More changes

Rachel Snow, our professor from U-M SPH, her son, Julian, and Kofi, a U-M OB/GYN, all arrived yesterday evening. They’re going to be living here for the next 2 weeks and Rachel will be overseeing our work. We caught up for a little bit, let them go to town and get some supplies, and then walked out to Lord’s for the yummy goat meat and plantain meal with Nile Specials – still my favorite thing about being here, next to the scenery. As we ate, I couldn’t take my eyes off the sky. It’s incredible how much light pollution we’re used to in the US; here, you see a completely different picture at night. There was a full moon, giving us the most spectacular view of wispy, rippled clouds and stars that glowed brighter than any I’ve ever seen...

I guess I should finally explain more of what my research project is about (I will keep it brief!). The study focuses on fertility aspirations and HIV, exploring various social and structural determinants of contraceptive use and pregnancy terminations among HIV+ women – and also interviewing HIV- women as a control. This includes the use of ARV treatment, family burdens, marriage, social stigma, etc. So, we basically ask a lot of questions about a woman’s past and present contraceptive use, their HIV status and questions concerning it, their opinions on abortion and contraception use, and their household structure and who they provide support to. While I’ve done a lot of work with HIV, I’ve never really been interested in maternal health until I took a reproductive health class my first year at U-M. I still don’t see myself working in the field but it made me aware of huge disparities and how important this research is.

As expected, a lot is changing now that Rachel is here. She’s proposed that we take the existing data to do an initial analysis and then start over sometime next week with the finalized version of everything. Thankfully, we have a large, willing study population, so it shouldn’t be a problem with the numbers. Sparring all the mundane details, we’re finalizing the questionnaire (again!), making a new database (AHHHH!) that should be more functional (she’s also paying Nickolas now to assist us with problems – which is a godsend), and starting over with interviews for the final analysis. This will be a lot of work upfront, but I’m really excited that we’re finally going to have everything correctly in place and end a lot of the unfocused, frustrating, and ever-changing tasks. Maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon, but I think the project will be much clearer now. Snow really knows how to organize once she comes through. I wish I could explain her better for those who don’t know her. I’m sure I’ll have much more fun stuff to write about later :-D

We actually get a little mini-vacation before all of this hard work begins. We’re leaving tomorrow for a 2-day adventure at Queen Elizabeth National Park – Uganda’s largest. Hoping to see lots of animals and beautiful sights.