Tiwonana Malawi

My nocturnal housemates got up early early this morning to cook me a breakfast of cassava, sweet potatoes, papaya, and tea and have a kitchen dance party to Potential, one of our favorite Zambian dance hits. That, plus the ambulance ride to the airport, definitely put me in the right mood for 36+ hours of travel. I’m en route back to North Carolina and California for 2 weeks. A lot is going on and the ‘to do’ list keeps getting longer: the MD/PhD retreat this weekend, meet with my committee next week, finish (start) my contribution to a book chapter, finish revisions a manuscript that was accepted (!) for publication, finish revising and resubmit another manuscript, monitor our expansion to a second STI clinic from afar, and meet with the global health program. Not to mention all of the personal ‘to do’s’ like get my hair cut, reacquaint myself with the single-track trails, say ‘goodbye’ to my grandmother, and oh, I don’t know...spend time with my friends and family who I haven’t seen in over a year! A lot to do in 2 weeks.

I always get anxious leaving Lilongwe and I’ve been especially mobile this summer between grant-writing* and teaching in Blantyre, the IAS conference in Cape Town, and my return flight to RDU from the departure of June 2008. I hardly slept at all last night getting everything organized for my absence but I just have to remind myself that my study nurse is more than capable of managing things in my absence. And I have plenty to look forward to these 2 weeks - friends, family, fast internet, good coffee, good beer, sushi, ice cream, bookstores, trail runs, the lawn at weaver street, early morning beach walks with the dogs, good roads. But I already miss the clinic and my entire team, delicious vegetables, fanta passion in the bottle, sunrises and sunsets, my walk to work, of course, K’millian videos in the clinic waiting room and kitchen dance parties.

Tiwonana Malawi, ndidzabwerera posachedwa!

* The service delivery grant I helped put together, Supporting the Scale-Up of High Quality HIV Care and Treatment Programs in Malawi through and Strengthened Laboratory Infrastructure Under PEPFAR, was awarded to our group this week! Great news for Malawi!