Sterile Tsetse Flies and Al Busairys Fitness Club

I just returned from Tanga, a sleepy coastal city of 400,000, where I was meeting with Tanzanian fly experts at the Tsetse Fly Research Insitute. The place has definitely seen better days but considering that even the most qualified individuals there (4 PhDs ) only make $200/month it is no wonder. I learned all about trapping flies in the bush, identifying flies, and perserving flies for later display and/or DNA analysis of the pathogens that the flies may be carrying. They gave me a burlap sack full of supplies, including cow urine to attract flies, to begin my own experiments with Musca sorbens in Kongwa.

One of the Institute's biggest accomplishments was breeding and sterilizing, through iraditation, over 1,000,000 male tsetse flies which were realeased over a 4 year period in Zanzibar. Eventually all the sterile males flies breed with the females and the fly was completely eliminated, along with trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). They are now working on replicating the results on the mainland.

I was hosted by the lead researcher, Furaha (happiness), who not only showed me the ins and outs of fly research but also hosted me at her home in ndguvu mali. Roughly translated, it means if you work hard, you will get money. At least this is true in an ideal world. One evening she took me with her husband to Al Busairys Fitness Club. The word "club" may be a misnomer as the place was on the second floor of an old, moldy building, that consisted of a few windows without screens. Not being a member I had to pay $.50. The entire place consisted of 3 rusty exercise bikes from at least the 1960s, one weight machine that wobbled and poised a serious hazard, and an aerobics corner where a cracked mirror and a ripped up plastic floor served as the "studio". We were of course the only ones in the joint, besides the three dudes working there, only one of which looked as if he ever worked out. After struggling to even get the bike to work, it was time for aerobics class. There was only one song on the boombox so every 5 minutes, the instructor had to go and rewind the tape and start it over again. After 20 minutes I was sufficiently sweating in the tropical heat and thankfully the "class" was over. Then it was to the one weight machine for the personal training session. Finally we were done and Furaha, her husband and I rambled on home for a dinner of red snapper fresh from the sea and coconut rice. Yum.