Pre-Departure:
While preparing for the summer school at Ohio State University (OSU), I had a mixture of excitement and anticipation for the forthcoming trip. I was looking forward to meeting and interacting with renowned authors and established researchers in Mathematical Biosciences. I was also looking forward to meeting postgraduate students from other institutions with similar research interests and above all, learning new skills in Mathematical modelling of infectious disease spread. I was excited at the prospects of acquiring more knowledge for my future research projects. I had gotten to know about the Mathematical Biosciences Institute from friends who have been there before. With several people in my research field speaking highly of the institute and the quality of research it offers, I couldn’t wait to have an experience of my own.
Thinking of the long journey to the States, however, had its challenges. Travelling from Cape Town to Columbus, Ohio was not going to be an easy journey in terms of cost and time. I made an inquiry with the travel agents at Neelsie travel who gave me quotes that indicated the cost of a round trip at R22,000 and above for reasonable flights. I then did an internet search and every possible flight itinerary indicated travel time of about 25 hours to 35 hours and even more depending on the layovers. The cost was equally higher with every shorter travel time, ranging from R17, 500 (for longer travel time) to R25, 000 (fastest flight). Like most people, I had a belief that travelstart.co.za always had the best deals but while comparing with cheapflights.co.za, I realised it was not always the case. Despite all the time I put into online searching, I was still unable to book a flight online due to the limited amount of funds I had. I decided to just check out Student Flights, since I always passed by their office on my way to my residence from campus. I talked to one of their agents La- May who was very friendly and understood my financial situation. She advised me about changing my travel date to arrive a day earlier and was able to get me a low cost flight on promotion with less travel time from Johannesburg to Columbus at only R14, 500.
The host institution had offered us full accommodation and meals for the entire duration of the summer school. However, we were expected to check in at the dorms on Sunday afternoon, but my flight was arriving a day earlier. I talked to the organisers at the host institution and they were kind enough to let me check in a day earlier. I was then left with the challenge of finding transport from Port Columbus airport to the host institution. Having checked online for low cost transport means and couldn’t find any since the city bus service from the airport to the university does not operate during holidays, I decided to take a cab as recommended. Getting a B1 United States visa which is required for such a visit was not a problem as the procedure is very clear and easy to follow on the US immigration website. It only took two days to get the visa after the interview at the embassy.
Experience at OSU:
My decision to participate in the US-Canadian Institutes Epidemiology summer school was mainly driven by the content of the programme which showed potential for learning and acquiring diverse knowledge in my field of research interest. The school took place at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) located at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, USA from 13th to 22nd June, 2016. The school was organised in such a way that we would not only be taught about different approaches to modelling Infectious disease spread but also get to apply the knowledge on real life projects. Before going for the summer school we had been given a brief description of the projects we would be working on and therefore had time to do some background research on them. We were grouped to work on the different projects from day one and this helped us to organise our time and put a lot of effort into the projects. I was delighted to meet two former students of AIMS-South Africa, who are currently pursuing PhD studies in Canada.
The timetable was flexible enough for the groups to meet and discuss their projects after the afternoon sessions on daily basis. The class schedule ran from Monday up to Saturday afternoon in the first week and then three days for the next week. The final day of the summer school, which was a Wednesday was highlighted with project presentation from the various groups. It was amazing to see how much we had learned and had been able to accomplish in such a short time. We also learned to programme the model systems using Mathematical software such as Matlab, Maple and R. The wonderful learning experience left me yearning for more. Our programme also included an excursion to Columbus zoo on Sunday the 19th (Father’s day) which was organised and fully paid for by the MBI. We got to spend about 3 hours touring the zoo and being a special day, there were many families with little children on a day out at the zoo. I was most fascinated by the baby Polar bear which I’ve only seen on television previous. It’s sad that Africa’s only polar bear died two years ago in a Johannesburg zoo before many of us could get to see it and I count myself lucky to have seen one at Columbus.
The university campus was relatively quiet as students had gone on holiday but there were a few other groups of junior and high school kids attending summer camps at OSU. The university is located in the 15th largest city in the United States, thus there was still a lot of activity going on outside the university campus. We were able to tour the university campus on the afternoon of the last day. The university is well connected with shuttles that run every 30 minutes transporting students and staff from one part of campus to the other. It is such a great university campus quite impossible to explore in such a short time. Also the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) bus service has got routes that go through the university campus with several stops in the university allowing easy access to the entire city of Columbus and beyond. OSU students get free rides on these buses by simply swiping their Ids upon boarding the bus. There’s quite a lot to explore in Columbus and I hope I can go back to OSU some day for a longer stay.
Return to Stellenbosch:
Leaving Columbus was not easy for me emotionally as I had come to like the place and the friendly people I had met there. Due to financial constraints, I couldn’t visit my friends in the United States and thus headed straight back to South Africa the following day after the summer school. It was sad having to part with my new found friend Stephanie from University of Florida but I was consoled by the fact that she’ll be coming to Stellenbosch for a full semester next year. Unlike my forward journey that had two transfers along the way, my return journey only had one transfer at Washington Dulles airport. My flight was booked with United Airlines, therefore I used South African airlines to and from South Africa and united airline across USA. However, the aircraft we used on the return flight was a bit old, making the journey rather unpleasant but nevertheless we arrived safely. We had a stopover in Accra for fuel refill and other passengers joined us from there. During the stopover, we were not allowed to leave the aircraft since it was only an hour’s stop. There was also a change of the flight crew and cleaning of the cabins in preparation for the forward journey. This is the only time we get to stretch our legs on the long journey. Arriving in Johannesburg, I got onto the Gautrain to Pretoria from the airport to visit friends as I waited for my forward journey to Cape Town a day later. I had booked my flight to and from Cape Town with Mango airline and given my financial constraints, I wasn’t able to get same day flight. It was thus cost-effective to have a long layover in Johannesburg before my next flight. This actually turned out to be a blessing as I was very exhausted after the return flight from the US. The Gautrain is such a great asset as it makes the airport easily accessible at a low cost from around Johannesburg and Pretoria. I hope we will have a similar facility at the Cape Town airport someday. I must say, the Gautrain is very comfortable and secure with luggage storage compartments. For anyone with a long layover at O.R. Tambo, you can always hop onto the Gautrain and check out the city. Just make sure to check the train timetable to avoid missing your next flight. The Gautrain app is also available for download and gives updates on train times. There are storage facilities for luggage at the airport that can be utilised if required.
After all is said and done, I am glad I made the long journey because it was worthwhile. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The summer school opened up my mind to several other approaches to disease modelling besides use of ordinary differential equation such as discrete event modelling, stochastic differential equations, meta-populations and networks. I look forward to using some of the newly acquired skills in my PhD research that I’ll be starting soon. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the PGIO for the travel bursary that enabled me to attend this summer school. Thank you for supporting student progress and development. You make Stellenbosch University one of a kind!