Sosoma and such

2/23/09 – 2/24/09
The past couple of days have been full of frustration and annoyances so I’ve decided not to rehash all the details… Let’s just say that after bringing several quality assurance issues to everyone’s attention so that they could be addressed, it seems that Eugene (the WE-ACTx research coordinator) now has a grudge against me and is making it very difficult for me to actually accomplish anything further with the HPV study. So, I think I’ve done what I can in terms of setting everything up to run smoothly and now it’s time to shift focus.

2/25/2009
Today was the distribution day for the Sosoma nutritional supplement (it gets its name from the three principal ingredients - SOrgho, SOja, et MAis in French which is Sorghum, Soy and Corn) so I spent the afternoon handing out 8kg bags of the mixture along with 2kg bags of sugar to about 120 HIV+ kids and their families. The idea is for the Sosoma to supplement their diet so that they can take antiretroviral drugs without nausea and can avoid malnutrition. Unfortunately many of them continue to lose weight despite the supplement and so my task now is to identify these kids and do home visits to find out why they’re not doing well. I’ve also been in touch with Lisa back in NY and it looks like I will be going back to Kibogora for a week or two to work with the community health workers there in preparation for her maternal/child health program out there. Throw a few weekend trips around Rwanda plus a longer trip to Tanzania/Uganda into the mix and I think I’ll have enough stuff going on to fill the rest of my time here.