Real Last Chance

This was a big day for the project. Thursday was the opening of Angola’s very first Insectary – a mosquito research laboratory. This was a really big deal. There were lots of VIPs who came for it.

Lined up to meet the Minister of Angola

Lourdes was told only on Wednesday that there were protocols that she was supposed to be following for such an event including a red carpet and a priest to bless the place. Renting red carpets alone cost $150. Thursday morning she was still looking for a priest.

Unfortunately as we were leaving for the Insectary, Lourdes hurt her knee so she spent the rest of the day – in fact, the rest of my visit – limping and suffering.

You can't even tell how much Lourdes is suffering

Amazingly by about 8:15 everything had come together except we were waiting for the minister. Everyone from the office was there, even Allen who was leaving on an 11 AM flight to return to Bethesda. We waited and waited. Finally at around 10:15 an entourage of cars pulls in, goes past us and walks up to ANOTHER building also doing an inauguration. So we wait as the Minister and his whole group visit that building before they walk to ours. We take a cue from the other inauguration and we line up on either side of the red carpet so that the Minister can greet everyone in line. I shook a lot of hands and they had no idea who I was or why I was there.

When the Minister had left I got to get a tour of the insectary and discovered that they grow their own mosquitoes from larva there and keep precise temperature and humidity settings for each of the various stages of growth. They also showed us how they feed the mosquitoes and how they deal with escapees (Zap!)

I hadn’t realized that only one species of mosquito can catch the malaria virus. They get it only after biting a human who is already infected. In the lab they carefully identify the mosquitoes and send off to labs at the CDC the ones that can’t be identified.

After the big event we decided to go one last time to Bailundo to finish the team leader training. We got a land rover for the trip but we were asked to bring the lunch for the workers. We drove to the store where they were being prepared, but we couldn’t wait any longer. We knew if we didn’t get there soon it wouldn’t be worth it.

Mobilizers filling out forms.

As we drove up the workers were busy tabulating their Mobilization sheets. Mango overheard them saying, “Let’s not agree to do any more phone training. Let’s just refuse.”

We went back to the same hospital classroom. Mango asked how many of them had taken phone training and no one raised a hand or said anything. He finally released the students who weren’t doing the phones and Adriano took the others back under the tree. I was left with the team leaders with help from Mango and Mauro.

We finally finished. I found this training difficult too, because the sample data weren’t realistic for the team leaders so they were having trouble realizing what they were doing. Essentially I think the message was understood enough so that on Tuesday they will stumble through with some support from Adriano and Mango.

Team leaders using their tablets

Lunch finally arrived at 4 PM so I ended up eating in the car on the way home. We had one final drive back from Bailundo and some work in the office before heading home. Lourdes needed a ride because of her knee. She offered to come back to the office after dropping off Miriam at her hotel. Since I had a few more minutes of work, I agreed. I finished what I was doing, packed up my stuff and went to wait outside. I waited for about 15 minutes before Mauro came outside and said that Lourdes was home and they had forgotten to come and get me (it had been THAT kind of day.) Mauro walked me home.

I told Lourdes since she couldn’t walk and I can’t cook, we should just eat out, but she decided to make something “simple” which didn’t seem simple to me at all. I could have managed without dinner since I had lunch so late, but since it was there, I managed to eat very well.

I might have found the opportunity to blog on Thursday night, but the router at the office wouldn’t send a signal to the house and I didn’t have the ability to reboot it so I had to live internet free for a whole night!

Pictures