Ghana bound

I've given the blog a makeover for my next adventure. New links, new pictures, and even a new title.

When I last left off, two months ago, I'd just been told that I hadn't gotten the Downs Fellowship for the project I'd been developing in Vietnam. Ghana was a bit of a pipe dream. Oh how things change.

In the last two months I've confirmed that I still want to do the project I designed for the highlands of Vietnam, but that it needs to be set to the side for a bit (perhaps for a PhD project). So I started looking at other possibilities. Through one of the second year students and one of the professors at Yale, I heard about a program called the Yale-Ecuador HIV Clinic Initiative (YEHCI), which is a joint project between Yale and a group in Ecuador to promote HIV education and prevention. I briefly considered it, but in the meantime, another wonderful opportunity presented itself.

At the beginning of November I got an email from my parents talking briefly about a trip to Ghana that was organized through the Unitarian Universalist church. It included visits with a group called the Queen Mothers, who provide support for kids who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS; the United States Ambassador to Ghana; and representatives from UNICEF, the Ghana AIDS Commission and other officials. They asked me if I wanted to go. At that time I was still planning to go to Vietnam and concerned about getting back for my friends' wedding at the beginning of August, so at first I was hesitant. But after looking at the calendar for about 10 seconds I decided that no matter what, I would make it work.

So when my project in Vietnam didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped, I started considering Ghana as a viable option. I emailed the current (about to graduate!) second years who had been there the previous summer to ask about the projects they'd done, who they'd worked with, if they knew of any new projects. At the same time I emailed people about YEHCI and also emailed Raul Roman, the co-founder of UBELONG, about a separate project that UBELONG had set up that was public health related, in Quito, Ecuador.

The second years who had been in Ghana provided some great recommendations, and I tried to follow up on a few of them. I also considered trying to set something up with the people that I knew I'd be meeting on the trip with my family. I talked to YEHCI, and thought about potential projects I could do with them. But the most promising lead I got was through UBELONG. Raul responded to me and said that their project in Ecuador was full, but wonderfully coincidentally, they had a new project that was about to open up in Ghana.

My initial conversations with Raul about that project were a little vague, but the more we talked, the more I liked the sound of it. I decided to pursue the UBELONG project in Ghana - grassroots public health education - above all other leads. I applied for funding with this in mind, and unfortunately didn't get funded, but pushed forward anyway with help from my family.

I've got my shots, my visa, my health insurance, my tickets, my accommodations... I'm just about ready. Yesterday I finally got everything approved. It's all definitely happening! I leave New Haven on Saturday. I still have to pack my stuff for the trip, my stuff for the week after in Washington, D.C. (when I'll be going to the International AIDS Conference!), my stuff for Sarah and Zach's wedding (so excited for them!), and anything that I want to take with me to California after that. I won't be back to New Haven until mid-late August. I also have a bunch of stuff I have to pack up from my room so that it's ready to be sublet for the summer, plus finish up finals and squeeze in a couple of days of work. Phew.

I'm planning to keep up this blog for all of my health-related activities this summer. This includes the first week in Ghana with my family, the internship, and then my first week back at the International AIDS Conference. Unlike last year, I will be bringing my computer with me this summer, so keeping up with things should be easier.