Out of the Pharmacy Classroom and Into Africa

I now have only 8 more days to go until I leave. I have made some progress towards gathering everything I need to pack but have also run into a few more glitches along the way.
1. Research Proposal: The package arrived safely along with my check for the $500 research and ethics committee fee in Uganda and the documents have been filed. But the check was rejected because it didn’t contain the word “University”. I ended up having to write a personal check because Wilkes University couldn’t issue a check without the recipient filling out the appropriate IRS forms and I knew that I would not be likely to get Makerere University to do this in a timely fashion. But, I wrote the check to “Makerere Faculty of Medicine Research” and it was supposed to have been “Makerere University Faculty of Medicine Research”. Thankfully, my Pharmacy Dean collaborator in Uganda is going to pay and I will reimburse him.
2. Lodging in Kampala: I had originally planned to stay at the Namirembe Guesthouse in Kampala which isn’t too far from the University but I found out from another Uganda contact, a medical researcher on TB and HIV, that the area to the west of Mulago Hospital and Makerere has been the “center of the cyclone” when it comes to the recent political unrest and riots. Although that has calmed down for the present, my friend highly recommends finding a different area to stay. I was reluctant to change places at first since the people at Namirembe have been so helpful, but I am traveling with my student and we need to think of safety first. I’m still working on that at the present- more to come…
3. Skirts: Well, I finally found the perfect black skirt to take with me at Christopher and Banks and I think I am going to make do with the shoes in my closet.

Phone Issues

A couple of months ago I had checked with AT&T, my service provider to make sure that I could purchase a temporary international plan that would allow me to make some phone calls and use the internet and receive emails on my iPhone. I had probably spent at least 30min in the store talking with them and going over all the options. The woman even looked my travel locations online and said it looked like their plan would cover me. Thankfully, though, my husband was double checking online himself and discovered that Uganda and Tanzania are NOT in countries that can utilize this international plan. At first I didn’t believe him (when will I learn 🙂 but looked for myself and found the same thing. I can get an international plan to call Uganda and Tanzania at reduced rates FROM the USA, because that plan covers more than 200 countries, but not if I am IN those countries and calling the USA. I confirmed this when I went to the AT&T store on my birthday to get my present, my new iPhone 4. So, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been surfing the web and talking to friends who have traveled internationally to try and figure out this whole “International Mobile Calling” stuff. It finally all came together in my mind when I found the website for Telestial.com. This is a business that sells international phones and SIM cards, but it also has a lot of great information and clearly explains why a lot of US phones don’t usually work in other countries. I highly recommend reading through their info if you have questions, but it all comes down to realizing that the type of cellular service available in most other countries is GSM with the frequency of 900 or 1800 while the GSM network in the USA is either 850 or 1900. Also, not all US cell carriers even use the GSM frequencies. For example, AT&T does, but Verizon doesn’t. So in order to use a cell phone in another country, you first have to have one that can use the GSM frequencies in the country you are traveling to and then you need a SIM card that works in that country.

My main two options were to just buy a phone in Tanzania and Uganda along with a SIM card and a card with minutes. This would probably be the least expensive way to go but I wouldn’t be able to get a phone until I got to Tanzania. I could use my iPhone in an emergency since it is a quad GSM frequency phone but it would cost me $4/min and I wouldn’t leave it on to receive calls because I don’t want to incur unnecessary costs so it is unlikely someone could reach me in an emergency (or at least not until I turn the phone on). And I also wouldn’t have a phone number to give to people until I got to Tanzania either. Separate SIM cards would be required for Uganda and Tanzania and that means 2 different phone numbers. Finally, since I my student is meeting me in Uganda and not traveling the whole way with me, it is really important that he can reach me in case of delays in flights or other issues. So…I purchased a phone and an international SIM card that can be used in all my travel locations. The card comes with $10 to use for minutes or text messages, but for more minutes I plan to buy the inexpensive phone cards that are available in other countries. The phone I purchased will work in the US and abroad so I can try it when it arrives and keep it as a back up phone for the future (it is not connected to any kind of “plan” so you just need a phone card or to add minutes to the SIM card I bought to be able to use it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the VoiceThread video to post within the blog site without requiring the user to click on a link, like in the post below. I could do it by paying $58/year for a VideoPress account from WordPress, but I think I figured out how to do this with a free program called VodPod. Let’s see if it works.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Wow- this seems like it worked! Yeah! It has only taken me about 2 hours to figure this out…. 😦 So, let me catch you up on all the stuff I’ve been doing to get ready for this trip.
1. I finally got my Research Proposal submitted to the IRB at Wilkes University- they should act on it next week.
2. I finally got my Research Proposal sent off to Uganda on Wed (5/11) [had already filed the applications by email] with the 4 passport photos required for each of the investigators as well as the fees. I had to make 11 copies of all of the research docs and applications and this turned out to be 796 copies (the surveys were 42 pages long). The package I finally sent to Uganda via UPS was in excess of 800 pages and cost $167 for expedited shipping and tracking. As of yesterday morning the package had reached England and as of this morning (Sat) it had reached Entebbe Airport in Uganda. I think the Pharmacy School Dean should have the package by Monday morning.
3. I’ve also been trying to figure out what to pack. Since I will be in several places and in different settings, I need a variety. Also, I am taking a vacation with my husband in London on the tail end of the trip, so I need suitable clothing for that part. Also, I am a notoriously bad packer- usually bring way too much but then forget something crucial- so thinking about this early is necessary.
4. My Mom is sending me a whole bunch of Litttle Dresses for Africa and hats that people from her church made- Thanks to Good Shepard Lutheran in Citrus Hills, FL. I can’t wait to get them!

5. I finished 3 more hats and Karen, from the Bloomsburg Library knitting group, donated another one- hers is the really cute blue cabled hat in the photo.

6. The picture of the 3 girls (Jenna, Katie, and Grace from left to right) is the scene I came upon when arriving at my sister’s house last weekend. My niece, Jenna, and her friends are knitting baby hats with a peg loom. some of my sister’s friends are knitting hats, too.

Yesterday I decided to test out the VoiceThread (VT) technology that I would like to use to share my experiences in Africa. Click on the link below to view it. Granted, it is a bit lame but I’m sure you’ll find the posts from Africa (Tanzania & Uganda) more interesting.http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=1986215

Overall, though, the final product is exactly what I hoped for in terms of my ability to record Voice Memos with my iPhone in real time and take pictures with either the iPhone or a camera and upload to VT. But, it was really good that I ran this experiment because there were some critical glitches to work out and so it has probably taken me about 5 hours to get this VoiceThread posted.  Fortunately I’ve worked out the problems and I’m sure future threads will go more smoothly.  Below are some of the issues I encountered.

1. I usually only sync my iPhone to our home computer but if I am taking my laptop with me, I will need to set up the iPhone to sync to that and hopefully not lose all the music and media that is contained. For this VT I just synced to my home computer, but I’ll have to look into this further (in the past I had tried to sync to both the laptop and home but ran into problems so I stopped doing that.)

2. The Voice Memos from my iPhone are .mp4a files, and VT only accepts .mp3 files. I only realized this AFTER I uploaded all of the voice memos and then found out they wouldn’t play. I was able to convert them within iTunes, but it took some investigation to figure this out. (just google for instructions) And then, I couldn’t find where my computer put the .mp3 files and it took awhile to figure that out. Just in case anyone needs to know (and so I remember for the future), go to home, music, itunes, itune music, karenbeth iphone, voice memos.

3. I was hoping that I could upload pictures and voice memo from my iPhone directly to VT but apparently you can only VIEW by choosing their “universal access”. Since there is no flash player for iPhones, you can’t create or modify VoiceThreads. That is a bummer, but I will still be able to record and take pictures/videos and upload them to my laptop at the end of the day.

One of the activities I hope to pursue while in Uganda is to conduct a pilot research project to assess the impact of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education initiatives of Busoga Trust America in the Masindi District. It will be a “pilot” since I this is my first time to Africa and I am unfamiliar with the culture and language, I need to test my survey questions before using them more widely, I am only bringing one pharmacy student with me, and I will only have a limited time in Masindi to gather data.  This summer’s learning experience will be used to improve the project and hopefully gain access to grant funding to support my future endeavors on a larger scale.  The first barrier to gathering data this summer is the need to have approval from the Uganda government to be able to administer the surveys to the people of 2 communities in Masindi.  For those unaccustomed to academia and formal research, in order to do studies where you will share the results by publishing it scientific literature you must get institutional review board (IRB) approval, even if you are just asking people questions using a survey. The process in the USA is governed by the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) who authorizes local IRB’s (such as those at universities and hospitals) to approve or withhold approval for research. The primary purpose of an IRB is to protect the rights of the people in the study.  This makes perfect sense when you are thinking about a study where the research participants are being given drugs to find out it the new treatment will cure a disease, but even just being asked questions, as in answering a survey, could be potentially harmful if the person isn’t assured that their privacy will not be violated or if the questions could cause undo stress.  Think about asking people about diseases like AIDS, cancer, and psychiatric illnesses. These type of studies are done all the time but what the IRB wants to be sure of is that the participants will be fully aware of how the information is to be used and how they will be protected from having their personal information revealed.  And if the questions might cause stress, the participant should know about this ahead of time and make their own decision about whether or not to take part in the study.  So, my research needs to be vetted through the appropriate IRB process and this is a little more complicated because I want to do the study in a foreign country.  My research approval needs to be obtained through the processes of Uganda and it turns out that they have a 2 steps to fulfill.  First I need to get approval through an institutional IRB and since I’m working with Makerere University College of Health Sciences, I will send my proposal and application there.  But after that is approved, I need to submit my research to the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST).  Not only will both of these steps take time, but also a lot of money- $500 for Makerere Faculty of Medicine Research, $300 to UNCST!  Since I now only have 41 days before I leave the US on a flight to Africa (on June 4), and only 56 days until I start my time in Uganda (June 19) [remember I will be in Tanzania for the first 2 weeks of my trip], there isn’t much time for me to get all of this done. Thus, I think that explains my delinquency in keeping up this blog. With that said, I will go back to working on my research approval.

Stay tuned for my “Day in the Life…” experiment where I will record my activities once an hour all day and then create a VoiceThread and embed it in this blog to test out this technology before my Africa trip.  It might happen this week….

As I mentioned in my “Beginnings” series of posts, I want to share this African experience with all of you as it unfolds.  The primary way I intend to do this is to use is VoiceThreads that will be embedded or linked within this blog.  This is a web-based technology that I was introduced to last fall by our Director of the Teaching Commons.  It allows you to upload media (images, powerpoint slides, video, etc.) and add comments to each and saves this all as a slide show.  The comments can be text (typed in a bubble) or audio (via microphone on your computer) and what is really neat is that the VoiceThread can be interactive and collaborative- those who view it can upload their own comments which are saved and enhance the slide show.  The best way to see what I’m talking about it to view one.  You can click the link for VoiceThread and check out the website by going to the Browse button.  You will find tutorial videos as well as lots of slide shows created by normal people that are open for public viewing.  I decided to try this technology out by creating one for my Infectious Disease lecture on gastrointestinal illnesses.  Click on this link for my VoiceThread called Waterbourne Illnesses. Viewing this link will also give you insight into the work of Busoga Trust America (BTA), the non-profit organization I am partnering with who provides wells and sanitation to rural Masindi.  Within one of the slides is a link to a brief humorous video that is used to educate children about the importance of hygiene- please click on it.  Then you can peruse the comments of some of the students in my class.  This is what will be possible when I create a VoiceThread with my trip photos.  Another benefit to VoiceThread is that I will be able to capture my thoughts on an audio recorder on my iPhone at the time I take the picture.  This can then be uploaded with the images and incorporated into the slide show.

Coming soon will be an experiment to test this technology out in real time, as I hope it will be possible while in Africa.  I am going to do a VoiceThread capturing a day in my life.  I will attempt to take one photo per hour and record audio on my iPhone and then upload all of this to post within the blog.  This will help me get a realistic idea of how much time this will really take, if my iPhone audio quality is adequate and if the technology works as it should, and how easy or hard it will be for me to speak my thoughts as they occur.  Stay tuned….