Sorry for the wait (did you miss me?)

Sorry about the wait, it never seemed like an oppourtune time to post the last couple days, but with four days to go this should be a decent (at least) sized post. (Actually I'll be trying to trim it down)

Well for starters, on Tuesday I left with Willie to see the Stool study. (Or as one of my friends to helpfully noted, "Scat" study) It really can be very time consuming, considering how many poopers you have and how many just regular checkups. This requires an explanation. (Oh my god ANOTHER ONE!?!) A little reiteration, with possible misspellings. There are two main types of malnutrition, (there may only be two, iunno) Kwashiorkor and Marasmus. Marasmus is those reallly, really thin babies they always show you on TV, the ones with the ribcages almost peircing through the skin. Kwash on the other hand, are the kinda fat puffy looking babies they don't show you pictures of because they kinda look...well...fat. Its not fat though, Kwash is caused by all the water in your bloodstream going out of your veins, where its supposed to be, and into everywhere else. Hence, they look bloated somewhat. I'm not exactly sure which is worse, but neither is good for a growing baby. (Or anyone else, for that matter) Marasmus (and Kwash) are caused by not getting enough food, but Kwash is more specifically caused by not getting enough variety in your diet. They used to think that because hemoglobin (a protein) is what keeps your blood where its supposed to be, obviously they need more meat. They were wrong though. (All of this explained in blah blah blah medical speak...OK its actually pretty interesting and I'm glad they spare no deatails but I'm sure you will.) So they think theHowever answer to this Kwash trigger may be in the "bowel flora." (bacteria in your stomach) And since malnourished twins often get differing malnutrition conditions, they started a study to try to determine if there is a corrolation between the bowel flora and Kwash/Marasmus.

So anyway, we get twins from age 6 months to 2 yearsish, and put them in the study. If they stay healthy, then they come once a month, and we weigh, measure their height, arm width, the usual stuff. Then, most of the time, we let them go, after giving them their incentive. (sugar, beans, soap, oil, etc.) Healthy babies only get stool collected from them four times a year. However, should they become malnourished we start taking stool from them every two weeks. (as they are the baby data we need, really) The incentives increase as well.

To make them poop we feed them lots of porrige and baby food as soon as they get there. (The porrige is supposed to be prepared ahead of time and never is, but that's a long story.) So anyway, we try to make them poop as fast as possible, so we (and they) can leave as soon as possible. Some babies just refuse to take a dump though! So in that case we (at around 10-11) insert a suppository. Usually that takes care of it. However, if there are enough kids, and it is hectic enough, they may not be given the suppository when they need to, or sometimes even fed. Hence stool study sometimes arrives home super-late.

Anyway, there weren't a terrible number of kids when we went, and everything went smoothly. I don't feel like getting into too much detail now, I'll save that for when I've run out of things to say.

So anyhow, we went back home, and slept. There may be more details, but I can't remember them.

The next day was our last day with Shandie and Willie, as they were leaving the following thursday morning, and Wednesday-Thursday is our overnight at Namandaje (The two sites there are too far to travel there and back two in one day.) And since there will be no more post concerning them (probably) I feel like a short description of them is needed. Willie was my roomate, and GOD did he smile a lot. And not just a normal smile, oh no. This was a super-pervasive, beaming, contagious smile. I still dont understand how a baby could ever cry when looking at that ear to ear smile, but they did. And he also acted taht happy too. For example, when we first met,(when he was sent back to meet me because everyone else was going to Namandaje) I was expecting a "Hey, how are you." But no. I got an "Awesome! Its great to meet you!" or something to that effect. I didn't talk to Shandie as much, because she wasn't my roomate, and she was kinda quiet. But nontheless, we talked some, and she was very nice and easygoing. She was the only other person who had and used her camera, and a lot better sense for it too, so I found myself taking duplicates of a lot of her shots.

But anyway, this day I went with Shandie, with Willie taking my place. Very, very uneventful. We had only three poopers. So...I read a lot of the Hitch Hikers Guide, Victor slept in the car...etc. We had a slow day. I did take a lot of pictures for Shandie though. Her mom wanted them apparently. Which reminds me, there was this real cute baby feeding tself Chiponde, and getting it everywhere. It was so cute we had to take a picture or two of it! In fact, the mom wants the pictures too, so we are going to bring her a copy the neext time we go.

After that, we waited for the other team to finish up and reach us, adn thenwe said our tearful goodbyes. (Not that I was crying of course.) After we parted ways, we left for another long haul to Namandaje. Namandaje, by the way, is a place with a mission in it. That is where we stay. We saw a bunch of kids and met some world travelers. (been traveling around africa for 11 months) After we packed our stuff away, we got to eat an AMAZING FEAST. THERE WAS GREAT SOUP AND TOAST AND GOOD TEA AND CHICKENANDOHMYGODIMSALIVATINGAGAIN...sorry...it was really good though. Me n Joy bunked together. Kinda funny, we got a huge bugnet, but no way to put it up...except for the light dangling waaay too high up to reach. He actually had to use me as a stool to reach it. =)

Oh I forgot to mention, we spent half an hour entering data.

Anyway, breakfast was as good as dinner, and we got to get up at 7:30!!! I worked the 10-25 at the site. (Stool study doesn't go to Namandaje) Uneventful. The trip home was an *insert curse word of your choice here*. 3-4 hours...god that was annoying. I spent a good tqo hours entering the data we didn't get on Wednesday...untill the power died. Anyway, we dropped by the gym, and let me tell you, Joy is so crazy at the gym. He's built, first of all, but its like he can't pick which workout to do. He just JUMPS from method to method. Crazyness. Also, Apparently I average 30 km per hour on the bike. So because we were ravenous after that we found a open food court at 9 p.m. Funny fact, there's lots of Muslims here. And its ramadan. No eating when the suns out. That food court - open late was PACKED with them. Joy even got hit on by one of them! So we got pizza there, headed home, and put half an hour more of data in. Ewwww. We got to bed at 11.

And I woke up at 5:30, to my phone calling for "where are you." We leave at 5:30. So I woke up put my shoes on, and hit the ground running. Forgot breakfast. Forgot deo. Forgot water. Ewww. I woulda died if it hadn't been for Leslie giving me a boiled egg. And today I was on chiponde hander outer duty. Hot as hell. Everyone wanted a spoon. (They are only supposed to get one, on their first day. And once someone looses a spoon and askss for one, and you give her one, EVERYONE wants one.) Other than that though, I met a nice HSA called Andrew. Gotta remember his name. He was really nice and super helpful. Probably wont be able to meet him again though, because after two interviews, (and a lot of uneccesary drama, which I will spare you) we got a new driver. And since stool study doesn't go to the site, I will probably never see him again. =( But anyway, I came back, and did nothing I was so tired. Except for write this. And eat. EAT. So anyway, probably lots of little details missed, but I don't give a crap.