Certificação, Campeonato Cearense, Carnaval

After two weeks in the US, I returned to Brazil last Saturday, after what fortunately was a fairly uneventful day of flights. With the large number of flight delays in Brazil lately, I worried that I would miss a connection or have significant delays, but was fortunate to arrive back in Fortaleza more or less on time.

Back in the lab on Tuesday, I was drafted to be one of our lab's representatives to participate in DNA sequencing training. In the US, DNA sequencing is generally done for researchers by "core facilities," which have individuals trained in the operation and maintainenance of DNA sequence analyzers (machines that cost $70,000 - several hundred thousand dollars) who do all DNA sequencing for researchers in a large University. Here in Brazil at the Universidade Federal do Ceará, we have no such facility, but our lab was recently given funding to purchase a sequencer which arrived a few months ago. This past week, five individuals were to participate in training on the sequencer, which would consist of about 40 hours of instruction over four days on the use and maintenance of the machine. Three other labs each were sending one representative, and our lab was given two spots. Now one would think that since the instruction and examination were entirely in Portuguese, our lab would send some Brazilian doctors, grad students, and professors, but alas, Chris Brown and I somehow made the cut for the training. And so, over the last four days, I've spent about 10 hours a day in lecture and practical training with the sequence analyzer. Yesterday, we concluded our training with a 10 question short-answer examination in Portuguese, which the two Americans both passed with flying colors. Therefore, now both Chris Brown and I can proudly say that we are Applied Biosystems Certified DNA Sequence Analyzer Engineers. Indeed certificates are on the way in the mail from São Paulo which will occupy prominent locations on our refrigerator.

With the accomplishment of sequence training in Portuguese complete, I somehow seem to have inherited a number of additional projects related to sequencing which I had no idea I would be involved in a week ago. And so this week, I'll be doing more work with sequencing, while also doing some other laboratory work to prepare for the PCR testing that we'll be doing a lot of as rainy season begins shortly. Additionally, I'll begin analyzing data from our physical fitness study from the fall, and may be able to present some of these results at a research conference in Ilheus, Bahia (South of Salvador) in March. My study of visual function in children should receive final approval in the next 1-2 weeks, which means that I'll also be able to begin this work which is quite exciting.

Outside of work, the Campeonato Cearense begins today with the top 10 football teams in the state of Ceará playing for the next two months to determine the state champion. Among the teams are four teams from Fortaleza: Fortaleza, Ceará, Ferroviário, and Uniclinica. The other six teams hail from elsewhere in the state. Fortaleza and Ceará will also compete in Serie B of the Campeonato Brasileiro which begins in April, and the next two highest placed teams in the Campeonato Cearense will qualify for Serie C of the Campeonato Brasileiro. My favorite team remains Ferroviário, but I'll probably catch quite a few games involving all four of the Fortaleza based sides, beginning with the opening match of the championship today as Ceará hosts Maranguape.

Otherwise, I'll be quite busy at work over the next five weeks, before the lab closes for several days for Carnaval. During Carnaval, I've decided to travel to Foz do Iguaçu, Buenos Aires, and Florianópolis. Foz do Iguaçu are incredible waterfalls in Southern Brazil that some describe as more magnificent than Victoria Falls, which I had the privilege of visiting in Zambia in July 2003. Buenos Aires of course is the capital of Argentina, where I'll spend 4.5 days, also possibly crossing the Rio de la Plata to visit Montevideo, Uruguay if I have time. Finally, I'll conlude my February journey by spending 3 days in Florianópolis, a city that is located on the Ilha da Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. Then I'll return to Fortaleza to continue work on all of my research projects before returning to the US on May 18. It should be a busy final 4.5 months here in Brazil, and I look forward to getting a lot of work done, and also continuing to enjoy South America.