In the mines and on land: Searching for answers in South Africa

Sometimes you get lucky enough to stumble onto a great opportunity without knowing how much it will impact your life. The microbiology workshop I attended in Bloemfontein, South Africa was such an opportunity.

This program brought five students from the United States together with about 20 students from South Africa for a week-long workshop sponsored by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

It combined two activities that I love: working in a lab and being in contact with a new culture. Aside from the chance to learn lab techniques used in biotechnology, I was able to broaden my horizons and meet amazing people from both America and South Africa.

Most astonishing to me was the number of languages that the South African students spoke. Many of the students I met spoke three or even four languages. They spoke fluent English, Afrikaans, the indigenous language of their area, and in some cases, a romance language, as well.

At a flea market in Johannesburg, I saw some of the interesting contradictions that exist in this city. Johannesburg resembles many cities in the United States, in terms of its commercialism and business, but there is still obvious connection to its heritage. For example, in the middle of a large and modern mall, there is a flea market that sells indigenous crafts.

In the parking lot, there was a troupe of Zulu dancers. Dressed in traditional garb of leather cloths and headpieces, these dancers were placed in an odd juxtaposition with the indicators of modern society: malls, cars and commercialism.

However, these two realities need not be separate from each other. The cultural heritage of South Africa need not be lost with its modernity.

I could feel the deep history of these dancers and the culture that they represent. As I watched them perform a story through a rhythmic series of songs, clapping and stomping, I could see the roots of many African-American cultural forms. In the rhythms of their songs, I heard religious spirituals that were sung by slaves and continue to be sung in churches today. In their stomping, I recognized the precursors of modern-day tap dancing.

Johannesburg is about a four-hour drive from Bloemfontein, a city that is roughly the size of Knoxville, Tennessee. During the drive, I saw the natural landscape of South Africa that is often lost in the larger cities. The land was flat, with few trees and only low-lying shrubbery and grasses. Visibility was exceptional, and it was possible to see cities looming far off in the distance. As we drove out of Johannesburg, we saw the remnants of Soweto and other shantytowns where many Black South Africans lived during the apartheid era. It was moving and difficult to see that these "houses" were smaller than my dorm room and made of tin, or less stable materials. They usually were arranged in rows that comprised a community of these shacks.

It was even more difficult to think that it was only about a decade ago that apartheid ended.

While I saw that the scars of apartheid have had a lasting impact on South Africa, I also saw the ways that the country is reconstructing and genuinely attempting to level the playing field.

Most of the shantytowns have been abandoned and in their place, the government has begun to build new communities. Although they are a large step above the shacks that I saw in Soweto, these domiciles are still far below anything that I could conceive of living in.

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The situation that apartheid created in South Africa always weighed heavily on my mind, and I found myself asking the South African students questions about their experiences of it quite often.

As an African American, I am acquainted with the ways that racial discrimination has existed and continues to exist in this country. However, apartheid is distinctive in that the minority oppresses the majority. I realized that Blacks in South Africa and African Americans have some similar experiences, but many distinct differences.

Once we arrived in Bloemfontein, each day consisted primarily of a series of lectures and lab work. One of the highlights of the workshop was a trip to a gold mine to collect biological samples. The samples from water, soil and biofilm (a slime-like growth on the walls of the mine) could be possible sources of microorganisms that might be useful for biotechnology. Research like this is exciting because there is always the possibility that a new organism that has never been seen before will be isolated.

Specifically, organisms in places like gold mines are interesting because they are able to exist in environments with extreme temperatures, pressures and pHs. It is possible that the organisms that these organisms produce will have capabilities to perform vital functions in the biotechnological industries.

When we arrived at the mine, the supervisors were more than helpful to us. Our presence was undoubtedly a hindrance to the miners, but they were accommodating in every possible way.

The supervisors laid out the gear for each participant: a jumpsuit, rubber boots, a safety pack and a helmet with a flashlight attached. All this equipment was pretty heavy on its own, and we also had to carry the equipment that we needed to do the sampling.

After going down one of the mineshafts, we walked for three miles to a water sample site.

The path we walked on was muddy at times and there was also a good number of large puddles that were as much as a foot deep — just high enough to fill my boots with water.

By the time we had trudged to the site, we were muddy, hot and wet. Despite this, it was an adventure getting to the site, and I enjoyed the experience.

It made me realize that research does not strictly take place in a laboratory. Unlike the lab portion of many academic courses, where the experiments are relatively controlled and the results are predetermined, I was involved in original research where the outcome was not necessarily known.

This trip made me aware that while courses are an invaluable part of the learning experience, there is nothing that can take the place of hands-on research. My studies at Princeton build a solid foundation of knowledge, but this knowledge is put to best use if it is applied to real-life applications. Hopefully this workshop in South Africa was simply a starting point for further research in my academic career. Hasina Outtz is from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She can be reached at houttz@princeton.edu.