On va aller au cirque... (we're going to the circus!)

I found something I miss!! And it's huge (maybe even legen.... dary)!! Clean feet. Seriously. I can't win -- they are dirty and dusty pretty much 24/7. And I look at the feet of locals and I do not want my feet to end up like that... So I soak my feet in hot water about once a week, then pumice stone like crazy, and come away with nice-looking feet again... only to walk down the barabara (street) to my friend's house and become dusty allll oooooover agaaaaain. Such is life :) TIA -- This Is Africa, apparently the cathartic exclamation for all things that go awry in Africa, although I prefer my personal motto -- always an adventure in Moshi.

Speaking of adventures, do I begin with going to the circus or singing Kumbaya?

Maybe Kumbaya, that was pretty classic! The KCMC-Duke collaboration works with an organization in town called KIWAKKUKI, Swahili for Women Against AIDS in Kilimanjaro. KIWAKKUKI does lots of good work in the community, empowering especially women who are HIV-positive, doing outreach through home-based care, improving access to voluntary counseling and testing.

But my favorite activity of theirs is helping children create memory books. Many children in Africa are orphaned due to HIV-positive parents. They can end up being taken care of by other siblings, by grandparents (believe it or not, this occurs! If you're interested, read about the topsy-turvy demographic tree in sub-Saharan Africa), by distant relatives, or they can end up in an orphanage. Depending on the family structure, these orphans can end up as second-class citizens among their extended families, as they are viewed as an extra mouth to feed, and often work very hard every day at the bidding of the relatives to whom they are beholden. So KIWAKKUKI works with children of HIV-positive parents to help them create 'memory books,' about their parents, their families, their lives -- all the things kids yearn to know and ask their parents when they are much older. What was my first word? What was my first day of school like? These books are pretty powerful and really sweet.

The reason I talk about KIWAKKUKI at all is because two of my research projects this year are thanks to data collected at KIWAKKUKI, so I wanted to introduce myself to them -- a whole rigmarole!! They start every morning with a song praising God -- Jesus is my rafiki (seriously!) -- then each department gives updates... and then it was time for me and Andy (another research assistant with our collaboration) to introduce ourselves. It is tradition at KIWAKKUKI that we be welcomed with a dance, in which we must participate!

The traditional dance is rather odd -- it's going low and ending up in a squatting position. Andy was pretty mortified, but I had a lot of fun!! The best part was that Andy said, Oh, we didn't get a picture -- so we did it all over again!! (I confess, these pictures are from the reenactment.) And at the end of many hugs and handshakes, we sang Kumbaya -- it was like being at a revival!! Entertaining, indeed!

And now, to the circus... Mama Afrika circus came to Moshi for the first and probably last time ever!

they had a monster-like tent!!

They were really more like a Cirque du Soleil troupe, no animals, though lots of contortionists! The acts were really cool -- lots of African dancing and drumming, juggling, balancing on 5 axles, a couple of trapeze-like artists, and most impressive -- crazy bendy people!!! Three guys just walked around like crabs/spiders. Their legs were up on their shoulders so that their knees bent over their shoulders.

One guy was standing on his arms, his legs were curved up from behind (I think) over his head and firmly planted on the floor -- and then he proceeds to light a pipe by striking a match with his toes!! Sheer talent. (Ehlers-Danlos, anyone?!?!)

Then the pantomiming clown came out, and he was hellbent on selecting wazungus for his mimed act of Tutti-Frutti! Thankfully, our group was safe, but he did thoroughly embarrass the participants -- stripped some guy's shirt off! Then it got a bit weird -- a sinister clown on stilts ran around the arena to some drumming, fell over a few times, and proved he could hop back up no problem.

But the best part was the jugglers who turned into rappers about "24-7, Africa," and concluded with a breakdance-off. Bet you'll never see that in the States!

A busy week, all in all!! Updates --

--I am soooo close to my IRB being submitted for one of my projects and then not thinking about it until data collection is complete!

--a different IRB got exempted at Stanford (phew!!)

--Jeff and I met with high schoolers at the expat school, ISM (where Greg Mortensen, from Three Cups of Tea, went to school!), to recruit some help on the blood drive

--rounded on Brandi's last clinical day on the peripartum and postpartum service -- no maternal deaths this time, thankfully!

--saw an interesting case in the OR with a 16 year old girl who actually has... testes (that we took out because they are a cancer risk) and no ovaries. Unclear diagnosis right now, but she really needs a karyotype!! (A test that tells you whether she has two XX chromosomes like women have, or an X and Y, like men have.)

--I had to be introduced officially to the head of KCMC during our monthly Duke-KCMC meeting. Believe it or not, my introduction by my famous ID attending housemate was as follows: former Duke undergraduate, current Stanford medical student, and future Duke Ob/Gyn resident, although she doesn't know that yet. !!!! I was a bit surprised and a bit embarrassed!! But it's nice to be recruited :)

PS -- the legen.... dary is for all you How I Met Your Mother fans. Please tell me at least one of you knows what I'm talking about!!!

PPS -- the end of season 2 of How I Met Your Mother is so sad!! Who wants to send me a burned copy of season 3? I have to know what happens next!! :)

Time for another week to begin... still more to tell you. I swear I'll be less delinquent this week!

Lyrics to Kumbaya, because despite my jesting earlier, actually it was really nice to start the day singing together -- I felt more connected to 12 strangers than I ever have before.

Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya

Someone's singing lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbayah

Someone's laughing, lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya

Someone's crying, lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya

Someone's praying, lord, kumbaya
Someone's praying, lord, kumbaya
Someone's praying, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya

Someone's sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Someone's sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Someone's sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya