FACES shout out!

Here is a New York Times article which talks about FACES, which is on the same compound at UNIM (where I work some) in Kisumu, Kenya:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/health/26cases.html?_r=2&hpw

This week has been quite busy, not only for my project, but also because the dissemination meeting for the Male Circumcision studies are happening.

Today, I will spend a portion of my day at the dissemination talks, which should be very interesting.

I have a few tales to share from the past few days:

1.  Yesterday, Albert, Marisa, and I went to a restaurant near NRHS (Nyanza Reproductive Health Society) in the United Mall to grab a quick lunch.  Bob (Dr. Bailey) came down to join us quickly before he rushed off to his next meeting.  Where we ate is one big dining area, but is actually 2 different restaurants which is only divided by who happens to get you their menu quickest and who ends up being your wait staff (which in itself is kind of bizarre).  We had decided to order from one place, but when Bob came down he ordered from the other which clearly confused out wait staff, but then it confused her even more when he ordered his drink from her, but his food from the other restaurant.  Nevertheless, he got the waiter from the other restaurant to quickly take his order and asked, "Do you have egg rolls?"  The waiter replied, "Egg Rolls? Uh, yes, we have."  If you want to get in and out of a place here - the quickest option is fried food.

We hung out for a while and none of the food was coming particularly quickly, but eventually, Bob's waiter arrived with his food (despite having been there for about 15 minutes prior to Bob arriving - our food had not yet arrived).  The waiter put the food in front of Bob and in shock Bob goes,"WHAT!?" as he stared down in dismay at what can only be described as 3 hard boiled egg sub sandwiches!  Marisa and I could not contain our laughter and the waiter was clearly confused because of the reactions at the table so asked, "Didn't you ask for egg rolls?" Bob admitted, "Yes, I did ask for egg rolls, but I guess I should have said spring rolls."  The waiter offered to get him spring rolls too, but Bob was like, "No, I said egg rolls - this is ok."  It was SO classic!!!

2.  This weekend was jam packed, we had a birthday party, dinner/movie party, brunch, and pool party to attend.  Somehow my social life seems WAY busier here than in the states - which is odd.  The pool party is worth mentioning because it was at Alkesh's.  All I have to say is that Kenyan Indians can DRINK!  Alkesh's brother and some other friends were there and we had a huge Indian BBQ with some of the best food I have ever eaten!  Kabobs, Chicken, Curries, Vegetable, Paneer and more.  What also was there was this absurd 4.5 L bottle of Whiskey that Alkesh had gotten at some point as a gift, but had never opened.  The bottle was opened at around 2 pm and by 8 pm, when we finally left there to go home to dry off and put warm clothes on after a number of people were pushed into the pool, nothing short of 2.5 L of the bottle were gone.  The crazy part was that only about 5 of the men were drinking it!  RIDICULOUS!  I was suffering from what I will call a running hangover (a headache that resulted from being an idiot and not eating enough post 16-mile run the day before) so I was just witnessing the downward spiral into madness.

3.  On my 16 mile run on Saturday morning, I ran into a troop of monkeys which was kind of awesome!  It's pretty special to be able to run in a place with such interesting scenery.  That being said it is tough due to heat and hills, but it is certainly interesting!  I have been running some with a girl named Vicki who actually works at FACES through UCSF and she and I are going to go around and take some pictures of our running spots and possibly even do it as an interval day - walk to our running spots - do a sprint or two and take a picture, and then walk to the next spot.  I will post some Kenyan running pictures once they are available!

4.  I will post a few pictures later, but I don't think they do the site justice.  Yesterday evening we had kind of a crazy storm, but when we go home the sun was brightly shining through the rain.  Albert and I went up to the roof to watch the sun set in the rain and also to get a better view of the double (stacked) rainbows that were right next to our house!  It was pretty stunning!

I think that's all for now - since I have to run over to the meetings.

Ashley