3.5 Weeks (New Photo links at the bottom)

It is hard to believe that in just 27 days I'll be heading home, and yet so much will happen in these next few weeks. My year has been pretty incredible and I'll have a lot to look back on. One of these days, I'll sit down and write a reflective entry, but for now I'll dodge the sappy stuff and focus on the reality... I'm still here, cars still break left and right, we've got a new study to get on its feet, and about 7 new visitors en route!

I have spent most of the past week getting things in order for the new study for 2008-2009. I had new data cards printed up, met with the District Health Officers, engaged the right people on the production end to get the new food ready, and keep pestering the ethics committee for their final consent. Hopefully, in the next 10 days, everything will fall into place and by early June we will begin enrolling children in this new research program. We are now switching gears, focusing on children with severe malnutrition (I worked with the moderately malnourished kids mostly) and will be testing a new, less expensive version of RUTF for these children. This time, we will keep some milk in the formula, but will reduce it by 15% to lower costs.

Yesterday, our trusty ol' Nissan (the diesel one that had the gas tank incident, the broken springs, and other problems) gave us yet another story worthy moment. Nick was on his way out to Mulanje when a very funny thumping started...and then...the wheels stopped. Seems as though the "universal" (I think it is the piece that distributes power to the wheels), broke in half. A long piece of metal just fell from the bottom of the car. Liyaka and I to the rescue with tow rope in hand - we tied the Nissan to my car, I pulled and Liyaka took care of keeping the rope taut. By the time I get home, I'll be a mechanic.

Kathleen and I have gotten back in the groove of long runs, sometimes exploring new neighborhoods, sometimes staying with the routine route to the President's palace. We've been cooking some fantastic dinners with our new favorite thing being cabbage-based salads.

I put some new pictures up on Facebook. For those without an account, you can view the photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091829&l=cd625&id=3104564

And if you never saw these, here are some other good photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080138&l=e146e&id=3104564

Will write again soon.

-dkm