Wednesday, June 27, 2012

So why Uganda?


As is usually the case with international trips, so much has happened in an incredibly short amount of time.  It’s probably about time for me to catch you up on my first few days in Uganda!

But first, I should probably answer the most important question that I’m sure is probably in the front of everyone’s mind.  What exactly am I doing in Uganda this summer?  The long and short of it is that I got an opportunity to do an internship at the Rakai Health Sciences Program, one of the longest running comprehensive HIV education, prevention, and treatment programs in the world.  RHSP has been around since the 1980s and investigated the major HIV epicenters.  The center is located in Kalisizo, a rural town about 2-3 hours south of Kampala, depending on the road situation (and from what I’ve seen so far, the roads are not great most of the time). 

After some serious soul searching and exhaustive team meetings, my supervisor and I decided that I would research the association between mobile phone ownership and risky sexual behaviors.  Basically, they will give me a huge amount of data that I will plug into my statistic software of choice (STATA, for any curious parties) and then I will run logistical regressions and other types of statistical wizardry to determine if there is an association.  Sound exciting?  Of course it does.  J 

I only wish that I had paid more attention in my biostats class.  Eeek.

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