Gaining momentum

How could I leave You without any news for such a long time? I’m terribly sorry, just got very busy all of a sudden – finally! Let me quickly ride You through my major events in March.

Tuesday, 05 March: I was preparing my first ever patient screening, besides loads of paperwork and also some slides that needed staining.

Wednesday, 06 March: We went to the field screening at Bemboudié, a village maybe 2h away into the forest. This took us the whole day and was really exhausting, but I really did do enjoy it. Of course, informing inhabitants, having them consent and taking necessary samples to check if they are eligible for our study takes some time, and the way there and back plus processing the samples and doing paperwork back in Lambaréné adds to this.

Thursday, 07 March: And as if yesterday hadn’t been exhausting enough, as we found some sick patients, we went all the way back again for dispensing antimalarials. This also enabled me to see the fieldworkers work, especially follow-up visits and experience my first fourou bites, yay. Well, and I got to drive a bit!

Friday, 08 March: I never actually notice it in Germany, but today was International Women’s Day and we did celebrate it a bit in the lab.

Saturday, 09 March: The CERMEL team had a soccer match which we went to watch today – I really enjoyed this! Public events don’t seem to happen too often, or at least I miss them. Also, we saw tailor – new clothes are likely becoming an obsession – and attended a barbecue in the evening.

Sunday, 10 March: Back to the field again! How I enjoy this, but how exhausting it is… This time we were returning Wednesday’s test results, dispensing anaemia medication and taking some more samples. Back at campus, I relaxed with Johannes and Sarah. After a week without tap water, our bottles have kindly been picked up to be filled today. I now keep dozens of them.

Tuesday, 12 March: For the first, and sadly so far only time, Sarah and I tried the CERMEL Fitness Club this evening. Which is basically suffering through a cardio video together and then doing some more exercises – I died. Is it still the climate or do I have to blame my poor exercise habits?

Friday, 15 March: Just to turn up the social life a bit, we invited some friends over this evening and headed to “the” club – I haven’t been anywhere else but to Summit yet.

Saturday, 16 March: After having stayed here for more than a month, we finally made it to the Albert Schweitzer museum, which is a lovingly arranged and preserved exhibition of his accommodation and part of the old hospital. It’s hard to picture the medical situations just a few decades ago, if You see the large hospital and international research institution on the premises today. And I’m glad that today’s staff is largely local. In the evening, a researcher had invited everybody to a St. Patrick’s/farewell party after which – You guessed it, we went to Summit.

Sunday, 17 March: Despite being dog-tired from using my weekend free-time too much, Johannes, Dearie and I accompanied Fallowne, also working with us, to Bethanie church which even had their breaking of the fast today! Sadly, we couldn’t stay too long because Suzan had her farewell brunch. After this, we went to Refuge – a hotel/public pool which we had been craving to go to for a while. It’s a very proper place and being in the water just makes me feel at home.

Monday, 18 March: Suzan had a farewell dinner as well, with more colleagues this time.

Tuesday, 19 March: And another note on Suzan sadly leaving – after we said goodbye to her, we distracted ourselves by going to the tailor, this is how happy we always are about it 😉

Wednesday, 20 March: Under Sarah’s supervision we made carrot soup this evening! It’s nice to have some variety in our diet.

Thursday, 21 March: Another, this time easier trip to the field – The landscape is just too beautiful and meeting patients where they live puts our situation and conditions at campus into perspective.

Friday, 22 March: We made yet another trip to Libreville as I finally got to pick up my residence permit. Let’s say I’m almost Gabonese now. The way there was bumpy though. The first driver we had organised had to change a tire. The second one had to check his motor. We ended up in an over-crowded mini bus with, i.a., a sick child… the start of our weekend getaway on the peninsula of Point Denis made up for it though!

Saturday, 23 March: We rented a hut that had been recommended to us and spending the day at the beach doing absolutely nothing was just so great! With working ours being crazy and research not really being predictable, this was bliss. I think I even bronzed more than I burned.

Sunday, 24 March: We enjoyed the morning the same way, before heaven’s gates opened and there was a several hour storm, which first let us think we might not even be able to take the boat back to Libreville. In the end our way home was delayed and did take longer, but we safely got back even before midnight.

Monday, 25 March: After a slow start, I could finally start my competency assessment for reading malaria slides.

Tuesday, 26 March: And as I have already been for surprisingly many weeks, there was another presentation to be held about my still upcoming, still not started trial.

Thursday, 28 March: A week of presentations – I also presented at our Journal Club. This is (luckily for me) in English and I really enjoyed the discussions, even my supervisor attended.

Friday, 29 March: I woke up just very sick. Luckily, I live on the same premises as our clinical facilities.

Saturday, 30 March: … still sick. I really prefer to be on the doctor’s (well still student’s) side of things.

Sunday, 31 March: I’m much better! And finally, ready to update You.

Also, in a state of utter boredom, I asked You for topics to write about! So as to not test Your patience any longer, here You go:

my experiences with the culture

It’s too early to judge this. Ask me something more specific if it’s pressing 😉 What I can say is that I think I do suffer less of a culture shock than I did when I went to South Africa. It might be because I’m older, out of my parents’ place for longer, already got to know an African country… Who can tell with certainty?

my experiences with PhD pharmaceutical work

First of all – It’s not a PhD I’m doing! It’s this weird German doctoral thesis thing where in Germany You can call Yourself a doctor after having completed the thesis and Your studies, but nowhere else. Also, I’m finding my work rather clinical, as the we don’t develop drugs ourselves. Let me give You more insight once my study has started and I’m in the middle of things.

why am I here

In a nutshell, I wanted to try science, I like going abroad, infectiology does interest me – I applied with Prof. Ramharter from Hamburg’s Tropical Medicine and was offered a spot in Gabon. I accepted, then googled where it is and now here I am.

how’s the food

Mostly imported sadly… So, for lunch we mostly have chicken with rice or sandwiches, on good days with avocado, which I do enjoy but there’s not too much variety. Maybe I also just have to get more comfortable with the markets. Most restaurants do offer both African and European foods. A speciality I tried was Odika sauce, apparently made from wild mangos and called an “indigenous chocolate”, but I didn’t really enjoy it the first time around. Maybe I’ll try again later. The fruits, whenever I can find any, are delicious. Guavas, bananas, mangoes…

what about the poisonous animals?

Apparently, there are poisonous snakes. I didn’t encounter any so far though luckily. Much more obvious are the mosquitoes – the don’t do malaria research here for no reason.

As always, I would love to hear from you! What came too short, what are you still interested in?

See You, take care,

Doro

053 days in Gabon