Examining seed pods and uhh... meeting more new people...?

After finishing examining the developmental stages of the flowers, Dr. Hanson had us look at the developmental stages of the seed pods! Cool right?! These were a lot harder to observe... None of us knew anything about the various parts on the pods or seeds.... More research! We only spent about 2-3 hours yesterday looking at these because there's not much too them! The fully developed seeds are very cool though! They remind me of tiny bird's eggs. They're a light green color with many many dark green speckles; they're also shaped like bird's eggs! When we cut the matured seeds open, the inside had 2 symmetrical humps opposite of each other with an indent between them... It was very strange...

The younger seeds and pods were more exciting to look at! They were all mushy and soft, so that made it much easier to work with as well. These were strange. The younger seeds appeared to have the 2 humps, but they were soft and moist, and not connected yet. Also, we noticed the seed had more of an outer shell to it. It was like the seeds were encased by a layer to protect them. Again. Very cool:) I don't have any pictures of the seed pods or seeds from under the microscope, but here are just some overviews of them!

Here's all of the pods we collected

A closer view of the more matured pods with
most of their seeds missing

With each sample of pods and seeds, we wrote down our observations of appearance, texture, length, width, and much more!

After my day of work, I decided to go for a run! It didn't go too smoothly... Part of it was definitely my fault because I forgot to take my inhaler.... (Whoops...) The other factor is the altitude of Addis. It's over 7,000 feet above sea level! Talk about lack of oxygen! Well hopefully running gets easier as the summer goes on... I'm going to try to run every day while I'm here. While running, a woman saw me running as well and asked if I would like to run with her. I really didn't want to, but she seemed excited to have a running partner, so I agreed. My planned 20 minutes of running turned into over 45 minutes! I was so tired after that! It was fun though because we talked while running. (Or at least I tried to...) It just blows my mind how friendly and welcoming everyone is here! I keep getting attacked by people wanting to know me! Which is great though! I love it!

Because we had such a hardworking and productive day, Millie and I decided to go swimming! Tigist invited us to go with her, and I think we both responded with "YES!!!" a tish too quickly...:) The water was so great! It was so much fun! Everyone kept saying that the water would be freezing, so we might just have to jump in and run right out, but I found it actually warmer than most other pools I've been in! It even has a diving board! But it only goes to 3 meters, so I'm kind of hesitant on going off of it...

Yesterday, a new intern from Mexico joined the Genebank here at ILRI. His first day was yesterday, but he was just getting introduced to everything since he was still jet lagged. Millie and I are in charge of introducing him to the city of Addis! (Or at least as far as we've walked...) We just need to show him where the grocery stores and supermarkets are that he can go to if he ever needs anything. I forgot to mention it yesterday! Yesterday, when Millie and I were walking along the streets, there were a bunch of goats just walking around! There were 2 men trying to herd them around, but the goats kept wandering. It was the strangest, yet coolest thing I've ever seen! Also while walking, there was someone herding a bunch of donkeys! Very strange walk that day!

A whole herd of goats!

Many donkeys

Stampede of donkeys!

  Tonight Martha, one of the workers in the Agroforestry area, wanted to take us out to eat, so she took us to a very nice place. It was Liberian food, and so delicious! She ordered dishes for the 3 of us to share, and it was all so amazing! The cool thing? The ceiling was just cloths secured to poles. So it was a very nice and interesting place to eat! Also, it was called Aladdin!

The front of the restaurant Aladdin

Inside of Aladdin

It was a very great day, and every day I'm here just keeps getting better and better! It is so nice and I couldn't have asked for a better country to travel to!