Richard - Naruku / Lake Naivasha

In my first full week of laboratory work, I made a start on the practical side of my project. However, my PCR reactions for differentiating the Salmonella strains didnt exactly go as planned (i.e. they didnt work) and so further attempts to optimise the assay will have to be carried out.

In light of the short time I am spending here in Kisumu, it was decided that I take up a new project that will look at the impact of the malarial vaccine candidate FMP-10 on the genotypes of Plasmodium falciparum (the most deadly form of malaria) in the adults participating in the clinical trial. Dont want to jinx it, but it’s going well so far... so fingers crossed.

We attend presentations every tuesday morning in the large Kenya Medical Research Institute in the nearby town of Kisien where the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the Walter Reed Project conduct their research. It is a great oppurtunity to see the range of projects and research being performed here and I particularly enjoy the heated discussions that can develop afterwards. The facilities of the Kisien campus are top class. The same, however, cannot be said about the road conditions on the way out there from Kisumu!!

I gave a presentation to the laboratory staff about the immunology of transplantation which I worked on previously in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. This topic is rarely covered in Kenya but with such a high interest in all areas of science here in the laboratory, I was preparing myself for an onslaught of questions. It was great to see the interest it generated particularly in how HLA typing of populations (i.e. the tissue typing system we use for transplant patients) may be applied to work over here. One of the lads, Clifford, was particluarly interested if a transplant recipient takes over the behaviour  of their donor... he concluded that he will never accept an organ donation from a thief in case he himself became a thief!

Away from work has been busy too. A simple walk down the road would give you enough to talk about for an entire day, but i will try and recap.

A group of us from the lab went to a nice restauraunt close to Kondela where we work and I got my first experience of Kenyan nyama choma (barbequed meat) Make no bones about it (sorry!) it’s a red blooded, hands-on affair! We got barbequed goat that was chopped up into small pieces at the table. We chewed our way through it with ugali and Tusker beer to wash it down. Delicious. Subsequently came an hour of rigorous toothpicking!

Rachel and I decided to take a trip to Lake Naivasha with Emily (who works with us), Max and Jennifer (who work for the CDC). Taking an early matatu from Kisumu to Nakuru, we passed through the town of Kericho where we saw tea being picked in the manicured plantations. I remember thinking before I came over to Kenya whether to bring  some teabags over with me or not..the words apple and orchard come to mind...

Passing through the bus stations along our route, our matatu faced the onslaught from the local vendors selling everything you could think of  ranging from the essential (food, water) to the downright ridiculous (Safari Animal Mating DVD - anybody???). Unfortunately for them I wasn’t in the market for buying a machete, an Armani watch, or a torch/screwdriver (is it a torch? Is it a screwdriver?.. well it’s actually both) but you have to love their enterprise (and persistence!)

Our matatu looked like something out of “Pimp my Ride” – bright purple with darkened windows and a bumber sticker that read “Brown sugar”. Absolutely perfect. The music was pumping from the mega decibel speakers and I was “lucky” enough to get the seat directly in front of the plasma television screen, prime position to watch the music videos of artists like Mr Easy, Elephant Man, P-Square, Q-Stick and my personal favourite DJ Fish.

In Nakuru we hit a brick wall of traffic and hundreds of people lined the street in anticipation. It ended up that President Kibaki and the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, were electioneering in Nakuru ahead of the constitutional vote on August 4th. (The Kenyan people are voting yes or no to the introduction of a new constitution in August, a change that is widely considered to be long overdue. As little as I know about Irish politics, I know even less about Kenyan politics, however I do know that it will be a major milestone for the entire country and an historic time for us to be living here) 

Crowds lining the street awaiting the President and Prime Minister

As the colossal entourage passed, people were waving Kenyan flags and cheering?/jeering? out of their windows...

Note to Biffo (alias Brian Cowan): These guys know how to travel in style.

Nakuru was at a standstill for around two hours and there was an entourage of about 50 cars passing through. There was even helicopters following them..Get it together Brian!... 

Some Spectators...

A “yes “ voter perhaps?

Lake Naivasha is an amazing place. Situated a little over an hour from Nairobi, I can see why it is so popular with the city people as an escape from the hustle and bustle of Kenya’s capitol; it is the definition of tranquility.

We were lucky enough to take a boat ride early in the morning. There wasn’t a sinner on the lake, only us, and it is the best time to see the plethora of birdlife (including masses of Pelicans and the ice cool African Eagle) and the giant snorting hippos plodding around the shallows. The Hippos look like big floating bean bags though I doubt you would get a warm reception if you tried to lie on one.

My photography skills leave a lot to be desired as you can see from below:

 

The story behind this is that I kept following the hippos head with my camera and every time I snapped he’d duck back down into the water.  He was havin’ a great laugh at my expense, but I guarantee he’s underneath the water in the shot somewhere.

Our matatu on the way to Hell’s Gate National Park was blaring out Westlife’s version of Phil Collins “against all odds” (Westlife are massive over here and Shenaz from the guest house is most impressed with the fact they are from Ireland thus I may have to give her a rendition of a few songs!!). Despite the song being stuck in my head for the entire day, it didn’t take away from the great experience of cycling through the park alongside zebras, impalas and gazelles; a great way to be up close with the animals. I will say, zebras appear more threatening in the flesh than their meagre appearance on nature films shows, especially when there’s a herd of them just staring at you!

We got a chance to explore the nooks and crannys of the great Hell’s Gate Gorge, a great ravine impressively carved out by water.  We had to use all our climbing skills to descend into the gorge, through waterfalls and hot springs (where people are known to boil up eggs and maize) eventually finding our way back up to view the stunning scenery that surrounded us.

Rachel and I at Hells Gate.

So back to work on the project. With any luck my experiments will go as planned and I will at least have some results to show at the end of it! And as for the  Kenyan exprience, this mini adventure has certainly whetted my appetite to see what more this great country can offer and as the presidential motorcade shows, there is a surprise around every corner. I look forward to see what’s in store for the rest of my time here...