2 Weeks in Already!

Hello! (or “Me yega” in Bassa, my mother’s native language) Welcome to my blog! As I looked out the plane window right before we landed at Nsimalen International Airport, I couldn’t help but smile to myself because I was back. I had the chance to come to Yaoundé for Christmas break last year and now, less than a year later, here I was again and it felt good to be back.I’m living with my aunt, uncle and cousins for a total of 4 months. Akaila and I (who arrives next week) live in a cute studio apartment next door to the main house.  As a recent graduate from UW-Madison, I decided to take time off before applying to medical school to pursue an internship in medical research and clinical experience. I have been here for 2 weeks already and started working in a parasitology lab this past week. In mid-November, Akaila and I will switch from the lab to the Central Hospital of Yaoundé for the remainder of our time here. The lab in which I work, and where Akaila will be working when she gets here, is part of the Medical Research Center’s overall mission of eliminating parasites in various communities throughout Cameroun. The research center is under the IMPM (Institut de Recherches Médicales et d’Etudes de Plantes Médicinales) which is one of five branches of innovation within the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation (the others are cartography, geology, agriculture and construction with local materials). The Cameroun government funds each branch of the ministry. Within the medical research center, there are three main priorities: malaria, HIV/AIDS and emerging diseases like obesity and diabetes. The parasitology lab researchers (fifth year medical students and full-time researchers) are currently working on identifying parasites in samples from various towns in Cameroun: malaria and different intestinal worms. On my first day at work, I analyzed stool samples that potentially had intestinal worms. Out of about 75 samples tested that day, we found parasites in two samples: the whipworm parasite and the roundworm parasite. In order to identify each parasite, we used a WHO manual that explains (descriptions and pictures) what each possible parasite looks like under a microscope. Let me tell you, working with stool samples is NOT easy… It took me a while to get used to the smells and look of different samples. I can’t say that I’m completely comfortable, but each day it gets a little more bearable.

             

A balancing act...

One of the full-time workers in the lab is a woman who is working on her Master’s in Public Health. She said that she will do her PhD afterwards (beginning of next year) in order to have the highest degree possible in her field.  She told me how she had originally wanted to do her research in the lab, especially since she majored in biochemistry, but that lab equipment is simply too expensive. She conducts her research on communities in Cameroun that are affected with malaria to see how effective malaria prevention efforts are, to continue to enforce them and analyze why some efforts fail. I found this very intriguing especially because it seems as though public health initiatives are more pressing matters than biochemical research.

             

 Getting around the city is very different from what I consider traffic in Madison. What I think of as a traffic jam in Madison terms is a low concentration of cars on the streets of Yaoundé. The main roads, especially leading downtown are packed ALL DAY LONG. Not just at rush hour. Luckily, the research center is accessible through many neighborhood shortcuts (they’re bumpier with more potholes than the main roads, but that’s a small tradeoff). Another complicated aspect of traffic is the crazy amount of taxis that are on the road. I would say they make up about 90% of cars on the road because they are the main form of public transportation. If you find yourself driving behind one, you have to be extremely careful because they often unexpectedly stop on the side of the road to pick up passengers. The dangerous part is that many times, in order to keep their spot on the road, they will do a rolling stop (still in the road) to pick people up at the same time. You can see the potential for disaster; however, everyone is used to this strategy and is extremely careful, despite how out of control the road looks. 

             

Right now in Yaoundé it’s the rainy season, which will go until mid-October/beginning of November.  During my first week here, it rained once a day at different times of the day. Some days it doesn’t rain at all and the sun shines. I like this weather because although it’s sometimes rainy and/or gloomy, the temperature remains in the 80s.

            That’s all for now! Next time I’ll try adding some pictures and update you guys on the daily happenings of Yaoundé!