Hi there,
You might be wondering what this post is all about so allow me to brief you.
As you might all know by now, I am currently in the university reading a bachelor’s course in biochemistry and as part of our third year activities we have the industrial attachment where we are to go out there and work with organizations of our choices.
So we basically use half of our vacation for that.
Most of my mates started theirs right after school vacated but I was busy with other stuff so I had to begin mine in November.
I actually didn’t want to, but since it’s a six credit hour program I didn’t have a choice.
Today I want to take you with me to work so you can experience what happens at the other side and have some fun.
I am currently an intern at The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana.
At WACCBIP, our aim is to conduct cutting-edge research to guide the development of new approaches to disease diagnosis, prevention, & control. Having established a world-class scientific research environment with wide-ranging technology platforms, the Centre is now optimised to conduct high-quality research into an expanded range of infectious & non-communicable diseases.
This brief description was taken from source
I am working in the Microbiology laboratory and natural products laboratory. Here we mostly culture, examine and identify microorganisms including bacteria , fungi and yeast.
This brief description was taken from source
A DAY IN MY LIFE AS AN INTERN.
Today I was up by 5:00am cos that’s the time I always wake up.
I prayed and performed my house chores.
After , I had to prepare my little brother for school. He was running late because he told me they were to report very early cos they had exams. I prepared his breakfast and help him dress up and lil man was ready for school.
I took him to school and returned to prepare for work.
My dad usually drops me off at some point and I join a public transport to work.
This is the bus station where I board a bus to Legon campus.
The bus was empty when I got there so I had to wait for a few more people to join .
Since there was no one in the bus I decided to use this opportunity to finish dressing since my dad is always pressuring me so I’m unable to dress completely.
So first, I put on my earrings and lip gloss.
I’ve been feeling pains in my eyes these days so I decided to go back to my old friend.lol
In a few minutes time people started to join the bus and we set off.
It was a very short ride.
I took these pictures on our way. I liked the view.
In a few minutes we got to the bus stop where I had to alight.
I had to walk for about 10 minutes before I get to work.
There’s a shorter route but I usually take this route because I get to see the beautiful flowers and trees every morning.
This is actually my favourite!
I took these pictures right outside Akuafo Hall. They actually look a lot nicer than they appear. I couldn’t get more pictures because people were staring.😂
I’m sure they thought I was crazy.
From there I walk straight towards the balme library. There we have different flowers beautifying the place.
I take the turn towards the University of Ghana business school and there we have this. I don’t know what to call it so you tell me.
I use this street to the business school and take a left turn.
Ahead of the business school is WACCBIP . Now I begin to walk faster because I can see my supervisors car parked. I wasn’t late tho.
I make my way to the laboratory to commence with the days work.
AT WORK
First thing I do is greet those around and then proceed to clean the working area.
After cleaning I shake my algae. You might by wondering why I do that.
This is a project we’ve been working on for quite sometime. We are trying to find the algae present in waste , so in order for our algae to grow we place them by the window so they can receive enough sunlight and then shake them every morning for them to grow well.
Now, to the part I don’t think you’ll enjoy. Let’s go check on our plates for growth.
Nasty right? Yeah that’s what I also thought when I started working here some years ago. I’m used to them now cos that’s what we do here:)
These are fungi we are growing to check the presence of aflatoxins. Most of them are Aspergillus species. There’s growth in there but not as we are expecting so we would have to plate them again.
Then I check our slants for growth.
They’re also mostly aspergillus species.
After checking all these I proceed to prepare media to be used for the days work . You might be wondering what media is.
Microbiological media, or bacterial culture media, is a growth medium used to grow bacteria. In other words, it contains everything bacteria need to grow outside the body and under laboratory conditions.
This brief description was taken from source
After our media preparation I then pack them in a bowl with other stuff we need for our work to the sterilisation lab for sterilisation. Sterilisation is to kill all microorganisms present on the apparatus and our media to prevent contamination.
Sterilisation take about 3 hours or more so we have to wait for 3 hours for our stuff. The equipment used for sterilisation is the autoclave and there are different types.
What do we I within these 3 hours? Follow me let me show you.
While waiting for the sterilization to be done, I check the optical density of some algae we keep in the shaker to observe their growth over a period of time.
It was time for lunch by the time I was done. I couldn’t go for lunch because I had to enter some data from an outreach program we went on last week. It was a lot so I had to sacrifice cos I wasn’t really hungry.
At this point I was exhausted so I decided to take a break.
I had banana for lunch cos I was feeling lazy to go to the canteen.😂
It was still lunch time so I decided to take a few pictures.😊
My friends also joined me as we tried some new filters on Snapchat. It was actually funny.😂
This is actually a guy.😂
After all the pictures we got back to work.
The Sterilization process was over so I went for our stuff.
I was assigned to prepare some media so after preparing it I had to stir it for the particles to dissolve in distilled water using a stirrer.
It was almost time to close and I was very happy. I was exhausted already.
We inoculated some bacteria but I couldn’t get pictures of the process because we are not allowed to use phones in the lab and my supervisor was getting mad at me because I had been taking pictures all day.
After the whole process I washed the apparatus used and cleaned the working area.
I was later assigned to check some bacteria plates in the incubator for growth and also get an antibiotic from the laboratory technician.
It was already past 5 at this point so I had to prepare to go home since I was done for the day.
I said goodbye to everyone and left.
It was sunset and the sky looked nice so I took these shots. They’re not really nice but…..
I got home around 7:45pm because my work was very far from where I stay. I settled down and played 8ball with @depressedfuckup but he cheated. I know he will deny it but believe me:)
It was after 10:00pm so I decided to go to bed.
This is how stressful my weekdays are so if you’re wondering what’s taking most of my time, this is it!
Well that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece.
With love. 🫶🏻