yankari, the haven

this weekend, i had the honor of being the guest of his excellency, alhaji ahmadu adamu mu'azu, governor of bauchi state in yankari national park. several of the volunteers made the 3 hour drive from jos to yankari and stayed at the governor's guest house, which always has electricity and running water. it was certainly a treat, since it also came with a cooking staff, flat screen tvs, jacuzzi bath tubs, and air conditioning. the entire trip was provided for by both the governor and the blattners. we arrived friday and were off right away on safari. we hopped on the back of an old, beat up truck and drove around the park for about 90 minutes. our tour guide, david, worked at the park for many years and knew the name of every species found in yankari.
we saw a handful of animals in their natural environment. the highlight of the safari was the family of elephants, including baby elephants! we almost got attacked by one of the older male elephants, but david did some magical spell and the elephant left us alone. we also got a chance to see water buck, several species of birds, antelope, monkeys, and wart hogs. no hippos or lions this time. at our compound, tons of baboons would play jokes on the tourists. especially at the wiki hot springs, where they stole kevin's (one of the volunteers) shirt while he was swimming, defecated on it, and returned it to him. prince, dr. chris' son, liked to run up to them from time to time.
the entire trip, i got to spend a lot of time with memuna, the daughter of one of FA's patients who is very sick in the hospital. dr. chris is taking care of her while her mother recovers. she grew up in the village and had a difficult time adjusting to city life, but really shined on this trip. she stole my heart! luckyily, i decided to bring my bathing suit last minute, because the wiki hot springs were heaven on earth. the water was always crystal clear and warm. i spent most of my time this weekend in the water, despite some odd circumstances due to culture. but that's a story i can save.
all in all, a fantastic getaway in nigeria! here we are in front of the governor's guest house.

on our way back, we saw a fulani tribe migrating with their massive amount of cattle on the side of the road. it was an indescribable sight. the fulani are nomadic peoples located in many parts of western africa.

the night before we left yankari, the governor sent for a tailor to come out and take all of our measurements. the next day, we drove to jos to meet him at one of his many homes. he was in a hurry to catch a flight, but fed us and gave us traditional nigerian outfits that were all made in one night! impressive. his excellency is very charming and charismatic; it was an honor to meet him and be his guest. here we are at the governor's house in jos all decked out in our wonderful gifts.

this was definitely the best weekend so far in nigeria!

Jos, the haven

I am learning an incredible amount in my short time here, and have been adjusting to the simple life provided for me. Last Sunday, I traveled to a small village outside of the busy city of Jos to participate in an HIV/AIDS awareness outreach that FA puts together. Along with the usual FA support group members, Dr. and Mrs. Blattner also joined us in this village’s church. The service was very entertaining, consisting mostly of singing and dancing. Nyazi, a support group member, translated the service and songs to me from Hausa (one of the predominant languages spoken, especially in northern Nigeria) to English. After their service, FA members put on a skit about HIV awareness and gave their personal experiences with HIV and FA. Dr. Blattner, one of the world’s experts on HIV and head of the Human Institute of Virology in Abuja, answered questions that village members had about HIV. A lot of interesting questions arose, including transmission questions and vaccine/cure/prophylactic treatment questions. Dr. Blattner answered these questions very well and compared HIV to diseases and conditions they understood, such as malaria and hypertension. After the service, the village invited us to lunch where we had delicious spicy rice and mineral (soda).

Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to visit the many areas that FA runs. There is a skills acquisition program that includes the sewing school, knitting school, and computer school. Probably the most outgoing group of students lies within the sewing school, but everyone is very welcoming. I am having many things made by the ladies at the sewing school, including a traditional Nigerian blouse and skirt. I picked out my fabric the other day at the market with Florence, one of the sewing school teachers. Often, the ladies bring their children. Jennifer is my favorite.

The lab is going through a transitional phase at the moment since the fire destroyed most of their equipment. They hope to move the lab from the sewing school to the new clinic by next week. I spent a day in the lab learning how things work around there, and I learned a lot from the staff, particularly Rotimi. He has been at FA for a few years and is very helpful.

I've also gotten the chance to check out pre and post test counseling, a very intense place to work. This is where the patients get told that they either tested positive or negative for HIV. Probably over 50% of those who come in for an HIV test are positive.

This past week I have been getting used to the way of life in Jos and developing my project. I expressed my interests with Dr. Chris, and he assigned me to Dr. Chukwuma, or Dr. Chuks for short. Dr. Chuks is an amazing physician who heads Team E at FA. The patients under PEPfAR are all separated into different teams. There are about 7 teams that consist of a doctor, nurse, counselor, treatment support specialist (who is always HIV positive), and an adherence counselor. The first 6 teams all deal with naive patients. This means that the patients have never been exposed to ARVs, and are easier to treat. The last team, Team E, deals with all the patients who are a bit more difficult to treat for a variety of reasons, that includes failing first line therapy. Dr. Chuks heads Team E and is very good at what he does. I shadowed him the first day, and saw a lot of pathology that, before now, I have only been exposed to through text books and pictures. The study I am designing and conducting with the guidance of Dr. Chuks (who is also head of research at FA) consists of determining the hepatitis B/C and HIV co-infection prevalence of patients in Team E and comparing this prevalence to one of the naive teams' co-infection prevalence. I hope to make recommendations based on the data we will collect in these next two months that can impact FA's screening methods and drug treatment regimen for co-infected patients, since certain ARVs are more toxic to the liver with HBV/HCV co-infection than HIV mono-infection. Also, this study can provide more insight to the patient constituency of Team E. We'll see what happens!


Switching gears, I went to Jos' museum yesterday, which basically consists of shops that sell local artwork and crafts. I plan on buying most of my gifts here. They are magnificent. There is also a zoo next to it, but we did not get a chance to visit just yet. Although this area is in the center of Jos, it seems like it's on the outskirts; very quiet and peaceful. This is a certain contrast to the loud and polluted streets that comprise the rest of the city. I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie with all the huts around.

After the museum, we headed out to the orphanage which is run by the Plateau State government. Adoption is rare in Nigeria, since the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" is taken very seriously here. International adoptions are non-existent and culturally taboo. There are about ten children at the orphanage now. At times, only one person will look over all these children. They are all very cute and loving. I held Gloria most of the time, who I hear is a bully. She wasn't acting up around me.




In other news, I am learning how to play guitar. I am pretty bad at it. Ryan was teaching me until he left for Germany with his wife. Now I will probably turn to Dr. Prince to teach me for the rest of the summer. I am also convincing Dr. Prince and Dr. Chuks to apply for an MPH at Berkeley!

the basics

greetings from jos! i haven't had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts. when i tried just now, i realized i couldn't. maybe it's because i am still in temporary transition mode. thus, i apologize in advance if this entry seems a bit scattered.

i thought i would just put up a few pictures i took over the past couple days. i haven't been able to take many, because i've created this overwhelming cultural sensitivity rule in my head that mitigates me from bringing out my camera. so mostly, i have been taking pictures of signs and baby animals. i have been told, however, that the children love having their pictures taken. and this probably makes me the happiest girl in jos. i don't have any of random nigerian children on my laptop just yet, but that is what the rest of these ten weeks are for.

i am currently staying in the bayside apartments, in a wonderful 4 bedroom/2 bath that i share with 5 other people as of now. volunteers keep shifting around, so i never affirm anything with certainty. i love it here; the apartments have personality and very hard furniture. our living room is very feminine.
















i share a room with lani, another student from cal. my bed is near the window. before and after shots of the bed net. there aren't too many mosquitos here at all, though.











































the exchange rate has been declining steadily over the past few days. we were told it was around 140 naira to the US dollar. when we got around to exchanging money, it was 137 naira to the dollar. only exchange money on the black market. the banks overcharge and you get more money here than in the states or at the airport.

if you are calculating along, $100 US is worth 13,700 naira. i never had 13,700 of anything before. the other student volunteers from left to right: andrew, alicia, rod, lani, and yours truly.

tomorrow, i begin working at the clinic. i'll have a better idea of my project tomorrow, i hope. there are so many projects i can work on. i am very anxious about finally getting to work. we've been lounging and exploring for the past week. although i have some stories to tell already, i think i am going to reserve them for a painfully hot day.