Jaama ngaam?

Today I started to learn a tiny bit of wolof. While Brikama is a mandinka area, I am living with wolof family and most of the taxi drivers are wolof speakers. As long as the everyone sticks to one of my 5 standard phrases...I should be able to pass as a local in no time at all! I can ask whether you have peace (Jaama ngaam)? How you are (Nanga def)? How is your family (Ana was ker ga)? How is the work (Naka ligey bi)? What is your name (Naka nga tuda)? I was able to practice on the Peace Corps staff and might start to try my very much beginner skills on everyone I meet.

In other news, despite the fact that the Gambia is in the middle of it's dry season, there are still plenty of mosquitoes  As per usual, I already have a handful of bites. Lucky for me, I have anti-malarial drugs to keep my safe-ish. I'm adding the -ish since it's not impossible to get malaria while on anti-malarial drugs. But it is certainly a much lower risk than without the drugs. I'm starting on doxycycline and will transition to mefloquine after two weeks. I am lucky to not have the major side effects associated with mefloquine (I don't have the horrible nightmares, but I do sleep walk) so I don't mind taking it, especially since it is just once a week compared to every day for doxy and malarone. And luckily, there isn't dengue nor chikungunya in West Africa ..yet. I know this will come off as a bit strange, but I kind of hope that chikungunya comes to the Gambia while I am here. Not that I want to get chikungunya or really even for other people to get it...but it would be kind of cool all the same. And for once, I wouldn't have to travel to the chikungunya since it would come to me!

While tourists are more at risk to malaria due to a naive immune system, that doesn't mean that locals are not at risk. I asked my language teacher how often he gets malaria and it turns out that he gets it on average, twice a year. Every year. And each time it lasts about a week. Most people only think about the effects of malaria on the health of the person who is sick. But when you miss at least 2 weeks a year with malaria, that can add up. Lost wages for the family, and loss of productivity for the employers. And even with an extended dry season, malaria is year round in the Gambia so there is no relief from this endemic disease. And for such a small country, the costs, both individual and societal, can add up quickly when you consider the population level effects.

So despite my love of mosquitoes, beware of the yoo (mosquitoe in wolof)!

Arrived safe and sound...if a little tired!

I arrived safely in the Gambia at 12:30 am on Tuesday morning! Quite a bit later than my scheduled arrive due to a mechanical issue in Brussels. I was actually lucky to even make the plane in Brussels since my flight out of Chicago was 3 hours late getting left due to the freezing rain. We sat on the tarmac in Brussels for four hours. It was not my favorite way to spend a delay, but hard to fault the pilot for making our safely a primary concern. Except for the man that did find fault...and made sure everyone in the whole plane was aware of his discontent. This was the first time I've ever seen someone escorted off a plane by security. It gave us a little excitement in an otherwise very boring 8 hour flight. I'm not usually much of a chatty person on planes, but I ended up sitting next to a nice guy from Chicago who was on his way to Sierra Leone to film a local NGO working with disabled women. It was nice to have someone to talk to as we waited...and waited for the plane to take off.

Arriving at the Peace Corps transit house in the middle of the night is not the best way to introduce yourself to the local PCVs. I managed to wake up several of them trying to figure out which room to sleep in. Opps! I got a quick couple hours of sleep and then onto the Peace Corps headquarters to be introduced to everyone and sign a whole bunch of paperwork. I have a little bit of language training and other meetings and then I will be released to my village (and teaching responsibilities) on Sunday. Can't wait to meet my students (I have 48 in my writing skills class!) and get this semester going!

Pleasant surprise...the PC transit house has a hot water heater! So at this for this first week, I'll have the luxury of hot water! Feeling very lucky!

What will I miss?

People often ask me what I miss most when I travel overseas to low-income countries. The most obvious answer is my friends, family, and cat. But really, who are we kidding...the answer is always hot showers. I love water. Whether its swimming or taking long showers or baths. I need water. While I will actually be living in a pretty nice place in The Gambia (I have running water and electricity!), I won't have hot water on tap. Most Americans don't realize that hot, running water is a luxury. I haven't even left yet (I'm waiting in Chicago for my flight to Brussels) and I already miss hot showers! I may end up taking bucket baths just so I can add a pot of boiling water and have a hot bucket of water!

But i don't want you to think poorly of the Gambia! Hot water heaters do exist and I was lucky enough to have one at the house I stayed at while I was a visiting professor in December. But the majority of people don't have that luxury here. So just think of how lucky you are to have the opportunity to take a nice hot shower tomorrow morning! And know that I am super jealous!

Now to get ready for my flight. I hope Brussels Airlines give us those lovely waffle snacks for breakfast like the last time I flew through Belgium!

And the lucky day is...

A week from today, I'll be trading in my fur-lined boots for a pair of flip-flops! I can't wait to trade in the cold Iowa winters for the warm Gambian weather! I guess I would say I ready...especially since I've been packing since early December when I got back from my first trip to the Gambia. It's harder than I thought to pack for six months. I hope I have enough crystal light!

I'm looking forward to teaching and have been trying to prepare as much as possible in advance for my classes. Although I am nervous about teaching writing skills, it will be fun to teach epidemiology for a second semester in row. I've been thinking up more ways to teach epidemiological concepts in a fun, interactive method. I have games to show the various types of study designs and I've been thinking about a way to teach herd immunity. I am looking forward to getting to the Gambia and being able to hit the ground running! Busumbala here I come!

Chikungunya in the US?

We often think of tropical diseases as something we (in the US or Europe) don't have to worry about. We don't live in a tropical region, so we don't have those diseases, right? So why should we study malaria, dengue, yellow fever, or chikungunya? Well, predictions are gaining ground that we will soon have more experience with at least one tropical disease...chikungunya. If you know me and have talked with me in the last 3 years, you have probably heard that name and maybe even more than you would every want to know about symptoms, transmission, and prevention. But for those of you who don't...chikungunya is a mosquito borne virus that causes debilitating joint pain. For months. My doctoral thesis assessed knowledge and practices around chikungunya in a rural region of Tamil Nadu, India. When you study tropical diseases, you typically have to go to the disease. I have traveled to India three times in the last 2 years to collect data for this project. Well, if only I had waited a little longer, I might have been able to study this very tropical disease much closer to home. Is 2013 the year? Check out the article below. This is the second article predicting a coming outbreak of Chikungunya in the US. Let's wait and see!

Chances Rising for Chikungunya Outbreaks in NYC, Atlanta, Miami

Welcome to my blog...a little background

Life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls when you were expecting a nice easy slow pitch softball. Here I am, a couple of weeks after my doctoral graduation (I swear Dad, it's my last) and I'm getting ready to head to the Gambia. The Gambia? And that is where? Most people familiar with my history assume it is somewhere in India, the country of my dissertation work and most common destination of travel over the last 3 years. But surprise...I'm going back to Africa!

So how did all this come to happen? Let's go back to the beginning. Over the summer, my dissertation adviser, Dr. Anne Wallis (http://abwallis.blogspot.com/), heard about a potential teaching opportunity in the Gambia. We put together some potential course descriptions, sent it off to our contact, and put that pot on the back burner as I was working hard to finish my dissertation. September 18 (the day before my dissertation defense), I get an email from a former student, Edrisa Sanyang, who is now coordinating this brand new master's program at the University of the Gambia in the Republic of the Gambia. What a small world, right? They want me to teach Epidemiology I for their new program. Great! I'm really excited, but didn't really read the email closely as my dissertation defense was the following afternoon. The next email actually put a date on my first teaching position...October 4th. Wait, what? I just defended my dissertation and thought I would have the rest of my fall semester to relax, catch up on my reading list, and watch some netflix, now it looks like I have 1 week to get ready to teach a class. Am I ready? Absolutely not! So I spent the next 12 weeks frantically putting powerpoint presentations together for my twice weekly, 90 minute lecture. Lucky for me, I was able to teach from my cosy home office in Coralville, so I didn't have go to far for my morning lectures. But, as part of this deal, UTG planned to fly me to the Gambia to teach in person for a few weeks. Yeah! My in person teaching was scheduled for the two weeks following Thanksgiving. So despite some scheduling issues, I was excited. Planning a trip to Africa, getting ready for graduation, and Christmas.

Now where does this job come into play? Two weeks before my trip to the Gambia, a friend asks my opinion of the new Peace Corps Global Health Partnership program to which he was considering applying. While looking at that opportunity, I browsed the opportunities available for returned Peace Corps volunteers (I served in Togo from 2004-2005). And what do I see? A 6 month position in the Gambia teaching with the School of Public Health. Interesting. Looks similar to what I am already doing. What a coincidence...I am currently an adjunct professor with UTG and will be traveling to the country in less than two weeks to teach. So I go ahead and apply. I get a request for an interview the very next morning! I interview the following week, and get my initial medical and legal clearance before my trip to the Gambia. The first day I arrived in Brikama, the Peace Corps offered me the position! Wow, that happened fast! After meeting with the outgoing PCRs and faculty at the college, I accepted the position. So starting in February, I'll be heading back to the Gambia to teach. Three classes. Oh and mentoring students. And faculty. And do a research project for the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit. In my free time, what little there is of that precious time. Needless to say, I am quite excited. And while I don't know exactly when I will be leaving, I know it will be in the next 4 weeks and I need to start packing immediately!

If you want to read about my November trip to the Gambia, check out Anne Wallis' blog (http://abwallis.blogspot.com/2012/12/guest-blogger-dr-erin-reynolds-on.html).