Blessed with a “Kinder Surprise” life

Blessed with a “Kinder Surprise” life

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I have always had a thing for “Kinder Surprise”. It’s been many years since I last had one. This evening and while at a local supermarket, I met Mr. Kinder Surprise. For those who are not familiar with Kinder Surprise, it’s a chocolate egg that children love so much. Not only because it tastes so good, but  when done eating it, one is left with another plastic egg that bears a hidden surprise toy inside. I am happy that my life turned out to be nothing but a beautiful kinder surprise. I have done things I never imagined to do, been to places I never imagined to be, met people I never imagined to meet and the thrill that accompanies a child while unwrapping his/her kinder surprise still lives within me and keeps on making me happy and self-satisfied 😀

This week has been yet another productive one. I am happy that my supervisor is very cooperative,supportive and understanding. I had been facing difficulties in storing my samples and materials at cool temperatures because the refrigerators are pretty packed with other people’s stuff and within next week I would probably need a sensitive balance upstairs in my lab rather than taking my samples to some other lab in order to weigh them. So I asked my supervisor if its possible to buy a new refrigerator and a sensitive balance. He said YES 😀 We went to Nairobi downtown to visit a lab equipment supplier to see if we can get a sensitive balance locally. That indeed would save us time and customs clearance headache.

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Nairobi is developing, life is moving forward and I wish in some years it will shift into a developed city. We also visited the newly opened Garden City mall to look on some refrigerators. I chose what I want and a requisition was made. I hope that I would get them in two weeks time. I did tell my supervisors that I will lock the refrigerator with a key and stick a huge note on it saying for Marwa only 😀 that is because I was not finding an empty spot in other refrigerators the past duration of time.

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I spent so much time in the chemical ecology lab during the past few weeks.Testing my methodology and screening some insects samples for their nutritional and chemical contents.

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An interesting sample that one of my colleagues has brought for some analysis is called the African Emperor. I am not talking about Lucius Septimus a.k.a Caracalla the first black African born Emperor of Rome. Neither I am talking about Emperor Haile Selassie the late Emperor of Ethiopia but rather a real living insect that is consumed by many local indigenous tribes in Southern Africa. The African Emperor caterpillar is served with Bush tea and its just as common as Coffee and doughnuts and is considered a multi-million generating product. Sadly, the populations of this insect are declining due to the lack of mopane trees that they feed on and live around as well as the decrease in rainfall intensities and periods which are crucial for the completion of their life cycle.

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I visited Kenya Brewery Limited to obtain some samples for my research. We were given an induction safety course at the Tusker House. I had to laugh as somehow I felt like I was in kindergarten once again being told not to walk on the street so I won’t be hit by a car and to run towards an assembly point if the fire alarm broke down while I was there. The samples I collected are spent barley grains and diatomic waste. The diatomic waste was used to filter the barley grains and I am going to start my microbiological investigation on Monday hopefully. I am looking forward to whatever microbes are inhibiting these waste samples. Levi the lab technician gave me a handbook to read over the weekend in order to brush up and decide which culture medium is most useful to our purpose.

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On Monday as well I will get the first batch of cages from icipe’s workshop and I will use them to convert the waste using my BSFL.I am very very excited and can’t wait for the weekend to fly.

On a personal note,Dr Sameera made us a Friday Lunch.Dr.Sameera is one of the senior scientists within Dr.Sunday,my co-supervisors group. She and Dr.Fathiya a fellow scientist as well are helping me on all levels and they fill me with so much support and love.Dr.Fathiya made a delicious Avocado and carrots salad.

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My Kenyan street expeditions continue. This time I found out a nice bakery that sells bread, drinks and assorted cakes. I tried their strawberry smoothie and chocolate cake. If you fancy a good black forest piece, then head to the nearest Tiramisu Bakery and grab a bite.

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Weather remains to be nice, Marwa remains to be happy. Fingers crossed for the coming week. I have lots to do and I am very excited and looking forward.

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