my outline for the first case. My schedule is full of work and I love it!

Has lunch at the hospital Caf and learned that soda is called “fizzy”

I left work after the Advanced lecture on Antiretroviral Treatment Failures (which is very interesting) and ran to the gym. The street’s air was pleasantly saturated with the smell of burring wood today. Much better than the exhaust fumes.

I returned home, ate diner and got back to work.

I’ll close with a quote I noticed at the gym today:
“Sports look past all ethnicity, race, color and gender to bring people together to compete. Bodybuilding is important for nation building.”