By this week I had managed to incur substantial debt to my host family as a result of my bank account not being open and them graciously paying for all my purchases. Karen finally told me I could access my account today.
Now, before the story continues you must be informed a little about banks in Ecuador. Inside is relatively safe, but as soon as one exits, watch out. It is not unheard of at all to get robbed just after leaving the door. Yesterday an old lady was assailed after exiting her bank, the thieves made off with all the $15,000 she had taken out. What happens is when an individual withdraws a substantial sum of money the bank teller tells the customer that they have to go “confirm such a large withdrawal with higher management.” During this time the teller calls to an outside accomplice and says, for example, in approximately five minutes a tall gringo with a green backpack is going to walk out with $1,300. As soon as the person exits they are attacked, throwing scopolamine in the victims face is a common tactic. A boyfriend of a fellow Fulbrighter here had just left his bank with $300 when something was thrown in his face. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a parking lot, no money, no phone, and no idea of what had happened.
The bank I happen to have my account at also happens to be in one of the four most dangerous areas in Quito (as declared by the US Embassy). Dimas agreed to drive me there and back for more safety. Upon entering the bank, wearing a small waist pack to hold the money, I was thinking how this whole thing about bankers conspiring couldn’t really happen that much. The opening of my account wasn’t exactly smooth, there ended up being some snafu about my signature but finally they declared my account was set and I could withdraw funds. I got in my 5th line of the day and when I asked to take out $1300 the lady said she had to check with her boss… This couldn’t be happening! Dimas was standing a ways off, he saw her leave, came over, and whispered to me that once she hands me the money to put it in my pockets and be ready to just give up the waist pack as a diversion if needed. She finally came back and after counting the bills in front of all the other customers (almost all in 10s!) she handed them over. With so much money in my conspicuously bulging pocket I didn’t know how good of a plan this was but I didn’t have a better one. We walked nervously out the door, past the four guards with assault shotguns and bulletproof vests, and into the street. We had about 2 blocks back to the car and it’s amazing how paranoid one is walking around with huge sums of money. Every person approaching became a potential threat; I kept glancing over my shoulder to see if we were being followed. When the car door slammed shut I couldn’t help but breath a huge sigh of relief. I’ve never had a trip to the bank quite like it and all I can say is the less often I have to undergo that experience the better.
The rest of my day didn’t have quite the 007 status of the first hours but was great nonetheless. I haven’t worked specifically with Chagas disease yet, but all the techniques I am learning will carry directly over when I branch out more on my own. I got to the lab just in time for Theo to hand over the rerun of yesterday’s project. We had been making and running gels to see what size DNA we had (from which the specific TB strains of patients in a nearby hospital could be elucidated) but had been having trouble getting usable results. I mixed my own gel following what I had seen the day before, let it set in the mold, mixed marking dye and DNA samples which were added to the gel’s wells, turned on the electrophoresis machine and waited for an hour. After electrophoresis I stained it in ethanol bromide and examined it under UV light. Honestly, it wasn’t of much use; for some reason Theo’s gel the day before had looked deficient in a similar way. Tatiana had been running the same DNA sample on a different machine and got better results. It’s hard to say where the greatest error came in (tons of places to go wrong in the whole PCR/gel electrophoresis process) but the experience was great practice for me and hey, real science is like fishing; you don’t catch one every time you cast! In a bit of down time I had a chance to get some pics:
(Me waiting for my gel to run)
(Dr. Calvopina, a parasitologist currently working on Leishmaniasis, and one of the amazing people I get the privilege to work with!)
Oh! Yesterday, the head of the lab, Dr. Rodriguez, commented to me that he thought my Spanish was quite good. Rather nice of him, but what this means to me is that my accent isn’t quite as bad as most gringos; as I know I have a long way to go in terms of comprehension☺
I’m heading to another family birthday party soon with Karla, Dimas, and Julian; there sure are lots of b-days to attend when one counts their close family in the 70’s!
Cuidense,
Michael
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