Stray Photos

Just a few photos for those wondering if we are still truly healthy and alive.

Here's one from our first wedding anniversary, just before we leave the house to go out for a fancy celebratory dinner:

And here's one at the Red Lantern Chinese Restaurant, at Rim's goodbye dinner. Rim (in purple) went back to finish her fourth year of medical school at UCSD. Rebeca (in red) left a short while later, going back to the US to do a summer course at HSPH. Unfortunately for Rebeca, she will be coming back to Botswana in September to complete the circumcision study she is conducting here. Michelle (in blue) is staying through December. It really makes us sad that we will not be around for our friends here in Botswana this coming spring and summer.

Squeaky Wheel Squeaks

So...I must apologize for dropping off the map there. There are three reasons I have not posted in a long long time.

First, my day job involves sitting at my desk, in front of my computer, in a corner of our living/dining room all day. I start around 8 am with a cup of tea and inbetween all other things I might be doing (making and eating lunch, dinner, running errands), the computer finally goes off around 10 pm. I spend most of the time on my computer researching things on the web, reading articles, analyzing data in big spreadsheets, drafting graphics and writing. A LOT of writing. That's what I do for my job. So the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is kick back, stare at the computer screen and write some more.

Second, nothing exciting has happened in Botswana that was so monumental to report. I stopped carrying my camera around to events and because I wasn't posting, I wasn't taking random photos anymore. I guess my ordinary life didn't seem that interesting to post about. I'm sure I could think of stories to tell, but since our lives here are peppered with frustration a lot, it's difficult to know where to start and I didn't want to rant about life here. Suffice it to say that there's a special bond between us and our friends Rim, Rebeca, Michelle, and Kate that stems from a shared experience.

Third, we've been preoccupied with lots of decisions about our immediate and long term career paths. Shanthi applied for ID fellowships (and matched!). She also applied for a Fogarty grant to do research here in Botswana. She ended up getting the grant but had to decline it for personal reasons. So our lives have been kind of stressful, especially since we're both obsessive planners and strategists. The bottom line of this all is that we're moving back to the United States at the end of August. To us, that's HUGE progress. Though not sure we're ready to go back to the U.S., we have become very sure that we are ready to leave Botswana.

So, sorry for those that were following this blog and were upset that there were no more posts. I suppose I can update with some back stories at some point. I would love to finish the Clove saga, but I'm afraid it will be a whole new can of worms...I'm about to go through it again, but this time in reverse.