Tourists are boring!
What are you looking at?
Tree hugger (actually sharpening claws, but hey)
Eagerly awaiting lunch...
Friday, April 11, 2008
Johannesburg
For me, the most humane route to and from Angola is through Johannesburg (that's also the way I get the most frequent flier miles). There are no flights that connect well, so you end up spending the night there, but that lets you recuperate from the 19 hour flight from Atlanta via Dakar on the way there, or the headache that is the airport in Luanda, on the way back. And on the way back, the flight to Atlanta doesn't leave until evening, so you have all day. I took advantage of the day there to arrange a trip to a park where they breed white lions. These are genetically autosomal recessives, like yellow labs, NOT a subspecies, as stated by a misleading and therefore irritating nature special I watched about them. Nonetheless, I wanted to see the white lions. :) I thought this was a fun collection of pictures - and there's one picture of a regular lion (they have those too) tossed in. I got to pet a white lion cub, but didn't get a picture on my camera. :(
Tourists are boring!
What are you looking at?
Tree hugger (actually sharpening claws, but hey)
Eagerly awaiting lunch...
Tourists are boring!What are you looking at?Tree hugger (actually sharpening claws, but hey)Eagerly awaiting lunch...
Angola Visit 1, January 2008
I spent the last half of January in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, doing preliminary work for a survey that I conducted during the month of March.
The objective of the survey was to find out what the actual burden of malaria is in Luanda. According to clinicians and lab logs, there is tons of malaria - I'll elaborate later. If you look at the mosquitoes caught during routine surveillance, hardly any of the mosquitoes that transmit malaria were found in Luanda. There was also data from a population-level survey that showed a very low percent of healthy children in Luanda (5.5%) had parasites in their blood, compared to about 30% in some of the rural parts of the country. (In contrast, in some places with high malaria transmission, more than 80% of healthy people have malaria parasites in their blood at any given time - they just build a sort of semi-immunity to them so they can tolerate more parasites without being sick from them.) Anyway, so there was a mystery to be solved.
Angola is one of the President's Malaria Initiative countries, and there are two resident advisors for PMI there - one for USAID (Francisco, from Mozambique) and one for CDC (Jules, from Rwanda). Both of them are absolutely terrific to work with and I was pretty much dependent on them, since they know both the language (Portuguese) and the political landscape.
I spent most of my two weeks with Jules, presenting the protocol to the USAID mission director, the CDC chief of party, the National Malaria Control Program, and the Provincial Health Department, and collecting necessary information to finish planning the survey. We spent a lot of time with Dr. Alexandra, the malaria coordinator for the Provincial Health Department reviewing the protocol, talking about how to do it, and visiting health centers to pilot our questionnaire, observe, and get information. Here is a picture of Dr. Alexandra interviewing a mother to test out our questionnaire.
I wanted to share a few things that strike me about Luanda as it's unlike anywhere I've ever been in Africa. First, a little background: in 2002, Angola finally signed peace accords after a bloody 29 year civil war, financed by oil and diamonds. As soon as the war was over, money and expats flooded into Luanda, which now has a population of 5.7 million who fled here for safety during the war, packed into a fairly small city. Demand for space, hotel rooms, homes, and commodities far outstrips supply, and prices rose astronomically - Luanda is ranked the most expensive city in the world. I reserved a hotel room 2 months in advance, it was the only hotel that still had rooms for the time I was there (there were a few days there were no rooms in any hotel and I stayed with Jules and his family), and it was $330 per night for a fairly ordinary hotel. Some people are rolling in it, many others are just surviving, with little middle class. It is a city of unbelievable contrasts. Angola is a country under reconstruction, mostly by the Chinese (they trade road building for oil), and there is construction EVERYWHERE! oh.... and the traffic is absolutely unbelievable -- some days, it takes Jules 2 hours to drive the less than 1 mile home during "rush" hour.
Everywhere you look, there are giant cranes, and office buildings (mostly banks and oil companies) and luxury apartment buildings and hotels going up.
From some places, such as the balcony of Jules' house, the city looks beautiful. Just to put it into perspective, a nice western style house such as the one the Embassy provides him, costs $12,000-18,000 per month to rent, and rent is due in advance for a year!
There are nice beach clubs where those that have resources can come and relax on the weekend (just don't try to order anything more than a Coke!)
Oh yes, and the traffic.....
Another interesting aspect is the local economy - in a once communist country, everywhere you look, people are selling something. The bad traffic lends itself to, and is sometimes caused by, men, women, and children (called zungeiras) walking up and down the streets between vehicles selling everything imaginable - phone chargers, car parts, clothes... I once saw someone selling a kitchen sink. This young man appears to specialize in bright colored wash cloths.
Soft drinks are relatively less expensive (compared to clothes and housing) than in most of Africa. This young man is a "vending machine" - ice cold soft drinks in a sturdy plastic bag, umbrella for shade, tire to sit on, and you're golden. These guys are everywhere!
This is Jules and his family - he has a lovely wife and three beautiful daughters, who are fluent in 5 languages - since I stayed with them for awhile, I got to know them fairly well. The last day I was there, we went to the old Portuguese fort overlooking the bay, which is now sort of a museum of military history.
In the courtyard a bunch of huge statues of various Portuguese....
A lot of walls with crumbling but beautiful tilework, presumaby from the colonial days...
And some more recent reminders of war...
There are even a couple very battered planes in front. The view over Luanda from here is spectacular.
But, Luanda is a story to be continued... so bye to Angola until next time!
The objective of the survey was to find out what the actual burden of malaria is in Luanda. According to clinicians and lab logs, there is tons of malaria - I'll elaborate later. If you look at the mosquitoes caught during routine surveillance, hardly any of the mosquitoes that transmit malaria were found in Luanda. There was also data from a population-level survey that showed a very low percent of healthy children in Luanda (5.5%) had parasites in their blood, compared to about 30% in some of the rural parts of the country. (In contrast, in some places with high malaria transmission, more than 80% of healthy people have malaria parasites in their blood at any given time - they just build a sort of semi-immunity to them so they can tolerate more parasites without being sick from them.) Anyway, so there was a mystery to be solved.
Angola is one of the President's Malaria Initiative countries, and there are two resident advisors for PMI there - one for USAID (Francisco, from Mozambique) and one for CDC (Jules, from Rwanda). Both of them are absolutely terrific to work with and I was pretty much dependent on them, since they know both the language (Portuguese) and the political landscape.
I spent most of my two weeks with Jules, presenting the protocol to the USAID mission director, the CDC chief of party, the National Malaria Control Program, and the Provincial Health Department, and collecting necessary information to finish planning the survey. We spent a lot of time with Dr. Alexandra, the malaria coordinator for the Provincial Health Department reviewing the protocol, talking about how to do it, and visiting health centers to pilot our questionnaire, observe, and get information. Here is a picture of Dr. Alexandra interviewing a mother to test out our questionnaire.
I wanted to share a few things that strike me about Luanda as it's unlike anywhere I've ever been in Africa. First, a little background: in 2002, Angola finally signed peace accords after a bloody 29 year civil war, financed by oil and diamonds. As soon as the war was over, money and expats flooded into Luanda, which now has a population of 5.7 million who fled here for safety during the war, packed into a fairly small city. Demand for space, hotel rooms, homes, and commodities far outstrips supply, and prices rose astronomically - Luanda is ranked the most expensive city in the world. I reserved a hotel room 2 months in advance, it was the only hotel that still had rooms for the time I was there (there were a few days there were no rooms in any hotel and I stayed with Jules and his family), and it was $330 per night for a fairly ordinary hotel. Some people are rolling in it, many others are just surviving, with little middle class. It is a city of unbelievable contrasts. Angola is a country under reconstruction, mostly by the Chinese (they trade road building for oil), and there is construction EVERYWHERE! oh.... and the traffic is absolutely unbelievable -- some days, it takes Jules 2 hours to drive the less than 1 mile home during "rush" hour.
Everywhere you look, there are giant cranes, and office buildings (mostly banks and oil companies) and luxury apartment buildings and hotels going up.
From some places, such as the balcony of Jules' house, the city looks beautiful. Just to put it into perspective, a nice western style house such as the one the Embassy provides him, costs $12,000-18,000 per month to rent, and rent is due in advance for a year!
There are nice beach clubs where those that have resources can come and relax on the weekend (just don't try to order anything more than a Coke!)
Oh yes, and the traffic.....
Another interesting aspect is the local economy - in a once communist country, everywhere you look, people are selling something. The bad traffic lends itself to, and is sometimes caused by, men, women, and children (called zungeiras) walking up and down the streets between vehicles selling everything imaginable - phone chargers, car parts, clothes... I once saw someone selling a kitchen sink. This young man appears to specialize in bright colored wash cloths.
Soft drinks are relatively less expensive (compared to clothes and housing) than in most of Africa. This young man is a "vending machine" - ice cold soft drinks in a sturdy plastic bag, umbrella for shade, tire to sit on, and you're golden. These guys are everywhere!This is Jules and his family - he has a lovely wife and three beautiful daughters, who are fluent in 5 languages - since I stayed with them for awhile, I got to know them fairly well. The last day I was there, we went to the old Portuguese fort overlooking the bay, which is now sort of a museum of military history.
In the courtyard a bunch of huge statues of various Portuguese....
A lot of walls with crumbling but beautiful tilework, presumaby from the colonial days...
And some more recent reminders of war...
There are even a couple very battered planes in front. The view over Luanda from here is spectacular.
But, Luanda is a story to be continued... so bye to Angola until next time!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Christmas season
2007 was so full, and absolutely flew!! I had two weeks back in Atlanta before Christmas after coming back from Cameroon. Ed sings in the choir at his church and December is a very busy month, as he sings in several Christmas concerts. This is Ed and a budding conductor at the post-concert party one night. Doesn't he look great in his tux? He actually took me out to dinner still in his tux after the concert.
And out to dinner at a German restaurant with some of my friends from work.
I went to Seattle from December 22-30. I have been spending Christmas with my dad's side of the family almost every year since my parents went back to Cameroon, and my Uncle Ted and Aunt Cathy have adopted me for Christmas. Their daughter Jennie is exactly my age, so it all works very nicely! On Christmas mornings, we open stockings and Christmas presents and have a scrumptious brunch made by Aunt Cathy.
Here are Jennie and her husband Jay, very pleased about having a goat given to an African family in their name. Jennie often has to work some days between Christmas and New Years, and I hang out with Jay, who is an archeology graduate student. He's my sushi buddy!
On Christmas afternoon, the extended Thwing family gets together - my dad has 5 brothers - can you imagine that many Thwings in one room?! Here I am holding the newest great grand child, Christian - don't you love the camouflage pacifier?
My grandmother, who had broken her hip in November, is recovering nicely and was able to join us. Doesn't she look fabulous for 87? (Christian and Jennie are with her.)
After lunch, we have our Christmas gift exchange. We do the kind of white elephant exchange (except with good gifts) where people get to pick gifts by number and there is unlimited stealing. It's a ton of fun and laughter (we had 34 people there this year!), and in the end, everyone gets something they like. Everyone has to unwrap their gift so everyone can see - and decide if they want to steal when it's their turn. :)
After the gifts, we have a birthday cake for Jesus -but every candle represents someone in the Thwing family. As the grandkids were born, then got married, and now are having kids themselves, the candles have multiplied - there are now 40 candles on the cake. My Aunt Cathy goes through everyone by name as she lights the candles. It's really special for all of us!
We had a very beautiful sunny day near the end of December (after our white Christmas), and went down to the beach to enjoy it. Doesn't this look like great beach wear - parka and Starbucks cup. :)
Sunset was very pretty. Jennie and I have taken hundreds of pictures together in almost this exact pose over the years - and for many of the last few, my smile has been literally frozen in place. :) I guess there's a reason I never went to visit Jennie and Jay when they lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. :)
Good bye 2007!
I'm back in Atlanta now, and as usual have had my two weeks here before I leave again, this time for two weeks in Angola, where I'll be setting up for a health-facility based survey to try to determine how much malaria transmission in taking place in Luanda, the capital city. I'm bringing some learning Portuguese CDs on the plane with me. :)
Oh, and other good news is that I officially accepted a full time job in the malaria branch to stay on after EIS is finished at the end of June! I don't think a lot will change, except for my supervisor, and to some extent, my salary. :)
And out to dinner at a German restaurant with some of my friends from work.I went to Seattle from December 22-30. I have been spending Christmas with my dad's side of the family almost every year since my parents went back to Cameroon, and my Uncle Ted and Aunt Cathy have adopted me for Christmas. Their daughter Jennie is exactly my age, so it all works very nicely! On Christmas mornings, we open stockings and Christmas presents and have a scrumptious brunch made by Aunt Cathy.Here are Jennie and her husband Jay, very pleased about having a goat given to an African family in their name. Jennie often has to work some days between Christmas and New Years, and I hang out with Jay, who is an archeology graduate student. He's my sushi buddy!On Christmas afternoon, the extended Thwing family gets together - my dad has 5 brothers - can you imagine that many Thwings in one room?! Here I am holding the newest great grand child, Christian - don't you love the camouflage pacifier?
My grandmother, who had broken her hip in November, is recovering nicely and was able to join us. Doesn't she look fabulous for 87? (Christian and Jennie are with her.)After lunch, we have our Christmas gift exchange. We do the kind of white elephant exchange (except with good gifts) where people get to pick gifts by number and there is unlimited stealing. It's a ton of fun and laughter (we had 34 people there this year!), and in the end, everyone gets something they like. Everyone has to unwrap their gift so everyone can see - and decide if they want to steal when it's their turn. :)After the gifts, we have a birthday cake for Jesus -but every candle represents someone in the Thwing family. As the grandkids were born, then got married, and now are having kids themselves, the candles have multiplied - there are now 40 candles on the cake. My Aunt Cathy goes through everyone by name as she lights the candles. It's really special for all of us!We had a very beautiful sunny day near the end of December (after our white Christmas), and went down to the beach to enjoy it. Doesn't this look like great beach wear - parka and Starbucks cup. :)Sunset was very pretty. Jennie and I have taken hundreds of pictures together in almost this exact pose over the years - and for many of the last few, my smile has been literally frozen in place. :) I guess there's a reason I never went to visit Jennie and Jay when they lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. :)Good bye 2007!I'm back in Atlanta now, and as usual have had my two weeks here before I leave again, this time for two weeks in Angola, where I'll be setting up for a health-facility based survey to try to determine how much malaria transmission in taking place in Luanda, the capital city. I'm bringing some learning Portuguese CDs on the plane with me. :)
Oh, and other good news is that I officially accepted a full time job in the malaria branch to stay on after EIS is finished at the end of June! I don't think a lot will change, except for my supervisor, and to some extent, my salary. :)
Monday, December 10, 2007
After the dedication
After the dedication ceremony was a feast to top all feasts! What a treat!
My dad is clearly excited about his plate
And here's my plate - it may look different to you, but it was very good. (Bibiane was in charge of cooking - how could it not be?)
After the feast, we had just enough time to run down to the Likini and back. The Likini is a stream with a set of beautiful waterfalls that we used to hike down (2 miles) to with picnic lunch, a hammock, and swimsuits. So many fun memories. My dad and I hightailed it down with two Vute friends, and got back just before dark.
The grass is so tall you have to walk with your arms in front of your face for protection. Yes, this is the path.
My dad and I sitting on a log beside the falls. 
Absolutely beautiful, eh? And the water is so fresh and cold!
That night, dinner was at the mayor's house, and was very fancy. The man my parents are talking to is the new director of the jail, and the head of the district of Yoko and his wife are in the upper right hand corner of the picture.
You might wonder where so many foreigners stayed in a small village. There are two little "auberges", like hostels, that are pretty good, and we stayed in a private house, owned by a Madame Mbiatta, whose husband was very high up in the president's political party before he died. The house is quite nice!
We left to go back to Yaounde early on Monday, but had to stop by and say goodbye to Bibiane again.
Yoko looks much the same as it did when I saw it as a 10 year old in 1985, as a 20 year old in 1996, and as a 32 year old in 2007. I hope I get back to see it again before I'm 40!
My dad is clearly excited about his plateAnd here's my plate - it may look different to you, but it was very good. (Bibiane was in charge of cooking - how could it not be?)After the feast, we had just enough time to run down to the Likini and back. The Likini is a stream with a set of beautiful waterfalls that we used to hike down (2 miles) to with picnic lunch, a hammock, and swimsuits. So many fun memories. My dad and I hightailed it down with two Vute friends, and got back just before dark.The grass is so tall you have to walk with your arms in front of your face for protection. Yes, this is the path.My dad and I sitting on a log beside the falls. Absolutely beautiful, eh? And the water is so fresh and cold!That night, dinner was at the mayor's house, and was very fancy. The man my parents are talking to is the new director of the jail, and the head of the district of Yoko and his wife are in the upper right hand corner of the picture.You might wonder where so many foreigners stayed in a small village. There are two little "auberges", like hostels, that are pretty good, and we stayed in a private house, owned by a Madame Mbiatta, whose husband was very high up in the president's political party before he died. The house is quite nice!We left to go back to Yaounde early on Monday, but had to stop by and say goodbye to Bibiane again.Yoko looks much the same as it did when I saw it as a 10 year old in 1985, as a 20 year old in 1996, and as a 32 year old in 2007. I hope I get back to see it again before I'm 40!The dedication ceremony
We all assembled early Sunday morning to be in our places, but as usual, there were some last minute preparations. :) This included trucking the benches over from the church for the spectators. 
The grandstand, which was built by hand the previous week!
The mixed Catholic and Protestant choir marching in 
My parents sitting in their places - I'm so proud of them!!
Me sitting in my place, with some of the other members of Wycliffe that came for the dedication.
I must really have been enjoying something!
The dedication ceremony lasted 5 hours, with many speakers, and the choir performed many songs.
Pastor Songsare expounding - and speaking out against corruption and lack of leadership.
My dad and Jim Maxey both gave short speeches in Vute, and the people absolutely loved it!!
Jim Maxey and the two Vute men who worked most closely with him on the translation.
The translation was a huge team effort - my family, the Maxeys, Pere Michel, and numerous Vute people who worked on it with them all. Everyone involved in the translation was presented with a certificate and a New Testament. 
Here my parents receive their certificate...
...and their New Testaments!
I bought mine in the "auction" to help the Bible Society raise money. 
This guy was one of my classmates in the village preschool. 
Bibiane helped by mom cook, clean, and take care of us, and considers me one of her own kids. She's an amazing woman!
Aline is Bibiane's daughter - we grew up playing together, so I guess that makes her my sister. The little girl is Aline's other sister's daughter. :)
The grandstand, which was built by hand the previous week!The mixed Catholic and Protestant choir marching in My parents sitting in their places - I'm so proud of them!!Me sitting in my place, with some of the other members of Wycliffe that came for the dedication.
I must really have been enjoying something!The dedication ceremony lasted 5 hours, with many speakers, and the choir performed many songs. Pastor Songsare expounding - and speaking out against corruption and lack of leadership.My dad and Jim Maxey both gave short speeches in Vute, and the people absolutely loved it!! Jim Maxey and the two Vute men who worked most closely with him on the translation.The translation was a huge team effort - my family, the Maxeys, Pere Michel, and numerous Vute people who worked on it with them all. Everyone involved in the translation was presented with a certificate and a New Testament. Here my parents receive their certificate......and their New Testaments!I bought mine in the "auction" to help the Bible Society raise money. This guy was one of my classmates in the village preschool. Bibiane helped by mom cook, clean, and take care of us, and considers me one of her own kids. She's an amazing woman!Aline is Bibiane's daughter - we grew up playing together, so I guess that makes her my sister. The little girl is Aline's other sister's daughter. :)
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