and then I went to Tokoyo

Since the Centre for Plant Medicine does not have certain facilities that we need, Nick, I, and one of the pharmacologist Mr. Fafa traveled to The University of Ghana (The Harvard of Ghana) to do some of our research at the Noguchi Centre.

You may notice that Noguchi does not sound Ghanaian at all, and you may also notice that it sounds Japanese. The Noguchi centre is completely funded by the Japanese government. The short story is that a Japanese man named Noguchi was researching Yellow Fever here, actually contracted it when a monkey in the experiment bit him, and died. They then built the Noguchi research center in his honor.

The center is completely state of the art, and much more high tech than the biology lab I worked in freshman year at U of M. We were doing RNA extraction there. In order to get into the lab, we had to change into some slippers (as to drag no dirt into the room), go through a UV radiation screen (to kill any bacteria), pass our things through a UV radiation chamber, and then change slippers again and put on special lab coats, masks and gloves. The lab room was pressurized, kept at 25 degrees C exactly, and filled with the most high tech lab equiptment. I seriously felt like I was in Tokoyo as all the lab equiptment was Japanese. The only thing reminding me I wasn't was the brilliant Ghanaian researcher Mr. Kofi Boni who assisted us with our work. It took us 9 hours straight from 9 AM to 3 PM, but the whole thing was facinating and amazing and flew by so fast.

Nick and I just realized that we have been here 6 1/2 weeks and only have 4 1/2 left. OMG! I am really going to miss this place and can't imagine how different it is going to be going back.

AO

Why don't we have herbal medicine in the US?

I often bring up to my Ghanaian co-workers that there is not much practice of herbal medicine in the US. They are always puzzled as to why.

While I have some ideas, I want to ask you (my beautiful blog followers) why you think herbal medicine isn't as popular in the United States?

Please comment on this post with your ideas of why. Consider this an honest, open, and safe space to share your thoughts.

America

I'd like everyone to begin this blog entry with a quick "USA! USA!" chant.

I had always heard that the US is a superpower and has a world of influence, but I never truly understood that until coming here. There is so much American influence. For instance, check out my new swag:

Everyone is really big on Obama here, and are quick to remind me and Nick that he came to Ghana last year. Not only is there Obama clothing, but about 50% of the cab drivers have American flags in their vehicles with Obamas face on them. And the most hilarious thing is there is a company that sells a product called Obama Biscuits! They have a red white and blue packaging with Obamas face on them. They don't taste to bad either.

This week at work one of the funniest things happened. So as we approach the beginning of the world cup, many people have been taking breaks from work to talk about who is gonna win, what Ghana's chances are, or in our case remind us of how Ghana beat the US last World Cup. Well the other day Mr. Fafa and Mr. Henry (you can omit the Mr. but i prefer it) the senior investigators in Phytochemistry and Pharmocology at the center decided to go online and look up the rosters of some teams for the world cup. I took a break and joined them. We were looking at different countries and then we stumbled upon the US. We were looking at the roster and then all of a sudden Fafa began humming the US national anthem. Then Henry joined in creating a perfect two part harmony. It was beautiful. I couldn't stop laughing. When I asked them in awe how they knew the song, they simply replied that they liked it. Right after that they began to sing another two part harmony of "My Country tis of Thee". It was too much. The craziest thing was after that we were looking up the German team when they began to hum the German national anthem, which I had learned when I was in German school as a kid. These were the last songs I expected to hear, let alone in two part harmony, while working in Rural Mampong.

Tomorrow is the first game of the world cup, and I can already tell the Centre is going to be crazy considering the game is during work. It seems almost half of the staff has plans to either go home after lunch or not come into work at all because of it. Everyone is pumped and really excited that it is in Africa!

Probably the most exciting news (besides my recovery from a brief food poisoning) is that we just tested out our herb in rats to see if it causes uterine contractions and it worked! It at the higher of the two dosages we did, it was on par with the pharmaceutical drug used in hospitals in the US. Unbeleivable! We still have a road of research ahead of us, but this was very exciting. I'll be writing more soon. Thanks for all the messages y'all. Ma feoo all.

AO