I promise I work... sometimes.

I was walking through the office today, and as I walked by the front door a gust of wind blew in heavy with the smell of the ocean. I love that smell. Salty with a hint of seaweed ("hint" may be an understatement). I still haven't gotten used to the fact that I work right on the water. I feel so lucky to get to work in Sea Point everyday. My hour commute is well worth being able to go jogging along the beach during lunch break.

They say it gets windy here sometimes.

The building I work in on the right. the path that I run on to the left.

View from the front door.

View of the front door with Lion's Head in the background.

Besides the amazing location I am so happy to be working at the Marine and Coastal Management aquarium because the people and their research are both incredible. It is purely a research aquarium, which means it's not open to the public and no, there aren't any sharks here. Most of the research here is related to aquaculture. With the rapidly increasing population and demands for food increasing with it, wild-caught fish are continually being over exploited. In the search for new methods of food production the world is now looking at expanding aquaculture. It's amazing to be right in the middle of brand new research, the results of which could have beneficial impacts across the world. Most of the work done here is concerned with fin fish and mollusk culture and disease prevention.

Abalone culture. They let me hold one the other day. He was squirmy. 

Beautiful spiral staircase in the middle of the building.

Underwater view of my favorite tank. It holds some miscellaneous creatures, such as sea urchins, star fish, and other species that aren't being used for experiments right now.  

I'm helping design and carry out a project investigating the effect of probiotics on land based culture of the dusky kob. Dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus) is a finfish currently being overexploited in the wild, but so far there has been little research concerned with aquaculture of the species. A huge problem with aquaculture is disease propagation and spread resulting from high species density in small quarters. Therefore a lot of research right now is focused on how to counteract harmful parasites and bacteria, while being as environmentally friendly and cheap as possible. We are going to try to increase the parasite resistance of the dusky kob through feed enriched with yeast. Yeast is a natural probiotic that has been found to enhance immunological response in some species of fish (not dusky kob... yet). Right now we are working out all the details, but basically we will culture a strain of yeast (Debaryomyces hansenii), make a pellet feed enriched with this yeast, feed it to dusky kob in tanks, and take blood samples to measure their immunological response. Eventually we will introduce the parasite (Diplectanum oliveri) to the fish and measure infection level and mortality. The parameters we are looking at include hemoglobin, haematocrit, immunoglobulin, and glucose levels. We are also looking into developing a vaccine. If we can isolate the right antigen and inject it into the dusky kob the fish could develop a resistance to the parasite. 

I am so happy that they are letting me work on this probiotic research. In a single project we are going to work with yeast, fish, and parasites. I am so excited to have the opportunity to work on a project where I will get to experience so many different aspects of marine research. Except for starting to culture the yeast, so far I've just been researching how we are going to carry out the entire project. We have to figure out everything from how we are going to quantitate parasite infection to what size pellets we should cut the feed into. We are going to start taking pre-treatment blood samples soon, so I've been working on creating a list of parameters to test. 

Another thing to be thankful for is that they gave me an office! Brett, my supervisor told me that he was going to find me a place to work, and I thought he meant a computer that I could use in a shared space. Turns out that there was a free office, so they put my name on the door and everything. I don't have a view of the ocean, but the office is pretty big and if you look out the window at the right angle you can just see the top of a palm tree. 

My very own office!

My name on the door and a note telling me that my computer doesn't work.. at all. 

Mark, a PhD student here, is doing some really cool research with sea urchin culture. In Japan sea urchin gonads, or "uni" are a popular sushi, but currently they are being overexploited in the wild. Uni can go for R4000 a kiogram and with a gap in the market opening up from decreasing availability of wild sea urchins, land based culture could be huge economically for South Africa. Mark has developed an artificial feed that increases the size of the gonads by 205%. Not only that, but he is growing sea urchins with better color and texture, and therefor a higher quality product. The really neat part is that the feed is made up partially of sea weed that can be grown in the same land based system as the sea urchin and consumes waste produced by the urchins, creating a multi-trophic aquaculture system. After reading about his work I really want to try uni because it is described as tasting like a rich orange oyster. Mark says that he saves the best looking urchins from his dissections to eat. I obviously need to become better friends with him and help him "dissect sea urchins."

Sea urchin culture. 

Townships for the day.. wine tasting for the afternoon.

It was an interesting day touring two polar opposite cultural settings in Cape Town. We started the day sitting in crowed tin shacks sharing buckets of home brew with strangers and ended the day sitting on comfy pillows tasting award winning wines on their beautiful estate. Like every day here, I of course enjoyed every second.

We started out in the Gugulethu (meaning our pride) township at the Township Seven memorial. It stands to honor seven young men who were suspected of planning to attack a police van, and were then murdered by South African police during apartheid. They were unarmed.

Our tour guide and tour group (Robert, David, and Jake) in front of the Seven memorial. 

A memorial dedicated to a woman who lost her life after getting caught in a riot on her way to the grocery store. It says "You strike a woman, you strike a rock." 

After the monuments and some driving around, we headed for some local cuisine. The first stop was at a street vendor for some smiley. Smiley is sheep's head charred on the braai (barbecue) named for the look of the teeth after the lips have burned off. Sounds gruesome, but we had fun eating it and the locals seem to enjoy watching us eat smiley. We all agreed that the tongue was the best part.

Smiley on the table and men charring the meat with blow torches.

Our tour guide carving the meat with locals watching our reactions. 

Holding up various pieces of sheep face. I have the jaw bone.  Our tour guides are more concerned with eating. 

Street vendor for smiley.

After smiley we needed some home brew to wash it down. Home brew is a fermented beer made in another street vendor shack. It's made with wheat and tastes like yeast. The shack was filled with men who were more than happy to pass around a bucket of home brew with us.

Home brew in the making.

My turn. 

His turn. 

We drove around to different townships, which are technically considered one township, but according to the tour guides there are different areas with their own distinct cultures.

A group of kids ran up to us when we were getting in the van and really wanted us to take their picture. These boys were so proud of themselves when I managed to snap one through the back window. 

We stopped at an art center that was founded by our tour guide years ago. A group of men played music for us, which was beautiful, and then insisted that we play the instruments, which was not pretty. I kept trying to tell them that I am not musically inclined in the slightest, but they kept trying... and laughing.

Playing a couple xylophones, a bongo drum, and singing. 

Our group attempting to play a simple song.

After butchering the bongo drum, these three men tried to teach me the xylophone. 

This is when they realized that I wasn't being modest  when I told them I couldn't play an instrument.

After leaving the art center we headed for more food and drinks in a different part of the townships. Our tour guide tried to find us "walky talky," or chicken legs (according to the tour guide chickens walk and talk). He couldn't find any walky talky so he got sheep intestines and took us to his friend's shebeen (home bar) to eat it with a side of castle beer (not home brew, but it is a popular local beer). The shebeen was completely packed with people and the second I walked in I got a huge hug from a very friendly stranger. Everyone was very nice and excited to talk to us. It may have had something to do with the sheep intestines and beer we were sharing. I think it was my favorite part of the day. Everyone was talking at once. They all wanted to know my name and where I was from. I felt completely overwhelmed, but it was fun.  

Street braai.

This woman fell in love with David. She kissed his neck right after I took the picture. 

Looking over the townships.

The tour guide pointed out some tents in this empty area where  men who were coming of age  were staying out in the environment to earn their manhood. 

Street vendor selling oranges.

After the tour we rushed back to town to meet the other interns to go wine tasting. It was a little bit of a culture shock to sit at a fancy winery next to a beautiful nunnery after being packed into various street shacks for most of the morning.

View of the nunnery from the deck where we were tasting. 

Some of the High Constantia facilities. 

Jake and I enjoying one of their tasty reds. 

It was an incredible day and a great opportunity to experience South African culture. 

The Old Biscuit Mill

I have found where I would like to spend the rest of my life... and I ate ostrich. The Old Biscuit Mill is a market that happens every Saturday in Woodstock. There is everything from homemade pesto and mozzarella to fresh produce and flowers. Plus the food and drinks are all to die for. The interns here go every weekend and I understand why. Everyone is so happy to be in this wonderful place with delicious treats that the atmosphere is pure bliss. 

Last week. My ostrich burger and the chef. According to him ostrich is a very lean and healthy meat. I found it delicious. 

So many mushrooms!

I haven't had one yet, but a friend and I said that we are going to split a mushroom kabob next week.

My friend Christy and I having honey liquor shots in dark chocolate shot glasses. For R5 it was hands down the best shot I have ever had... followed by eating the shot glass.

The view from the inside. They have plants in bird cages and flowers in bottles hanging from the roof. The tables are made from old doors atop saw horses. All very cute.

My meal this week. Breakfast of blueberry ricotta pancakes and bacon with a bloody mary on the side. The best pancakes I've ever had not made on a Dissen stove top.  

Outside view. The weather was perfect this Saturday.

The best part of Friday night is looking forward to the Old Biscuit Mill and discussing what we are going to eat when we get there.

Red Bus Tour

 I just got back from a double deck bus tour around Cape Town. This place is absolutely amazing. I knew it before, but to go from Green Market Square downtown, to the empty fields of District Six, to the stunningly rich houses of Camps Bay, to Table Mountain, all in a couple hours leaves your head spinning. So, I'll just say it with pictures:

In District Six where apartheid was most devastating, grassy plots still stand open as a testimony to the past. 

The Castle of Good Hope! But don’t call it a fort… they don’t appreciate it.

Mandela gave a speech right there. 

View from Table Mountain near the bottom of the cable car. I can’t believe I live somewhere down there. 

The incredibly rich hotels and condos of Camps Bay with the Twelve Apostles in the background (there are actually 17 and no one knows how they got their name). 

Cat bush!

View of Lion’s Head down Camps Bay. 

Toes, meet the Atlantic. 

Nice view of the Camps Bay strip with Table Mountain in the background. And me!

Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles again. Simply amazing. 

Not a great picture, but there is Green Point Stadium. I head that Cold Play is going to play there next week. I’m hoping I can go to a soccer game and a concert there while I’m here.

Somerset Hospital. Opened in 1864.

A pretty incredible tour for sure. I’m excited to spend more time in all of those places. I have a loooong list of things to do.