Volcano Adventure

On Saturday, the IWU crew ventured up a volcano! The Taal Volcano is a popular tourist spot and is advertised as being incredibly beautiful (as well as containing a tiny island in a lake, which is inside a crater, which is in a lake, on an island in the oceans), so we decided to make a day of it and visit. We were not disappointed!

The day started off early, as we left the IRRI campus at 7 in the morning. The drive to Batangas took about an hour and a half. Then we took a short boat ride over to the crater that we would be climbing, crossing the lake in two boats. The transportation costs, and the entrance fee, added up to about $23 per person. None of it was wasted! We decided to hike up to the top rather than ride horses, to save money and to be able to move at a leisurely pace. I will admit, the hike up was pretty rough. It wasn’t particularly long, but many parts were very steep and most of the time, the path consisted of loose sand and dirt which made it more challenging to walk on. It was brutally hot, and there were long stretches where we had no shade to protect us from the sun. Honestly, I’m surprised that I didn’t get sunburn.

However, as tired as we were, we made it up to the top. It was so beautiful! There were many stations set up, mostly selling trinkets and other tourist-y gifts. For 50 pesos, you could write a wish on a golf ball and try to put it into the lake. You could also get hats, t-shirts, magnets, and wood carvings. We had initially planned to go swimming, but we couldn’t see any obvious paths down to the lake, so we decided to be safe rather than sorry and just spend more time at the top. We took many photos and rested after climbing all morning. The hike back down was much easier, although we often had to stop to let horses pass us. We took it easy the rest of the day and went to lunch. On the way back home, it seemed like everyone fell asleep at some point.

We ended the day with dinner and karaoke downtown in Los Baños. Since we had been walking so much, we took the shuttle out of campus and caught a jeepney on the way back. There were many jokes about “8 o’clock, that means it’s bedtime!”, but I honestly felt so tired I could have easily fallen asleep at 8.

Work Work Work Work Work

Hello again! It’s been another week of work in the lab, so I figured I should go more in-depth about the projects that I’ve been working on and learning about.

First of all, I’ve made a lot of progress on the insect (and spider) sorting! I’ve had to group and identify the insects by order, if not species. I’ve done my best to make sure I’m putting insects of the same species in one petri dish. I then have to write a lable of the order and number of specimens in each dish. It’s not too hard to do when there’s one or two organisms in a petri dish, but it can get chaotic when I have 116 flies in one small dish. There are about 8 dishes full of insects I can’t identify, as the guide I use only works on mature adults, not undeveloped larvae. I might be able to make an educated guess, but without the wings I am not trained enough to be sure. I was told to put those aside so that the experts can identify them-the same goes for the heads and incomplete bodies of the insects, too. I haven’t studied entomology enough to be able to identify a species based on the disembodied head, so the other workers at the lab will take a look at them.

In the meantime, I’ve been helping Jo with her project. Unfortunately, she’s out until Monday so I don’t have any pictures, but I will be sure to add some next week. There is a lot to do and many steps to take in making the yellow stem borer artificial diet. First, one must weigh the ingredients (a task that I have done twice now); that includes agar, wheat germ, army worm diet, sucrose, cornstarch, antibiotics, supplements for wing growth, etc. You have to measure each ingredient carefully as you need a very specific amount. Using the scale and measuring 0.5 grams of the expensive powder for wing development is one of the most stressful things I have never done! After that, we have to boil water in the microwave and put the agar in the water to melt it down. I’m always amused by the “enjoy your meal!” message that the microwave displays when the water is done boiling. After that, all the ingredients are put into a blender, water is added, and everything is mixed into a liquidy paste. The last time we did this, Jo used rice plant panicle extract instead of normal distilled water in an effort to make the artifical diet more successful. This was done by taking the stems that contain the panicles (basically, what the rice grains will be) and chopping them up, washing them, and blending them in the blender. I had the task of finding the stems that contained panicles the day before.

Once the diet is blended (again, using a normal kitchen blender. I’m amazed by how they use normal everyday items to do their work, instead of only sterotypical lab equitment. Very resourceful!), it is poured into beakers, which are then put into the autoclave machine to steralize the mixtures. Once it is cleaned, we have to work quickly as the diet will start to harden again, thanks to the agar. We use the beakers to fill vials with about 3cm of the diet-we usually get about 49 (give or take) vials filled. After that, we take a scapel and cut a slit into the hardened mixture, as the yellow stem borer larvae will have an easier time burrowing into the diet. The diet is then stored in an oven at 28ºC until the larvae are old enough to be introduced to the artificaial mixture. The YSB eggs are hatched in containers with rice plant panicles, their natural environment, until the larvae are old enough to be moved to the diet. Jo said that this project is a lot of trial-and-error, so she’s constantly changing things in hopes of finding a solution that works. The lifecycle of a YSB is normally completed within a month, but they have larvae that are three months old living in the artifical diet. They’re trying to figure out why it’s taking the larvae so long to grow and how they can change to the diet to fix that.

On Wednesday, I met Patrick, another worker in the lab who is doing a project about fungi. He said that he studied entomology, but instead of hiring a fungi specalist, the lab just assigned him this project, so he had to take classes about the subject! He’s doing something similar to Jo, but instead he and the others working on the project are growing fungi in both solid and liquid mediums. They used the fungi to spray on rice plants, which are an environmentally friendly pesticide, as they kill insects that feed on the plants.

Once my supervisor returns to IRRI next week, I will have more to do, and eventually, my own independent project!

Climbing Over Rocky Mountains

Saturday was a very busy day! My roommate and I signed up for a group hike at the Makiling Botanic Gardens in Los Baños. And what a trip it was! It lasted for about three hours, excluding the time taken to drive to the gardens. The group hiked up the mountain to the mudspring. The road was paved and not particularly steep, but the winding path just kept going and going. It was a great cardio workout. We hiked 4.1 kilometers to the mudsprings and another 4.1km back down, not counting the path from the main road to the attractions we stopped at.

The mudspring is a mud pot, which is a type of hot spring that is formed when sulfuric acid breaks down surrounding rocks into clay due to the volcanic heat. Then the clay mixes with water to form mud that is hot, sulfurous, acidic, and with varying consistency and color (according to the sign at the site). Our guide said the mudspring is very dangerous and they had to put a fence around it to stop people from going into it. People have suffered from third degree burns and even drowned from the heat of the mudspring. Once we were done at that site, we walked back down. Going downhill was almost as laborious as hiking uphill, since it was so steep I had to make sure I wasn’t falling over. We passed by a popular campground that is used for a variety of purpouses-bible study, workshops, team building exercizes, etc. Further down we went to the Flatrocks, an area covered in large, flat rocks smack in the middle of a stream. It was tricky to navigate the wet rocks without slipping, which I did a few times.

Once we got back to IRRI and changed out of our hiking clothes, my roomate and I took a tricycle into Los Baños. Riding the tricycle is fun, but because we’re so close to the ground, a fair amount of dirt flew into my face. We visited a few shops and ate at KFC, then visited the mall. After that, we got back to IRRI, only to be invited out again! We were a group of five, so we took two tricycles back into town for a late dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Spy C, and jammed out to some American music. They allowed us to use our phones to play our own music over the speakers, so we listened to some Indian/Bollywood songs, too. Overall, a very busy and tiring, but extremely fun, day.

It’s Off to Work I Go…

I finally got to officially begin my internship work! I’m in the Crops and Environmental Sciences Division, specifically entomology. My supervisor, Buyung Hadi, is away for two weeks, so I’m working under his assistant, Jo. Everyone in the lab is so nice! It’s very clear that they aren’t quite used to Americans-more than once, they commented on how fair my skin is, and seemed almost in awe when I told them that it snows in Illinois. It’s a bit awkward that all the Filipino scientists are shorter than me; I completely tower over all of them, so I try to hunch over to compensate.

Jo showed me the project she’s working on for Buyung. She’s trying to create an artificial diet for Yellow Stem Borers, a type of moth in which the larvae eat through the stems of rice plants. Since it’s hard to study the larvae while they’re buried in a rice plant, she’s mixing up a solution that the insects can eat while in glass vials. She showed how she prepares the ingredients and everything. She even taught me how to use the lab’s autoclave machine! Then she set me up with my own desk and project (my own work space in an official laboratory – how grown up I feel!). For the past few days, I’ve been separating and identifying insects collected from the field. You’d be surprised by how many microscopic organisms one tiny vial can hold. I’ve spent so much time staring through a microscope into a petri dish full of tiny bugs that I see them when I close my eyes at night. It’s a little tedious, but nice to know that the work I’m doing is actually significant.

All of the research projects I’ve done before have either been pre-designed (and repeated dozens of times) or completed on extremely small scales. For once, when I eventually do my own project here at IRRI, I’ll be conducting research that will have an impact on the world. It’s thrilling! It’s also a little nerve-wracking, too, since I’m worried that I might accidentally mess something up, but I’m confident that my schooling has prepared me for real-world research.

Rice Planting Pictures

Here are the pictures from Monday’s rice planting activities! Featuring the actual rice workers and most importantly, Gretchen the water buffalo.

I’ve arrived!

Hello again! After over 24 hours of traveling, I’m here at the International Rice Research Institute. When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of IRRI. The view is great no matter which direction you turn. I’ll include some pictures of the area so you can see too! We had a basic orientation on Saturday, where we learned about the history, culture, and language of the Philippines. We also were taught a few essential phrases in Tagalog, the national language. Even though most people here speak English, they appreciate it when foreigners take the time to use Tagalog. Then we went to this beautiful restaurant for dinner. Some of the dining tables were on floating platforms. There were too many of us to be seated on the water, but it was a lovely meal nonetheless! The food here is DELICIOUS. Usually I’m a picky eater, but I found myself enjoying everything they served us. We had the chance to practice our Tagalog and order drinks using it-the waiters were told to not accept orders in English! Ha! Then a four-man band serenaded us while we ate. I had watched a TV program about staying in the Philippines (specifically, Manila), and it mentioned that Filippino cover bands were everywhere. They weren’t lying-the band performed American pop hits that (in my opinion) were even better than the original!

We had the whole day to ourselves on Sunday, so a group of us decided to go into Los Baños. The walk over wasn’t too long, but it was an extremely hot journey. I think I’m adjusting to the heat, though. We went to the Robinsons Town Mall; at three stories tall, it was considered a SMALL shopping center. It’s a strange experience to be in a Filipino department store in a Filipino mall, but still hear American music playing over the radio. Later in the day we got food in a small restaurant by the CEC. It was built in the shape of a circle and staffed by three women, which made it feel really homey and welcoming. It was so much fun to go into town, and I plan on going many more times. Everything here is significantly less expensive than products back home, a difference I greatly appreciate, haha. Walking all day in the hot sun left me beat, and I fell asleep almost immediately.

Monday the group had another orientation, this time it was all about IRRI. We toured the campus and learned about the different aspects of the college, like the public programs, past experiments, and security. We ended the day with a rice planting activity. We first got to break up the land using three different types of plows, one of which was pulled by a water buffalo! They said that her name was Gretchen, and she moved a lot faster than I expected her to! I had to work hard to keep up with her pace. After that, we replanted some rice saplings. It was a really interesting experience! Tomorrow I start my official training under my supervisor, and I cannot wait!

Greetings!

Hello everyone! My name is Kiersten Bergquist, and I am a student at Illinois Wesleyan University. I will be interning at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines over the summer, and I cannot wait to go! I will use this blog to record all of my travels and adventures while I’m there. See you again in June!