Aug 7. 2014. Cockroach

I do not like cockroach. I am freaked out whenever I find cockroach in my room. Since I came to Calman lodge, I have been killing at least 2 cockroaches every single day. Spanking them with flip-flop is the best way to take care of them as quickly as possible. However, they run away so fast and hide in the corner; in this case, I use insect killer spray to kill them remotely. But wait… do they do harm to me? Not really… but they look really intimidating. I do not want them to be in my room. When I lie down on the bed, cockroach slowly crawl on the wall, right left side of me. I am so frightened to see them and I hastily shoot out insect killer spray to eliminate them. If the size of cockroach is big, I could not dare to hit their bodies with my flip-flop. It was worthwhile to buy this spray, raid; however, they do not die easily and make a frantic last-ditch effort to survive.

Last night, I killed 4 cockroaches, on the floor, in the restroom, in the closet, on the corner. I suddenly felt weird. I kill them everyday, and spray all crack in the door in advance to keep their entering from outside; where do they come from? I guess there should be some cockroach hatchery and cockroaches are hatched out somewhere in my room. If it were true, eradicating cockroach in my room would be really hard. The sizes varied; small one must be growing up soon. I decided to ask my life saver, Denice, who is in different guesthouse, to know if discovering cockroach everyday is common in Tanzania.

“Denice, I see cockroaches every single day in my room, and I just killed 4 cockroaches in this evening. Do you see these guys in your room often?”

“Yuck! Sorry to hear that. I see them in the kitchen (not a lot but they are there) but I haven’t seen more than 4 in my room the entire time I’ve been here.”

“That’s bad for me because I kill them every day. What do you think? Did they lay eggs some spot in my room and hatch every day? Should I ask changing the room in Calman lodge? lol?”

“Yes, ask to change rooms. If you still see them in the other room them you should tell Licky.”

Obviously, killing 4 cockroaches at once turned out to be abnormal, and I saw one more cockroach this morning (a total of 5 cockroaches has been killed since last night), so asked lodge manager, Dora, to change the room in the morning. I followed her in a maze, (I did not even know there were a lot of room through a narrow passage) and came into the new room. It looked somebody has just left this room, so it needed to be cleaned; it was a smaller room but it was simpler that had fewer hide zone for cockroaches. Hopefully, expecting no more cockroaches in this room, I got to work.

Suddenly, my cockroach laboratory two years ago came to remembrance. When I was a biology undergraduate student, I took Comparative Physiology Lab class. The instructor, Neil Vickers, was a dean of biology department, and he taught interesting animal experiment – leopard frog gastrocnemius, bullfrog heart, moth thermoregulation, and cockroach neurophysiology – to students. Somehow, cockroach lab was extended to two-week experiment, and I had to catch, dissect, observe giant cockroach and submit cockroach neurophysiology report during two weeks. I did not quite remember what the experiment was, so I traced back my dim memory and tried to find those materials in “Utah” folder in my laptop. There you go! I found cockroach protocol, my report, and some references that I read. The experiment was to research large antenna-like structures, cerci, at the rear of the cockroach. The questions were about describing the cockroaches’ behavior, recording activities in the ventral nerve cord, calculating the conduction velocity of impulses, recording neurophysiological signal, and explaining the biphasic wave. I pulled up cockroach dissertations to remind myself that what contents were written.

“Organization of the Giant Axons of the Cockroach Periplaneta Americana” by M.E. Spira, I. Parnas and F. Bergmann (1969)

“Conduction Velocities and their Temperature Coefficients in Sensory Nerve Fibres of Cockroach Legs” by K.M. Chapman and J.H. Pankhurst (1967)

“Giant Fibre and Small Fibre Pathways Involved in the Evasive Response of the Cockroach, Periplaneta Americana” by D. Dagan and I. Parnas (1970)

“Responses of Giant Interneurons of the Cockroach Periplaneta Americana to Wind Puffs of Different Direction and Velocities.” By Joanne Westin, Jonathan J. Langberg, and Jeffrey M. Camhi (1977)

I had read more than that at that time. Certainly, cockroaches’ sensory nerve must have been an unknown world to biologists all over the world from 1960s to 1970s. Understanding response and mechanism of cockroach’s Giant Interneurons will make big contribution to human being’s health and longevity.

Biology 3325: Laboratory 7. Cockroach Neurophysiology. - University of Utah

Last at night, I came back to the new room! I turned on light, and looked cautiously round. Oh… you guys… here too! One guy was sitting on the new toilet paper, the other guy was already running away to the corner. My insect killer, raid, was urgently summoned, it attacked them without mercy. They fell flat on their back one by one, and other unfound guys exposed their appearance and died slowly near the raid spray zone. I lifted the corner of a blanket and searched through the wall; oh, there you are. I also sprayed to that guy. I hurriedly kicked these 5 corpses out of my room. Where an earth did they come from?

What do you think? I have always kept in mind that circumstances in Africa may not be the same as the place where I was. I have tried to understand people’s life here, eat street food, and practice new language. However, I am not ready to say hi to cockroaches gladly and leave them alone. Nevertheless, finding a better place not to see those guys is nonsense to me; if I seek better things and catch up with my past non-insect life, then, why I am here? I am in Africa. Avoiding unusual situation – but it is common to inhabitants – can be interpreted that I am losing the chance of experiencing unique lifestyle. If living friendly with mosquito, lizard, and cockroaches is necessary in Africa, then… all right, so be it!

Praising biologists for their dedication of researching cockroaches’ giant and small axon, nerve fibers of their legs, and the velocity of their action potential, I will try to look at cockroaches in a different way. They must be valuable to some extent. Who knows? They may (or may be not, hopefully) become alternative food resource to compensate for a food shortage in the future. Even so, I do not want to be a good friend with them now. I need more time to see them as equal beings. I am sorry, Mr. cockroaches. If I see you, I have to kill you!

Aug 6. 2014. What’s going on in my bank account?

Two days ago, I bought Weekly Time Based Internet with another new Tanzania SIM card, paying 13,000 Tsh. What is time based? Does that mean I would enjoy Internet unlimitedly for 7 days? In Sierra Leone, I used volume-based Internet; if I use all megabyte (MB) that I purchased, Internet would be never connected, not even slowly, so I would have to top up MB again. Here in Tanzania, I have just found the Time Based Bundles! I asked Airtel merchant whether this service provide unlimited Internet usage for a certain duration of time, but he did not know well either. Anyhow, I wanted to give it a shot. Review of this service: the answer is yes, it looked unlimited use for a week, but Internet has suddenly become super slow after using 400 MB. Waiting webpage pops up for a long time has almost suffocated me. So then, which option is good? Purchasing volume-based or time-based?

I was using my modem to enjoy extremely slow speed of the Internet at my home last night. And I received an email from Self Storage company, the place that I have stored all my loads since I left Baltimore; they said that my automatic payment did not go through this month (I am paying $44 every month for the 5x5 storage unit). I gave my debit card information to them again and asked to try it again. Kindly, they emailed me promptly and said the card seemed to be restricted by stating that was invalid in region or country. It could not be possible because auto payment for July went though, so I logged in bank website to find out what was going on. This bank, Wells Fargo, was my main bank account that has provided Sierra Leone cash and Tanzania cash, so it was my really important livelihood! Another card that I have is Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union (JHFCU) debit card that I got just before leaving the U.S. Since my bill payment attempt from Wells Fargo to JHFCU was not successful, there was drained of money in my JHFCU.  

After long and deep patience, I finally accessed to my transaction history. What? I could not believe what I was seeing. Somebody was withdrawing my money from my account in Toronto, Florida, and any other random places! I did not understand how it was possible because only myself possess my card. Who else have my card and withdraw cash multiple times? Luckily, Wells Fargo Fraud Prevention department might have detected this potential fraudulent activity and froze my card already, so that was why my automatic payment did not work for Self Storage company. I quickly sent a message to customer service to let them know my situation. They also kindly replied me promptly, but they wanted me to call them to assist me. I had no access to international call…

I waited until this morning to talk to Denice that there was fraudulent activity in my account and my debit card has been restricted. She gave me great information; I could call toll-free number through Skype! Obviously, I could not be relaxed in this situation, and to make matters worse, my faltered English did not convince a counselor that I am a victim of this fraud. My English normally becomes dumb when I am in a state of tension, stress, tired, and in this case, panic. I have never experienced this situation; why now this happened, while I am in Africa? During the 40 minutes of talking with Wells Fargo, Denice helped me a lot. A moment of fluster blocked my ear and I could not hear what a counselor said, but Denice rephrased it for me. Anyway, bank work is too complicated to understand easily even in my mother tongue. I was terrified when a counselor asked me if I would want to prosecute person for fraud. If I say yes, should I appear in court as a victim? I just wanted my cash back and conclude this situation as soon as possible. After a short discussion with Denice, I said No. I was also surprised to hear that there were several declined transaction attempts that I could not even see in the transaction history. Wells Fargo would shut my card down to prevent more fraud attempts, and send the new card to Tanzania.

From the morning to the afternoon, WVT zonal meeting was held at Nam Hotel conference. Finance Director, Moses, visited here in Dodoma from Arusha to lead this meeting. The topic was not limited to finance issue; he had an in-depth analysis about leadership, communication, reorganization, and cost reduction strategy. I was able to learn WVT’s structure – category, cluster and ADP – as well as WVT’s future plan responding to global financial crisis. Although I had money problem on the brain and had to schedule Skype meeting with my interviewees who were in Sierra Leone during the whole time, I tried to understand the situation of WVT as much as possible because I am here in Tanzania.

Am I coping with unexpected happening pretty well? I unexpectedly evacuated Sierra Leone and urgently relocated to Tanzania, and my debit card had to be unexpectedly shut down. What is my plan now? My plan from now should be flexible enough to deal with another possible unexpected happening. Maybe, we make a plan not only to estimate the future but also to accommodate ourselves to irregular circumstances.

Aug 5. 2014. Miraculous!

I read good news early in the morning that 2 American missionary workers who contracted Ebola saved their lives by experimental drug, ZMapp.

<Experimental drug likely saved Ebola patients>

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/

<Questions about this new Ebola drug>

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/ebola-drug-questions/index.html

“Within an hour of receiving the medication, Brantly's condition dramatically improved. He began breathing easier; the rash over his trunk faded away. One of his doctors described the events as "miraculous."

Although WHO does not recommend using untested drugs in the middle of this outbreak, and Doctors Without Borders also gives concern that treatments/vaccines in very early stages of development have many scientific and ethical implications, Ebola patients are those who stand at the crossroads of death or survival. ZMapp needs the clinical trial process and approval for human use, FDA may have approved compassionate use of ZMapp for the case of 2 American Ebola patients. However bad, there is a hope out of this Ebola situation. I am glad to see these miraculous powers of healing!

Miracle happens for learning? Let us see. Lidya Botea, AIM-Health program facilitator of WVT, was really passionate about learning Korean language. When she talks to me in Swahili, I do not feel embarrassed anymore because I have a great defense; return in Korean to her! Whenever she heard Korean, she showed a puzzled expression on her face and said, “My friend! You are confusing me!” Then I am able to be free from random Swahili unprovoked attack. I seize the initiative and ask her to learn Korean. I am unsure as to whether I can learn Swahili so fast during my short fellowship period here, for two months. 

Is Korean easy to learn or not?

The Korean alphabet, Hangeul, consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Unlike English, these vowels and consonants have to combine with each other to make some words. I wrote 14 consonants (가나다라마바사아자차카타파하) and 10 vowels (아야어여오요우유으이) on her note yesterday, sent her cell phone screenshot of Korean keyboard, and said, “Practice tonight!” without any anticipation. Surprisingly, she did some homework! She was trying to match English alphabet and Korean character, which was fun to me. In the Korean keyboard, all consonants are on the left side and all vowels are on the right side. However, she literally matched the English keyboard with Korean keyboard; for instance, A = ㅁ, B = ㅠ, C = ㅊ… on her note. It must be the first time for her to see new alphabet because Swahili is written by English alphabet. I tried to download Korean keyboard into her Huawei cell phone, but there was no function to add other keyboard in there. Both she and I absolutely need some time to understand each language.

Why can’t I just put some memory chip or USB into my head and play the program? Computer can do that, but my brain is worse than machines. I have to rely on Swahili dictionary/ translator apps and open and write Swahili what I heard on my note to communicate friendly with Tanzanians. When am I able to save all Swahili data in my head? There is no miracle… I feel like going back to babyishness when I have no idea what Tanzanians say, and I do not even know how I can start learning Swahili. At least, I know Swahili alphabet, which is the exactly same as English, so it would be a good start to memorize endless words while Lidya may be suffering for understanding Korean consonants and vowels.

Great lunch except the fact that I used a spoon

Denice, Lidya, Michael and I went to lunch. I forgot the most important Swahili word – meat, fish, vegetable, and chicken in Swahili – so I was at a loss what to order. Lydia seemed to enjoy this situation and did not help me out enough to order the food. After little meandering, I got ugali with anchovy soup, meat, and vegetables. However, I reached another impasse; everyone, including Denice, was using hands to eat ugali! I saw Sierra Leoneans also use their hands to eat fufu. I guess using hands is common to eat ugali, fufu, and any other similar type of flour meal in Africa.  Oh no… I wanted to take credit to myself for being a foreigner at this time, and busy with finding a spoon.

“You will not know the real taste of ugali!”

Lidya scolded(?) me that my behavior toward ugali was not polite. All people who had ugali were tearing off a little amount from big chunk of those maize flour, hand-rub it adorably to increase the density of sparse torn amount, dip it with all fingers in the soup, and set them to their lips. Is the taste really different between shoveling ugali into my mouth and hand-rubbing ugali? It may take some time for me to understand the importance of hand treatment for ugali. I know… There was no miracle for me to follow exactly the Tanzanians do at first sight.

Back to ZMapp, should we expect that all Ebola patients in Africa have to receive ZMapp? The word miracle means it is very unexpected and surprising. It does not mean that all other people will also be cured by ZMapp, just like 2 American volunteers. There has not been enough experiment for animals, not even for human body, so distributing experimental drugs may have a lot of risk. We know the Ebola epidemic is out of control and situation is so desperate; be that as it may, expecting the same type of miracle with other patients and supplying ZMapp would be a crude attempt. Sometimes, (or many times) all kinds of regulation, process, ethics, requirement, and securing evidence to develop vaccine or treatment may frustrate us, but it would be the best time to have deep views of Ebola outbreak that what actions would be for genuinely ensuring human beings’ health and safety. 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step! Okay, let's learn Swahili from the beginning. Oh wait, what was the Swahili expression that "I'm hungry?" ... :)