You Don't Wanna See Me Ballin' Like Mugabe

Aw yeah, Web 2.0'n all over your face!!!!!! Ndilipo Malawi y'all and it's been a blast so far. I'm living and working at Kamuzu Central Hospital, the largest hospital in the capital, Lilongwe, as a lab technician. Thus far I have been working in the PCR lab processing blood and plasma samples from many different studies to determine the level of HIV RNA/DNA in them, and also testing out a procedure that is new to the lab, which determines whether or not patients suspected of having TB do indeed have it, and if any of their strains are drug-resistant. I have just been informed this week, however, that I will get to work on a brand new HIV study aimed at identifying and counseling patients who are in the acute phase of infection, and are thus the most likely to transmit the virus. More on this as I learn more myself...

I'm living in "The Guest House" with five other Americans, two puppies, and a cat.

It's quite a nice place. We have a big yard, two kitchens (the house is divided into two sides) multiple showers with hot water and good pressure, a grill. I've taught myself to drive manually as that's how most cars are here and we have all gone in on two cars together. The city is nice but fairly small so every other weekend or so we like to go out of town and check out the rest of the country. Lake Malawi is beautiful, and there are countless lodges along the lake shore that facilitate swimming and relaxing.

Creative juices seem to be dwindling so... in case you didn't see my facebook note I'll wrap this up with some contact info

My address here is:
Seth Congdon
UNC Project
100 Mzimba Rd.
Private Bag A-104
Lilongwe, Malawi

and to call my cell dial 011 265 993 560 511

Malawi is 6 hours ahead of EST, and I typically work from 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM (1:30 – 10 AM EST) so feel free to call me anytime between 10 AM – 6 PM EST, or 12 – 1 AM if you feel like drunk dialing.

Cheers!
-Seth