I'm All Ears (Picture of the week)

I'm all ears! Sitting with Lauren right near the quad discussing her predicaments.

Love, Sex, Dating - Who makes the rules?

Anele really wants to know who makes the rules?

All in a missionary's day - This is Mdu - he and Anele forms part of the awesome team which is interning this year with CRU

Inspired by one of my favorite sermons by North Point Church: ' THE NEW RULES OF LOVE, SEX AND DATING '

K|RITH Genetics Course

30 students were selected to attend the K RITH Mycobacterium Genetics Course at the Westville Campus which ran from 18th to the 29th of July 2011. With the great opportunity granted to spend the whole day with Dr's and Prof' who are high up the Medical Research ladder such as Dr. Bisshai (the new Director of K RITH), as well as representatives from Pittsburg University, Havard Medical School, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

The main aim of this course was to introduce to students isolation, characterization and visualization of novel bacteriophages; gene discovery and gene annotations; construction of defined mutants of mycobacteria; as well as research methods, experimental design, and data interpretation. In addition to that there took place laboratory and bioinformatics studies with a series of lectures in microbial genetics and drug discovery in microbial genetics and drug discovery by expects in the field with all of these seminars being streamed on the internet by the school.

This fun-filled expedition was more than just about students finding samples and isolating phages, it was like a whole new world of discovery of how and what phages do in their environment, how they behave and how we can use them to manipulate certain systems with hopeful results of curing TB. With a diverse selection of students from 3rd year students, to postgradute students from different levels of qualification to lab technicians and medical practitioners, young and slender - this course was the epitomy of educational discovery. At the end of the course more than 40 novel phages had been discovered and named and placed into a database that collects all international information on discovered phages - putting South Africa and its discoverers on the map!

What was more exciting for the students participating in this course was not the food (although it did play a major role in the extention of the PhageHunters shelf life) it was the opportunity granted to submit work to GenBank which is a database of annotated genomes used by scientists all over the world in their research projects when working with genes (compare this to a house than stores all the information one would need to know about a genome of a bacteria).

My accomplishments at the end of the two weeks was:

1. Sequence annotation of a new specie of a virus

2. A GenBank author/publisher

3. Discovery of 7 novel mycobacteriophages

4. 4 of my phages have been named and deposited into an international database for m.phages and I named them Cruu, Ukukhanya, Bafana, and Ntando (the links will send you to their webpages on the database)

Really stoked about that!

B's desk

Typical bathtime at Ntuzuma

Its 6.15 pm and I sit in the bathroom on the toilet seat, overseeing the events happening inside the bath tub - I say events because contrary to popular beliefs when two 11 year old boys decide to go take a bath that necessarily doesn't mean there is soap and a bath towel involved. All it just means is that there is just warm water and what they decide to do with it, its totally up to them. I'm amazed at the number of games one can play inside a bath tub! From 'Super Spy Underwater Agent' to 'Battle Dirt', the games totally have no rules. Buhle and Zipho are the main culprits of this! With more water on the floor than in the tub, I laugh at their enthusiasm of the sport!

Scientific and medical reports were handed to me on various topics by the two Dr's. I laughed at the realization that these almost sounded real, as if it was in actual fact a routine check - routine check in the bath tub - just wicked. Ye, memorable indeed

This is History and my encounters with him have always left me with an indescribably worry - and that was 'he just never smiles at anyone who plays with him'. I was shocked this time when he began laughing and playing indoor football with me...where did all this energy come from, I really don't know - it just keeps eluding me. Whats even worse is that I didn't even have to bribe him (ye don't act like you never bribed a 2 year old kid). When he smiles at me back, its a confirmation that he really isn't that more worried about where his next meal will come from, or who will return to play with him tomorrow. When he smiles I just know he is not troubled by the world, that he is sure that he is loved just like Sphe, Zipho, Buhle or Thembelihle! I just know he knows that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but there playing indoor football with him

Picture of the week!

 

Diary of a Missionary: Any Questions?

Big Brother

This is Unathi gingerly holding the 1month year Ntando

The new edition to the family



This is what happens when I'm asked to babysit. Miss her so so so much hope she knows it. She just turned two months some few weeks ago and apparently she grows like weed (lol)

Let me tell you about him

Let me tell you about him. His 11 years old and grew up in the populated streets of Ntuzuma. He lives with at home with his parents and elder brother. Still attending primary and if it were up to him, he would spend all his years studying at his school because ‘...the teachers are cool.’ he would say looking away with his face marked with a smirk of naughtiness. He makes friends...good questionable but none the less has built a reputable stature as the kid of the block – well I have been told so.

Let me tell you about him. First day I encountered him was when I had received a group of 8 boys I will to be counselling for the 5-day exhilarating camp we are to have and from him jumping from bed to bed, amplifying his vocal chords to headache level and plainly outspoken and I thought to myself: ‘...its gonna be a long week.’ with a sigh! Little did I know that this boy along with his fellow roommies would turn out to be one of the reason I would put forward to dedicating myself to building relations with them. Weeks returning from the camp, there is no vague memoirs to be told, only concrete experiences to be relayed on how we have all become real good friends. I am captivated at his eagerness to spend time with people he hardly knows. In awe because I know that between him and I, he sees a big brother in me, something I never thought anyone would recognise!

Let me tell you about him.

B's desk