Week 4: ¡Viva México!
I think everyone is starting to feel the pressure of August 16th arriving very soon. This week I went in to work early many days and stayed late as well. There just feels like there is so much to do before I leave, and it is especially overwhelming because most of the tests I need to run will be for my first time. One new experience for me this week was receiving a lot of my results from different physical analysis tests and just wondering, now what? I have all the data perfectly organized in an excel spreadsheet, but I still struggle to conceptualize the importance of all the numbers. I think my coworkers can see when I get a little stressed because they’re always reminding me “tranquila Abby!”.
Either way, this week I performed another protein quality analysis, but this time with my own sample. To add to my frenzy, the results weren’t as perfect as I would have liked them to be, but it is just one test and there are other procedures that can verify my results. After fermenting for several days, I was finally able to cook my maheu trial #3 samples. The room temperature sample was not as thick as the 25˚ and 30˚ samples, and tasted less acidic. The following day I asked one of my friends, Tatenda, to taste test the maheu for us. People in the lab like to call him our victim, which I don’t understand because my maheu is not that revolting! Tatenda told me that trial #3 was much more successful than my first trial. He really liked the consistency of the room temperature maheu and the taste. As for the other two he said the taste was too acidic and he could only take a few sips. Recently we have been trying to recruit more people around the CIMMYT campus who are familiar with maheu to come and test it for us, but I’ve started to notice that the biggest problem with maheu is that it is extremely individual and each person has a specific preference depending on which town or region they’re from. For example, Tatenda told me that his sister leaves the maheu to ferment for 5 or more days, but other sources say that two days is more than enough.
Besides cooking, this week I had to do some more physical quality analysis tests, which meant more dissection. I only had to dissect 30 kernels of my sample, but they were so much harder than the samples I was working with previously that it still took me half the day, even with a little help from my coworkers who can dissect 10 seeds in 20 minutes while it takes me an hour. I was getting so frustrated because they were so difficult to work with, but I had to stay focused because when working with such a small amount of samples, any mistakes would be magnified and I did not want to have to dissect any more seeds. Luckily, the results from my dissection did not vary too greatly between repetitions and supported previous results. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I don’t think I’ll ever have to dissect another kernel in my life.
The previous maheu samples I’ve made I’ve been using a different type of maize beside my provitamin A orange maize because I was only alotted 1kg and we were worried that I would run out, but now that I have a solid maheu recipe, I cooked trial #4 with my sample, which meant more milling! What makes proVA orange maize special is that it is rich in carotenoids, however carotenoids are very unstable molecules that can be easily degraded when exposed to heat, light or oxygen. For this reason I needed to use two smaller milling machines instead of the larger mill because they produce less heat. The small machines=more time spent milling, but at least you get to look good while doing it →
The end of the week consisted of regrouping and seeing what I need to accomplish in the next two weeks so I’ll have all the results I’ll need before I leave. This was very helpful because I realized that I have already done a significant amount of work and just need to complete a few more tests. I also worked with one of my mentors, Luisa, on collecting all of my data that I have so far and finalizing it for my report. I’ve been slowly learning how to use Excel while working in the lab; I never realized how powerful of a tool it can be.
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If you read all of that, congratulations you’ve made it to my favorite part of the blog when I get to write about all of the fun activities I’ve been up to this week (besides working, of course). Firstly, I almost hate to admit this, but I managed to eat out almost every single night this week. Three nights of tacos, one ramen (surprisingly delicious), and two more days of traditional Mexican dishes.
I went to a zumba class, and I now feel confident in saying that if you ever find yourself in Texcoco, Wednesday night zumba class has the best instructor hands down. I also got to see the new Lion King movie en ingles! which is uncommon for a smaller town like Texcoco. I realized that I know almost every word of The Lion King, so I think I might try and watch the movie again in Spanish to see how much I would understand, although I don’t really recommend seeing the movie even once….Lion King 1 1/2 is where it’s at. This week also included saying goodbye to some of my friends. As the summer is winding down more and more of the interns are returning home, but that gives us plenty of excuses to go out for dinner!
Finally, I was able to spend this weekend with my cousin, Marybeth, and her dogs in Mexico City. I was able to get an inside tour and she taught me so many interesting facts about the architecture and buildings. Thank you MB and Mark for having me!
Next week I look forward to going back to Agua Fría to work in the field again. I think Agua Fría has been my favorite experience of my entire intership so far, and I have been looking forward to returning. Other goals I would like to accomplish:
- Zumba and Salsa, por supuesto
- Go to el mercardo
- be productive with my time in the lab!
