One full week of the workshop down and another to go. Yesterday I got the opportunity to stop stapling and preparation of the workshop CDs (to be passed out to the students at the end of the workshop) and got to listen to some of the talks. A senior grant officer from BMGF--can I please have your job?--spoke on clinical trial design and the malaria vaccine pipeline. In small groups we--I actually participated this time--put together our own TPP (target product plan) for a transmission blocking vaccine in Phase IIa trial. P assigned me to the TBV (transmission blocking vaccine) group because of PapaBear--my Dad worked on a transmission blocking vaccine for year at the NIH. We were given about an hour to do it and present a powerpoint with it. Let's just say that it was a hectic hour. People spend months on this stuff and I wasn't really impressed with or proud of the result. However, the exercise got me thinking, especially about possible thesis topics.
The general theme of the week has been exhaustion. For some reason waiting around for that burst of urgency is extremely tiring. I'm sure the pizza and the party that followed over at our place hasn't helped. I was the first to excuse myself from the get together we hosted last night which made me feel a little like the first girl that falls asleep at a sleepover.
Showing posts with label Dragonaire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragonaire. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12
Monday, July 7
More Pizza!
So it's finally here. After months of planning, because in Tanzania everything takes months, the East African Regional Training Workshop is finally here. (You can read more about it here) I've been looking forward to interacting with the faculty and the students, and having something to stress me out a little. My time--mostly with regards to my internship--here so far has been relatively stress free so a little nervous energy was exciting. B gave a presentation on sample size calculation. Apart from being fun and nice, she's also crazy smart--especially when it comes to biostats.
Most of the faculty arrived yesterday and we went for a dinner at Dragonaire--twice in one week!!! The ride there and back was part of the fun. I rode in the back of the truck in the flat bed. Luckily P went slow on the unmarked speed bumps and on the side "road" to Dragonaire. One of the workshop faculty members tried to talk me out of Med school. Not happening. High on my list of things to do while I am here is start on my post-bac program applications. Apparently I still haven't learned the garlic-in-moderation lesson and paid for it dearly with a weird sort of stomach ache all of last night. The faculty all talked a lot of science...lucky I am so cute because I certainly couldn't keep up with them.
Most of the faculty arrived yesterday and we went for a dinner at Dragonaire--twice in one week!!! The ride there and back was part of the fun. I rode in the back of the truck in the flat bed. Luckily P went slow on the unmarked speed bumps and on the side "road" to Dragonaire. One of the workshop faculty members tried to talk me out of Med school. Not happening. High on my list of things to do while I am here is start on my post-bac program applications. Apparently I still haven't learned the garlic-in-moderation lesson and paid for it dearly with a weird sort of stomach ache all of last night. The faculty all talked a lot of science...lucky I am so cute because I certainly couldn't keep up with them.
Saturday, July 5
Flaming Purell
We didn't make it to Dragonaire (the usual Friday night spot for pizza and a Safari) until about 8 because of a mini-disaster with one of the computers and some equipment in the lab. Macs are almost nonexistent in East Africa, as is support apparently! Joined by our newcomer B and even the two head haunchos, I decided to mix it up a little (sorry, that was a Dad joke) and instead of a Margherita with pineapple I opted for the mixed vegetable. I think I over-did it a little on the garlic but with a Safari (or two) it certainly was a good way to start the weekend. Of course my cell phone slipped out of my pocket while we were eating. Luckily I noticed it was missing before we left the restaurant compound. I ran out of the car (already two Safari deep--everything seemed of the utmost importance) to grab it before someone found it (I'm already on phone no. 2) and slipped on the concrete. Just to add to the embarrassment, I've got a nice little cut on my chin . I'm pretty sure T-Man and B aren't going to let me live that one down.
A Fourth of July celebration of sorts had been in the works for a few days: After Dragonaires (no way Dundy can miss his pizza on Fridays), I was hoping to get some s'more action going and even grabbed the last bag of marshmallows (pink and white...not exactly the right colors, but close enough) in Pira's, not that anywhere else in Morogoro would have had them. T-Man was in charge of the bon fire and managed to turn embers left over from the days burning trash into quite a good fire. My marshmallows were, obviously, toasted to perfection. We got a good look at some bush babies, nocturnal tiny little monkey things that make a terribly annoying noise at night. They are little drunkards and can often be seen falling out of trees. Unfortunately they weren't celebrating with us.
Fireworks are illegal in Tanzania, which meant that we had to improvise slightly. One of the boys somehow thought to bring out the hand sanitizer (69% alcohol) and squirt some on the fire. When that didn't produce enough of a reaction, he threw the whole bottle in! Our version of fireworks, I guess. No tubing this year or real fireworks in the nation's capital but our own little celebration turned out quite nicely.
A Fourth of July celebration of sorts had been in the works for a few days: After Dragonaires (no way Dundy can miss his pizza on Fridays), I was hoping to get some s'more action going and even grabbed the last bag of marshmallows (pink and white...not exactly the right colors, but close enough) in Pira's, not that anywhere else in Morogoro would have had them. T-Man was in charge of the bon fire and managed to turn embers left over from the days burning trash into quite a good fire. My marshmallows were, obviously, toasted to perfection. We got a good look at some bush babies, nocturnal tiny little monkey things that make a terribly annoying noise at night. They are little drunkards and can often be seen falling out of trees. Unfortunately they weren't celebrating with us.
Fireworks are illegal in Tanzania, which meant that we had to improvise slightly. One of the boys somehow thought to bring out the hand sanitizer (69% alcohol) and squirt some on the fire. When that didn't produce enough of a reaction, he threw the whole bottle in! Our version of fireworks, I guess. No tubing this year or real fireworks in the nation's capital but our own little celebration turned out quite nicely.
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