The bad news: I'm slowly but surely realizing that I'm not gonna get what I wanted out of this internship. The good news: it doesn't really matter what I want!!! I just finished yesterday with my posting in the molecular biology lab, and while watching the girl carry out the steps of DNA sequencing was sort of cool, and now I can say I have some experience in that area of lab work, it doesn't really fulfill one of my main goals of this trip: research. Basically, the molecular biologists only work when there is an unidentified sample that could contain mycobacterium leprae (the bacteria that causes leprosy). Even if they had a few samples, they are only doing PCR, etc. for clinical purposes (treating the patient properly) and not research (something like performing experiments to further our understanding of how leprosy is transmitted). The biochemistry lab is the same way. In other words, it is the problem that I suspected I may run into: nobody is working on any research projects. I consider for a bit the possibility that I may be able to conduct my own research, maybe in community health, but I'm just not going to be able to come up with a topic (and no one seems to have any suggestions either) and then get questionnaires filled out or whatever it would take to get an answer to my question.
I think the best I can do is get an idea of how to treat a disease from every angle (lab research, medical, surgical, physiotherapy, social, psychological, vocational, etc.). It isn't what I expected, but it may end up being a much better experience and much more exciting! So, expectations are not being met, but that's what I expected! I think God may be using this experience in my life for purposes that I'm not even aware of yet. For instance, I got to have a multiple-hour discussion with the two British medical students that got here last weekend, and it was awesome! They aren't religious, and they've only encountered really poor examples of Christianity, so maybe showing them something they're not used to is my purpose here. I really don't know, but I'm trusting that God will allow me to get whatever I'm supposed to out of this trip. Stay posted!
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