Patience...

This week, I've been helping one of the PhD student's with their thesis. I discovered a mistake in his sample size calculation, which means he is grossly underpowered. He wanted to change his objectives to compensate. I explained that he shouldn't change his objectives just because of the error, but he should only change them if he wasn't happy from a clinical perspective. I explained that ethically, it wasn't a viable thing to do, now that the study had started. I said we could change the sample size section to base it on feasibility and logistical considerations, and look at the precision estimates around the point estimate, rather than power. I'm not sure if he bought into this idea, but I'm working on it :) As Margaret Thatcher once said:

“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”

I had a call from Tom* this morning (from Sally Test centre), saying he had some documents for me to review? Turns out, his friend has been sent some documentation from Shell Oil company saying that he won an award of £94,000, on condition that he transfers 28,000 KS (approx £180) into a given bank account. Tom* wanted to know if it was a scam.  His friend was going to sell his cows in order to get this money. After looking at the documentation, it was an obvious scam. For example, the letter was signed from the Reverend Peters, and he'd signed it “With every blessing”.  It made me sad that his friend would've sold his herd, and bought into this scam. It shows the desperation of people here.

There was a meeting scheduled from 4pm until late tonight. I was told about it only 5minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, and I'd already organised to meet Mira for Taibo class....ergh! I felt bad for missing the meeting, but I was only told at such short notice. Meeting's don't seem to be organised in advance here, or if they are, it's by word of mouth and no email communication to confirm. I think I need to do some investigation, so this doesn't keep happening. Myself and Mira were in hysterics during the step class! We just couldn't grasp the routine, and were about 5 steps behind everyone else. It didn't help that the teacher taught in Swahili! The boxing class after was good, and I managed to get some of those frustrations out with my punches!