Day 63: Hlane Royal National Park

Waiting for a Kombi outside of Dr. Preko's house

So Chantal and I left the house around 11:30am so that we can meet Jessica and ShaCoria in Manzini and then take a Kombi to Hlane Royal National Park. It's always difficult for us to catch Kombis from Pine Valley because most people on this road have cars, so as usual, Chantal and I had to call for a taxi to take us into town. Then from town, we took a Kombi to Manzini and met the girls on the Kombi that goes to Hlane at the Kombi station in Manzini. We made it to Hlane just in time for our reservation at 3pm.

Kombi Station in Manzini

Hlane Royal National Park

Sunset at Hlane Royal National Park during Big Game Tour

Day 62: Fun Day at Royal Swazi Spa and Hoofbeat Swaziland

Four wheeling, paintballing, and go-kart racing with the girls all in one day! Jessica was the only one to go horseback riding today and Chantal and I did four wheeling since Jessica and ShaCoria already did that here last month.

Royal Swazi Spa

On my way to Royal Swazi Spa, Chantal and I passed this cute children's camp - Kamp Kwena. We took a Kombi here and walked the rest of the way to Royal Swazi Spa.

A lady on the Kombi eagerly wanted to direct us to Royal Swazi Spa and she took us to this pathway. We were a little reluctant to follow her directions, but she was still trying to show us the way so that we can give her money. She seemed mad that we didn't trust her directions. We weren't sure how reliable she was so we asked one of the workers at Kamp Kwena and turns out, she was right! lol

Approaching Royal Swazi Spa

More photos of Royal Swazi Spa

Four Wheeling with Chantal at Swazi Trails Adventure at Royal Swazi Spa

Four wheeling cost us 395 Rand (around $39.50)

HoofBeat Swaziland

Paintballing, Horseback Riding, and Go-Kart Racing at HoofBeat Swaziland (it cost 330 Rand to do both paintballing and go-kart racing)

Paintballing with ShaCoria, Jessica, and Chantal. ShaCoria was the only one that didn't get hit!

Go-Kart Racing!

Day 62: Somhlolo Road and Downtown Mbabane

Chantal and I are leaving Baylor and own our way downtown to catch a Kombi to Royal Swazi Spa. Baylor is on Somhlolo Road

ICAP Building on Somhlolo Road, a few blocks down from Baylor Clinic. The students from Columbia University (Naomi and Noeleen) that we met on Friday are doing their research projects here, which is an organization at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

More pictures of Somhlolo Road and the intersection on Gwamile Street

More photos taken while heading downtown

Day 61: Sibebe Rock

Sibebe Rock

This is Sibebe Rock, which is about 10 km outside of Mbabane and is located in Mbuluzi I believe. It is also about 5 miles down from where I live in Pine Valley. The driver, Simangaliso asked if I ever seen it, and I said I probably did but wasn't aware of what it was. Simangaliso knows how much I like pictures so he recommended I go there so that I can put it on my blog! I did some research and learned that Sibebe is the largest exposed granite pluton in the world!

More pictures of Sibebe

Day 61: Relaxing Day at Baylor

Today was one of the most relaxing days at Baylor. After the hard work and success of organizing the focus groups, this day was well needed. Chantal was working on data entry and I reviewed the facility-level survey and distributed the first one to the Senior Nurse after Nobuhle looked over the survey and approved it. I'm glad I was able to play a role in constructing the survey as Nobuhle said that the survey was comprehensive good enough for continued use. The data clerks has began their second round of interviews for cases at RFM Baylor today. We're finally starting to get a bit more cases! I also had a talk with Katharine from CHAI for further technical assistance and updating her on the progress of the project. During the meeting, Dr. Sarah also came in to discuss one of the major limitations to the study: we don't have a representative sample of cases at each clinic since most of our cases are likely to come from the Baylor sites and we have a higher representation of controls in our study, so we have a little bias which is very difficult to rectify because cases are limited and most of the time unavailable, non-reachable, or unwilling to participate within the study. Katherine also recommended places to go and things to do during our trip in Cape Town in 2 more weeks! She was there last week.

Chantal entering data - pretending to be productive lol

Today, I also had time to work on this blog since I know I am super behind! Today I just realized how much I've done in Swaziland and that time flies. I've been here for two months already! I didn't expect for it to take as long as it did to organize my photos because I took over two thousand pictures! I took a lot of the same pictures and then chose the best ones for the blog.

Beautiful day downtown - on my way to the food court with Chantal. I'm going to order the quesadillas at Spur again.

The grand opening of a new clothing store called Power Fashion Factory at The Mall

Day 60: Focus Group at RFM Baylor

Top Two Photos: Venue for focus group in the Medical Library of RFM. Bottom Photo: Meeting room next to the Medical Library

Today, we held another focus group at RFM Hopsital as planned. Before leaving for Manzini, I picked up the order of doughnuts for the focus group today. The focus group started late like the one at Baylor Mbabane yesterday because we were waiting for at least eight participants to show up. Some of the participants started to get mad and impatient. Then Chantal and I left with the drivers to pick up the food from Moonlite Restaurant in Mbabane, which is about 15-20 minutes away from Manzini. The focus group session ended while we were still in Mbabane, so the participants were upset that they had to wait another half an hour for us to come with the food. Overall, the focus group was still a good turn out. Twelve people sat through the focus group (two participants came with family members) and a nurse debriefed them towards the end of the discussion. Neli led today's focus group again while Sibusiso took notes. Neli did a great job facilitating both focus groups!

Chantal and I taking pictures in the Medical Library and Meeting Room

Photos that I took of Chantal in the Meeting Room

More photos of RFM

HIV Testing van that I saw outside of RFM Baylor. I just took a picture of it because it reminded me of the HIV outeach and community mobilization efforts I've witnessed and participated in while in the States!

Day 59: Focus Group at Baylor Headquarters

Meal for focus group

Today is the first focus group for the controls of our study at Baylor Headquarters in Mbabane. Chantal and I bought doughnuts for the participants to have at the beginning of the focus grip and then we picked up the food from Moonlite Restaurant, which is a packed meal that we gave them at the end of the focus group session. The focus group was a good turn out! Eight participants showed up, which was the minimum number of participants expected to attend each focus group.  One of the data clerks, Neli, led the focus group today since she speaks Siswati. Another data clerk, Ndumiso took notes during the focus group discussion. The participants also seemed to have a lot of questions about pediatric ARV treatment so Dr. Sarah and on of the expert clients came into the meeting during the debriefing period at the end to answer their questions. I also ordered food from Moonlite again for tomorrow’s focus group. 

Yesterday, Chantal went back Nhlangano to finish data collection with her data clerks, Neli and Nozipho, and my data clerks resumed data collection at RFM Baylor. I went to get my official work permit at the Immigration office (since if you are in Swaziland for more than 30 days, you need a VISA or a work permit if working in the country). Then, I went to Moonlite Restaurant to order food for the focus group (the manger wasn’t there so I had to go back). Ndumiso recommended this restaruant since they sell cheap food. Then I went to RFM Baylor to assist the data clerks with data collection, and then went back to Mbabane to confirm the order  of the meals at Moonlite. It cost only 20 Rand (2 US dollars) each for a chicken meal (see top photo), 25 ($2.50) Rand for beef, 30 Rand ($3) for a pescetarian meal, and 8 Rand (80 cents) each for a drink. Finally, I went back to RFM Baylor and the data clerks finished confirming participants for focus group (3 did not pick up) and Ndumiso came back to Baylor with me to prepare for today's focus group at Baylor and Sibusiso stayed behind to finish data collection.