Karibu

Last night for dinner I sat with three guys staying here. One of them was working on their doctorate degree and the other two were visiting from Uganda. Our dinner conversation was very interesting. I told them I was from America and immediately they jumped into politics. I almost felt they knew more of American politics than I did, but then I realized half of their information was wrong. I wonder if half of the information Americans get from other countries is wrong as well. The men were mesmerized by our political system. They envied the way our president has to do “nothing” compared to theirs who deals with anything from a guy stealing a cow to public education. They inquired who I thought would win the upcoming election. I told them I honestly didn’t know. Obama, having roots in Kenya, was of great interest to them. I was surprised to find out when saying I was from Iowa, they knew the caucuses started there. Maybe Iowa does have some notoriety.

Lunches and dinners here usually consist of white rice and some sort of bean. This is nice for me as I am a vegetarian. However, I do think this combination will get old after a while. The man who serves me told me I’m allowed to finish my plate. Is it rude if I don’t, because I have yet to finish a huge helping he has dished to me.

This morning I met a man from Italy at breakfast. He was working with some NGO feeding children. I found his work interesting. He seemed very lonely and having been here for only a month, that makes me nervous. Hopefully I can get fully involved in my research and not have time to think about loneliness. Or maybe I can become friends with the Italian. I do know some fun card games.

Karibu, meaning welcome in Swahili, was the constant greeting all day. I went on a campus tour and met so many different people. Most of them were extremely hard to understand, English obviously not being their native language. I found myself grasping for words. They would also throw Swahili words into their sentences making any understanding I could muster up even harder. By the end of the day I found myself exhausted from having to pay such close attention. The research done here is amazing, though.

First stop on today’s tour was meeting my Director General. She seemed very nice and helpful. The schedule she gave me looks wonderful as well. Not only will I be spending five days in the Taita Hills and Kakamega each, but at the end of my stay I will be able to visit the KEMFRI (Marine Institute) for a week in Mombasa. I’ve heard Mombasa is beautiful, and any sort of marine research will be fascinating for me. From there I headed to meet the guy in charge of the whole place, at least the temporary one. Mr. Finan told me all about icipe and how everything works. With a $20 million budget, almost all of the money goes to research, but that creates 25 people reporting to Mr. Finan. What a job to keep all those straight. He scared me a little by talking about break-ins and other safety issues in the area. The conversation was good though; it will keep me aware.

I then visited the Biological Control of Stemborer Laboratory. Stemborers bore into maize stalks and rot the plant, killing the food many rely on. Here, the scientists are using parasitoids, like a parasite but they kill the host as well, to lay eggs inside the stemborer. The parasitoids then eat the nutrients of the stemborer and then stemborer lays the parasitoid eggs. This kills the stemborer, reproduces parasitoids, and ultimately saves the crop, all without using chemicals that harm people. But the task is not this easy. A new invasive species has come over that is resistant to the parasitoid so research is being done to find a parasitoid that will accomplish the new task.

In the Biosystematics Unit, researchers are identifying bugs. They literally had  a “morgue” of over 4,000 species. I felt pretty cool using a microscope to help identify wasps to sort them into their orders. The Fruitful Laboratory does a similar method of biological control as the stemborer group does. Here, though, the woman’s English was mixed with so much Swahili the assistants in the lab started laughing at me. It was obvious I had no idea what she was saying. I felt like such a foreigner.

At lunch, I was finally united with Dr. Tino Johansson, the researcher I will be working under for the next few weeks. I’m still unsure of what we will be doing so I will wait until I have more information tomorrow to explain.  In the Behavioural & Chemical Ecology Laboratory, lots of chemicals are sorted using different chromatography techniques. These compounds are then tested to see if certain insects react to them. The Bioprospecting Unit works to find compounds villagers can gather or farm to create products and create revenue. I was proud to use some Academic Decathlon knowledge and talk about cinchona bark and fighting against malaria. By the time my tour was finished, my head was spinning with so much knowledge. I wish I could remember people’s names, but unfortunately that will take many remeetings.

Daisy, a girl who helps my director, took me outside of the compound to go and buy a sim card for my cell phone. This was the first time outside of the gated place since I have been here. We walked down the street on the dirt road the same as everyone else. The street wasn’t crowded, but it was busy. I asked Daisy about her life. She has worked for icipe since May and lives quite far away. When she first began working for icipe she rode the bus to work. Sometimes commute would take her four hours in just waiting. I could never imagine such a commute, but she needed the experience and money. Daisy had recently graduated from college and was hoping to gain entrance into an institution in the United Kingdom. The area mart we went to was obviously poor. Everything was bought from the window. The floors were dirt and trash lined the side of the rode. Many children and people stared at me, being the only Caucasian on the street. I feel like every experience here will make me appreciate everything so much more. Karibu.