Wednesday, January 09, 2008

New Day, New Lodgings

Today was a bit slower work wise: it involved cleaning up the database and getting it to a final point (I think I've got the data in perfect shape now). I'm working on this database with Ruth, a Ugandan woman also involved with the surveillance project. She is going to try and merge the databases and clean it on her own as well, and we'll see if we get identical results, and then go to Hasifa with the final result. Once that is done, we can proceed to think about writing the introduction (meaning I'll have to do a lit review of indoor residual spraying, the intervention that we're studying) and the methods. I'll also have to think hard about the analysis section. 


As far as analysis goes, I've been emailing back and forth with Tim Bruckner, a UCB graduate who does a lot of work with time series analysis, and he's a great great help. I'm also downloading a lot of tutorials and documents on how to do stuff like removing autoregression, and figuring out how to do ARIMA models and such. If I can figure out the analysis stuff out, I'll be in great shape for my dissertation I think, since the data I have to work with are all surveillance data, which are collected over time (hence why "time series" analysis is useful). 


In terms of living situations, I've decided to move closer to Mulago hospital, which will be a huge relief. I've been living in the dorms at the Red Chilli Hideaway (advantages: very cheap, 2 cute goats and dogs to look at. disadvantages: very far, cheap means cheap lodging, additional stress because of unsecured belongings and 40 min-1hr commute with valuables), and after getting eaten by mosquitoes (they ran out of nets for the dorms) I bought a net of my own. They don't have any single rooms either, so I've been living in the dorms (they house 34 in a series of rooms) and carrying all my valuables on me, which makes me a bit paranoid about being out late, and also makes it tedious to carry around so much stuff. Marx, one of the drivers for the program here, helped me find a new place that Grant and some others had stayed at in the past, and it's a much nicer bed and breakfast within walking distance of the hospital. It's 30k shillings  a night (got a small discount from 35k) which is roughly 20 dollars US a night- it's more than 3x more expensive than Red Chilli's, but it's way closer (walking distance means just a few minutes, versus the 40 min to an hour otherwise), and I get my own locked room, and it comes with a bednet! (Now I have a bednet that I'll only be using one night, but I suppose I'll take it home with me and bring it with me to Uganda whenever I come back). The Edge house, which was full yesterday, suddenly called me today to let me know that the people who were going to stay there cancelled, and so they had room for me again... but this was after I put down a deposit on the other place, so I had to turn them down. In order to pay for all the new expenses, I'll have to get a bit more cash exchanged, but thankfully I brought enough with me. 


Having my own room in a locked compound will take a lot of stress off me- I still worry about leaving my suitcase in a room that sleeps 34 people that come in and out depending on where they are on in their touring around the country. I'll feel better about leaving my stuff in a locked room and locked compound and then going out to buy some christmas presents (haha) and traveling around the city for shopping etc. 


So far, my goals for the trip are 2-fold: 1) Figure out a plausible area for my dissertation, and flesh out a few potential papers I might be able to write (big task, I'll have to do some lit review searches) and 2) Get Hasifa's paper/project/database well on the way to getting into a publishable state by the end of the month (big, but realistic). 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home