Muhuru Update!

Hi everyone. I've been trying to wait to have a good enough connection for photos and videos, but no luck yet. I arrived in Muhuru last Sunday, and things have been moving quickly since then. Here are the highlights...pictures soon!

1. I interviewed 20 applicants for local research interviewers. We held two days of training and evaluation to narrow down to 5 very qualified individuals.
   
2. Research assistants from Egerton joined us in Muhuru today, so the whole team is here. We have another day of back translating and finalizing the measures - then we'll get started with interviews!
   
3. Emily Matthews arrived this week to work with me. Emily is a Duke student who completed an independent study with me this semester. She will be assessing HIV education in the schools in Muhuru. Emily has been a HUGE help with the trainings.
   
4. Bananas are fabulous here, so I've been introducing my Kenyan friends to banana and peanut butter sandwiches - yum!

First Days in Kenya

I arrived in Nairobi on Sunday and spent my first two days recovering from jet lag and running errands. My most exciting purchase: a big fabric tent (complete with retractable net screens on the sides) that will be our "office" on the WISER site. Putting it together will be an interesting team building exercise (there are LOTS of pieces!).

I traveled to Nakuru today to Egerton University to meet five students who will be research assistants for my project. Our first afternoon of training went well, and I am excited to be building a research team. Nakuru is also a beautiful city with a large lake filled with flamingos - yes, flamingos. I was surprised to look out of the car window to see the water covered with thousands of bright pink birds. Quite a sight!

I will be in Nakuru until the weekend to continue training and to work with the students to finish translating our measures from English into Dholuo, the local language in Muhuru Bay. I will then be headed to Muhuru on Sunday. More soon - I'm off to dinner!

So what exactly will you be doing?

Hi everyone! I have been answering this question a lot lately, and I thought I should answer it again briefly before jumping into blogging about my research experiences.

I just arrived in Kenya to begin fieldwork for a research project on HIV prevention for youth. I will be working in Muhuru Bay, a rural village in the Nyanza Province. I am conducting this research as a postdoc at the Duke Global Health Institute and as part of WISER, the Women's Institute for Secondary Education and Research. My mentors on this project are: Dr. Sherryl Broverman and Dr. Kathy Sikkema of Duke University, and Dr. Rose Odhiambo of Egerton University.

The goal of my research is to identify factors related to HIV risk among youth in Muhuru Bay. That is, I want to find out what contributes to HIV risk behavior - the individual, family, and community-level influences that may increase or decrease youths' involvement in risky sexual behavior. Therefore, my research team and I will be assessing factors such as: youth emotional well-being, communication between parents and youth, and the ways that community and church leaders are sending messages to youth about HIV. Over the next three months, we will be conducting surveys and qualitative interviews and focus groups to gather this information.

My hope is that this assessment will allow us to work with community members and leaders to develop an HIV prevention strategy that goes beyond providing youth with information - that involves multiple sectors of the community to support youth in reducing their risk for HIV.

As I blog about the research process, I welcome your thoughts and questions. I would love to hear from you and to keep an online discussion going.