We learned from our experiences on Monday that we really didn’t need more than one student in the field at a time so we sent Jaclyn out on Tuesday while Tanya and I went to the office to plan for next week. It’s a good thing that we both went because we spent nearly the entire day preparing supplies for the data collection aspect of the project. In the past two weeks there has been a huge surge in the number of malaria cases and many of our health facilities have been running out of consent forms, questionnaires and barcode labels. While Tanya went across the street to make copies, I printed labels and made filter paper packets. It seemed like just when we got one packet ready and were trying to do something else, another supervisor would call and say they needed supplies and we’d have to start all over again. I didn’t even have time to check my e-mail until 12:30 when I ate a quick lunch in-between projects.
In the afternoon we had a meeting with some of the other foreign researchers to get an idea of what projects they are working on and how we may be able to work together. It was a useful meeting although it lasted for an hour and a half which meant that we didn’t get to leave work until after 5 pm. Another long day.
Jaclyn went out to dinner with another girl from California to discuss career stuff so I made dinner while Tanya had a phone interview for a job. I was getting really tired of the same sautéed vegetables with either rice or chapatti so I made chana daal (red lentils with chick peas) with rice. I may be biased, but it was really good. Mostly it was nice to have something different. I think I am finally perfecting making rice on the stove (and not the rice cooker) but I still always make too much.
I spent much of the evening talking to Tanya about her job opportunities. She has to accept one of several fellowships in the next two days and can’t decide what to do. On one hand I envy her choices but on the other I don’t envy how hard of a decision it is.
I started reading “The Arabian Nights” today and I can’t get the song from the animated version of “Aladdin” out of my head now. I am enjoying the stories a lot and am having a great time remembering the play that Jacob and I went to at the Berkeley Rep last year.