Miss me?

I am a bad blogger! A very very bad blogger! I think most of you at this point must have realized I didn't return back to school in January. No, I am still in Ethiopia! Here is a very brief summary to catch you up:
In November I was offered a consultancy position with DKT Ethiopia, to do some research on their Emergency Contraception product.
Later in November me and Paul headed out on an AMAZING walking safari in Kenya. It was one of the most amazing trips of my life, and it deserves its own blog post
In December I spent a month in the U.S./Canada and managed to spend lots of time with my family, see most of my friends, go to Aruba with the Golds and even make it to an early Christmas in Vancouver!
In early January Paul and I headed back here, where we were greeted by an enthusiastic puppy who was very happy to see us. She was much less happy to be neutered a few days later, but that is another story, involving the vet doing the surgery on our dining room table, that surely also deserves its own post.

So a bit more about what I am doing here. First of all, I am having a blast! I LOVE my job! DKT is such a great organization to work at, it feels like bureaucracy is illegal here. If I have an idea my boss tends to tell me to run with it. When I learned that DKT is introducing a new lubricant product I was asked to think up a name! Talks about condom sizes and flavors, and family planning ad models are common talk, in other words I feel right at home!

The research, though it is not completed, was great too. Myself and my team (I have a team, how cool is that?) visited several pharmacists around the city to interview them on their behavior and opinions towards to pill. This was followed by interviewing commercial sex workers at several drop in centers around the city, which was extremely interesting! And even more so, was going on an outreach ride at night, and talking to many of the CSW on the street! I did a bit of outreach like that in Thailand, and I forgot how interesting it is and how much I enjoy it. The girls aren't anything like you'd expect them to be. Many of them are really outgoing and funny, and willing to share all sorts of information. These interviews were followed by more with university students. It was certainly interesting to see the cultural differences (and similarities) between students here and in the U.S.

All this was followed by a one week trip to beautiful Awasa (in the south of the country) where we repeated the research. The city was laid back, quiet on a huge lake that was all much more relaxing than Addis! At one point, following a long day of interviews, sitting by the lake drinking a fresh mango juice, I literally couldn't take a smile off my face!

Now it's not all fun and games! I'm now entering and analyzing the data, which is certainly tedious! All in all, it has been an amazing experience and I have learned so much!
Thank you to everyone who helped me with the decision to stay here and do this work! I'll try to be a better blogger for the rest of the time I am here, but for now, much love!