My new favorite job requirement: home sampling!

Me on the bike :P

For part of my time here I am managing a project that involves visiting our patients homes and taking samples to try to find environmental source of the fungus we are studying. Cryptococcus (crypt-oh-caulk-us, the name of the fungus) is found in soil contaminated with bird droppings and is also found growing in eucalyptus trees. For this mini-project, we travel to the patient's house and my team and I collect 50 samples of soil, plants, animal droppings, and dust from their home.

Yep, you read that right - I am a PhD with degrees in Molecular Biology and Biomedical Science and I get to scoop goat and chicken poop into a tube with a spoon :P  But I was SO excited to start this project - mainly because it means I get to leave the office/lab, ride a motorbike with my team out into the field, go meet the patients and their family, and go inside rural Kenyan homes and see how they live! The first step was "training" my team.

I use quotes there, because the protocol is just a pilot study, and I thought I had almost no real qualifications or knowledge that would be required to get my team ready to do environmental sampling. But we scheduled a day and I made the team pick a non-patient home (my research assistant's grandmother's brother...I think), and we all got on motorbikes and drove 25 minutes out of the super small village where my rural clinic is.  The scenery was so amazing - the roads are all a dark red clay color, and after a rain, the contrast with the blindingly bright green of the hills and vegetation is so beautiful!

Traveling in the green valleys

On the way, my driver and Research Assistant Milton, had to swerve around goats, cows, donkeys, sheep, chickens and children in and along the dirt road. We arrived safely to the homestead, which was a compound made up of 5 small houses and one main house. There was also an animal pen, a granary to store maize made out of woven reeds, and a huge chicken coop.   Upon arrival, we were greeted very warmly, with lots of hand shaking and formal introductions of the whole team and the older couple who lived there.

Me with my gourd of porridge

Before I knew it, I was guided to a chair, my hands were washed with a pitcher of warm water and bowl with soap, and I was holding half of a dried, empty gourd. Apparently, it is customary and practically required to feed all guests to your home, so soon enough my gourd bowl was filled with a steaming and large helping of porridge. I was told it was made in the traditional Luo manner, but was also seasoned with lemon and honey. I had just finished a huge breakfast, and the porridge was actually really good (like Cream of Wheat, but with lemon and honey :), so I successfully struggled to finish the whole huge bowl and be polite.

My porridge

Once we were finished eating, we talked to the homeowners for a while (they knew a bit of English, but most of what I got was translated later by my team), and then started the training. I taught my team how to use the GPS and record coordinates and elevation of the site, how to take the ambient temperature and humidity, and how to document the samples and pictures we would take in the event of a real patient. It was really fun, and I was surprised how much my previous biology jobs (working at NASA in college when I did beach mouse sampling) helped me know what to do. The lady of the house followed us around answering our questions and showing off her property. We learned about her kitchen and what she cooked, how she makes bricks out of the clay, and about the animals and vegetables they keep.

Goats eating dirt for some reason

The team enjoyed their day away from the clinic and lab, and we all went for lunch afterward. They gave me the most hilarious puppy dog eyes when the bill came for lunch and asked if I would pay since they were doing "such a good job" according to themselves :P I looked at the bill: all 5 of us got a meal with fish or meat, veggies and rice and a soda, and the whole thing wasn't even $10. Even though I should have pretended to be mean and refused to pay, I couldn't help it once I saw how low the total was and just caved. Also, one of my employees had seen a man walk into the small, dirty restaurant we were in and knew he was homeless, so he had ordered him a meal and paid for it himself, which I thought should be rewarded, too!

Getting a brick making demonstration

The next day we had an actual, real patient home visit, so my lab technician and my research assistant and I all got back on motorbikes and headed out early in the morning to try to avoid the heat of the day. The patient lived a solid 45 minute motorbike ride away from the center of town, but most of the drive was on a well-maintained tarmac road. We got a little lost once we got off the main road and had to stop at several houses for directions....but its because once you are off the paved roads we were literally just riding through people's fields and yards on small footpaths that wound through the rural homes. It was so cool (except for all the really spikey plants that scratched me up pretty well even through my pants while we were riding through the fields)!!

My team and I after training!

When we arrived we met the family, got the permission of the head of household to take samples from his land, and started our procedures! We got to go inside the home and sweep the dust from the floor, which was interesting to me because their chickens actually slept inside the house under an upside down laundry basket at night. I am definitely curious to see if we find fungus in the dirt from the chicken room!

Over the next few hours we took the rest of the soil and plant samples from around the compound: we took samples from their three gardens, a few samples from each of the 4 small houses, lots of goat and chicken droppings, and randomly swabbed any rotting trees with huge, scientific looking Q-tips :) I felt like I was working in a scene from a goofy TV show and we were the forensics team sent to find the murder's DNA somewhere in a crime scene. Except we were outside in blazingly hot weather, I don't have a hair and makeup team, and in the end all we had was a cooler full of poop and dirt samples in plastic tubes. Also, when I asked where the bathroom was, my two male colleagues just burst into giggles...I asked if that meant I should just "take a scenic walk" to "survey the bushes around the homestead" and they nodded through their subsequent giggles in response.

My view at the end of field day

Overall it was super interesting experience and a really great change-of-pace. I like getting to go out and see how people live and just being in the rural areas. The place I stay is an insect research facility in the small port town, and I don't mind staying in their dorms. The rooms are cozy (read: small, cramped, warm), the sunset views from their dock are absolutely fantastic, and they serve pretty decent meals. There are always a few other interesting people staying there and usually I try to strike up conversations at dinner in the common dining area. I've met people from the States doing work with orphans, people from India and Pakistan doing projects on agriculture and water purification, and a bunch of other health related scientists.

My room in the field...like a dorm

Field first aid: salt and soap thumb soaking

Sometimes its tough - the commute from the dorms to the field clinic is 45 minutes each way over a pretty bad dirt road. There are shuttles that leave at 7am and come back to the dorm at 6 or 7pm depending on how punctual everyone is at the end of the day...which makes fore VERY long, tiring days when I'm not in Kisumu. And there are no real stores or restaurants out there...and what does exist closes at sunset. I found myself with a pretty nasty little infection/mystery abscess under my thumbnail one day while out in the middle of nowhere, and I didn't get back to the dorms until pretty late. Since running down the block to the drugstore to grab some hydrogen peroxide and bandaids isn't really an option, I ended up concocting a variety of soaks to try to help get rid of it without taking any of my precious antibiotics I brought from the States :P

Sunset again :)

I managed to find a bar of soap, a salt shaker, a cotton ball and some tape....and after two days of hot soap/salt soakings and a bit of hoping I wouldn't have to self-amputate, I was as good as new! My boss looked at it when I got back to Kisumu and just laughed - she bet me I would lose my nail, but it healed up great and the nail looks totally better...and I didn't have to deplete my stock of prescriptions!

I know this isn't exactly a typical job, but the scenery is amazing, the work is interesting, the bednets are without holes, and the people I work with and meet are a lot of fun.

Volunteer little helpers unloading my field supplies :)

A video of the sunset over Lake Victoria from my field lodging :)

Hippo tours!! :)

Nile perch and greens

A few weeks ago one of my friends called me on a random Sunday and asked if I wanted to go out to a spot on the lakeshore for a fish lunch and boat ride with some friends.  There were 10 of us, and we had a huge lunch of Nile perch and tilapia that were fresh from the lake, cooked or fried right next to us, and smothered in greens. Here they serve everything ugali (oo-gall-ee). Ugali is made of maize flour, and it has the consistency of a wet, sticky, dense cornbread and tastes like absolutely nothing.     The whole meal was eaten with our fingers: you take a hunk of ugali, roll it into a ball, then dig into the whole steaming fish covered in greens and eat it all together with your hands.

Beer and fish :)

That white mountain is ugali!

It was an awesome meal! Heavy carbs, salty greens, tasty fish, and a cold beer all made for a nice brunch by the lake. After that we negotiated a boat ride, but I didn’t know we were planning on going to see hippos and I didn’t bring my camera!!  Total rookie mistake! But we had a lovely hour-long boat ride and saw a few hippos hiding under water but coming up to breathe, a lot of birds, and a fair amount of crazy storm clouds coming across the lake. The water was calm for our 30 minute trip away from our starting point, but when we turned around to come home, the wind picked up pretty noticeably, and for the last 15 minutes we were all hugging our bags, bundled in raincoats, and fighting some whipping waves in our wooden motor canoe! At the end most of us were a bit soggy with lakewater (ew), but it was really nice to be out on the lake, and I love a good storm!

The crew :)

The storm!

I was excited when one of my neighbors stopped by and invited me to go on another hippo boat ride - this one was planned for sunrise, which is when the hippos are still active from their nocturnal foraging :) I was glad to have another excuse to go, but this time I was ready to bring my big camera! We woke up super early and 3 of my neighbors and I climbed onto motorbike taxis and headed to the launching point, appropriately named Hippo Point.

Rainbow over the Yacht Club

Our trusty vessel

It was a gorgeous sunrise, and from the boat launch I could hear the hippos grunting! We didn't have to go very far to find them....they were about 100 yards away from us just standing in the shallow water! The first scene we arrived to was a male "taking care of" his harem of ladies. He must have been feeling pretty spunky, because we observed the splashing and other activities associated with his morning duties for quite some time...being the biologist that I am, I found it pretty interesting and entertaining (it's like watching the Discovery Channel IN PERSON!!), but the ladies I was with thought it was a bit icky.

Male hippo taking care of his ladies at sunrise

After a while, he must have begun to tire, and everyone went their separate ways. We saw some baby hippos with their moms and lots of hippos just hanging out in the shallow water staring at us. A few times when we ventured a bit too close for their liking they opened their mouths in a HUGE yawn of a warning: apparently opening their mouth and showing their teeth is a sign to back off! It was pretty effective - their tusks are scary! And if you didn't know it already, hippos kill more people in Africa every year than lions or other predators, so their warnings aren't to be taken too lightly!

Apparently this is a "back off" warning

I was mesmerized by the hippos, I think they are an adorable kind of ugly, and they were just floating around, blowing water into the air as they surfaced, and splashing around with each other. The ladies eventually convinced me to peel myself away from them, and we motored around the shore of the lake learning about the birds and taking in the scenery for a while. When we turned around to make our way back to our launch point, I asked if we could swing back by the hippos.

Time for a teeth cleaning?

I was really glad we did, because when we got back there were two hippos gently snuggling in the sunshine! One hippo had rested his giant head on the back of another hippo and vice versa! I thought it was too cute...hippos cuddling after a frisky morning :)

Overall, in under an hour we saw countless birds and about 10 hippos, all for the bargain price of about $5 a person. I had a great time, and am still amazed that Lake Victoria is about a half mile from my doorstep and contains all these crazy creatures!

The rest of my hippo pictures are here: https://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/9936

Hippos cuddling :)

Scientific Field Work in Rural Kenya!

Hello everyone!

I have spent a lot of this month going back and forth to our rural clinic site about 3+ hours away from Kisumu. The last time I went, I traveled with my boss, Ana-Claire. We spent two days training the team and auditing their work from the past month. We have to make sure they are filling out all the forms and databases correctly for the clinical trial, as the process and regulations for human clinical trials are very strict.

The main family home

This time, instead of staying in a rented room or eco lodge, we actually stayed on AC's husband's family compound. Her husband's family is from the area, and they still have a property with 5-6 traditional homes. The homestead is located on Rusinga Island, and is a walled/fenced compound with a main driveway through the property. On either side are small, 2-3 room homes with the driveway ending at the "main" house where we stayed.

There are cows, goats, chickens, dogs and cats roaming everywhere, and there is a small orchard and garden that AC and her husband started a couple years ago. If you walk to the back of the property and up a small hill, you can see the lake and the view of the rolling hills and mountains across the shore.

The pit toilet "with decor"

There is no running water or electricity. The bathroom is a pit-toilet, but as AC tried to describe it, "It's a nice pit toilet! It's a pit-toilet with ambiance and decor!"....I'm not sure I am enough of an expert/connoisseur of pit toilets to fairly judge, but it seemed to have decent ventilation and was really clean - and it had a seat!

The night we stayed there we cooked a dinner of lentils and rice on a camping stove hooked up to a propane tank, lit the room with a kerosene lamp, and bathed in warmed up lake water. The bathing area was actually a large cylindrical water tank that had the top cut off. A door had been made, and the whole thing was on a slab of cement. You use a bucket of hot water and a bucket of cool water, and mix to your liking in a pitcher and wash up! It was really nice having an open air "shower" under the stars!

The bathing area...with cows in the background :P

While we were at the compound, we had a lot of visitors from AC's extended family. An older uncle came by to grab some dinner, a grandmother was sick and AC made a house call to try to help. People brought her chest x-rays to have her look at, and we made trips to the hospital, pharmacy and store to try to get everyone settled before we left. At the end of the stay I asked her if visits were always that dramatic and busy, and she said that this was one of the easier trips she has experienced!

I really enjoyed the stay - it was fun to see what life is like in a typical home that is totally off the grid. The house itself was fine (4 walls, a bed, mosquito nets) and the rest was just like camping :) Also, we caught wind that one of the guard dogs had just had puppies, so I got a good dose of adorable fuzzy puppies on our last day! They were all hiding in an abandoned house, and the pile of fur and whimpering was SO cute.

Baby puppies!!

The field hospital where we see our patients is a 45 minute drive from Mbita town, which is 20 minutes from AC's house. It is in a small village called Sindo, and the whole area is pretty rustic. The electricity is always in and out, and on this visit even the running water was out, which made the indoor bathroom options non-functional. Also, it had been raining, so all the mud driveways were covered in about 6 inches of water.

The mountains and scenery at the hospital are great

Flooded hospital driveway

While I was wandering the hospital grounds, I was chased by a couple of kids. The younger of the two was a little boy who spoke no English, but he chased me around trying to talk to me even though I kept responding in English. His sister was a bit older and pretty shy. I had my huge DSLR camera with me, so I took their picture and showed them the image of themselves on the back screen - they thought it was SO cool. I spent about 15 minutes showing them how to take pictures of each other, and the older girl captured the hilarious shot below of her brother basically trying to rip the camera out of her hands while I try to protect the heavy, expensive camera from his little fingers.

They chased me through the hospital

Teaching the kids how to take photos

Overall we had a really productive trip and were able to sort out a lot of the issues our rural team was having. It's difficult trying to manage a team of 4 people doing complicated things over the phone, so site visits and more week long trips are now in the works to try to support the field team a little more effectively. I don't mind, because I like going out to the middle of nowhere and the change of pace to the really small town!

Hospitals here come with livestock

AC gazing at the rainbow on our drive home

Ana-Claire returned to Kisumu with me and stayed at my apartment. We brought back a huge liquid nitrogen tank that we borrowed from another study, but it was empty and we didn't have access to the lab where it belongs, so it lived for a number of days in my living room. AC was surprised with how comfortable I was keeping huge tanks and patient specimens in my house, but honestly it's not the first time I've had to stockpile supplies at home (in Peru I had boxes of tubes and gloves under my bed!).

This is how we transport chickens? Tied
to the handlebars of a motorbike?!

Temporary living room decor addition

I really love being able to go out into the field and do something different every day here. It's hard work and really long days, and there are a ton of challenges (the road is washed out, there are no supplies when we need them, electricity/internet/cell network/water is out,  patients don't show up, etc), but I still think its a lot of fun so far!!

Apartment upgrade!! Balconies and a real kitchen!

Bedrooms!

Well, I loved my last apartment....but one of my neighbors on the second floor was moving out, so I spontaneously decided to upgrade!! I am now in a slightly bigger, but still 2-bedroom apartment on the other end of our 6-unit building :)

Now I have a double bed and a queen bed, a kitchen with a TON of counter space, two balconies (one of which overlooks Lake Victoria and my pool :) and generally a bit more room!

Bathroom

I love the new place! Breakfasts and sunset watching on the balcony are amazing, the breeze blowing through the open doors makes the heat a lot more tolerable, and being on the second floor makes me generally feel safer.

I have a lot more room for visitors now, so who's coming??

Kitchen/dining area

The bigger kitchen :)

Kitchen and living room

The living room

My view!! :)

The balcony

My little herb garden!

Halloween and other silliness :)

Halloween weekend was a fun few days! On Saturday afternoon, a bunch of mzungus from a couple hours away all came to Kisumu to challenge our crew to an ultimate frisbee game! I have never played in an actual game before, but I had been going to a couple practices here when I had time, and it seemed like a good time.

Ultimate frisbee

We had a good 30+ people that all met up near down town on the main soccer field in a huge park. We picked teams loosely based on home vs. away challenger, but there were a few less away kids, so I played on their team. I watched the first few plays and decided to jump in withot any real knowledge of the game, but the basic premise is like soccer, where you pass the frisbee and try to make a goal, but the goal area is like a football endzone.

I had no idea how difficult the game was, and was not expecting so much sprinting! The problem was, I was trying to defend against Kenyans most of the time, and I am just not in great enough shape to chase down and beat most of them :P But either way it was a lot of fun, and I even scored a few points!!

Oreo milkshake

After the game, a few of us went out for dinner, and I had the most amazing milkshake, which I was told is quite a rarity. I chose and Oreo one, and it was fantastic and just what I needed after all that running in the heat!

After frisbee, milkshakes and pizza (could there be a more American way to spend a Saturday in sub-Saharan Africa?!) we all went our separate ways to prepare for the Halloween Party! One of the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) had organized a party at a local hotel by their pool deck. Since I had been busy at work all week, I didn't come up with the most elaborate costume...but I decided to be the Greek god(dess) of wine :) A bedsheet, a few safety pins, some jewelry, and a 3 liter box of red wine, and I was dressed and ready!

People really had some pretty cool costumes considering there isn't a Target/Wal-Mart/Mall/Internet to buy any real Halloween supplies! One of my friends went as Bacchus, there were punk rockers, a pirate, a Chaquita banana lady, 4 realistic Ghostbusters, 3 guys who went as Shark-nado which was pretty hilarious, and a lot of African themed costumes (Masai warriors, taxi drivers, local market women with greens and babies, etc). It was a lot of fun, the DJ was pretty good, and it was a nice night to be outside. There was a costume contest, and I believe Shark-nado took home the grand prize

Eventually, a few rowdy individuals decided the pool was just too tempting, and several people jumped in fully clothed. That started a pretty dangerous trend, because once a few had gone in, they decided everyone should go in, and people started getting thrown in left and right. Knowing it was inevitable, I had the foresight to hide my phone/clutch behind the bar, and when my turn came I was prepared...I tried to put up a fight, but eventually I was picked up by my arms and legs and tossed in by some friends.

Sharknado

The retaliation was nuts, and almost everyone went int he pool, prepared or not. A LOT of people lost phones and keys to the water! After swimming around in the warm pool under the stars for a while, getting out and sitting in the cold wasn't too appealing. Most people headed home after their dunkings, and I was no exception. I rode home with my landlord and neighbors who were all at the party, and we got quick showers and went out dancing. Before I knew it, it was 6am and we left as the sun was coming up! My landlord knew of a place to get food, so we stopped at a roadside shack and had chapati (flat bread) and eggs. It was fun to watch the sunrise on the side of the road

It was a fun weekend, but I was wiped out on Sunday - I spent most of the day sleeping, and the afternoon recovering by a pool with some friends drinking Coke and eating greasy fries (totally helps!).

Lots more pictures here: https://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/9853