On having 6ish months left…

Oh, to even write that feels like a miracle!! 6 months? That is no sweat! I feel like I could do 6 months in Sudan, even though I would rather not. Sudan has petrol and coca-cola at least. Anyway, in honor of what I will call my growing “exit attitude”, I thought I would reflect on the good things that are preventing me from jumping ship these last 6 months. I think that the reasons for giving up and leaving would be too lengthy for a blog post. Plus, I don’t want to be glass half empty all the time...

So, in keeping with my tendency to write lists, I will summon the positive energy buried inside to think of 10 convincing reasons to stay here for the next 6 months, 5 personal and 5 professional:

5 reasons to stay for fun:

1. Lake of Stars, the enormous music festival held on the shore of Lake Malawi, is the end of this month. It will be 24 hours of music on the beach for me although for others it is more like 72 hours. Still, better than nothing. And, even I can stay up for one great night of dancing!
2. My parents are coming in October, and we have a great vacation to the lake and a safari in Zambia planned! That will be fantastic to see the lions, leopards, and elephants with my folks. Then, they go on to Cape Town where I will live vicariously through them for 3 days.
3. I am going home for Thanksgiving in November for 10 days. That will be an incredible break and respite -- getting the final energy boost needed to complete my contract!
4. I already have fun Christmas plans for the lake – even taking a whole day off! I’ve never been up to Nkata bay, but there's a lakeside bungalow and 3 whole nights to enjoy diving among cichlids and drinking up the relaxation!
5. I finally made some new friends, and I am thrilled to spend some time with them over the next 6 months of volleyball, hiking adventures, and neighborhood potlucks. Glad to have some new people to make this place enjoyable.

5 reasons to stay for work:

1. My SMS (text messaging) for direct provider to patient communication system is slowly taking off. We (plan to) use the system to text message antiretroviral treatment (ART) patients who miss their appointments to remind them to come back for their meds.
2. We are also starting to message patients who have not yet started ART (pre-ART), but who are eligible to start. If they get the message, it will bring them into care earlier, which is better for their health.
3. The TB/HIV electronic data system should be working in the next 2-6 months, one of my most exciting lasting legacies for the clinics. This will put my organization’s electronic system light-years ahead of any now used in the USA , and it is truly an achievement that has been in the works for 16 head-smashing-against-the-wall months.
4. I just finished a set of tools for the Ministry of Health to help them monitor the roll-out of a national clinical mentoring program – pretty exciting to have some influence at this level. Hopefully, the monitoring and evaluation tools will let us show the positive influence of clinical mentoring for improving the quality of patient care.
5. And last, but definitely not least, patient mapping is under way! Within 6 months, we should have maps of all patient neighborhoods so that we can make better, and more persuasive, presentations and advocacy efforts in the future about where are patients come from and the health centers that they attend.