Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow night, I'm flying back to Wisconsin to spend the holidays with my family. I'm strangely excited to wear a winter jacket and wear holiday socks. It's been hard to get into the festive holiday spirit when it's still 90 degrees outside and sunny. However it is Harmattan season, so the evenings have cooled down quite a bit. I love the weather now. I wish it would stay this way, but I have been warned that soon the weather will turn and we will hit triple digits.

I have nothing really important to report about the last week, but here are some highlights:

• Last Friday, I had an amazing dinner with some new friends at a Lebanese restaurant. We had spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, lamb, hummus, and other delicious goodies. The food was fantastic, probably some of the best I've had in Abuja (other than the Chinese place we go to).
• The past week has been interesting in respect to taxis. People keep telling me there is a fuel crisis in Abuja and the lines of cars waiting to get gas at gas stations are extremely long. I've had to pay more for taxis recently than I ever have in the past. However yesterday I noticed the lines at the gas station were no longer as long as they were before. No matter how many taxi drivers I talk to, no one seems to be able to explain what happened.
• Washing my sheets by hand is really rather difficult, but I gave it my best attempt.
• There is a spider that hangs out above the water heater in my bathroom. He and I have come to an understanding that as long as he stays up there, I won't attempt to kill him. But the minute he comes down, he takes his life into his own hands because I will chase him down with my shoe (which is what I did with the last spider I saw in the apartment).
• I have mosquito bites everywhere. I have no idea where I got them from, but I am so itchy. I have definitely upped my chances of developing malaria in the last few days.
• Many people are on leave at work, so the office has gotten very quiet. It's kind of nice.
• My face is healing pretty nicely and didn't end up being as bad as I imagined it would be. So I'm now ready to go home and take Christmas pictures with my family!

To all my Wisconsin readers (mainly the ones located around the Milwaukee area), I'd love to see you when I'm home!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Day I Closed a Taxi Door on My Face

I seem to be picking up stories left and right here in Abuja. And today gets to go down in the history books to prove my complete and utter clumsiness. After I was driven to work this morning, I paid, got out of the taxi, and proceeded to close the door on my face. I'm not sure how or why I did this nor do I understand how I lack the depth perception to know where my face is in relation to the car door. Regardless, I slammed the corner of the door on my face, right into the bridge of my nose and close to my eye. I am now sporting a really attractive scratch on my face and am starting to feel the bruising around my eye. Oh and I lost my contact in the process. If you know me, you know that I'm a blind bat. So today I get to work with only 1 good eye. It's going to be a long day... I'm starting to think I need to bring an extra pair of contacts to work just for times like this. I'll try to post a picture soon of the beautiful disaster we can now call my face.

It's December and I want to see snow

Life in Abuja is winding down slowly. Teresa is heading back to the States today, so I will have approximately 2 weeks by myself. Let's just hope I don't destroy the house before she comes back. The past few weekends, I've had the chance to go out and meet lots of new people in Abuja. It has helped me expand my social circle and see what else is out there. Work has been surprisingly busy. I've had a few projects thrown at me, so I've been trying to wade through a lot of new information and learn about the programs here. Abuja is growing on me. It has its days of pure frustration but I really don't mind it here. The city is pretty easy to live in. I have nothing unusually interesting to report, but for all you readers hailing from the Midwest- I'll be back in the area around Christmas! Wisconsin, you better provide me with some snow while I'm home!!!

Happy World AIDS Day

Yesterday the US Mission in Nigeria hosted a World AIDS Day Fair event, which I helped coordinate. World AIDS Day is actually today, the 1st, but the Nigerian government was having several events. In order to not clash with those events and since the ambassador had to attend some of them, we held our events yesterday. The day highlighted the importance of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV as a way to achieve an “HIV-free” next generation and the ultimate global community goal of “getting to zero.” The official ceremony began with a welcome address from the Nigeria PEPFAR coordinator. She also gave an overview of the activities that were lined up for the day: speeches from special guests, vendor sales to benefit women with HIV/AIDS, blood donation, HIV testing and counseling, and educational sessions. Next, the director for the newly created Nigeria Centre for Disease Control within the Federal Ministry of Health spoke. He talked about the effect HIV/AIDS has had on Nigeria, the efforts Nigeria is going through to address this public health problem, and the role the US government has had in helping Nigeria in the fight against HIV/AIDS. After Professor Nasidi’s remarks, two different testimonials were given. The first one was given by an organization made up of Nigerian women who make Nigerian handmade products called Women of Hope. The proceeds of this organization go to support Nigerian women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. The second testimonial was given by an HIV-positive woman who benefitted from PMTCT and has two children who are HIV-negative. Then the US Ambassador of Nigeria gave a short speech on the work PEPFAR has done in Nigeria and how there were and will continue to be collaborative efforts between the Government of Nigeria and the US Government to fight HIV/AIDS. Upon the conclusion of the ambassador’s speech, the World AIDS Day Fair activities began. And I did some shopping. The Women of Hope organization sold different handmade quilted products, while the woman who gave her testimonial during the official ceremony sold beaded necklaces. Many people working for the USG came to donate blood and get tested for HIV. The educational sessions were provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Defense (DOD) and included talks about tuberculosis, HIV prevention and general information, HIV modes of transmission, blood safety, the epidemiology of HIV in Nigeria, and why malaria matters. The day concluded around 2PM. It was a crazy day, but I’m glad I was able to participate and help coordinate things.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year was my second year away from home for Thanksgiving. Last year, I have fond memories of eating chicken by headlamp after a regional meeting at the office in Sembabule. This year, my Thanksgiving was a little closer to an American Thanksgiving. Teresa and I started off the day by trying to bake a coffee cake in the oven at home. We finally figured out that our stove IS gas and needs to be lit. By rolling up a piece of paper and lighting it, we were able to avoid scorching any phalanges, eyebrows, hair, and limbs. After our little bake-off (which consisted of Teresa doing all the work and me watching like a small child), we went to an American colleague’s house. She works for CDC and is an official hire, so she lives on an official American compound. It’s a NICE place. She has a 3 bedroom (at least 2 bath) house. We got there to help set up for Thanksgiving and cook a little. Teresa went up to our colleague’s neighbor’s place; she baked a coffee cake and made mashed potatoes. I helped to set up the room for the Thanksgiving party and helped with the rolls. Around 4, people started arriving. We had an awesome dinner with turkey, gravy, ham, salads, dinner rolls, stuffing, and so much more. The desserts were equally as impressive: red velvet cake!!! Pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, lemon torte, coffee cake, and a few more things that I can’t remember.

After we finished eating, Teresa and I went to ANOTHER Thanksgiving party at our mentor’s house. He lives in a different American compound has a big place too. I was so stuffed by the time we reached his place. I barely ate anything else. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with our mentor, the CDC country director, his brother, the Nigeria CDC director, and a few other Americans. It was a great day!