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
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