Life is different south of the
equator. I’m not sure I’ll ever grow accustomed to the high walls and razor
wire that surrounds every house but people here are very friendly even tho they
live with an abundance of caution. For example the Taxi’s around here know to
avoid a particular road on our drive home at night because they say it where
people get hijacked. Thankfully not far from our bed and breakfast is Florida
road, which is full of restaurants and bars. Were told this road is one of the
safest in the city, with a security guard at every building watching the cars
and area for trouble, but even then we’ve kept our nighttime exploring to a
minimum.
In the last few days I’ve become good
friends with a guy named Yehou “David” Gnopo from the Ivory Coast. He’s the
kind of guy down to explore town and grab a drink at any time you call. Last
weekend was the Top Gear auto show in Durban which apparently managed to
sell out every bead and breakfast/hotel in the city including our own
rooms. This conflict in
booking had us move out over the weekend so K-RITH was generous enough to
provide an all expense paid trip to the 4 star resort of San Lameer which
was about an hour thirty drive south of Durban in the eastern cape. We
later found out this this same slight booking “accident” occurred last year as
well no one was complaining which had us thinking this may have been
a surprise trip all along... and I'm definitely not complaining
We caught a taxi to the bus station around 17:45 to catch our 18:45 bus.
The taxi drive through downtown is always chaotic with open air markets and
thousands of people everywhere. Whipping out a camera to take pictures is
probable not the best idea so no pictures for now. I
was definitely on edge the first week with how dangerous everyone
says SA can be, but I haven't been pestered yet. So far it seems
the best rules to stay safe here are the same everywhere: Don’t bring
attention to yourself and dont wander into places that look unsafe. Although
waiting at the bus station for an hour after dark felt a little unsafe it was
completely uneventful. Its really an insightful experience to be for once an
obvious minority.
When we arrived at San Lameer it felt
a little like we were entering Jurassic park. There was a tall 12 foot electrified
fence and razor wire surrounding the entire resort. Since we arrived at night it
astounding how great the view of the stars was. I once again could see milky
way in all its glory and I saw for the first time, as a guy named Ted pointed
out: the crux or southern cross. Its hard to miss with the brightest orange
star I've ever seen.
At the resort we got to take several trips to the
ocean, play some soccer and lounge around during the day while I read up on
some papers. At night we had a braai the South African way with ted’s gourmet
burgers, my grilled chicken, the girls awesome side dishes and as much beer and
wine as you could drink. We didn’t have Internet for the entire weekend and yet
it didn't matter.
Back in Durban, after our
eastern cape adventure (San Lameer), I was moved from my single room with an
awesome balcony into a three-person unit with a girl named Venia and a roommate
named Tobello. Six other girls in the program live upstairs, which has makes
organizing dinner and activities simple after an exhausting lab day, and
Goodness (the name of the manager at Erlesmyer lodge where I stay) takes care
of us with a cleaned room and fresh towels every night. I’m surviving
Tomorrow I have my first
lab presentation on my project for these next 8 weeks. I’ve had to read quite a
few papers these last few days to develop my non-existent infectious disease
background into something more useful. The plan is to develop a way to detect
an antioxidant level in patient lung tissue using mass spectrometry. I’ll be
visiting a local hospital to learn a little about the healthcare system in SA
and also working with a thoracic surgeon as they resect TB infected lung lobes
so we can bring it back to the lab. Then I’ll be working in a BSL 3 lab to cut
up and store it then prepare samples for the mass spectrometer. The great news
is we just got IRB approval! Which makes me pretty excited about this
medical/basic science project. My PI, Andries Steyn, has been really good so
far about making this a learning experience and helping me to really think
through the problems facing this project without giving me answers. This is
partially because nothing like it has really been attempted in his lab (or any
that we know of) but also because its made me learn a lot about searching
through many different kinds of primary literature to get everything from
background info on mycobacterial redox to metabolite digesting methods for
LC-MS.
A bonus to working at K-RITH is being surrounded by the leaders in
HIV and TB research, especially when your desk is at the doorway to the
director. In just my short time here there has already been several great talks
from people from Cal Tech, Harvard and MIT as well as a NIH meeting, which is
pretty good company. In the end sheer amount of positive influence and
experience that surrounds you makes for an exciting work environment full of
unexpected surprises.
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