40 hours, 0 calories

Well I did it. It was a bit more difficult than I was expecting, but perhaps a bit more enlightening as well. Saturday morning it was pouring down rain (as it has been doing for literally the past two weeks) and so the Habitat for Humanity working bee was canceled. Kyle and I drove back into town for a coffee and visited the Otago Settlers Museum. There were exhibits on Maori culture and language as well as information about the first European settlers in Otago and the long ocean journey they endured (although by the late 1800s expert sailors learned how to make the trip safely in less than 70 days. The invention of steam power made the voyage even shorter.). I was particularly interested to view some paintings of early Dunedin when it was only a few cottages and docks. Of couse the overall landscape hasn't changed much and I could imagine myself in the place where the painter was when he/she created each work. There were also some exhibits on Chinese miners who came to Otago at the end of the 19th century as well but never intended on staying permanently. Later in the 20th century however Chinese moved to New Zealand to begin new lives.

We arrived home around noon and I decided to start my famine after lunch. I made myself pasta with tomato sauce and salami and packed in some saltines with avacado for dessert. Part of me wanted to jam as much food as possible in my stomach, but part of me said it was stupid to make oneself sick from both overeating and undereating within 48 hours. At 1:45 pm I took my last bite.

Eleni from the lab had started her famine on Friday night, so I walked into town to her flat to watch "I heart Huckabees" and the Irish comedian Dylan Moran. Eleni was eating candy and drinking juice, which I considered cheating. Within 6 hours of my big lunch I was hungry again, which is normal for me but not exactly promising when I was 15% through.

I walked to lab and attempted to work on my med school essays but ended up spending most of the time reading the New York Times. I walked home and had a mug of tea, read Tales of the South Pacific for a while, and then tried to fall asleep. Here is where the famine first hit me. I can't remember a time when I skipped a meal, so my body was rather shocked when I asked it to go to sleep with zero nourishment. I felt pretty out of it and didn't sleep very well that night. I also started noticing that I felt woozy every time I stood up (which I've experienced before but maybe not to this extent) and I also found it harder than usual to get warm in our chilly flat.

The next morning, however, my fat metabolism had kicked in and I was warm and relatively perky. (Interesting side note: most of the body catabolizes fatty acids for fuel once glucose stores are depleted, but the brain can't use fats because they don't cross the blood-brain barrier. Instead, the brain uses ketones, a byproduct of fat catabolism, as a backup fuel source.) I did a few stretching exercises to loosen up, drank plenty of water, and walked into the lab to skype and pass some time fooling around online. During this time I experienced another low point, feeling quite hungry and weak in the later afternoon hours. I stumbled home after dark, stopping at the supermarket to buy a few things to eat when the fast was over. When I got home last night I took a shower, which felt really good, drank more tea, read my book, and went to bed at 9 pm. I set my alarm for 6 am, 15 minutes after the famine officially ended.

The alarm wasn't neccessary and I knew it. I again found it difficult to stay warm, sleeping in gloves, a stocking cap, long johns, and a sweatshirt under three blankets plus my unzipped sleeping bag. At 5:15 I got up and started arranging a feast that I hoped would roughly replace the calories I had not ingested over the past day and a half. My first bite of a golden kiwi fruit was pretty amazing, and subsequent bites of apple were pretty good too. I had planned a meal of eggs, potatoes, sandwiches, crackers, and maybe cereal if I was still hungry, but I got through maybe a fourth of all that before I felt sick to my stomach. I lay down with a pretty painful stomach ache and fell asleep until it was time to go to work. Here I am, alive, but my stomach's still queasy and I'm a little tired.

So what did I get out of all this? I'm not sure if my fasting experience was all that representative of what starving children in the third world feel each day. There's no "beginning" and "end" to their fast, and most hungry children probably endure chronic malnutrition rather than a pure water diet for extended periods of time. Their hunger is much longer lasting and more deep rooted than what I felt. However, I did experience some of the physiological effects of lack of calories, some that I didn't expect such as difficulty keeping warm. I also realized that even if a chronically hungry person has an opportunity every once in a while for a solid meal, they probably can't take in enough calories because one's digestion ability atrophies relatively quickly. But the real motivation for this fast was to raise money to feed hungry kids around the world, and in that department my famine was a big success: I raised NZ$316 which according to the World Vision website will provide 74 children with basic foodstuffs, bedding, and soap.

Will I do it again? Almost certainly not. Am I glad I did it once? I suppose so. Next year I'll definitely choose a different sort of famine.

PS. My most recent lab presentation has been posted.

Wee 7B Jura Street hosts Wilbanks lab dinner

Sunday was the Wilbanks lab hike and dinner, which turned out a smashing success. At 1 pm Sigurd and his wife Erika along with Pete and Eleni met me at 7B Jura Street for the hike up Mt. Cargill. We decided to drive to the trailhead a few kilometers down the road in order to maximize our time walking on trail rather than road. Strangely enough for someone from New England, the winter vegetation on Mt. Cargill appeared identical to the summer vegetation, with the pine grove, dense rainforest, and subalpine bush all unchanged from my memory several months ago. We encountered a few rain squalls which produced some stunning rainbows. We also came across a silver fern, an important symbol of New Zealand. At the top we enjoyed the familiar superb view of the peninsula, bay, ocean, and distant hills and snow covered mountains many kilometers to the northwest. We also scampered up to nearby rocky Butter's Peak, and Pete, Eleni and I continued on to visit the organ pipes while Sigurd and Erika decided to head down and meet us at the car. All in all, a really fun walk.

We arrived back at the flat a little after 5 to meet Malcolm, Jerry, and Rich for dinner. My contribution was decidedly All-American; the previous night I made garlic basil mashed potatoes and baked cornbread, both of which turned out really tasty. I supplemented these with some fried chicken coated in potato flakes and saltine crumbs. Sigurd and Eleni brought lemon chicken, Pete made sweet dumplings, Eleni brought vegetables and hummus, Jerry brought pizza, Rich cooked honey soy chicken, and Malcolm made lasagna. After dinner we chatted about food, the cold, and New Zealand flora and fauna.

In other events over the weekend, I attened a massive 24 hour book sale at the Regent Theater in the Octagon. It took me half an hour to find an author I had heard of, but finally I purchased Michener's Tales of the South Pacific for one dollar. Then on Saturday afternoon Kyle and I attended a ground breaking ceremony for a Habitat for Humanity project in a suburb called Halfway Bush. The house will be built for a Maori family of 12. There will be working bees every Saturday (with the exception of the Queen's Birthday weekend) starting this coming weekend that Kyle and I plan on helping out at. To accomodate the working bee I've decided to begin my 40-hour famine at 6 pm this Saturday evening, finishing at 10 am Monday morning. I'll give a complete report of how the famine goes next week.

Winter arrives

It was bound to happen sometime. This past weekend was replete with hail, sleet, chilling rain, and blustery winds as old man winter finally arrived in Dunedin. While the city was mostly spared from the white stuff, the surrounding hills were covered in fresh snow. It's been quite a challenge to keep from freezing on Jura Street; the only source of warmth is a small, costly, and inefficient heat pump.

In an attempt to stay warm I spent yesterday touring Dunedin's free museums. Emma and I started at the Dunedin public art gallery, where we viewed some disturbing nudes done by a New Zealand artist called di Ffrench in the medium of cibachrome. We were also treated to a tour the work of Frances Hodgkins, a famous Kiwi artist who spent most of her life in Europe experimenting with impressionism and cubism. From the art gallery we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin's most imposing church in the Octagon, and then walked to the Otago Musueum for an exhibition of photographs of Antarctica by Andris Apse. I was really astounded with the beauty of this massive, uninhabited continent, with its mountains and glaciers and frozen rivers. Apparently Apse also did a lot of photography for the promotion of the Lord of the Rings films.

In other news I have decided to participate in the 40-hour famine sponsored by World Vision, which raises money for hungry children in India, Bangladesh, and Tanzania. World Vision was quite active in Tanzania and we visited at least one of their offices, so I can vouch for the fact that this organization is using their funds wisely and efficiently and that the money is actually getting to the people who need it. The official famine takes place from 8 pm May 22 to 12 pm May 24, during which time I will only ingest water. I'm actually feeling pretty nervous about this since I've never fasted for more than twelve hours before and am known for my rampant metabolism, but fortunately I have convinced at least a couple people to join me in support. This will certainly give me a taste (irony intended) about what it feels like to be hungry for a prolonged period. If you would like to make a donation to World Vision and support my famine, please visit this page. You can make a secure online donation (in New Zealand dollars) or pledge to make a donation after I actually succeed in not eating for 40 hours.

Another great hike

I went on my second Otago Tramping Club hike this past weekend to Maakatua, or "mountain of the gods." There are plenty of gorgeous pictures below, preceded by a few from a potluck dinner/poker night on Jura Street last weekend. As you can see in the pictures, the hiking weather was perfect--not a cloud in the sky and even on top of the mountain the wind was minimal. While we were waiting at the trailhead Mike and I rescued a cat stuck in a tree. It turned out to be the friendliest cat I've ever met, purring frequently and begging to be petted as we stood around before beginning the walk. When we finally did start on the track, we assumed the cat, which we christened Maaka, would wander back to its owner. Instead it followed us for two kilometers, across a stream and up a very steep slope to the bushline. There it rolled over and looked pretty exhausted; Mike tried to give it some water but the other hikers scolded him, saying that this would only encourage the cat to continue with us. Sadly we left the cat behind at this point, but much later in the hike we came across another party who said the cat followed them for at least a kilometer as well, above the bush line and into the tussock.

Most of the walk was bush bashing through the tussock along a ridge. We passed some interesting rock formations and mountaintop swamps and ponds. The return trip was rather painful, as we headed down a side of the mountain where the trail was severely overgrown or nonexistent. We did battle with at least two plant species notorious in New Zealand for inflicting bloody wounds in hikers: gorse and bush lawyer. Eventually we stumbled again across the poorly marked trail and followed it out to the road.

One interesting event occurred near the top of the mountain when someone found an invasive pine growing amongst the tussock. They shouted out to everyone and we quickly gathered around as one of the older members on the trip attempted to yank the whole sappling out of the ground. When he failed, Mike volunteered and extracted the pine, roots and all, and layed it in the tussock roots side up. Everyone let out a cheer and said "Well done!" Kiwis do not like intruders amongst their flora and fauna; they've already had to deal with plenty unwelcome species.