Woos Out For the Summer

Greetings Woos!

So cool to read about everyones adventures. Benny and I are tearing it up in Dar (by “tearing it up” I mean going to the beach frequently, smoking a fair amount of sheesha and talking about the relative states of our intestines a lot) He recently tried to post the details of his sordid love life to the blog but had no love from the internet gods- which I realized means that if I have success, I can post anything I like about him and he can’t retaliate. Its just gonna take me some time to decide which incriminating pictures to put up first…

Also in woo news- we met up with Therese for a kick-ass safari in Serengetti/ngorogoro crater in July and we are all four planning a trip to Zanzibar/Pemba with Dave “blushing groom” Ehrenberg next week. Planning to re-live the infamous DR trip as much as possible (in a 95% Muslim republic- should be a classy scene). So like.. if any of you feel like stopping by Zanzibar on your various journeys round the globe- then c’mon down!

So Tanzania has been cool. Tanzanians on the whole are lovely people.. in fact, so lovely that it took two months for someone to finally teach us some dirty words in Swahili. Now i only have a two weeks left to use them as much as possible. Aside from such forms of "cultural exchange", its been a pretty full summer- and working for Clinton foundation has brought us face to face with the joys of dealing with developing country bureaucracy. My first trip into the National Aids Coordinator’s office, he told me I “smelled all fresh and clean- like and American woman” and then promptly sat back and tuned out everything I said from that point forward. I don’t really remember what I said either, cuz I was too busy imagining dragging him into the bathroom and giving him “head flushies” until he begged for mercy and promised to make a public statement promoting equal treatment for women… But I digress…

Things have gotten better since then. We met President Clinton when he came through- which was flashy.. as in flashy planes, flashy suits and lots of flash photography. Actually, i mean that in both senses of the word "flash" since when i got the photos with the pres, i realized my bra was showing in pretty much every single one of them. Yep... pretty classy... politics may not be my thing after all.

Here's what i really like- motorcades. Wow is it fun to have the entire street cleared for you.

After the smoke cleared from clinton, we went to Gombe where Jane Goodall did her research on chimpsanzees. We got to stay in the research station and go see the chimps- we also met Jane briefly- which was cool for an anthro nerd like me- and i managed not to show her any of my underwear- so it was like, a really successful meeting.. This week we are heading down south to Mtwara, where the beaches are supposed to be kind of untouched and lovely. Oh! And we do some work too- mostly on getting free ARVs to hospitals and clinics that are supposed to be getting them but aren’t thanks to infrastructure/bureaucracy etc.. It involves lots of long jeep trips on very bad roads- but its also quite cool to see the rural areas.

Can’t believe its almost the end of the summer.. totally stoked be back in the warm embrace of Wooland in a few short weeks. Of course my joy is tinged with the bittersweet knowledge that I can’t go to math camp again (note dripping sarcasm) – but can’t wait to see you lot and hear your stories from the summer.

Kwaheri, Salamma and all that Jazz,
Elizabeth

Hi People-

I've been informed that some Woos are not sure how to get into the system, even after they've registered as users.

To log in, go to:
http://www.blogger.com
Enter your username and password.
You should see "Woos Out For the Summer" listed.
Click on New Post.
You will get an easy to complete webform.
(There's options to add links and photos.)
Complete it and click Publish Post.
You're done.

If you use the google toolbar, you can turn on the "blog it now" function which I find indispensible. It lets you quickly create entries that include links to the webpage you're on.

Please write -- would genuinely like to hear what you're all doing. Also feel free to email me with any questions, links to your workplace, links to your blog, etc.

Not too much new here except had drinks by the lake with a bunch of interns including Cat and Chris U last night which was very pleasant, and I'm off to Prague this evening for a long weekend. If you have particular recommendations re: Prague, post a comment or send me a note today.

Love,
Leo

Sunday, Chris & I and a few friends visited the Chateau de Chillon while at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the far side of Lake Geneva.

This is the underground prison area made famous by Lord Byron's poem "The Prisoner of Chilon."

Here's a picture of Mr. Uregian. As you can see he's grown quite a bit since arriving in Geneva.

Here's a little photograph I took of Geneva on Wednesday. The weather's been drizzly all week, but at least there's some benefits. You can make out the jet d'eau in the background, this fountain in the lake that shoots the water higher than most every building in Geneva.

I saw Cat and Chris last night, and they're doing okay. Here is visual proof re: Cat.

Welcome Woos! I threw this blog together so that we could have a place to share what we are up to this summer. I know that everyone is doing incredible, varied things, and I also know that many of us are interested in hearing what others are doing. I have been missing you all and thought this could be fun and a way for our class to stay a bit connected through the summer.

So use this as a place to post your thoughts about your internship, rave about the city you're in, post pictures (blogger has a new picture uploading function, or you can download hello), etc.

If any of you are already blogging and would like to share your url with the group, send it to me, and I'll add a link to the sidebar. Also, I thought it might be nice to put links to the organizations where people are working there as well.

Also, if anyone knows html or the made-up-blogger-programming-language, let me know, and I'll give you administrative privileges as well so that you can play with the format of this.

Finally, if others have additional ideas, let me know.

Hopefully people will use this. I figured it was worth a shot and less intrusive than urging everyone to post to the list. May the remainder of your summers be fabulous.

Love,
Leo