Questionnaires

Tonight I am leaving for Ufa!!!!!!! I will not be back until early monday morning.

Tuesday was a rather boring day since we were just preparing questionaires all day. Our boss read over it and asked us if we would mind expanding it from just focusing on women of reproductive ages to include a few other groups, for comparison purposes. We agreed and yesterday we spend 2 hours surveying all the young guys who came in for their required pre-army blood test. Russian men are all required to serve 2 years in the army. They got their blood drawn for an AIDS/STI testing right after filling out our survey. They have a lot of metals in their blood. It looks like it is much darker than ours. Maybe I am just over-damatizing though, because the only blood that I have seen drawn at home is my own. 32 guys filled out our questionaire that morning. We will probably shoot for 75-100 before the end of next week.
In the afternoon we had an office picnic. We went out to Lake Smthg and sat at some very rusty picnic tables. The men made a fire and roasted sausages, which we had with salads and bread. Pretty tasty. It was followed by watermelon and some toasts to our health and company. The site was actually really pretty aside from the garbage laying here and there. I also didn't particulary enjoying the many persistant wasps, mosquitoes, and 3 small black snakes that we saw. But we listened to music and told funny stories, compared swear words, and then it was about time to go home.
Mosquito report- The Tuesday night I decided that I would sleep better with the blanket over my head, but I couldn't get to sleep. I tried to think of something less hot to make my "bed net" out of. Came to the conclusion that my silk bathrobe was the best option. I draped it over my head. I could still hear the mosquitoes buzing angrily around, but was able to fall asleep. By the time I woke up in the morning of course I had pulled the silk bed net off my face and had 2 new mosquito bites there and several on my left ankle which also must have been sticking out. Last night I decided it was time to bring chemicals to battle against the mosquitoes. I told my host mom that I couldn't stand it any more. We went to local kiosk and bought something that looked remarkably similar to a glade plug-in. I asked her if it was safe for people and she said it was. By then I didn't care too much anyway. They were not buzzing around when I went to bed and I was able to fall asleep. But there are still a few in the room right now, so I am not sure what the plugin does, but at least I don't have to worry about it for the next few days.