Relaxed Work Culture, Significant Progress

Overall, my first impression is that there will be some very interesting things for me to do and see while I am here and I am really enjoying getting to know all the staff here. They are very friendly and easy to work with and have been very good about teaching me and explaining everything to me. The workday here has been slightly strange for me even though I am from here. We all get to work at 9am but this does not mean that we start working at 9am. First, everyone gets together to drink coffee and just chat for about 45 minutes and then we start working. After a few hours, we all go out again together to get something to eat and then sit down at a café for coffee again and take another hour or so break. Throughout the day, they take these coffee breaks and the general work atmosphere is very relaxed and laid back.

It is a little strange for me as I am always used to working and getting things done and taking short breaks, but it is really interesting to have time to talk with them and get to know them outside the work setting. I feel that I will really gain a lot from this experience not only in learning how to work with injection drug users and commercial sex workers and seeing their status in Montenegro, but also in observing and being a part of a completely different work culture. Also, I am very pleased to see the relationship this organization has built with the populations they serve. They know many of their clients for a long time and have built very strong bonds with them. I feel that the clients really trust this organization which not only helps in promoting the safe preventive behavior but also serves as a gateway through which Juventas can work with their clients to help them stop using drugs or to get them away from sex work.

The first week here has been great. I met with Senad and started working at Juventas on Monday. I have spent most of this week getting to know the Juventas staff, their programs, and how they are organized. My projects have slightly changed due to last minute changes in what Juventas will be doing in the summer but the overall project is similar. I will mostly be working with them on one of their bio-behavioral study that looks at the incidence and prevalence of HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C among injection drug users and commercial sex workers. Furthermore, it looks, through a survey, at the general behavior of these populations in terms of reproductive health and general safety.

In addition to some office work during the day, I have been going in to the clinic from 5-9pm three times a week. Here, test subjects can come and have their blood drawn. The blood is then tested for the three diseases. After, we go through the survey with them and, if needed, give them clean needles, syringes, and condoms. Also, I will be going 2-3 times a week to do outreach work on the streets from about 9-12am where we talk with injection drug users or sex workers doing some counseling and distributing again clean needles, syringes, and condoms. I am in the office from about 9-3pm each day and this includes entering fieldwork data into the computer, attending meetings to discuss project difficulties and ideas or how to improve the work, and working on several reports with which I will be helping this summer. Right now I am helping them to write a report on the current status of commercial sex workers in Montenegro, including an analysis of their rights, their health status, and their behavior. As this needs to be written in English, I will be writing most of the report and will be working together with several of the staff to conduct the research. Research will include visiting the epidemiology and infectious disease clinics to speak with doctors and obtain data and internet research.