Back to Work

As someone who has not worked in 3 (yes, count ‘em, 3) years, and prior worked in the publishing industry, which stressed work-life balance (even if I therefore couldn’t afford much of that life in NY), the transition to Swaziland has included not just cultural adjustment but major lifestyle adjustment. As my parents assessed on the phone the other night, after I had told of my early to bed weekdays and early to hike weekends, it’s very healthy. (As long as you ignore the chicken & chips consumed at least 3 days per week.)

I was surprised at the early work hours, but most employees are at their desk by 8:00am, if not earlier—as attested by the 15-minute rush hour that exists in town from 7:45-8:00am. My boss has been picking me up on her way into town as I’m still carless, so I rouse myself by 7ish and stumble blurry-eyed to the most-wonderful-shower-on-earth-or-at-least-in-this-hemisphere: Super-hot waterfall in an instant—bliss. It’s been quite chilly in the mornings (it’s true, as much as I could not fathom as I packed in the summer heat of DC, Africa does get cold), so I’ve been wearing every layer I brought. My days so far have consisted of meeting with my boss and getting up to speed on all things public health, specifically HIV/AIDS.

My first project is a big one—very interesting and challenging—implementation of a national sample transportation system, a network of 5 trucks and 4 motorcycles that will drive various routes weekly to collect blood samples for testing at major laboratories around the country (most clinics only have the capacity to do routine tests) and then bring the corresponding results back for patients—hopefully improving the rate of accurate diagnoses and resulting in more timely treatment. Swaziland is a small country, with just 1 million people, but 80% of the inhabitants live in rural areas spread across four regions, so coordinating the moving parts of the 160+ clinics is still a lot to assess and coordinate. This project has been in development for nearly 2 years, and implementation is just weeks away.

Wish me luck!