STOP Team 24

I'm currently in pedestrian unfriendly Atlanta, where I and the rest of the WHO/CDC/UNICEF team are going through our requisite training to inform us on the latest about polio and some other vaccine preventable diseases, how surveillance is or should be performed for these diseases, objectives of immunization campaigns and surveillance, basically everything we'll need to know (if we don't already) to be able to assess and make recommendations about surveillance systems primarily for polio (or acute flaccid paralysis) and immunization activities and especially, help our in-country partners in their efforts to eradicate polio and eliminate other vaccine preventable diseases. We've also received some requisite CDC and WHO/UN security training where they scare the bejeebers out of us...OK, not really, but some of the stories they tell do raise some eyebrows and some concern. It's probably serendipitous that I was reassigned from Nigeria: it's the only country that won't accept a UN passport (all the rest of us have been issued one - pretty cool); you have to use your own personal passport in Nigeria, meaning you don't have the usual, more obvious UN protection, I guess - although that can be relative depending where you are.

STOP training is actually otherwise interesting, and I've met many interesting and great colleagues from other countries. Some have never been to a western country or even outside their own countries, although many have been heavily involved in their own countries in polio surveillance and immunization activities. My roommate (yes, we all, or most of us, have roommates - I suppose to promote cultural exchange) is a doctor from Pakistan who is completely new to the US and anything outside Pakistan. The experience has been an eye opener and a learning experience for the both of us. She's been assigned to Nigeria, where I think, despite her inexperience internationally, she may do OK as she is Muslim and much of the polio activity in that country is occurring in the northern Muslim areas.

Our days tend to be a bit long. Sitting all day in lectures and case studies is somewhat taxing to the brain; thank goodness I can manage to run in the early mornings before we start, but it takes a lot of will power given the freezing temps. I had to get long running pants at the REI store down the street and am wearing all sorts of layers including a pair of socks on my hands to keep them warm. My now Hawaii-thinned blood isn't used to this 20-30 degree F business. I have to thank my Hawaii running friends Ed & Carol, too, for inadvertantly teaching me how to make the most of my surrounding neighborhood for running. Atlanta's infamous for hardly any sidewalks and almost no shoulders on the road, and my hotel is not exactly in a prime location - a corporate or business park area. So I've been managing to put in an hour run in the mornings by running around the perimeter of every parking lot in the immediate area. It's tedious, but it works.

I have to also thank all my ATL area friends who have rescued me every night so that I can enjoy some good eats and great company (although my new STOP friends make great company, too!). I've had a great time catching up with many old friends - a nice inadvertant perk of the STOP training.

After having spent a week and a half in training, I'll be off to Nairobi, Kenya this Saturday afternoon (ATL time) where I'll hopefully have some email contact. Three of us have been assigned to Kenya. Other than me, there is also Diane, an amazing Canadian who has already been on two previous STOP missions to Afghanistan and Sudan, and Mohammed, who was unable to attend the training with us here b/c as a Pakistani male he apparently encountered a lot of red tape in trying to get a US VISA. He's supposed to meet us in Kenya, we hope. Anyway, the plan is that we start in Nairobi, where we'll be briefed and oriented by the WHO staff, and then we will be assigned to the field, likely in the Northeast/East part of Kenya among the Somali refugees and displaced persons camps where much of the polio activity has been (and where the travel guidebooks have little to say - big surprise, not exactly tourist areas). Thanks to Samuel and Violet, two Kenyan colleagues who are on our STOP team and have been assigned to the Philippines for their mission, we have some good advice and recommendations for where to stay and who to look for as well as some good information for in case we actually have a little time for some fun along the way.

Well, guess the next post will be from Nairobi!