(Me in front of São Francisco de Assis in Ouro Preto)
I started this blog a week ago and have been promising many people that it would get posted. Before I begin, I would like to thank Dr. Jonathan Golub at JHSPH and Dr. Angelica Espionsa Miranda at UFES for their support with my grant. I must also thank the MERCK Summer Scholars Program selection committee and the public health studies administration (Dr. Goodyear, Dr. Gebo, Dr. Galambos, Ms. Folda, and Ms. Beckemeyer) and the funding from MERCK & Co.
And although I know it will be impossible to write about the last nearly three weeks, I will give it a try…
I will admit that I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I left for Brazil. On June 2nd, the day of my departure, I had concluded that I was indeed crazy for going on this trip. I had no understanding of Portuguese besides for being able to say that I do not speak Portuguese. I had decided that I was crazy for wanting to leave my home life and my daily routine of gardening, spending time with friends, and watching NBA basketball and NY Yankees games. The uncertainty had finally hit me: I had no idea what my apartment would be like, the people I would work with, the friends that I would make, nor how to call to the United States once I got there. I was heading into a world of unknown; one that had sounded awfully exciting in March (when I had heard word that I would be receiving a MERCK Summer Scholars Program Award).
And although I think my closest friends (including family) knew that I was in for an adventure, I don’t think they were surprised by the fact that I was embarking into a land of uncertainty. Looking back, I have spent summers in strange places: once on a farm in Pennsylvania, four summers whale watching in Canada on an island with no stop lights, one summer trip to China volunteering in an orphanage, and so on. I didn’t realize it until this summer that I really do have quite a collection of summer memories.
Anyway, once I got on the plane and heard Brazilian music playing, I had a quick thought to get off the plane and go back home. Was I really ready for this? Was Brazil really a country I wanted to spend two months in? The thought of returning home quickly vanished and I decided that I just needed to go with it and see where life would take me next. I had created this trip and had written the proposal for this grant. I was not following the itinerary of a program nor did I have any travel companions to lean on. This was my adventure (aventura) and I could make it what I wanted to be.
(On a side note, I woke up on the first day to the cacophony produced by the combination of Brazilian party music, roosters, dogs, parrots and continued to question what I was getting myself into. Luckily, I have become accustomed.)
Now nearing three weeks into my nine week adventure, it seems absurd that I was once choosing between my town in NJ (yes, I still love you Mom) and Vitoria, the city of 300,000 people that I am in in Brazil,to spend the summer in. I still do not know how to speak Portuguese. Nor have I fallen for Brazil´s beef (yes, I am managing to still be a vegetarian, though I have turned down both cow liver and heart) and coffee. Nor have I learned how to dance samba. But with that being said, I absolutely love it here. I really couldn´t be happier with this opportunity that my Hopkins education (and more specifically MERCK and the public health studies program) has given me. Not only am I doing public health research and learning about a completely different health and education system, but I am traveling. At my brother’s graduation they kept saying to go out into the world because “the world is your classroom.” It sounded beyond cliche then, but now in Brazil where I have spent most of my time self-educating I realize more and more that education is so much more than at the Homewood campus.
Not only have I learned about another culture here, but I have continued to self-teach myself computer programs like SPSS and Microsoft Access. I have been spending hours reading about tuberculosis and HIV in Brazil. Additional time leisurely reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer (by Tracy Kidder). And even more time learning from Brazilian students about how they view their own country and the United States (although I will admit that trying to explain our health care “system” is nearly impossible). By the end of the day I do not feel as stressed as I do at the end of some days at Hopkins. The days are much more slow-paced here (with two hour lunch breaks) and I pretty much have control of how to best approach the day. With that being said, I still think I am taking more in than I ever could back in Baltimore. Baltimore has given me a love for public health and the feasibility to allow me to experience my love of travel, but Brazil has given me something else.
I will now quit my ranting and get back to the heart of this blog. Why am I here and what I have done so far. I arrived on Wednesday, June 3rd and immediately began to understand the island city of Vitoria a bit more. My second night here I quickly realized that I would not be recognized as a foreigner here until I started speaking. For example, once a store owner at a local ice cream corner store told one boy that the girl outside spoke English, I managed to attract fifteen twelve year-olds as they stared at me speaking English. Anyway, I live in an apartment (see two pictures above) that is shared by two graduate students in their late 20s. One is Brazilian and has a nursing degree and now is working on her masters degree in the equivalent of a MPH in Brazil. The other is from Peru and moved here in March. She is a nutritionist and is also working on a MPH-like degree. Her boyfriend has lived here for over two years and is 33 and a doctorate student in electrical engineering (here you have to get a masters degree before a doctorate degree). They all are students at UFES (Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo). Our apartment is a ten minute walk from the medical campus (which has an office of infectious diseases, nursing school, health library, a university hospital, biotechnology labs, medical school) of UFES and about a ten minute bus ride to the other side of the city where the main campus is that teaches everything else. Sounds a lot like Hopkins, ay? (A picture of my walk to work is on the right.)
I work in the office of infectious disease under the supervision of Angelica, an OB/GYN who just stopped practicing in March, so that she could focus on research. She just wrote proposals for three grants and is working on/supervising eight studies. She also travels a lot. Last week she was in Manaus and next week she will be going to France. Although, because of IRB approval, which study I would work on has changed three times now, I have finally chosen to work on HIV co-infection in those with Tb in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo. The data of nearly 10,000 patients has been collected and I have been working on analyzing the data on SPSS. I am very glad to be working on this project. I am beginning to find Tb in Brazil very interesting. Brazil is listed as number 14 on a list of 22 countries with the highest-burden of Tb. This is higher than expected and although some attribute it to uncontrolled urban growth many others would say that it was the delayed acceptance (until 2004) of the DOTS program by the public health system. Co-infection is also interesting because as Tb (thought of an ancient disease) combines with HIV, it creates an even greater problem due to drug resistance and people becoming more susceptible to these diseases.
I was also able to tour the small Tb outpatient center at the hospital here and look at the program that they have set-up here. I have been working on this study with the support of not just Angelica, but also a nurse who is now a graduate student and two medical students. There is no undergraduate program in public here (nor is there in most universities in the United States), so although working with older students that are definitely more medically-inclined here has been a little intimidating they have surprisingly been accepting and open to my opinion. On the side, I have been helping people with their English translations here. Most people do not like speaking in English (and many have never had the opportunity to speak English regularly), but the students constantly read and write complicated journal articles in English. One student asked me about past perfect and I will admit I had to look up what the tense exactly was and then try to explain it. Even I was confused by the English language. I have also been searching for articles on the Hopkins library website for fellow students since here you have to pay for every article and it is not free through the university. I was surprised by this at first, but then I realized that tuition is free for students here and that a Hopkins tuition does go to good use. I could go on and on about Tb and about the university, but I will end by saying that my office is where rapid HIV tests are manufactured for the area (see picture). I am definitely impressed by this.
Moving on to my friends and adventures. I am very lucky to have a roommate, Gabriela, who speaks Spanish, En
glish, and Portuguese and who just moved to Brazil in March. Why? Well, because she wants to explore Brazil too (and also has a love for chocolate). And because she has a great group of friends. Her boyfriend, Jorge, has a good friend Anibal who is also from Peru and has a Nikon that he has been taking lots of pictures on. The two are both electrical engineers and are friends with Alesandro, who is the brother of Fernanda, a biotechnology student. Gabriela knows the best English in the group, but all of them have made aneffort to speak English with me (which I’m extremely grateful for). And although I am the baby in the group, I have literally been accepted with open arms. Fernanda brought us all on an adventure last weekend (a four day holiday weekend) to Belo Horizonte (where Fernanda’s boyfriend, Diogo, lives). Here we took a day trip to Ouro Preto (once the main city of the gold rush in Brazil, now a tourist destination with no modern buildings).
I could go on and on about Ouro Preto and about the food in Belo Horizonte (let’s just say, all you can eat pizza and sushi). My book said you will not go hungry in Belo Horizonte and I will agree. This past weekend, Fernanda’s family again opened their arms to me (I have already met both of her parents, her two brothers, three cousins, her sister in-law, her aunt, her uncle, etc). Friday night Fernanda took me out to a restaurant that played country music. I have decided that I am not even going to try to dance here; the Brazilians are way too good. I slept over at her house and her family made breakfast, lunch, and cake the next day. Her family owns a small farm a few hours away and they asked if the three Peruvians and the American (that would be me) would like to go next weekend. How could we turn down a farm trip? I have earned the nickname “Av, Av” here since the girls commonly call other girls by the first syllable in their name, so I would be called “Je, Je.”However, that name was quickly replaced since they realized that my name really should be short for aventura (adventure). I should also say that although I have not always liked having a popular name, here I love having the name Jessica, because absolutely no one has had a problem with my name.
So, there are plenty of adventures in the future. Like the farm trip next weekend. I was also asked to go a friend’s house near a very nice beach during the following weekend. Gabriela and I are planning a trip to Rio on another weekend. And I am sure there will be plenty more aventuras. It’s getting closer and closer to 3 in the morning here, so I should probably be going to bed, but I did promise my dad this blog.
There are things about home that I constantly miss (mainly New Jersey bagels). But, I know that I couldn´t be happier with how I chose to spend my summer (and am considering it lucky that I didn’t get chosen for the two internships I applied to). I know that when I go home there will be things about Brazil that I wish were closer to home. I also know that this is just the beginning of my travels. I plan to spend Spring 2010 abroad (which has, surprisingly, been leaning towards Geneva) and after this experience I would not doubt the possibility of me applying for another grant for Summer 2010.
And to end this, Happy Father’s (and Grandfather’s) Day! Well, it isn’t in Brazil, but oh well. Expect a post in the next two weeks. In the mean time, enjoy a video of a soccer game I went to last weekend (Atletico vs. Nautico) in Belo Horizonte. I can’t even imagine what World Cup 2014 is going to be like in this soccer-crazy country.
