Bed net dipping campaign

I spent all last week speaking with students about their involvement in the mass bed net dipping campaign beginning Tuesday. I visited 6 schools to speak with the students and called over 100 students on the phone. Everything is in place and ready to go. All the students know where they are supposed to go and what their responsible for doing. My job this week will be to travel to different dipping sites all over the country and monitor how things are going. I will also be collecting data throughout the week which I will then bring back to the office to enter into our larger data files. The collection of data and information is extremely helpful in assessing how many people we are reaching in every town. I can say from personal experience this past week that entering data into Excel spreadsheets and making charts is very time consuming. Sometimes you feel like the clock on the wall is moving backwards instead of forwards. And the pile of papers in front of you never seems to get any smaller. everytime I think I'm almost done someone brings me more information to enter. Don't we have robots that can do this? I'm writing a letter to Microsoft when I get back telling them I would appreciate it if they could develop a robot to type and enter data into computers for me. On Friday I had the chance to meet with a local artist after work to view some of his artwork. He invited me over to his house for dinner and to view his paintings. I spent many hours looking through many beautiful paintings of all sizes. This man makes his living by painting signs for local businesses and organizations. I could see that he was extremely talented and odviously had been painting for a long time. I ended up buying two pieces of artwork from him which he tried to give to me as a gift but I insisted on paying him for them. It is difficult to make a living as an artist and this is why I felt compelled to support a local artist. I myself enjoying painting when I get the chance which lately is very rarely. I think meeting with this man has inspired me to start painting again. I know I can find the time if I just try to make time for myself. On Saturday eight volunteers from Canada arrived to help out with the summer school programs here at NSGA. We had a nice reception for them so they could meet the staff they will be working with for the next 6 weeks. It's funny how they are just arriving as I am preparing to leave in less than two weeks. Well I don't know if " funny" is the right word but ya know what I mean! Ciao