Things have been both good and worse this past week. The first part of the week, I managed to get 17 surveys with patients and a good interview with a man at a AIDS support organization. I arranged with him to have him help me recruit several more patients to my survey, and we set up an appointment for Saturday. So that was great.

But then on Thursday, I woke up with a head cold, and I've been suffering from it ever since. Luckily, I didn't have any work appointments for Thursday or Friday, and Justin was great enough to take Juma so I could sleep and rest for two days. My big day of surveying patients on Saturday came, and Justin made all the arrangements to get food and drink to give them as a thanks. He also hauled 16 kilos of rice to the organization's office, only to find that all the 12 people whom I thought were there waiting for me were waiting for something else entirely. The guy I made arrangements with finally showed up an hour late, and told me the people I should talk to are all at a seminar in the center of town at the old fort. So I called up our friend who drives a taxi and had him haul all the rice and refreshments, along with me and my research assistant downtown. There were a good two dozen people there at the seminar--but I'd already surveyed every single one of them. So that was a gigantic bummer and frustration. But everything with my research had been going really well up to that point, so I guess I was due for a "TIA" (This is Africa) day.

Later that same afternoon, I had set up an in-depth interview with a man who is HIV+ and heads a support organization (a different one). When I showed up at the appointed time and place, he wasn't there, so I called him (thank goodness cell phones made it to Pemba!). He had suddenly gone out of town, and hadn't called me to cancel because he phone was all out of money (all cell phones use pre-paid cards here). Second big bummer of the day. So I dragged myself and Justin and Juma and my assistant all around town to get nothing done, all the while feeling like crap because of my cold. Ugh.

That evening, we were invited to a maulid (a Koran signing ceremony with boys playing drums, reciting, and dancing tamely) to celebrate a friend's nieces wedding, so we got all decked out in our nice clothes and made our appearance. All the women go to these, and get dressed up in dresses that are shiny, shimmery, and/or sheer, and usually pastel. Weddings are one of the few chances women have to look all nice and not have to put on a buibui (the black robe) to cover it up. I'll post a picture of me in my fancy Pemban dress (imported from Oman) later.

Today is our best friend, Juma's, wedding. I'll post more about it and some pictures of it later. He's our oldest friend here and takes his responsibilities as Juma's namesake very seriously.