Entry from The Girl

Science shares a common language, English. It is amazing how data collected in Nashville,TN corroborates studies done in a separate lab in Africa. Altogether, my research experiences in Cape Town is very similar to that in The States, minus a few daily luxuries. For example:

There is no central heating. We keep our lab coats on all day to keep warm.

There is no hot water in the whole building. You have to wash your hands in ice water after using the toilet.

Each lab is responsible for their own heating and cooling. We have the pigeons working on our heating problems now. Speaking of pigeons, they are ALL over the place. Even in the bathroom (of the school), serious.

The internet runs at 128K...or maybe it is 56K. It takes a good 20 minutes to get an article downloaded.

Gloves. We save our gloves for later useage. Then there's Constance who washes her gloves.

Concentrated NaOH handled without gloves. Where are Hixsan and Josh?

Pipette Tips. We do save tips to be reused for the same reagant during the preperation period, but they get discarded afterwards. Americans are so wasteful! Changing the tip after each transfer?

Disposible 15mL conical tubes are not disposible. We borrowed 10 used tubes from a medical lab. And for the last two weeks, I've been washing used tubes with NaOH, acetone, and DiH2O, followed by drying (with a hair dryer). Repeat 28 times a day.

Tissues are used to clean utensils and kimwipes are used to clean counters.

Industrial Kimwipes.




Security: after making it into the building (one electrical door and one key lock door), the lab is protected by a sliding gate followed by an electrical door. The work room is locked with a huge padlock.
Recently, drug dealers broke into another lab in the building and stole weight balances. We keep ours locked away behind 3 doors (1 electrical, 2 key-lock).

The people are extremely friendly. There are three main students and an American master's student. Including myself, there are five. The space is limited and they had to saw off a table leg to make room for me. All the students sit and do their paperwork in a room adjacent to the wet lab.

The students study area.
Front to back: Katherine, Kanyle, David, and Constance.

The personalities of the lab are more diverse than the food variety of the country. The youngest member is a big fan of muffins but only the chocolate chip ones. When he goes missing during the day, it is likely that he is waiting in line at the baked-goods shop a few buildings away. Then there is the oldest member of the group. His native tongue is Xhosa (pronounced:*click*za). You'll have to watch The Gods Must be Crazy. The language in that movie is his native tongue. He can sing a whole song in *click*. Pretty awesome. He has agreed to do it on camera, so I will upload that sometime during the course of our stay.

I will demonstrate my new clicking skills when I get back.