Photos

I finally put new batteries into my camera, which for some reason eats up batteries like chocolate ice cream. And so now I can regale you with some of the photos.


This is the group of Belorussian, Ukrainian and Azerbaijani doctors, TB center directors and one International Federation of the Red Cross worker, who participated in the multidrug-resistant TB workshop at the Latvian State Agency for Tubeculosis and Lung Diseases (where I am technically based). Partway through the workshop, I heard about it and found out that it involved trips to a prison hospital where TB is treated, a TB hospitals where people are sent for enforced treatment (for those who refuse treatment on multiple occasions or who act out at other TB hospitals; it has the best food of any of the TB treatment centers but it is basically a prison, and fights and even murders happen regularly). So I asked to participate and was very graciously allowed to sit in (for free; and causing great discomfort with my extra body in the minivan that drove us around). This is after a visit to one of the patients who has his TB treatment brought to his home every day by Ivers, the gentleman second on the left.
I participated in the workshop only for a few days, but am very happy for it because I got a much better sense of the organization of TB control in Latvia (at least as it is supposed to work), and went to places to which I probably wouldn't otherwise have access, and became friendly with all of the other participants. So now I have invitations to continue my research in Belorussia and Azerbaijan.

On to more poetic pictures...


This is autumnal Latvia, a view onto the lake in the outdoor Ethnographic Museum on the outskirts of Riga. It was opened in Soviet times and has traditional houses and buildings which were collected from throughout Latvia and brought here. Here is me (and Yuliya Leonidovna's long shadow) in front of one.

It is late, and I am sick, so I will go off to enjoy sleep-treatment. More tomorrow...