An evening with Martha and even more new people!

Getting ready this morning went as usual. Nothing exciting there... I just had some of my favorite Ethiopian peanut butter on some bread, an apple, and the rest of my fruit juice!

Work today was interesting. I spent most of my morning researching about fluorescein isothiocyanate. Wow that's a mouthful! This is a dye used in some staining solutions and Dr. Jean said that this is one of the best chemicals to use because it really does a great job making the viable pollen stand out. It turns almost fluorescent! Huh! Never would have guessed! :) We already made a staining solution yesterday for the pollen, but Dr. Jean said that is okay to use, and if we find a good recipe using fluorescein isothiocyanate, we should make that solution up too and use. I found 2 recipes that looked promising, but I don't know if we have all of the chemicals, so I'll have to ask either Dr. Jean or Timacello. (I totally spelled his name wrong and I deeply apologize, but that's at least how you pronounce it...)

Lunch time came so quickly today! I couldn't believe I spent my whole morning researching about fluorescein isothiocyanate and different stains I could create to see if my pollen was viable or not! So about lunch, sorry. I've kind of gotten into the habit of always taking a picture of my food I eat here... I guess maybe it's so I don't get told I don't take ENOUGH pictures. I definitely do not think that is the case with me! I am constantly taking them here! I had to laugh today though. I was amazed! Ricardo and Edwin both decided to try injera for lunch today! I had to do a double-take! I didn't believe it! But it was real! They were both having it today! Ricardo was a great sport about it. He tried to eat it how you're supposed to and caught on really well. He didn't even make a huge mess with his hands! (I on the other hand made a total mess today. My fingers were covered in it today!) Edwin on the other hand...... That was interesting... I guess he doesn't like eating with his hands because he ate his injera with a fork... Everyone kept telling him, "Edwin. No. You use the injera and use that to pick up your wat (the sauces)." Either he didn't like that our didn't understand it. No one will know I guess! Today there wasn't any meat because such a huge population of Ethiopia belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, in which fasting days are every Wednesday and Friday. This means no meat! Because of this, many Ethiopian dishes are vegan!

Today it was chickpeas, lentils, mixed vegetables, and something
else...

After lunch, Millie and I headed into the lab where we tested to see whether or not the pollen in her selected species is viable or not! Since we were in the lab, using chemicals, and making a flame..... lab coat time!!!! I love wearing them! I feel so official wearing a lab coat! So to use the stain, you have to place 2-4 drops of stain on a slide, drop your pollen grains and even some anthers if you have to onto the stain. Then we had to get the solution on the slide to about a boil. This involved filling a jar with 70% alcohol, putting a wick in it, and using a match to get the wick on fire. Then we held the slide over the flame so it could reach a boil. This took roughly 30 seconds per sample. Millie made 4 samples of her pollen so that she would have more data to work with. She did find some pollen that had turned fluorescent, so that means her pollen is viable! Now Millie has some more steps to take to figure out why her flower won't seed. If the pollen is viable, then what is going wrong? Sounds like more researching for her!

All of our materials for staining the pollen

Our flame to boil the stain and pollen

Dropping the pollen grains into the
staining solution

Boiling the staining solution and pollen

After it was boiled and now cooling off
before putting the cover slip on and
examining under the microscope

After I helped Millie with staining her pollen, I decided to spend the rest of my work day starting my report for my project. This definitely isn't something I want to procrastinate with, so I figured if I could get a good start on it while everything is fresh in my mind, I'll be sure to have it done by the time I have to do my presentation at the end of my internship! I actually got 3 pages typed up about my Canavalia sp. already, and I have so much more to do in working with it! Then I still can't forget about my Onobrychis arenaria! I didn't spend too much time this week on it because I've been so busy making chemicals, germinating, dissecting my Canavalia sp., and so much more! So much to do!

When work was over, Millie and I darted out of there! We said bye to Dr. Jean real quick because we had to meet Martha at the Zebu Club at 5:30. We were going out to dinner with her! We had to stop in to talk to Tigist for a little bit to visit with her and ask about our plans for this weekend and church on Sunday. We got everything figured out in a jiffy, so we headed out to the fridge to fetch our milk! That's something I've never talked about yet! It's so fascinating! A few years back, ILRI used to had dairy cattle on the campus used for studying and such, so as a service, the owner of the cattle would deliver a bottle of milk to everyone everyday that they could drink and take home to use or have their family drink! How nice! Now though, the dairy cattle aren't on the campus anymore, but ILRI made a deal with the owner that he would still deliver milk to all the workers on ILRI. So far so good! So now Millie and I get a bottle of milk every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! How great is that?! It's so nice! I love the milk! It tastes so good and there's no added anything! All natural! It's just pasteurized and homogenized I think. Anyway! So after we fetched our delicious milk, we hurried to our hostels to drop off our bags and milk, got some money for dinner, and rushed to the Zebu to meet Martha! Little did we know that we would have 2 other girls come with us! They're also interns, but working on their PhDs. Their internship is for 2 months as well, but they arrived in mid-May, so they leave a little bit before us. They are so much fun and so interesting though! They arrived her in Ethiopia during the locust plague. Talk about a terrible time to come! They said they were everywhere! They sky would be filled with them! The trees were completely full of locusts! They said it was terrible! Other than that, they really enjoy it here!

Dinner was great! The 5 of us women squeezed into a small taxi that's only fit for 5 people, so trying to squish 4 women in the back seat of an already small car was interesting! Especially with people I literally just met a few minutes previously! It was so hilarious how squished we were. I really wish I could have gotten a picture! I was the smallest by far in size if that says anything to how squished we were in the back seat! When we finally arrived at our restaurant, I almost didn't see it at first! It wasn't it's own building; it was built into the wall like all the other small shops and whatnots you find here in Addis. It's called Clay Pot and its food is amazing! I ordered meat lasagna, while all the other women ordered salads... I guess I was the odd one out... Oh well! The lasagna was so delicious! One of the best lasagnas I've ever had! It was served in a very cute dish as well! It was perfect! Then Martha talked about how amazing dessert was, so I decided to get whatever Martha ordered for dessert. Yummm!!! It was a ginger chocolate brownie! It tasted like a brownie with a hint (or a large hint) of gingerbread. They put powdered sugar (or at least that's what is tasted and looked like, but had a different texture) on top of it. I was in total heaven! Everything was so good!

The sign for Clay Pot

The opening to it

The doorway into the actual dining area

A far wall that I thought was really
pretty and cool

My lasagna with cheese on top and
salad on the side

My lasagna and its cute dish on the right and Millie's salad
on the left

The gingerbread chocolate brownie
for my dessert!

Another picture of the gingerbread
chocolate brownie

We sat and talked there for a good couple hours and I had a blast! We talked about so much and it was all so interesting! It was so great! Martha called the cab, and he arrived there and it was time to squish back in for the ride back! (By the way, squishing into a tiny vehicle just after eating a meal? Hmm....)

But now it's good night! It's way past my bedtime and I have another busy day tomorrow and tomorrow night! I can't wait!

Even Dr. Jean's cat is relaxing! :)