Science in the Bush

As Robyn wrote in her last entry, we FINALLY got outside of Dar for a trip to a research station located in Ifakara. The research station is owned and operated by the Ifakara Health and Development Research Center (IHRDC). IHRDC is a Tanzanian non-governmental organization. It has offices and labs in DAR, Bagamoyo, and Ifakara. It get money from all types of funding agencies—The Gates Foundation, USAID, and the Swiss Tropical Institute to name a few. Most of the researchers are Tanzanians, as a main focus of IHRDC is development and strengthening of Tanzania’s ability to study and combat disease on its own with its own citizens. They focus mainly on malaria, ranging from lab and clinical work on vaccine development to field research on mosquito behavior to public health work. Overall, it is a really nice and very diverse organization.
Back in the States I had gotten in contact with the head of one of labs at IHRDC, and was invited out to see the facility and meet with the scientists. It took a long time to get things going once I got here but I was really excited to finally be able to do what I came over here to do. Now, I really had no idea what kind of lab facilities that they would have out in the heart of rural Tanzania. To have a properly outfitted lab (in the US) you needed -80oC and -20oC freezers, clean water, uninterrupted electricity, the ability to get supplies, reagents, etc. We just assume that all these will be present and readily available/accessible in the States. But here, who knows. Hell, here in the “modern” metropolis of Dar es Salaam, we experience water or electricity outages on a regular basis. It would have to be worse out there, right?
After a nine-hour train ride, Robyn and I arrived at the Ifaraka train station at about 5:30 on Monday evening and were greeted by a driver from the station. We threw our stuff and our selves into the back of a land cruiser and headed off to the guesthouse. The guesthouse was located on the grounds of the IHRDC campus and very close to the Regional hospital (St. Francis). It was beautiful: airy, light, and modern. Our room had air-conditioning (which we greedily used) and a TV! A bit of the West surrounded by beautiful, rural Africa.
Robyn and I spent the next three days being shown about the labs by Dr. Tanya Russell (a fantastic scientist and wonderful guide). The projects were interesting and varied. One project was looking at various natural fungi as potential biological alternatives to chemical insecticides which are sprayed in people’s homes, another project was testing different mixtures of chemicals that are found in human sweat to make powerful attractants for mosquitoes—all in hopes of building the ultimate mosquito trap. All the projects here are being pursued by young Tanzanian graduate students. These students would make any professor proud due to their enthusiasm and their knowledge. It was truly a pleasure to meet with them and ask them about their work.
As far as the physical infrastructure, it was better than a lot of labs in the US. Brand new equipment…PCR machines, microarray and FACS machines. Brightly lit white rooms with good benches and computers everywhere. Truly impressive considering that one can get to Ifakara via one train (8-9 hours) or one highway (8 hours). Ordering supplies is a bit tough (no next-day deliveries), but I guess you just order everything at once and you order a lot. They recently bought most of the equipment and are currently in the process of expanding their research interests to utilize the great facilities.
The time spent at the labs was great, but my most memorable experience was the time we went spent out in the field. Robyn and I were invited to go out to a village (about an hour away) where IHRDC was currently collecting mosquitoes. Actually, that is a bit of a simplistic description of the project. For the past three months and for the next twenty-one, IHRDC researchers are going out and collecting mosquitoes every Monday-Friday from 6 abodes per night in each of two villages. A group of five to six Tanzanians, some scientists and some helpers, go out to six houses at dusk and set up mosquito traps. The houses are randomly chosen and thus randomly placed, so it takes several hours to drive and walk to them all. One hut took us over 20 minutes of serious mud-running to get to. With any vehicle less than our Toyota land cruiser and our experienced driver, everybody would have been knee-deep in black mud trying to push the truck out to solid ground (most likely unsuccessfully). After setting traps in the six homes, we got some food-- fish and rice for me, beans and rice for Robyn. After dinner, we got a warm beer at the only bar in the village center, and then back to our small room (a twin bed and a small table) in a house with no running water for some sleep. We got up at 6:30 AM the next morning and headed out to recollect the traps.
After retrieving the traps, we grabbed a quick and sparse breakfast, after which the work really begins. For any of you who are bored with your jobs, just imagine doing the following 4-5 days a week, every week, for two years straight. The researchers then have to count and categorize every mosquito (species, male or females, has it fed, etc.), along with several tests for a certain number of mosquitoes in each trap. During the dry seasons, they said they catch between 5 and 60 mosquitoes per trap per night. However, the wet season recently started and that is bad news for the humans. The traps we saw had well over 1000 mosquitoes each! Just think that each and every one of those 1000 mosquitoes is looking to take a drink from you--in a single night. It makes our nightly ritual of sealing our room back in Dar seem quite pathetic in hindsight. One of the field researchers (a fisherman who was taught to be an entomology field hand about twenty years ago) said that in his house several years ago, researchers counted the highest number of mosquitoes ever recorded in a single room. That number? 6000!!!! When asked about where the house was, Jefferths replied, “Over there. Down that road.” Someone then asked, “Is it still there?” “No”, Jefferths replied, “It fell down”. Well good riddance I say! I now understand why this region was named “Ifakara” and is roughly translated as “Valley of Death”.
After just one night and day in the field, Robyn and I said our thank-yous and our good-byes to the group and headed back to our outpost of comfort while the others stayed behind to continue their daily ritual. Regardless of the mind-numbing repetition, this work is incredibly important. So here’s to them!
Sadly, we left Friday morning on a bus back to Dar. Overall, it was the best week we have had in Africa--we learned a lot, and saw things few ever get to see. We talked science, met Swiss doctors working in the HIV clinic in town, rode in narrow wood canoes up the river (and almost hit a crocodile on our way back in), and were welcomed into rural Tanzanians mud huts which where no more than a jail cell in size. And in every encounter we had, the Tanzanians where friendly, courteous, and happy. This is what I was looking for in Africa. I really hope we get the opportunity go back.