The Importance of Titles...

I ran the third session on an introduction to medical statistics, including factorial, and fractional factorial designs, case-control studies, cohort, and cross sectional studies. A couple of my team came up to me after and asked for the slides, they also want my hand written notes (which I've made just for an aid to help me). It's great that they are so enthusiastic about the sessions. In fact, Betsy, explained that in her career as a nurse, no research went on amongst the nursing staff, and when she resumed her nursing role at the general hospital, she wanted to encourage the staff to come to my sessions. This was really positive feedback. At the end of the session, I asked the team what they thought about doing a "Run for Good" over in Eldoret. The response was fantastic. Everyone is so keen. The team think they can round up about 100 participants, including students, and raise money for charity. We thought perhaps we could raise money for Vitamin Angels (which provides the vitamins for the EmONC (Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care) project ongoing at the moment, but due to finish soon). This money could help with the distribution of the vitamins to the villages after the project finishes. The charities mission is 

"...to mobilize and deploy private sector resources to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, among at-risk populations in need. Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality worldwide by connecting essential nutrients with infants and children under five. Essential nutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives."

We will need to think about logistics (people tell me here I will need to alert the police, which involves taking a letter from the professor), and also involve the Salvation Army nurses. The UK run is very soon (17^th Sept), so I will need to liaise with Shona (who is the senior brand manager at GSK for Lucozade Sport Lite) to see if we can have more time? This is exciting, but at the same time a little daunting! It seems like the event is going to be bigger than I expected. Everyone is being very supportive though. Allan has even mentioned that he thinks he can get 20 street children or orphaned children from the charitable children's institutions to participate!

Today, the data-manager asked me whether people in the UK consider their titles of great importance (for example Drs, Professors insist of being addressed by their title etc). It turns out that in Kenya, students have been known to fail courses for getting their lecturers title wrong. Also, if you ask a question to a professor, but by accident refer to him as a doctor, he is likely to ignore you. They explained that you're giving the impression of not respecting their knowledge, by addressing them incorrectly. I became aware of this hierarchy when at a meeting with the Professor and the Global Network team. When the tea was served, the professor had his own tea flask, and the Global Network members all had to share one. He also got served separate cakes to us. Also, the data-manager was telling me that people in authority don't like to admit that they don't know, even if it is not their area of expertise. They are happy to take advice from those specialist, but at the end of the day, they have the final decision.

It made me think back to the first telephone conversation I had with the professor, where I addressed him by his first name. Mid-way through the conversation, I was reminded of my time in Bangalore, and how all my colleagues addressed the manager as “Sir”, I also remembered that the Professor signed all his emails as Professor. I asked him if I was addressing him correctly, and he said No, he'd like to be called Professor. I felt a bit stupid after that, but I'm certainly learning here. 

Oh, something that made me smile was the quote from the matatu today "If somebody is talking to you about somebody else, it is likely that they will be talking to somebody else about you"