I’m going to split the story of this past week into mornings and evenings. I’ll start with mornings, where the tale turns a little sad and uninteresting. I’ll burn through this past week quick boys and girls.
The co-worker and I had a dilemma because one of us forgot our science at home. Preparing for an endeavor lasting 6 weeks in a foreign country, pretty difficult. You need all your reagents and, sadly, certain requirements have higher priority. This bit of science was essential and the result was we spent a good week rehashing a routine that can only be compared to purgatory.
As we arrived in the lab on Monday we checked the shipping status. The forgotten science was Fedex’d out Friday (the day we left) and had arrived in Kampala that day. Excited we prepped for the arrival of the package by setting up an experiment for Tuesday. Tuesday arrived and we completed our preparations. By the afternoon we were anxious; we had thawed cells that would die if they were not used within a certain time frame. Their life expectancy was within approximately a 48 hour window, so no worries if they didn’t show up Tuesday, right? No. The hidden factor was that Wednesday was Ugandan Independence Day, so nothing was going to be delivered. By Tuesday evening we had relinquished our dreams of completing our work to where ever our old gold fish go when we were young. Also, to compound the already infuriating situation, customs had not received any payment and would not start processing.
Wednesday and Thursday was a continuation of our pain. Thursday ended with the full cycle of grief and one more assurance that our package would arrive. The end result? Friday we threw money at a number of individuals to grease the wheels and we received our items. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent working, as we needed to make up for wasted time. Thankfully, with some amount of luck, we still had a decent number of cells from our thaws and the samples did not entirely go to waste.
So, the only upshot of my mornings this past week? Breakfast. My daily spread is exhibited above and I can vouch that it satisfies.
-Brian
Brian in Passing 