Back in Africa

First things first. What am I doing back in Africa? Even as I was getting ready to leave the U.S. I was not able to answer this question in much detail. However, after spending 2 weeks in Atlanta at "orientation" and a week and a half in Tanzania, I can at least begin to give you all an idea.

Some background info...

Earlier this year, as I was completing my Masters Degree in Public Health, I applied for a Global Health Fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control. I knew that the fellowship would entail spending 1-2 years working for the CDC within the Global AIDS Program (GAP), and that I would be placed with a CDC office somewhere in the world (although the majority of the CDC's work is domestic, they have a small and growing presence all over the world, working with Ministries of Health to improve the health and well-being of their populations).

As it turns out, I was fortunate to be offered one of the 17 fellowships awarded this year, and was invited to work for CDC Tanzania with their HIV/AIDS Clinical Service/Care and Treatment team. The focus of my fellowship is Program Management, and the scope of work suggests that the range of activities I will be involved in is quite large. I have been told by the Country Director that my team is the busiest team in the office, and that there will be no shortage of work to be done! More details to come on all of that once I actually begin my work! [For those who are curious, the other fellows are spread out among CDC's offices in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Thailand, DRC, Nigeria, Namibia, Cambodia and Atlanta).

Orientation...

Prior to leaving for Tanzania (TZ) I spent close to 2 weeks in Atlanta at an orientation for all of the fellows. In addition to getting rained on almost every day, we learned a bit about the fellowship and the CDC, as well as how to adjust to life overseas.

By far the most "interesting" part of this orientation was the Department of State mandated 3-day course entitled, "Preparing for Work Overseas". All federal employees who spend 3 months or more abroad for work related purposes are required to complete this course. Although they claimed that it is not, one who did not know any better might think that the purpose of this course was to scare us all into never leaving our a) safe and secure homes, b) safe and secure places of work, and c) safe and secure vehicles. We learned all about thing like: bombs, what to do if you are kidnapped or carjacked, intelligence and counterintelligence, and a variety of other terrorist tactics and their appropriate responses. Though informative, interesting, and at times entertaining, the majority of what was discussed over those 3 days will fortunately not be relevant to my stay in TZ.

And although I'll admit that learning about American spies who were caught spying for the Russians was very interesting, my favorite part of the orientation was getting to know the other fellows. It is a very cool group of people, and hopefully a number of them will pass through TZ during the next year, either on business or for a visit!!