Another Week gone by

I have now successfully made it through another week in Kenya! I just finished making banana bread, which actually, surprisingly, turned out similar to what it looks/tastes like when I make it in the states. I'm also working on making homemade applesauce and basically, just turning into a regular Martha Stewart :) The reason for all this baking/cooking is that I've moved into another apartment for the next week which has an electric stove. I know everyone loves gas stoves, which is what my regular apartment has in it, but I am not a fan. And, I have no idea how to light the oven, haha!

So, I had to move into another apartment in my complex yesterday for two different reasons. First, there has been a huge ordeal going on with outstanding electric bills upon my arrival. Although the account numbers are now all figured out and the outstanding balances paid (this was a huge hassle to figure out), this did not happen before the electric company came and shut off our hot water heater. So, while we do still have lights in my apartment, we don't have hot water. It sounds like its going to be another ordeal to try to get the company to come back and turn the water back on, but we'll see how it goes. I have been showering without hot water for the past two days, so I was really happy this morning to have a hot shower again!

Secondly, the apartment I moved into was a disaster upon my arrival. There were no working outlets or lights in the living room (that is now fixed) and it looked like the bathroom hadn't been cleaned in ages. Picture white bathroom mats on the floor that are solid black with dirt/mold, paint peeling away from the walls with a nice layer of mold had built up underneath, and black floors instead of the normal yellow color they should have been. Throughout the apartment in general, instead of white walls, mine were a nice shade of brown and the floor had lost all of its finish and was covered by a nice layer of dirt that when scrubbed (by me on my hands and knees) just sunk right back into the wood and stayed nice and dirty. I know it sounds like I'm being picky, given that I am living in Africa, but when you saw what the other apartments in the complex are like and realize that yours is also supposed to look like that, you'd understand.

So, to get everything all straightened up, the apartment maintance man is working on fixing up the apartment with a crew this upcoming week and they are washing everything and painting and refinishing the floors. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to have someone else pay, so for now it's my expense, but I'm hoping to figure that out too. Even if it stays my expense, it's so worth it to have the place cleaned up! I am so so so excited to have this work done but can't stay there while they are doing it. So, this is the other reason I've moved apartments. The one I'm in now is actually much nicer than ours! But, I'm tired of not being able to settle in and unpack. I'm really looking forward to being able to finally be able to settle in to my apartment (and one that doesn't look like it's just been through a tornado and monsoon all rolled into one).

I went to work every day last week and, as usual when you start a new job, things are a little slow going at first. I'm working on figuring out which days I am working with who and where, but I think it'll still be a few weeks until everything gets ironed out. In general, I will be spending one day a week working in a pediatric HIV clinic, one day working on data analysis for the pediatric HIV project, another day working in an immunology/molecular biology lab, another day writing my proposal, and a final day working on an existing analysis project looking at immune responses in HIV positive women. Overall, a very busy schedule! But, they all feel like very worthwhile projects to be working on and even from my short time here so far, I know that this year will definitely be an eye-opening experience.

I've also spent some time this week meeting the other people living in my apartment complex. While the UW used to have a lot of people renting and living in these apartments, they have all moved away and it is now mostly students and employees of the University of Manatoba. I met 4 of them this week and it was really great to start meeting the neighbors.

Well, I need to go finish my applesauce! I'll write more later if I think of anything exciting I forgot to include.