Another busy week!

Some highlights:

Clearly the most exciting part of this past week was that I was finally able to pick up my new (to me) car! It's a 1990 cream-colored Toyota Conquest with nearly 200,000km under it's belt - and it's absolutely beautiful. Don't I look happy (and bizarrely smug) sitting on my ride?


I haven't come up with a proper name for her just yet, but it must be done soon - I'm currently planning on having a proper christening when we hit the 200k mark in the coming weeks.

As for work, both projects I am participating in have really gotten rolling. I've spent 5 of the past 6 days at different clinics and NGOs in the greater-Durban area - working on systems mapping and analysis of their clinical and psychosocial programs. Each clinic is run very differently, and the requirements for creating comprehensive HIV care at each of the sites are going to be very different. However, I feel that each site probably knows the population they serve the best - whether they be located in the inner-city or in the rural townships - and that we (the large hospital with lots of funding) should work with them to the best of our abilities to allow them to maintain their underlying treatment pedagogy while trying to bring them up to speed with streamlined data collection systems and an operational plan that starts to conform with the Department of Health requirements.

I'm not sure how clear that principle is when I write it out like that - but I hope you guys understand what I'm saying. To paraphrase: each clinic is more of an expert in their particular area than we could ever hope to be, and we should use our funding to help them out in a few specific areas while relying on their expertise to guide development of their HIV programs.

And, tomorrow morning I leave for Lesotho. I'm going to be spending some time in Maseru and Semonkong - checking out a rural clinic, checking out the local culture, and enjoying the natural beauty of Lesotho (I think there's going to be some pony-trekking involved). and I'll try and come back with some nice pictures to share, but here's a nice little map of the country for you to check out in the interim (courtesy of Wikipedia):


And then next week I'm moving into my own apartment in the Barea. I've already purchased some art to hang on the walls and am looking for a stereo system from which to bump my tunes; I'm quite excited about my imminent change in address. I will also have wireless access at my new place, so I won't be tethered to the hospital for all of my e-mail, blogging, and (very soon) application needs. This should hopefully translate into more satisfying communication for all!

Alright, friends, it's time for me to roll out. Hope you all are well, and I'll be back on Saturday to share all my exciting pictures &c. with you guys.

Oh yeah, and congratulations are in order for both of my brothers. To Ed for getting into college(!), and 'Drew for turning the ripe old age of 21. If you see any members of the Bearnot clan, please feel free to let them know how awesome you think they are - or at least congratulate them or something.