So Thursday, 6/17, I went into the MVP offices here in Kisumu, I really wish I had my camera as the tuk tuk driver was wearing a really really inaapropriate t-shirt that I doubt he even knew the meaning of, it said "My safe word is DONKEY PUNCH"... I don't really know what to say other than wow. Anyhow, I arrived and sat down with MVP's programming team of Dixon and Moses. We ran through what I wanted to do and then we worked through the proposed system, they had some really good insights on aspects of the program and were pretty stoked on the whole thing. They pointed out a way around one of the things that was worrying me the most, what happens if the pregnant woman isn't already registered in Childcount? i was worried about having the medical center staff needing to go back through and register women who weren't already in the system, this had the added difficulty of needing to assign the appropriate CHW to the mothers record as well. Dixon and Moses pointed out that there is a CHW in each medical center already, so we can have them register any mother who is not already in the system before they see the doctor for their appointment. Problem solved.
And after a very nice tea break courtesy of Katie we're back.
They also said that they would have time to work on the coding themselves. This was fantastic news as before we had thought that they were too busy to do it. They had said that they would rather do it themselves since I was here and we could communicate more easily. So, we are set on the programming side, and the draft plan for the software is looking doable for the programmers.
After I got home, we relaxed a bit and then we prepared Saag Paneer with the local kales, it turned out nice and we all ate well. Our hosts, Janet and Lynn both enjoyed it as well, I was worried as it was pretty different than the food they are used to, but so far all the cooking has gone over well. The night before i made Guacamole and tonight We are making roasted chicken, tomorrow Thai curry and Sunday Chili and cornbread. Yum! I'm having fun cooking while I am around earlier in the evening.
Today I went in to the offices to meet with Dr. James Wariero who is the head of health here and Dr Shemsanga who is going to be the head of Health in Tanzenia, I went over the whole plan, and after talking about the preliminary research that I wanted to do, James went over the roadblocks they had come up against when trying to come up with a program in the past. As I listened I got excited because I thought that our program addressed many of those. I pitched our sketched out plan and James was satisfied and is looking forward to the program going forward.It looks like on Monday I'm on target for the beginning of fieldwork! Okay, that's all for now, I'm watching the US losing in the World Cup and Claire hurt herself :(
more tomorrow!
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