Monday 7/2/12
Monday morning we went into the
B/TB lab to process samples from the weekend.
We sorted all of the samples out and did all of the preliminary
tests. In the afternoon, we were
supposed to go back to the lab and process more tests in the afternoon, but
there was a quick “Indian” change of plans – apparently there is always a plan
“B.” We were going to process samples in the afternoon, but we were shuttled to the
university farms again to interview more about mastitis and collect samples for
students of mastitic milk. While out at the farms, we got to see emus and 2 more ostriches (at a different university farm than the first). This was exciting and a nice change-up from the lab work and interviewing!
A demonstration on the proper way to catch and restrain an emu
A baby water buffalo at the university farms - soooo cute!
Tuesday 7/3/12
Tuesday, we spent the whole day in
the lab, mainly working on running ELISA tests.
This was my first time doing this test, so I was a little nervous that
my technique would be bad or my eyes would bug out from staring at
teensy-weensy plate with just under 100 wells.
I actually ended up getting my plate to work, and it was the only one so
far to work! It has been frustrating
because we haven’t figured out why these tests are not working. By the end of the day, we decided there was
not necessarily human error, but that it was most likely the machine that reads
the test that was causing the error in the plates. Either way, I got a little bit of
satisfaction out of the fact that mine appeared to work!
An example of the milk ring test - the middle sample is neg, and the 2 on either side are positive because they have a nice clear ring of pink on the top
Dr. Gunaseelan is the man in
charge of the B/TB lab that we are working on.
When we first got to India, he was trying to remember all of our names
(American names are actually hard for Indians because they are nothing like the
Indian names), so he was assigning a celebrity to remember. Audrey is Audrey Hepburn, for example. When he got to me, guess what he picked as my
name? Jim Carrey. Well, this is not exactly any Carrie/Kari/Kerry
I know, and, well, technically this is a man and I am clearly not a man (even
with the shorter hair, I’m pretty sure I look like a girl), but I just kind of
laughed and went with it. As the days
progressed, he continued to call me Jim Carrey.
After a few days without stopping, I told him “You know, it’s actually
kind of funny you call me Jim Carrey because I have a boyfriend back home, and
his name is Jim, so people have referenced Jim Carrey around me before.” He seemed to just eat that up, thinking that
he was psychic or something and knew the connection without actually knowing. So from then on, I have conned the nickname
“Jim Carey” with just about everyone because he will literally introduce me as
Jim Carrey. When we were talking to Dr.
Gunaseelan, he was talking about how my test worked and he called me Jim. Just plain Jim, no Carrey tacked on. So apparently now I have only one name and am
a man in one man’s eyes.
Wednesday 7/4/12
This morning, we headed to the lab
(again) to run the ELISA for the 4th time since we think we know
what the issue is. For lunch, Dr. Mohan
ordered a catered 4th of July celebration to celebrate with all of
our professors, fellow student “helpers,” and Virginia Tech students. It was not quite your typical 4th
lunch being that it consisted of all Indian food, but it was a special gesture
to try to celebrate and acknowledge our holiday. In the afternoon we went back to the lab to
finish the tests. After the lab, we went
to the field at the college and played some cricket, along with the guy who
came from Virginia Tech. For dinner, the
cooks made a real great effort to make an American-type dinner, which was very
nice and an awesome gesture! It wasn’t
your burgers and dogs, but an Indian version, I guess. They actually found some corn on the cob for
us too, which was a special treat. Even
though it reminded me of Halloween corn, it was amazing after missing so many
things about the USA!
Thursday 7/5/12
Thursday morning, we spent our time
back in the lab. This was a chance to
get the rest of our results verified and talk with the professors about any
last questions we had for the research projects. At 10:30, Pamela was supposed to head over to
talk with the mastitis project leader, but we had only been over there once, so
someone was supposed to come and lead her over there. Well, surprise surprise, nobody showed
up. At 10:40 I figured I could probably
find us our way back there or at least get us close, so we headed over there
and found it! The professor was like “Dr.
Mohan told me you would be here at 10:30.”
It was frustrating trying to apologize and let him know it was not our
fault we were late, but communication issues hindered that and we just had to
deal with the fact that he thought we were late and incompetent. It was exciting to know that this was the
last day we would really be in the lab – all of the tests had been completed,
and we would just put our results together when we returned from our weekend
trip. Yay!
In the afternoon, I went up on the
roof and laid out for about an hour reading.
I don’t really like to lie out in the sun (I get bored easy) and I need
to put sooo much sun screen on. The
weather channel said it was 99 degrees felt like 104 with humidity. Yuck!
On the roof, I finished my book that I had been reading – The Help. I enjoyed it, just wasn’t entirely satisfied
with the ending. But it really was a
great book. For dinner, instead of
eating at the guest house, we were invited to eat at another professor’s house
– the warden of the hostel in charge of us.
The food was very good and we had some new things, so I ate quite a lot
actually, which was a big change for me!
Too bad our professor wasn’t there to witness it – he still thinks I’m
starving myself apparently.
Friday 7/6/12
On Friday, we woke up early to hit
the road for a big event put on by the college - World Zoonosis Day. This is a day when the zoonotic diseases
department picks a village to travel to.
They provide free vaccinations and other simple care to the farmers in
the area. In addition, they locate a
school and educate the children about zoonotic diseases so that they are more
aware and can be more cautious about them.
This was a great experience! I
enjoyed working with the children the most – they were super excited to sing in
English for us, answer our math questions, and tell us the English word for
animals. The thing they were most
fascinated with was our cameras – they all wanted us to take pictures of them
and with them, which was great! In walking around to do some work with the animals, it was interesting to see the different animals and how they are housed. The vet students wouldn't let us do much in treating or restraining the animals which was a bummer, but it was still educational. It was a very hot day, and I had my undershirt, my scrub shirt, and a heavy-duty jersey shirt on, so I got hot very quickly. This was the first time the head had truly bothered me, and I was starting to feel some heat stress. Thankfully, I was able to head back to the school, drink some water, and sit in the shade when we were done, and I started to feel much better.
On the trip back home, we packed 16
adults into a van for a 2 ½ hour car ride.
When we were introducing ourselves to the students traveling with us,
when I said my name, I got the response, “Ahh, yes, The Mask.” Apparently India knows Jim Carrey very well! When we got back to the hostel, we quickly
packed and headed off for our travel to Tip of India! We took a semi-sleeper bus, and we were in
the back row, so our chairs didn’t recline very much. Long story short, I could NOT get comfortable
at all (I can’t sleep on my back or sitting up), so I only got about 2 hours of
sleep. The rest of the time I was “tossing
and turning”, getting more and more fed up with the way people drive in India
and the jerking/slamming on the breaks that made us fly around in our
seats. How anybody got any sleep is
beyond me!
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