星期三, 八月 31, 2005

Preparation for the trip to Ghana

I am going to Ghana with another staff member at LSHTM, Anna Randell. We just had a brief meeting for the preparation of the trip. She worked in Africa for 8 years before she joined the school. Since I am going to visit two study sites, one on each side of Lake Volta, we are going to follow a route which almost goes around the country. Before I pop on the trip, I will need four weeks for vaccination!!! Anna listed a few vaccines that I will have to take, malaria/hepatitis A&B/yellow fever/.... Some of them I never heard. Feels like I am going to be armed to teeth. :) There are a lot of forms to fill out, travel insurance/risk assessment/oversea travel application/..... It sounds more and more close! Comparing to the trip to Scotland, the trip to Ghana is way too cool!!!

Came back from Scotland

Scotland is beautiful. It was a nice trip, only except that weather was not so good. I posted the pictures on MSN spaces. Please go to http://spaces.msn.com/members/gegewugohome to check them out! :) I am going to use that as my default online photo album in future.

星期三, 八月 24, 2005

my goal

Will manage to finish 1km in free style and 4km in breast storke, so 5km in total. I will think about how much money I shall ask for my hard work :))) and offer a graceful quest!

Will need to start practicing very soon. I have only gone to swim once since I came to London. It is all due to the problem to open a bank account here!!! All seansonal gym memberships require a debit card, and I don't have one yet! But this is a great motivation to resume swimming soon.

Raising money :))))))))))))))))))

Hopefully you already saw my last post that I am going to join the LSHTM swim for malaria. Now I am asking for your sponsorship!

The follow suggesstion is from http://www.worldswim4malaria.com/en/Sponsorship.aspx

We hope every swimmer will raise some sponsorship money. After all, that’s what this is all about. There is no minimum amount of money an individual has to raise. Each person raises money on a best efforts basis.

Most people will raise money through traditional sponsorship i.e. by asking relatives, friends, colleagues etc to sponsor them an amount per distance or a fixed amount. If you are sponsored ’fixed amounts’ and not an amount per length etc, you then have the option of collecting the sponsorship money up front in the weeks before the swim and not afterwards. Some swims might decide to charge an entry fee to those taking part instead of swimmers raising money individually. It’s up to you.

For younger children a sponsorship form is appropriate, if not necessary. Part of the fun is seeing the sponsorship form fill up with names.

Some people may not want to take round a sponsorship form so why not use email? Email can be a very effective way of raising sponsorship money and requires very little time.

LSHTM Swim for Malaria

I am going to join the swim for malaria at LSHTM. :) Although no idea how it is going to work. e.g. How long do we need to swim? Is that going to be a time limit or distance limit? How will the fund raising be done? I hope it is not the swimmer's responsibility, :P cause I am really bad at asking people for money. However, if the fund raising is in linear relationship, or exponetial would be even better, to the distance a swimmer manage to achieve, I could be a good one. :)

Annoucement from School ****************************

Please see details of Swim for Malaria at the bottom of this mail and on website http://www.worldswim4malaria.com

LSHTM Swim
The 52 Club has very kindly agreed that the pool may be used for an LSHTM Swim on FRIDAY 2nd DECEMBER.

We need as many people as possible to swim for this excellent cause - please let me know if you would like to swim.

But we also need some people who don't necessarily have to be swimmers to help organise the event. The objective is to make some money for the charity - so we will need to collect sponsorship. We'll also need some organisational help on the day, for example, counting lengths.If you can spare some time to help please let me know by email - then I'll arrange a short meeting of those interested.



SWIM FOR MALARIA'S aim is to have a million people swimming all around the world to raise a substantial amount of money for the fight against malaria.

For every £1 million we raise we will stop 10,000 people from dying, 70% of them children under 5.

We will have a million people swimming if approximately 20,000 people around the world agree to organise a swim where they live for on average 50 people. If a swim has 10 people or 110 people that’s fine too; the number per swim doesn't matter.

How much money you raise is up to you. There is no minimum.

100% of the money we raise through the swims will be used to buy bednets (mosquito nets), specifically long lasting treated nets (LLTNs).

We will ensure the nets are installed over people’s beds by collaborating with a range of organisations that have distribution expertise.

There has never been a global swim involving the swimming community across the world.

We hope you will participate.

星期六, 八月 20, 2005

Will go to Ghana in October!

Finally!!

Hui lai yi hou, yi ding dao zhe li lai chui niu!! :PP

星期二, 八月 16, 2005

winter plan launched!!!

I have been thinking about to find a connection in China to work on sth real for quite a few months. The winter vacation at home is a perfect time to do so. I started the search before I came to London.

The first one I tried was Dr. Wan Yanhai. The GB grant society at Hopkins invited him for a talk on HIV/AIDS in China on the AIDS day last year. He is the 2002 International Recipient for Awards for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. He sounds like a great guy to work with. The only concern is that he doesn't have a good relationship with govenment. He was even on a black list of some sort in late 90's. I don't respect how China govenment has handled the HIV/AIDS issue either, but don't want to be put on a black list. Beyond the concern about my freedom, I think public health is not sth in ivory tower, but sth in tight bond with society/govenment/...... If someone want to do anything real for public health, there is no way to get around govenment (at least, that's what I think right now). I definitely want to know more about Dr. Wan Yanhai's work, but have the concern that it could bring potentional negative effect to my own work/life in China later. I want to think about it and do it in the right way.

The second one I tried was School of Public Health at FuDan. I went to visit the school in January 2004. Among all the schools I visited that winter, FuDan was the one I liked most. After I moved to London, I updated my contact information with the faculty there and asked if anyone at the school was working on HIV/AIDS and would like to take me as a volunteer on any project in this winter. I was introduced to a faculty member and I emailed him right afterwards, but never got any response. A little frustrated, but I think I will go to Shanghai in this winter anyway, shouldn't give up this one so easily.

The third one I tried was London School. I have been taking every chance here to ask people around me for information about projects going on in China. And I finally got one!!!! How exciting it is! It is a small project funded by the unit (the Gates Malaria Partenership) that I joined. I really hope this will work out and spend my winter in YunNan. God, thank you for answering my prayer!!

Anyway, this sounds like a good start! Deserve a celebration. So I spent the whole morning at work to update blog, instead of working on data analysis. :)))

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Dear Nigel,

Just to introduce you to Dongmei who started a couple of months ago as the new GMP statistician. If you have the time it would be nice if you could meet up with her as she is interested to know what you are doing re the new DIF grant.

cheers
Amit

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Amit, Thanks a lot for putting me in contact with Nigel!

Nigel, I am from China and very interested in any public health projects going on back home. I heard from the GMP meeting that you are currently working on a malaria project in YunNan. I would really love to know more about it. Also, if there is anything I could help with, that will be more than a pleasure.

Regards,
Dongmei

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Hi DongMei,

it's good to hear from you. Yes I have been working for several years with colleagues at the Yunnan Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Simao, Yunnan Province PR China. I currently have a GMP funded small project evaluating the use of traditional plants burnt on indoor cooking fires in the evening to reduce / prevent malaria vector mosquitoes entering houses in remote minority peoples villages in Xishuangbanna Region. I'd be happy to meet up and describe our work. I am always in need of a good statistician to work with me to design and analyse our projects, so it's really good you have joined us. I'll check my diary to suggest good days to meet and get back to you.

Best wishes,
Nigel

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Hi Nigel,

Very nice to hear from you. I look forward to learning more about your work. I plan to have a one month vacation at home around Christmas and will be very happy to visit your study site in YunNan if it doesn't bring you any trouble and would like to work as a volunteer there, if you need any statistics help, or any other kind of help a Chinese could provide. :) I also want to take it as a chance to learn some practical issues about clinical trials in the field, especially in China. I look forward to meeting you in person.

Best,
Dongmei

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That sounds great, which part of China are you from ?

nigel

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I am from Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province. It is about 3 hours driving to south from Beijing. I already plan to take the winter vacation as a chance for me to learn more about China. Shame on me, although I was born there and grew up in China until I finished my college education, I didn't go to many places in China. Spent most of my time in Northen China (Hebei and Beijing) and only went to visit Shanghai once. I want to go back to China in future (near or far, questionable) for public health research and am looking for every opportunity for me to learn anything going on back home.

Dongmei

--------------------------------------------

That sounds interesting. From my understanding it is very unusual for any Chinese to travel widely, and in this respect it is similar to the USA where the majority of people never leave their state ! As well as my other projects I am also the UK co-ordinator for the DFID / British Council UK-China Higher education training link between LSHTM and YIPD. I send LSHTM staff to YIPD to run training courses each year and bring YIPD staff here too. It is very likely I will be sending LSHTM staff to YIPD in the next year to assist them in clinical trial design & analysis (including stats), so I will certainly be thinking of you as an ideal candidate !

Best wishes,
Nigel

星期一, 八月 08, 2005


Hair models. (All of them look ugly!) :))))

The ancient machine to curl hair. :)

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Royal Pavillon

星期五, 八月 05, 2005


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星期四, 八月 04, 2005


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Two great news!

家里的昙花开了!Piccadilly Line通车了!

昙花

房东家里种了一盆昙花。上个周末的时候,房东指给我看含苞欲放的三个花骨朵,很高兴地告诉我说这个星期昙花就要开了。我觉得自己真有福气,刚刚搬来两个星期就遇到了这样的美事,于是天天下班回家的时候都留心看一眼。

昨天八点多到的家,有一个花苞已经开始吐花瓣了。虽然这之前已经听房东讲过昙花开起来很快,但是因为没有经验,虽然已经看到花开始开了,我回了家之后还是先跑去吃饭了。吃完饭(也就半个小时的样子)再来看时,花已经开得老大了,大叫伤心!早知道开得这样快,我一定会端了饭,坐在花边上吃的。可惜没有看到花开的过程。不过幸好还有一个花苞昨天没有开,今天回家的时候一定要诚心诚意地在花下等着,补上这一课!:) (听起来怎么象是一副风流鬼的样子?:P)

昙花开起来很美,象大多数花一样。只是昙花开的时间很短,而且都在晚上,所以才有昙花一现这样的说法。我抱了相机在花边上守着,这样两朵粉雕玉琢的花看着真是让人满心欢喜。古人形容美人的时候用“雪肤花肌”作比喻,对着这样的两朵花又让人想起美人来。真是赏心悦目!房东说今年算是小年,一盆花只长得三朵,往年的时候有八朵昙花一齐开放的日子,满屋清香。可惜,我只能神往了。昙花的蕊很长,雄贴着最里层的花瓣长出来,螺旋状地布满了花心;雌蕊一直伸到花冠外面来,一根花柱在头上分出许多分支,不知道是不是每个分支上都有一个柱头。花柱晶莹剔透,象美人的玉簪。凑近去闻,昙花有一股墨香,很独特!<<红楼梦>>里“寿怡红群芳开夜宴”一回,众姐妹给宝玉贺寿,晚上在怡红院开宴,席间行占花名儿的酒令。曹雪芹把芙蓉给了黛玉。我闻到昙花的这一股墨香,再加上昙花的短寿、冰清玉洁,竟让人想起黛玉来。虽然昙花没有风露清愁,不过气质上也很象黛玉了。房东家里的这一盆昙花说起来命运也象黛玉一样“悲惨”,只得生在鞋架子上。这样美的花让一堆臭鞋熏着,可有多不幸!问房东为啥别的花都好好的,得在院子里阳光雨露的滋润着,独这盆昙花却挤在角落里。房东说昙花长起来太疯了,如果放到院子里去,它那些枝条就肆无忌惮地蔓延开来,是很不得了的。即使这样窝在角落里,还得经常修理不规矩的那些枝条。每年春天,家里都要剪了好多新枝送人,这附近的邻居已经有好多家得了我们这里送去的昙花种起来了。这样一说,我听了就很高兴起来。果然这昙花的生命力这样强壮,那花开得短了些也算是有得补偿了。

花开到晚上11点钟的时候已经开始有些要谢了,可以看出花瓣不再象初开时那么洁白了,有一点泛黄。外层那些比较细的花瓣已经开始打卷了,再没有两个小时以前那样娇嫩的样子。奄奄的,象是也要睡了一样。我支撑到11:30的时候终于等不下去了,想要等到花谢的决心越来越松动,最后看看一时半会这花还没有要打烊的意思,我只好自己先去睡了。

今天早晨起来满怀期待的心情去看谢了的昙花,惊喜的发现谢了的花竟美地有另一种味道。早晨的时候赶上伦敦近一两个星期以来难得的好天气。清亮的阳光透过窗户照在花苞上,整个花让娇嫩的粉红包裹着,透出里面洁白的花瓣,羞涩地垂在宽大的叶子下面,象个刚刚上好晨状的少女,是另一番风景。对着这样的一朵花,心里面毫不费力的生出了足够挥霍一天的好心情!到了学校,update完自己的blog之后,整个一天就在盼着下午回家去看第三朵花开!