sudden change of plans...maybe (Liz)

My flight to Nigeria is on Thursday (June 18). Whether or not I get on the plane remains to be seen.

This past Thursday (June 11), I read the following in an email from the director of my host organization:

"Liz I have some concern regarding ur trip. I do not know if you have heard of the recent kiddnapping in the Niger Delta area in Nigeria? Well the situation has been extended to Imo State. Yesterday, I got a call from Professor Daniel Smith of Brown University cancelling his trip with his student to CYDI this year. They were meant to arrive on May 11. This will be the first time, since 2002, that CYDI will not have an intern from Brown University. Will we are disappointed, we recognise thier genuine concern.

Sincerely, I think you need to evaluate the situation and reconsider the trip. Things are not safe right now in Owerri. Will CYDI needs you this summer, we are also concerned about ur safety.

I also think you need to discuss the situation with Professor Kate Winskel."

Since reading this, I've been communicating with Kate, who has spoken to Deb McFarland and Roger Rochat. She also got in touch with Dan Smith, the Brown professor. After their conversation, she sent this to me:

"I just spoke with Dan Smith. His in-laws are in Abia State (adjacent to Imo) and that’s where he does his research. What’s going on there is a spate of ransom kidnappings by criminal gangs copycatting those that have become fairly commonplace in the coastal regions of the Delta in recent years. This phenomenon is not isolated to South-East Nigeria – it’s nationwide (I’ve even heard that these kidnappings are becoming more common in Kenya…). Dan relies heavily on advice from his in-laws and, on the basis of their advice, has gone to Nigeria repeatedly when the State Dept would have advised against it. This time, his in-laws are saying don’t come because of it’s not safe to do so in light of the kidnappings – and he’s taking their advice very seriously. It’s clear that Abia State is worse than Imo State (Benjamin apparently wasn’t aware of a problem until alerted to it by Dan). Dan had been taking a Brown student to work with Benjamin in Owerri, but didn’t comfortable about the student going when he had decided not to go to Abia State, an hour away, for security reasons."

Deb has friends at the Carter Center,which has an office in Owerri. We are waiting to hear back with their assessment of the situation. I am meeting with Kate on Monday to discuss. At this point, the decision may be out of my hands. Emory and GHI might step in and decide for me.

If the choice is left with me (which I doubt), I have two conflicting schools of thought. Having planned this trip for months, there is the inclination to go anyway. But, I have also been on the other side, telling someone not to go somewhere and really knowing what I was talking about. I generally depend on the advice of locals and do not take their warnings lightly. I have made it clear with the director of the organization that if this situation turns me into more of a burden as a liability than an asset, I would rather not go. Plus, there is the whole kidnapping thing... Kate was specific to point out that kidnappings don't always go as well as planned and sometimes end badly. Being a young, female American, I could be a clear target, especially considering that I will be one of the only white faces in Owerri.

So I'm currently preparing myself for any conclusion. I want to be ready to leave on Thursday, but am quickly putting together backup plans.

I've written an email to my contact in the States, who I worked with in Zimbabwe. This is part of the letter:

"If I do not go to Nigeria, then I am suddenly without plans for the next two months. But I like to see it as a potential opportunity. I called Delta Airlines yesterday and learned that my ticket is non-refundable. However, if I cancel my itinerary before the flight date, I will have a monetary credit with Delta (minus a $250 penalty). I could potentially use this to help fund a flight to Zimbabwe.

It has been well over a year since I've seen Zim. I have wanted to get back, and have even had moments of regret that I wouldn't be going this summer.

I may be able to convince Emory that this would be a logical alternative. My continuing relationship with Zimbabwe allows for a promising access point. Trying to build a program from scratch in any other location will be difficult in a short time period. But my history in Old Mutare provides a convenient template. I was intending to perform a program assessment for a community-based HIV organization in Nigeria. I could easily shift this into a formal evaluation of the VCT. I would conduct a series of confidential, voluntary interviews with both personnel and clientele. This could be very beneficial to the clinic, because I could provide documentation of strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for future development. As a funding source, this would be very helpful for me to also have."

When I suggested this option to Kate, she initially laughed and said "You've got to be joking?" (something about my knack for picking volatile environments...) But, after hearing me out, she started to come around. So we'll see.

As of now, I don't know what to expect. Nigeria, Zimbabwe, somewhere else altogether.

Either way, this summer just got a lot more interesting...

My Introduction to Emergency Management (Heidi)

As I mentioned in my last post, this past week I had the opportunity to watch as the newly founded NEMA (Israeli equivalent of FEMA) conducted it's largest national drill ever. Quite possibly the most intimidating and amazing experience I've had! Here are some of the more interesting events:

First, it was me and these guys. Yeah.

They had a school prepare for a missile attack - so they sounded the siren and had the kids go into missile/bomb shelters.

After that they pretended as if a missile had struck the building and children were trapped inside - so they sent rescue crews in (and up) to get them and had EMS triage. These kids were awesome.

Another day they showed us a resilience facility - so they showed us how they help displaced individuals and what they do for stress relief.

Then they took us to a collapsed building - they had demolished it before we got there and put dummy dolls in there to show us their search and rescue response.

The last day they pretended there was a car bomb and so they evacuated 6000 people from 9 buildings in downtown Tel Aviv - and we watched.

At the very beginning of the drill I met two FEMA guys who really took me under their wing. After the drill we took a trip to Caesaria to see the Roman ruins. I'm now in Beersheva. I'll be writing up findings from the drill and collaborating on research to work that our Center is working on. Should be fun!

Rancho Grande

This week we went to Rancho Grande, it was the most rural place we've been yet. I forgot my bed net, and that was the biggest mistake of my trip so far. The hotel was very...interesting. Let's just say that the ceiling wasn't exactly flush with the roof, so there was about a half foot gap where bugs and critters of all kinds could come in. Allison had two lizards in her bed! And the backyard of the hotel had three pigs and plenty of roosters, so sleeping was hard because of the noise and the most intense fecal odor I have ever smelled. So the first night I tried to sleep under my blanket but it was so hot, that I ended up kicking off the blankets in my sleep. I woke up with bug bites all over my face and something bit my lower lip and it had swelled up to a huge blob. I had to go to the health center for antihistamines. So needless to say, I searched Rancho Grande up and down for a bed net, and I found this one for only 150 cordobas ($7.50). Best investment ever. Moving on...



The first day we went to the Casa Materna. I am so impressed with these! There were five women there, the director said there are usually 10-16. We couldn't interview three of the five because they weren't 18, they were mostly in the 14-15 range. Note the bed nets above the beds on the right :D The Casa Materna had a common room, and then a big dorm style room in the back. It was more run down than the Casa Maternas in Matagalpa and El Cua, but definitely functioning which is what matters. Our interview with the director was interesting. We learned that they are having trouble getting the high risk women to come to the Casa Materna because their husbands won't let them. Women receive health information at the Casas, about pregnancy but also about family planning (which is critical given that many women have 6+ kids and that so many are teen pregnancies). The director said that men don't like their wives to have this information. Also, the Casas can't house a woman's relatives due to space, so women feel isolated and lonely and for that reason don't always like to come. I thought the guarantee of free housing, food, and access to a hospital would result in all women wanting to come to the Casa Materna regardless if they were high risk or not, but turns out that is not the case at all.



The first day we also went to the Centro de Salud. This is where women from the Casa Materna go to deliver. It is about a five minute walk. There is one birthing room. When I was there, two teens were in labor. They looked remarkably calm and in control. The birthing room as you can see is incredibly basic. They don't use pain killers or have a lot of technology, so it's basically the exam table and then the basic gauze, sterilizers, etc. The second picture here is a 'birthing kit.' Inside was forceps, a cord cutter, etc. As you can see from the rusty bins, they are re-used and very old. But the equipment inside was clean and sterile and that's what's important.








This is a picture of the street right outside our hotel. This was a really cute town, aside from the hotel experience, it is my favorite town yet. It was very tranquil, very few cars and most people used horses. Plus, the animals! There were pigs and chickens running through the streets. Lots of piglets too like the one of the right. Very cute even if they did smell.
Animals just wander freely, and the hotel had lots of stray kittens stalking the lizards on the walls and baby hens. This one joined us at the dinner table. Overall, great week! I got 9 interviews done. So far what I have found is that women don't use formula because it is not sold in the rural communities and because it is way too expensive. Instead they use cow milk, which might be even more dangerous than formula because it is unpasteurized and apparently gives kids parasites. This weekend me and the ladies are going to Managua and then it is off to another rural community on Monday.

On MSNBC! (Heidi)

So I've been participating in the national defense drill here in Israel. It has been an incredible experience, and has really shown why Israel has one of the best preparedness systems in the world... I'll detail more about this later and will definitely post pics, but for now, check out second 51 of this news clip! I should have been wearing a bright shirt saying "ROLLINS!"

Heidi on MSNBC

:)

Melt (Yvonne)

I was walking through a predominantly Muslim community 2 days ago when the 4th call to prayer of the day sounded. I haven't heard that sound since October 5, 2007 and instantly shivers pulsed through my spine and I was bathed in remembrances of times past and so began a bout of nostalgia.

End of India... beginning of Israel (Heidi)

I love reading all the fabulous posts!! Yay! Can't wait to see the Ghanan skirts, and it's just so good to hear that everyone is having an amazing time, even if there are gunshots involved (hope you're staying safe, Jeff).

My last week in India was simply amazing. Sara and I took a trip up north to Manali, a mountain town nestled in the foothills of the Himilayas. It was a quick trip (34 hours of travel for 36 hours there), but it was memorable and totally worth it. After a flight to Delhi and a 14 hour over-night drive, awaking to the beauty of the area instantly erased any thoughts of the distressing travel. It was like looking at Glacier National Park (western Montana) on steroids, or getting thrust back into an ancient time when everything was bigger - trees, rivers, mountains. After temperatures constantly in the 100s, the 50 degree weather was refreshing and cause for hot tea and jackets, which was fabulous! Being 50 miles from Pakistan, and 30 miles from Tibet, there was tangible Tibetan and Budhist influence here, far different from the Muslum-dominated Hyderabad (which itself is unique in the Hindu country). We did a little light hiking and exploring and found a fabulous Boreal-like forest over looking a river with prayer flags, mist-covered and all!

The second day we had every intention of going on a day hike... but when we got to the trail head we were completely blown away by a mountain carnival at 9000 feet. It was incredible -- paragliding, horse rides, zorbing, blow-up bouncy houses -- all in this little green valley surrounded by white caps. Somewhat reminiscent of Hilton's description of Shangri-La, without the whole 'no contact with the outside world' part. Needless to say, we were distracted from our hike, and eagerly embraced fact we were tourists and this was all here for our entertainment! So we went paragliding and zorbing, and when it rained we sat on the mountain side by a fire created by our paragliding guide. It was so dreamlike and really indescribable. The best part was that there was absolutely no semblance of order, so the paragliders just landed into crowds of running people and zorbs just assume people would move (we actually saw one kid get rolled over by one... but she was ok).

After falling into the rabbit hole... this is the sight of our Solang Valley madness.
Getting ready to jump off the mountain!
Zorbing! (aka: rolling down the hill in a huge plastic ball while two people are inside strapped down in an inner sphere)
All in all I had a wonderful time in India and have no doubt I'll be back. I would love to spend more time in the north and I've been told that I just have to visit places like Goa, Chennai, and the Kashmir province (once it settles down a little bit).

But now, a new adventure begins in Tel Aviv! Yes, India is over and I'll now start working on my summer GFE in Israel. A couple days before I was to arrive I found out that I was granted access to a national drill that is being conducted here, so my plans quickly changed and I've been staying in Tel Aviv (instead of going strait to Beersheba) for the past couple days. I will be spending my first 10 days here and it should really be an incredible learning experience. They're going to be sounding the missle siren on Tuesday! Too cool! Here's an article about the drill: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243346492354&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

So far I've been really impressed by Tel Aviv -- it's really clean and has a beautiful charm about it. Plus, my hotel is right on the beach... and since everything shuts down here during the Sabbath, I've been spending plenty of time on the sand! I do think I'll be learning some Hebrew -- while most people speak it, aside from menus, most writing on stores and signs don't have English. Oh, and the airport security that I was so worried about going through turned out to be practically nonexistent. It was just simple questions at the passport counter, took 10 minutes. But there was one lady who I chatted with in the hotel and she's a US citizen with no Arab stamps, but she has an Egyptian middle name or something, and she was there for 9 hours.

Welcome to Israel, I guess!

VINACOSH (Ron)

VINACOSH stands for the Vietnamese Committee on Smoking and Health. It is the government organization that conducts all tobacco control efforts in the country and it is where I work everyday. It is a very small organization with only 6 employees, but they are amazing people. Yesterday, there was a Vietnamese tradition of cleansing the body of "insects" - for lack of a better translation. The way this is properly done is to ingest a rice dice that has fermented for a while. Imagine eating rum cake with a noticeable amount of alcohol first thing before work and you'll get the picture.


The entire VINACOSH office is probably double the size of my apartment so it's a wonder that they even found a desk for me. Also pictured here is Huong (b).







From left to right is Huong (a) the media communications officer, my main working partner, and Huong (c). That's right, with a staff of 6, VINACOSH employs 3 Huongs :) I am told the name means fragrance.



For lunch, we will either go out to eat, or one of the women will cook in the office. Let me tell you that it's very difficult to get work done with the aroma of pan-fried pork wandering the office 30 minutes before lunch time. But the best part of working here is that I get to eat traditional Vietnamese food every day.



































And what lunch would be complete without a dish of Rambutan.


A Vietnamese fruit of which I have no words to describe other than that it is sweet. I am told it is similar to a lychee also spelled litchi. But since I have not eaten a lychee I have no reference.

The people I work with are simply amazing. They are so eager to please and to practice their English with a real American. I taught them the proper pronunciation of the words "valley" and "pine tree" both of which they are convinced are very difficult to say. Personally I have trouble with the word "ngon" which sounds like "non" but not exactly.

First few days in DC (Callie)

Hi all!
It has been so great to read all about your adventures so far. I'm glad everyone sounds happy and healthy! I'm getting settled into life in DC. My week started out a bit rough- a sudden down pour caused me to arrive at my first day of work completely drenched and all discombobulated (just sound it out- I don't think that is a real word). But, I've moved past that embarrassing entrance and the rest of the week has gone very well. There are 14 interns (all very cool) and there are three of us from Rollins so that is fun!
The best part about my job so far is that they asked me to attend the Global Health Council Conference here in DC all week. It is HUGE - it is like APHA only better because it is all implementers (NGOS) and not academics talking about how great their research is- and all the presentations are about effective programs and lessons learned etc. So that has been great- major schmoozing and networking (bleh)- but useful in the long run. Next year you should all go!
Other than fun conference things I don't have too much to report, I've already been wine tasting and I'm volunteering with the winery to get free wine!! (Meryl, I thought you would appreciate that).
Miss you all!

Night (Jeff)

Hi,
We have an 8:30 am staff meeting on Monday which resulted in my being very tired yesterday. I was at home waiting for Two and a Half Men to come on at 7:30 (American television is a rare treat, even if it's crap) when I decided to get in bed for a second. Predictably, I feel asleep. I woke up at about 8:30 to be sad for a second that I missed tv, then went back to sleep. I woke up again, unsure of what time it was. It was probably late enough that I should accept that I was not going to be awake any more tonight and I could take off the polo shirt and sweater I was currently wearing and get under the covers. I turned my cell phone on to check the time. 3:30 am. That's not good. I hope I haven't ruined my internal clock too badly. I've been going to sleep between 11 and 12 because there is nothing to do at night here and taking baths has made me sleepy. I can stay awake until bed time tommorow (as in tonight now, but last night I was considering it the next day) and restore my schedule. That should be -

BANG!

Shit. Was that a gunshot? I think it was. It was close too. Not on campus, but not terribly far away on the road. I heard a siren about ten minutes later, which probably confirmed it was a gun. I live near a hospital so it isn't totally conclusive.

I think in SF I could hear gunfire from the Mission while in Diamond Heights (and once while I was actually in the Mission) but it's a lot more scary when I am alone in a strange country. I knew people that lived close to or in areas with gun fire in SF and Oakland so it is not completely crazy to be hearing a shot (http://rhubarbpie.typepad.com/rhubarb/2008/08/it-matters-to-u.html). And I'm a compound controlled by guards. Still it was pretty scary at the time. Listening to all of the sounds that my cottage makes at night, thinking, is that someone trying to break in, is that someone trying to break in? It feels a little silly in the light of day.

Jeff

Like I promised (Monica)

Hey all, sounds like you guys are all having an excellent time. I just got back from PR and I kept true to my word. This is Spots, and she is my foster dog for the week (at least). She's adorable and really sweet, I don't know if she'll still be with me when y'all get back, but if she is, now you guys know her a little bit. I may post more later (that's for you Heidi). Keep having good times!