Weeks 3 & 4: Progress in the Lab

This week began with the news that Sofia Viegas, the most senior member of the Mozambican lab staff had returned from Sweden where she is studying, but had been confined to her home by her obstetrician who is concerned about her pregnancy. She is due in late July. Sofia called me and we talked for a while, but it sounds like we will need to manage with e-mail communications for now. Later in the morning, Jose Paulo took me for a walk around the shopping areas of Maputo to increase my comfort level with walking the streets, as opposed to calling for a driver or embassy-approved taxi for every place I would like to go. I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with navigating the streets on foot.

This afternoon I had a late afternoon appointment at the Embassy to get approval to cash checks at the Embassy bank. This will save me a lot of currency conversion charges that approximate 10% at Bank of America. The CDC driver was 35 minutes late to pick me up, so I was quite late for my appointment. The Embassy person was quite gracious and approved my check-cashing privileges, but this experience pushed me over the edge in terms of needing control of my own schedule. I informed the motor pool that I would walk to the lab tomorrow morning.

Tuesday was routine in the lab. In the evening one of the CDC staff, Amy Boore picked us up for a dinner at her apartment....a huge 4 bedroom luxury apartment for one person. Dinner was nice, and I met a couple of embassy people who were also invited. Amy's Portuguese teacher was the life of the party.

Wednesday was busy, with a trip to the Immunology lab to acquire some surplus equipment, a meeting with the new American resident replacing Mike Presiosi on the meninigitis protocol, and a journal club presented by one of the students of the lab. This evening there was a power failure at Peter's house and the emergency generator wasn't working properly so we had an uncomfortable night. Of course, most Mozambicans don't have emergency generators.

On Thursday, I worked on acquiring a water purification system for the lab, which will probably turn out to be a state-the-art Milli Q system. Beth seems to think she can find funds for this if we can be assured of having enough money for service contracts and annual maintenance. In the afternoon there was a celebration of Mozambican Independence Day in the corridor outside the lab. It was crowded, the food was good, and the entire spread was wiped off the face of the Earth in about 30 minutes....sort of like the SRP Carb Corner.

Friday was a holiday in celebration of Mozambican Independence day, so I fixed a flat tire on Peter's extra bicycle and got it on the road. I rode around a little bit, and later did some walking to discover a different marketplace and a couple of additional grocery stores within walking distance of my residence. The weekend was relatively quiet because my friends had gone to Nelspruit, South Africa to see a World Cup game....Cote d' Voir vs. North Korea, not a highpoint of the series. On Sunday, Beth picked me up to go to Cafe Sol with her family prior to showing me about the house that I'll occupy for the month of July. In the evening, Peter had a couple of people over for pizza, and he invited me to join them. This was another nice opportunity to get to know another Global AIDS Program staff person. His Mozambican girlfriend made a really nice cake for dessert....probably one of the best I've ever had.

The week of June 27 was a whirlwind. It began slowly enough with some plans to address the action items from our last meeting with Ilesh Jani, the INS director, but things got busier I prepared for the 4th of July weekend holiday trip to the beaches up north in Imhanbane (pronounced Imyanban). During the week we had some major progress. We got a quote from Millipore for a water treatment system and made a tentative selection of a $16,900 unit (installed) with no serious expectation that anyone would fund it. Beth Skaggs was receptive to the idea, however, so I think we may be able to make it happen. We also got the gas turned on in the lab. This may sound like a simple thing, but we had to wait weeks to gain access to the locked cage in the parking area that houses 2 propane tanks so that we could turn it on.

On Wednesday, I took advantage of an Embassy-sponsored trip to an orphanage north of Maputo (see www.icmmaputo.org/d_charity_2ai.htm). I was the only male on the trip. We spent an hour touring the facility which houses and educates 360 (soon to be 400) children, about 80% boys, between the ages of one month and 17 years. The orphanage part is non-demonational Protestant Christian, but the schooling is funded by Mozambique, so they are careful to keep the Christian education part separate from the school per se. They run entirely contributions, and none of the Americans are on salary....they must raise their own money before they come to work there.

The person who gave us the tour was a clergy person from Oregon, and when asked, seemed in denial about the relationship of AIDS-related deaths to the need for their services. She said that malaria and TB were bigger contributors.

We played with the toddlers for an hour after the tour. They mostly want to be picked up and to sit on your lap. One of them thought that what is left of my hair was quite fascinating, and my sunglasses were also a hit. One learns quickly to take everything out of your pockets to secure it because they will play with anything new. I was glad I went and may try to get Charlene and Annie to go out there for a day when they come to visit in 2 weeks.

On Thursday, I presented some training on disinfection and antisepsis as well as some practical instructionns on optimal use of biological containment cabinets. I just did this with quick preparation in place of one of the students who was unable to prepare her journal club presentation because of a death in her fiance's family.

On Friday, we had a short day and were instructed by the CDC office to attend a 4th of July reception at the Ambassador's residence from noon to 2 PM. It was all in Portuguese except for the National Anthem, but I got the gist of it. The food was a bit sparse, so we really didn't get lunch before leaving for the beach about 3 hours later than we should have to arrive before dark.

Some pictures for this 2 weeks. Four of them are pictures taken at the orphanage, and one of them is a street scene near the Avenida hotel, downtown Maputo. The latter isn't too good, but I'll do better in the next posting about our holiday in Inhambane. The orphanage pictures show a typical dorm room for boys, and the large chapel area. The other 2 are outdoor scenes showing some of the children. Incidentally, the stated reason for the 80/20 distribution of boys to girls is that females are a "commodity" in Mozambique because women are trained to do much of the work so they are more useful than the boys. You may see some pictures in the next posting to illustrate this.