They’re baaack. (8/15)

Oh, THERE they are! I thought I’d lost my little Gremlins for a while. Things were going so well extracting my samples that I’d forgotten all about them. I guess it’s a good thing (for them) that they made their presence known today or they might have gotten left in Fiji.
Here’s what those nasty little buggers did for me today. It started out a normal day in Suva: me waking up with a horrible headache (no doubt from the pollution), eating breakfast and then heading to the marine station. I found Klaus (my contact/collaborator at USP) since we had a meeting with the director of the Ministry of Fisheries this morning at 9:30. The purpose of meeting this man is of the utmost importance since I can’t take any samples out of the country without his approval. I was told that meeting with him and getting his “John Hancock” or more appropriately, his “Anuri Rawailairi” on my export permit was just a formality. (Bear this in mind as the story continues.) We caught a cab and made the drive out to the Fisheries to meet with Anuri. Of course, he wasn’t there, even though we had set an appointment with him. We were told he would not be back until 11:00. Klaus needed to get back to USP, and that was too long to wait. So, we jumped back in the cab and drove back. Total cost, $15.
At 11:00 I caught another cab and revisited the Fisheries. Anuri was there this time, but informed me that he couldn’t accept the documentation because it was a photocopy. He said I needed Bill Aalbersberg’s endorsement. I said he’d already signed it. Apparently, he needed to RE-sign it since it was a photocopy of his signature. Fresh ink is important. So, I caught a cab back to USP. Total cost, $15.80. I went to Bill’s office to get him to sign the form. His secretary informed me that he was in a workshop for the whole week. Great. Now what? Normally I would appeal to the kind-hearted, helpful secretary. But, Bill’s secretary is as cold as a Michigan winter. I informed her of the urgency of the matter. I would have gotten more of a response from the wall. I ended up leaving the form with Klaus who said he MIGHT see Bill at lunch. I was supposed to check back at 2:00.
To kill the time, I went to the market to buy gifts for my friends and family. It was a good thing I was in a terrible mood. It made bargaining much easier. I didn’t put up with any crap and I didn’t care to hear any sob stories. Like why I should pay $120 for a carved lobster because the seller had lost all of his limbs in a freak curry explosion, and that they had to be sewn back on with his only fishing line. So, now his family is starving because he can’t fish without any line. To bad. Eat chicken.
The Gremlins also had a good time with my bank account, again. I pulled out what I figured would be enough money for the rest of my stay and a cab back to the airport. I was completely shocked to find I only had $30 left in my account. I’m apparently terrible with money. Oh well. If you don’t die in debt, you never lived. Right?
Finally, after dropping the gifts at my room, I went to get the signed form from Klaus, fully expecting it not to be there. Low and behold! It was signed and ready to go. I quickly caught a cab to the Fisheries. (Total cost, $16.70.) I met with Anuri again and we went over (and over) what I needed to take out of the country, which consists of less than 1 mg of RNA and roughly 100 pieces of 3 cm coral fragments. The fragments were something I added several weeks ago, after talking with Terry. I want to analyze the nutrient content of the tissue and do a zooxanthellae count. Combined with gene expression, I think these two measurements would give a better picture of what’s happening to coral during elevated nutrient conditions. I originally gave up on the idea because I thought (correctly) that taking intact coral out of the country would be too difficult. But, when I met with Terry, he told me that everything was taken care of and approved. He said I should go ahead and collect the coral, and that all I needed to do was get some guy at the Ministry of Fisheries to sign the form. It sounded simple enough. That is, if Gremlins don’t haunt your life. Now, Anuri has to check with CITES (don’t ask) to see if it’s okay for me to take the coral out of the country. I’ll find out tomorrow if I can, and if so I have to pay an export fee. If the answer is “no”, the collection was for naught, which really bothers me since I still feel horrible about damaging the corals. *sigh*

I have a headache.

Does anyone want to adopt some Gremlins?