Alice in Africa

Well…life in Mekele with Sally is lovely, I can’t believe I only have her for two weeks! We are having such a great time exploring together, and not being farangi (“foreigners”) all alone. The past two days have been packed, with us exploring Mekele, and meeting with Dr. Amanuel – the professor and doctor in charge of the project. Tomorrow we will meet up with Dr. Prata – my professor at Berkeley, and start getting the project in motion…

For those who don’t know, this project is looking at community distribution of Depo Provera by community outreach workers. There is a huge unmet need for contraception in Ethiopia, and Depo (an injectable contraceptive you get once every three months) is in high demand for various reasons – you only have to think about it four times a year and other people (your husband…) don’t necessarily have to know about it. This study is comparing a cohort of women receiving the injection the traditional way till now (traveling from their home to a health clinic – maybe a few hours) and those who are the “experimental” group and are receiving the shot from community outreach workers trained specifically for this project. Ultimately the goal of the project is to show that women are just as satisfied and the shot just as efficacious through this method of distribution. Hopefully this will lead to a change in policy and give many more women access to contraception.

The project is currently collecting the 13 week data from the 9 sites around Mekele. This will be data right before or after the second shot. I am entering and analyzing this data, as well as some other things yet to be determined. I may be assisting with a verbal autopsy project (interviewing family members about women’s deaths to try and get an idea of how many died from “maternal” causes). I’m sure when Ndola arrives she will put her foot down.

So tomorrow the real work starts, and we will be busy I’m sure. The weather is beautiful and warm, and Sally and I are living in a massive hotel room for 46 birr a night ($4 – $2 each). However, we may try and find an apartment that might be a little more comfortable. Regardless, Sally is super fun and we are already planning a trip to see the rock-hewn churches in Axum or Lalibela…maybe next weekend! I will do my best to blog regularly but internet is not always as cooperative as one might hope…