Health and Humanities

On Thursday morning, I went to the Graduate Institute to a workshop on health and the humanities.  It didn't really have anything to do with my work at the WHO or back home, so I went purely for interest's sake. Most of the presentations delivered, with a presentation on the representations of Autism in literature and pop culture, a medical anthropologist comparing the use of medicines in developing nations and the UK and a sociological analysis of organ donation.

I continued my intern habit of binge eating any food that is free, and ate about 6 croissants at the workshop coffee break.   I went back to work after lunch, because I couldn't justify spending the whole day on workshop that has nothing to do with my project.

I had a meeting with my capstone group on Friday morning at 2am, so I intended to go to bed early and wake up for the meeting.  Instead, I started watching Season 3 of Homeland and ended up watching that until my meeting started at 2.  I really shouldn't watch that show in the middle of the night, by myself, because I end up getting freaked out.  The meeting went pretty well, or as well as a Skype meeting with six people and no agenda can go.

History, Running and Movies

Today was a pretty busy day, I went swimming in the morning, and had lots to work on this morning before meeting with Nicole at lunch.  I am happy to report that I will not have to go back another 3 years for my literature review, which would have more than doubled the amount of work I have to do.  I will be finishing up all my data entry this week and should be able to start writing next week, horray!

This afternoon, I went to a seminar on the history of the WHO.  One of the presentations was on an analysis of the photographs published in the WHO newsletter in the 50s, 60s and 70s and another was on the establishment of the WHO from the perspective of the newly emerging independent Indian state.  I learned a fair bit, since I know pretty much nothing about how the WHO was established and developed in the early years, and there was also the bonus of free sandwiches and coffee!  I feel like I may be developing some really terrible eating habits of stuffing myself whenever there is free food, and refusing to eat when there is nothing available that is a reasonable price.

This evening, I ran the first interns jogging group after work.  It conflicted with a film screening by the sustainability committee, so there wasn't a great turn out, but I got to meet a nice new kiwi intern and had some running company.  I tried to go to the Human Rights Film Festival tonight, but it was sold out, so I just bought some popcorn and walked home.  Now for some Spain trip planning and sleep!

Geneva sunrise (as taken by Daphne)

One month to go

Tuesday marked one month until the last day of my internship, and until Pat arrives in Geneva.  It was a fairly uneventful day, I had lunch at the Table Francaise and then went to a seminar at the Palais on UNAIDS' Zero Discrimination campaign.

Although it was interesting to hear from some of the panelists about discrimination towards trans people, undocumented and irregular migrants, and people living with a disability, the whole panel came across as very stifled.  Maybe I'm just not used to the way that discussions happen within UN organizations, but I felt like the speakers were trying so hard to be politically correct and to not say anything controversial, that their message was completely lost.  You really can't talk about an issue like the provision of health care to undocumented (and even documented) migrants without taking a political stance.  I felt like towards the end, with some of the questions asked from the audience, the discussion opened up a little bit and the panelists were able to be a bit more frank.  Unfortunately, the discussion was cut short to allow the next meeting to start. 

At the seminar, they were really pushing the #zerodiscrimination campaign, which seemed kind of strange and out of place.  They gave us all these little butterfly buttons and stickers that said things like "zero discrimination" and "keep calm and don't discriminate".  Personally, I kind of thought it was crap, since "raising awareness" of discrimination seems not only to be an ineffective intervention, given that most discrimination is institutionalized it also seemed to be poorly executed.  Why is UNAIDS running this campaign anyways?  Who are they trying to reach?  A bunch of interns in the UN system?   

I'm sure that I act in discriminatory ways from time to time, but I don't do it consciously, and someone telling me to "stop discrimination" doesn't exactly give any way to change the way I behave.  It also doesn't tell me how to advocate for unisex bathrooms, or accessibility or for access to healthcare and living wages for migrant workers.  Also, the butterflies are just kind of lame. End rant. 

Spring has arrived in Geneva

Spring has definitely arrived in Geneva, I walked to work in my t-shirt this morning and I needed to take a Reactine for my allergies.  The weather forecast is for temperatures above 15 degrees for the next week.  I just googled the weather back home, I hope spring comes there soon too!

I went into work late this morning, since I had to pay my rent and return my skis, and I couldn't do either until after 9am.  Over lunch today, there was a screening of the documentary MissRepresentation, in honour of International Women's Day (which was on Saturday).  The documentary was pretty interesting, but my favourite part of the event was the presentation of the WHO woman of the year award.  There were two winners, and the testimonials from those who had nominated the winners were pretty incredible.  I'd never met either one of them, but I definitely aspire to someday be described by my peers in the way that those women were. It was pretty inspiring.

Skiing at Crans Montana- Day 2

Morning over the Alps. 

Sunday was just as beautiful and warm as Saturday and I was up early for a snow shoe hike before the slopes opened.  I actually got a really good night's sleep, since everyone started eating and drinking when the lifts closed at 5pm so most were in bed by midnight.

Morning solo snowshoe. 

I have never actually snowshoed before, so I wanted to give it a try.  I hiked a bit down the mountain and through some forest.  I didn't go too far, because I didn't want to get lost.  I did lose a mitten and have to re-trace my steps to find it.  Luckily, that's easy to go when you leave snowshoe tracks!

The cabin from the outside.

After breakfast and coffee, we hit the slopes again.  The sky was so clear and sunny, that the mountains looked like they were painted on in the background.  It really was a breathtaking sight!

Another perfect day of skiing.

I tried to take a video while skiing down the top of Plaines Morts.  I was thinking about Christopher's wipeout on family fun weekend while video taping and biking, but I managed to stay on my feet (at least while taking this video).  I did have one huge wipeout on Sunday, where I bent the bindings on one of my skis.  With Anj's help, I was able to bend it back enough so that the skis were still ski-able.  I was lucky that it was not my knee or ankle that bent like that!  Also, the skis were rentals, so sorry to the next one who rents them!

When the lifts closed at 4:30, we headed to a bar at the bottom of the hill for a couple of drinks before the bus arrived to pick us up.  They take their apres ski quite seriously in Switzerland!

Sunset over Montana.

The bus driver took us home through the French Alps, and past Mont Blanc on our way home to avoid traffic.  It's too bad it was dark, because I'm sure it was a beautiful route.

Skiing at Crans Montana- Day 1

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to catch at 6am bus to Crans Montana for a weekend of skiing with the a group from the Graduate Institute.  There were 30 people on the trip, and I only knew one, so I got to meet lots of new people. 

When we arrived, it was a bit of a production before we were able to hit the slopes.  There were rentals and lift tickets to arrange, and we had to shuttle all of our food and gear up the gondola and then by ski halfway back down the mountain.  This was all complicated by the fact that the beginner skiers were not able to ski down to the cabin, and had to snowshoe up from the first gondola stop. I did not envy the girl doing all the organizing!  Skiing down to the cabin was a bit scary, I have never skied with a heavy backpack on before, let alone a backpack with a mini keg in it!

Skiing the gear down to the cabin.

The cabin itself was pretty rustic, but almost exactly what you'd expect from a Swiss mountain hut. The top floor was rows of bunk beds with military wool blankets, and the bottom floor was long wooden tables with benches.

Sleeping quarters.

Once we got settled into the cabin, we were finally able to hit the slopes.  There was not a cloud in the sky and it was HOT.  I have never skied in such warm weather, it was about 10 degrees at the top of the mountain and I saw the thermometer get up to 21 degrees at the bottom!  Quite the change from -35 at Tremblant in December!  The conditions near the bottom were pretty slushy, and there was a bit of mud coming through, but near the top, the snow was great.

View from the top.

That sign says 21 degrees Celsius! 

Sunbathing at the midway point of the mountain.

I skied with a couple snowboarders who were much more skilled than me, and ended up on a couple of slopes that were beyond my skill level.  I had a couple of good wipe outs, but luckily I didn't hurt myself! The snow was really soft, on account of the warm weather, great for falling on.

Sunset from the cabin.

After a full day on the slopes, we returned to the cabin for some apres ski and dinner.  The views from the cabin were incredible, especially once everyone else cleared out for the day and we were the only ones left on the mountain.  Some of the ski school instructors cooked raclette for us for dinner. Raclette consists of a giant wheel of cheese that is melted on the top and then the top melted layer is scraped off onto a plate.  You eat it with bread, potatoes and pickles (also some cured meats, but I skipped those).  It is a delicious meal for after a long day of skiing, but I do not want to know how much cheese I actually ate!

Raclette

After dark, some of the guys built a ski jump and decided it would be a good idea to build a campfire under it.  Luckily, they were all ski school instructors and were skilled enough to land the jumps without setting themselves on fire.  One guy did a backflip over the fire, in the dark and landed it.  It was terrifying to watch, I'm glad no one got hurt!

A campfire was also built nearer the cabin, where we could sit and enjoy it.  With the Alps and the stars in the background, it was a pretty amazing way to spend an evening.  All of my clothes now smell like fire!

The ski jump fire.

Food, food and more food

Today was a day of eating.  I promised Eleni that I would make some Nanaimo Bars before she left, so we started off with a nutritious breakfast of sugar, butter, cream and chocolate.  

The day continued with a 40th birthday party for my supervisor, Ahmad.  It was a surprise birthday celebration, since he thought he was going to a department meeting. Sneaky sneaky.  There was quite a spread, with cake, tarts, samosas, cheese, crackers and of course wine.   

Later in the afternoon was Eleni's going away party in the patient safety department.  So, that meant more cake, champagne, strawberries and Pringles (a classy combination). 

By this time, I was completely stuffed, but I had organised the intern dinner for tonight at Cafe Mosaique, an Ethiopian restaurant near my place in Paquis.  I was a bit worried when I arrived for our 6:00 reservation and the place was closed, but it turns out they don't open until 6:00, and the owner is basically the only employee, and he happened to be running late.  After a bit of confusion about the menu, we got our massive platters of food.  The one in the picture is meant to serve only two people.  I had never tried Ethiopian food before.  It was very tasty, and it's kind of a cool experience to eat only with your hands. 

After dinner, we went to Cafe des Arts for a drink, and I opted for coffee this time so that I would be able to come home and get some work done.  I met another bunch of new interns who have just arrived this week. The number of new people to meet all the time can be quite overwhelming!

Ethiopian food in Geneva

Now, I have to finish off a paper for my INDEV course and get to bed to catch at 6am bus to Crans Montana for a ski weekend!