Bamako day 5 (30/06/09)

Today was a bit challenging. After breakfast we headed up to the lab and continued practicing slide making. It's so cold in the lab that I have to wear a long sleeve shirt under my lab coat (I didn't really plan my waredrobe for so much air conditioning) I'm pretty good at the thin smears (or froctes minces, which require a little finness, but little skill) while Liz is better at the thick smears (or goutte epise, which require more hand coordination). I'm trying to pick up on their suggestions but am having a bit of a difficult time following in french. After staining some slides we headed down for lunch.

After lunch we returned to the lab and began practing reading slides. Although its more difficult to identify species on a thick slide (for diagnosing species a thin smear is used) we were able to get them mostly correct. In counting, however, we were not so confident and missed a lot. We read slides for a while (it takes a good bit of time because you have to count all the parasites you see until you count 300 luekocytes (or white blood cells)). After we were finished reading we went out to see what the rest of the lab was doing. Aha, something I'm familiar with. They were trying to edit an SOP they were writing about how to write SOPs (yes it sounds ludicrus, but I learned while working at Osiris that you can have an SOP for pretty much everything except maybe using the toilet). Liz and I were able to help with some English grammar, though I wasn't able to explain my other suggestions. I was a little distressed because they seemed to be laughing at one of my poor attemps at french. Oh well.

After leaving the lab we went over to one of our mentors Dr. Ogobara Doumbo. We were hoping to ask about the schedule and when we would be visiting the local clinical sites. We had to wait for a bit until he was finished meeting his other appointments. He told use we'd probably spend another week here in Bamako and visit the local sites next week. He also mentioned that we could be certified in the slides (making them, staining them and counting them) and if we did that we could help and make diagnosis in the field (which is pretty exciting that we'd actually be helpful).

After dinner Agnes (who is in charge of the lab we've been in, though she looks to young to be a lab director) came by the guest house to talk to use about the schedule (I hope Ogo didn't get upset with her that we came to him to ask about the schedule). She said she would contact the labs we were interested in to see if we could come by and spend a little more time finding out what they do. She also said we can do the certification (which apparently meanas reading 240 slides with an accuracy of 96% ---> yikes). Later she emailed us with a schedule for the rest of the week. Liz and I killed some more time by watching some hillarious youtube videos like the inmates dancing to thriller and an oompa band doing hot and cold (which is apparenly by some slightly trash pop singer and is totally more hilarious with a Ukrainian oompa band.

Intersting while reading in bed last night a found a quote rather fitting for my situation here in Mali: "being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has his family, colleagues, and friends and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood". That's from The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Yup.

Day 4 Bamako (29/06/2009)

Today we began working in the lab. This morning we met with the elusive Ogobara Doumbo. He was a very polite gentleman who gave us the general run down of what will happen in the next few weeks (we'll spend a week in the labs here getting to know the different projects going on, then we'll decide if there's something specific we'd like to focus on, we'll visit a local field site before deciding what site we ultimately want to work at for the duration of our stay). We were sent to Agnes, a young woman who works in one of the drug resistance labs. She took us on a tour of the MRTC View from Point G I think that's the (Malaria Research Training Center) labs and we spoke briefly presidents house maybe?
(with more or less success as my french is not great and my scientific
french is even worse) with the poeple working on various projects. Everyone was very friendly, but unfortunatly I've already forgotten most of their names. We returned to the drug resistance lab and began practicing slide making and finger stick. Although I've done fingersticks before with HIV testing this was a bit difficult because here they do not have the automatic lancets. On Liz's first try she accidently stuck her volunteer (a man who works in the lab) on the pad of the finger, which he proceeded act (a little over dramatically) pained. Needless to say our first few attempts at slide making were a bit of a blunder. We either had too much blood or not enough or we didn't spread it evenly. But the more we practiced we got slowly a little bit better (plus there's always another chance tomorrow). I think perhaps I would learn more quickly if I could understand french better and be able to follow their suggestions, but my french is improving a little (and I mean a little) everyday. After learning how to stain the slides we left for lunch (I was pretty hungry as they eat lunch her at 1pm and I'm used to noon).

We we returned to the house there was another group of students there with another professor of the medical school. They were apparently french college/medical students (in France they go directly from high school into a 6 year medical school program) from the University of Marseilles who were here to do a two month rotation in a Bamako hospital. We had lunch (which included some very delisious crepes) and talked, though I wasn't able to be too involved in the conversation because I can't keep up with the french that well yet (to be honest I found the french students accident more difficult to understand than many of the Malians). We also got to try the much talked about Malian tea, they fill the pot 3 times; the guidebook says "the first cup is strong as death, the second mild as life and the third sweet as love." I had hoped it would be one of those exotic African teas like some kind of rubia or something, but to me it seemed like extra strong lipton with a lot of sugar (they add 1 cup sugar for 1 cup tea).

We headed back up to the lab after lunch and began working on some micrscopy while the lab group had a meeting. Liz and I finished looking at the slides long before the meeting was over. So we sat there and I used her like a English/French dictionary asking her to translate all kinds of words (when she was in Paris they had this great idea to use address books to alphabetically write down words that they didn't know). After waiting about 2 hours the lab technician that was teaching us microscopy returned. He quized us on being to identify the different strains of malaria (falciparum, malariae, ovale and vivax), as well as the different stages. I was proud that I got most of them right, though I had some difficulty expressing my answers in french. We returned to the house about quarter to six and sat outside practicing french (it was a rather mild and pleasant day) until the misquitos drove us in. It was just back to Liz and I for dinner (although there was enough food for many more), we had avacados, something similar to pad thai, mangoes and left over crepes. I of course ate more than I should have (but if we don't Iesha the cooks tells us to "mangez tout" or eat it all).

p.s. Happy Birthday Justin

Bamako Days 2 & 3 (27/06/09- 28/06/09)

Saturday was a pretty laid back day. We had breakfast then hung around the house for a while reading (I sat outside for a while reading, but then decided it was too much work to bat the flies away). In the afternoon we went up to Moctar's office to see if there was anything we should be doing. He was ther with his little son (about 3 and a half years old). We made plans to have a driver take up to Bar Blabla that night for dinner and to stop by a grocery store. Mahamado Thera who runs one of the labs that we'll be working with came down the house in the afternoon to introduce himself to us (he's been traveling and just got back the day before). He told us a little bit about the program and let us know that we would be meeting everyone monday morning and that there wasn't really much to do until then. So we bummed around and wasted a few hours until the driver came.

We went by the grocery store (Fermi) which was not really by definition a grocery store, it was sort of an everything store. Out front were ATVs for sale, inside was the usual grocerys with lots of french imported food, a whole office supply section and this was just the downstairs. After that we made our way to Bar Blabla (the name totally cracks me up) and by coincidence (though probably not) Moctar was there. He said his parents live in that neighborhood and he had just taken his father home. So he stayed and had dinner with us. The restaurant was surprisingly empty when we arrived, apparently people go out pretty late on Saturdays. I had "farm raised" chicken with fried plantains and some kind of dish made from cassava which was a bit spongey and a bit sour. Liz had a fish kabob with local fish called capitane. The chicken was surprisingly good. And I tried a bit of Liz's fish and that was really delicious. There was also some interesting artwork up which was apparently from a local artist. Moctar explained that the restaurant featured a local artist each month and apparently the artist from this month had been noticed by some people from one of the embacies and (Liz at bar Blabla) town and went from being a very poor artist to a world traveler. He's currently somewhere in Europe and is also going to going to the states sometime.

After dinner we went next door to a bar. It was definately different from everything else we had seen. The women working at the bar were by far the skimpiest clothed women we had seen in Mali, wearing clothes that would look appropriate for a nightclub back home. And the music was about as loud as it is at home, but of course it was still a Michael Jackson marathon (I hope this doesn't go on too much longer). Liz tried the local beer, Castel, which seems to be rather non-alcoholic (we've been told by a few people that you can drink 5 of them without being very intoxicated). We hung out there for a bit an then got a taxi back home.

Today was also pretty relaxing. The house cook wasn't coming in so we slept in late (which was nice). After breakfast we went for a walk around the campus. There are lots of pretty flowers everywhere, but the buildings are a bit delapitated. It seemed that everyone as outside studying today (we found out that med school here takes at least 7 years). It was pretty hot and its a little choaitc on the road outside the campus so we didn't wander too far. We were able to see the presidents house in the next ridge from us (oh yeah we met his little brother at the bar last night). The rest of the day we've spent reading and lounging and watching a bit of soccer on tv.

Bamako Day 1 (26/06/2009)

We got up this morning at quarter till eight ( we were told the night before that breakfast would be at eight or eight thirty. We got up got ready and went to breakfast. We had cereal and milk as well as some baguette type bread. We met to entemologists who are at a meeting here with groups from Bamako, Kenya and some where else that I forget. One doctor was from Miami and the other (Andrew) was from Kenya. They went off to their meeting and after sending a quick email we decided to take a nap until lunch (as we were not sure who was going to come find us or when).

here's cool lizzard that was on my door

We slept for a short while and then the cook knocked on our door to see if we were going to have lunch (my broken french didn't allow me to respond so I left that up to Liz). Just as we were laying down again another knock came. I was a gentlemen that was sent by Moctou to come bring us to meet him. Moctou seems to be in charge of a lot of logistics. He very nicely welcomed us let us know that Friday is a half day (for religiously purposes) and told us that we should come back to him after lunch with our passports, insurance cards and money. He would make copies of the documents to keep and keep our money in a safe and allow us to withdraw amounts in Mali dollars (CFAs or see-fus as they are called localy) whenever we needed.

We headed back down to the house and had lunch with the Kenyan entemologist and with another younger man who works for the NIH doing biologisitics. He is originally from Somalia and told us about the situation there and he and the Kenyan man got into a discussion about the recent unrest in Kenya and how it was similar to what had happened in Somalia and how close kenya may be to becoming a failed state. So we got a quick lesson in African regional politics, which was very interesting and I was proud that I knew enough to at least participate a small amount in the discussion. At lunch we also met Mark an ID (infectious disease) fellow from UMD who just finished up a few months in Bandiagara.

Liz and I went back up to Moctou's office along with Mark and got our things with him taken care off and made plans to have a driver take us out tomorrow night. He also sent someone out to get our sim cars (for our cell phones). We came back down to the hosue and sat and talked with Mark got some advice about traveling and found out some things about Mali. Later in the day we went out with Mark and a driver so that Mark could find stamps and mail his postcards. Unfortunately he wasn't successful (the man was already out of stamps that day), however we were able to buy some postcards, which I promise to send. We got to drive around and see some of the city. There's a museum I would like to go to in the future and there's a very busy market place and they're building a zoo. I also decided why the African women wear the clothes around their heads. I think it cushions and helps make a flat surface for all the things they carry on their heads. They also tie their babies to their backs, which to me seemed uncomfortable, but there were many a sleeping baby so I guess it must be ok.

We came back and found dinner waiting for us. We had pizza, some delicious dumpling/egg roll, wonderful mango and some banana bread. It was a very good dinner (as was lunch). Mark warned us that the food would not be quite as good or as much variety in Bandiagara. Just as were were getting ready for dinner the sky began to change and get dark and the winds began to blow. Thus I experienced my first African orage (thunderstorm). Since then the power has blinked out a few times but fortunately there are generators. After dinner Mark left for the airport (he is heading back to the states) and now here I am typing this to you. I think now I will send and email invite to view this blog and then try to study some french so that I can converse more. Au revoir.

Traveling

The flight from Dulles to Paris was very nice. I was surprised when while we were standing in line waiting to board someone came up and hugged me. It took me a second, but I realized it was Jackie, at professor from Goucher and the woman that took some of us to Romania. She's going to spend the summer in Romania with her son and his wife.

We took off around 10pm EST. I was already pretty tired, so after we had been flying for awhile I took my pill and was about to go to sleep, however they began serving dinner. It was a pretty late dinner, probably after 11pm, but it was very good and afterwards I watched a movie while I dozed off. I slept for a few hours and woke up just before they served breakfast. We arrived in Paris at 10am (Paris time, which is 4am EST (apparently Paris is 6 hours ahead, not 5)), so needless to say Liz and I were both very tired. At first we weren't sure where to go, but eventually after a little wondering and a short tram ride we wound up in the right terminal. There were some fairly awesome lounge chairs, where several people were sleeping and eventually we found some chairs and just passed out for a while.

About a half hour before boarding we moved over to where our gate was. There were probably about 25 people waiting there so we figured it would be a fairly empty flight. We boarded and Liz was seated infront of me with a Canadian girl who is doing some research for her masters in Mali and Liz was able to get some good advice from her (she also helped us later trying to get our baggage). I had no one in the seat next to me and in fact the whole row was pretty much empty, which was ok with me. But about 5 minutes after we should have been taxing out we found out that we were waiting for all the people that were late including many children (it was pretty interesting, these little boys were all dressed up in these 3 piece suits for the flight). SO eventually the plane filled up and a man sat next to me (though we didn't really talk at all). We took off about an hour late. I watched Benjamin Button during the flight and tried to stay awake so I would be able to sleep that night. I did have a short, but very pleasant conversation with the older gentleman across the aisle from me. He told me that Mali was a very friendly place and that I would be very welcomed on my first visit.

At first I didn't find it to be very friendly. They only way to describe the events after landing would be chaos. We didn't get our form for customs until we got into the terminal. There was only one small door to come through and it was late and people were tired and wanted to get to wherever they were going so there was a lot of pushing. Then we had to try to figure out how to fill out the form for customs (which I'm pretty sure I didn't do right, but apparently that doesn' matter). Eventually we wound up in the correct line (though why we could go in the other one I'm not sure and of course we didn't find out till we had waited in line for a long time). At first I was a bit put off by the whole experience; I had been told before that people here are very polite and accomodating, but at the airport it seemed to be anything but. I started to think that it was a custom to push your way to the front of the line and let me tell you, it is very easy to cut in front of to meek american girls. When we made it through costums and had our passports stamped we then had to go and try to obtain our luggage, which made the prior shoving game look like 5 year olds on a playground. It was very difficult to maintain you position around the carosel and often we were pushed to far back to even be able to see what was going by, not that it matter as our luggage was some of the last to be unloaded. There was a very nice boy who jumped up on the conveyer belt and grabbed my bag for me after it passed out of my reach. So interestingly you have to xray your bag leaving the airport. But finally we made it through and found the nice gentleman Abi with a sign for us. He guided us back to the van, though not before some porters (who I had thought were with him) grabbed our bags for us. We got back to the van and the porters demanded a tip I gave one the only small Euros I had (2.50) and gave the other a $5 american bill, which he apparently didn't appreciate and stood next to my door as we were leaving telling me that money didn't have any value here and asking me for the 20 Euro note he saw in my wallet.

The drive to the guest house at the medical school was beautiful even in the dark. We crossed the rivier (which I believe Abi said was part of the Niger) and headed up a larger hill/small mountain. The House is very nice it has many rooms and a small courtyard, a common bathroom and dining room. We decided that we were to hot and sweaty and needed showers before we slept, which we took and then promptly passed out around 12:30am (Bamako time).