Safe, Reckless Fun

At the beginning of summer a friend of mine gave me an interesting piece of advice: “Be safe and have reckless fun”. At the time, this oxymoron confused me. How could I simultaneously be safe and be reckless? Without a clue on how to go about it, I set out to concur my newly found challenge.  I attempted to get a tattoo in Brazil, but failed because nobody in the tattoo parlor spoke English. I tried going out and having a wild night of intoxication, and failed twice, one ending in me being completely sober. By late June, I ended my reckless attempts and focused my attention on traveling.

Since, I learned I would be spending my summer in Brazil I began planning the many cities, and counties I would visit while I was in South America.  Unfortunately, my American housemates did not have the same vision in mind. After a month of trying my best to persuade them otherwise, which only resulted in a visiting to an island off the coast of Sao Paulo, I gave up. I realized that if I wanted to travel, I would have to do it, solo.

The thought of traveling around a foreign country and into nearby countries without speaking the native language, terrified me. Many times, I thought of dismissing my thoughts of travel and staying at home, where everything was familiar. At the beginning of July, I went to Rio de Janerio with my housemate from Columbia. There I met a few travelers who had been solo traveling around the world! They assured me that I would have nothing to worry about and if I decided to travel alone I would have the time of my life.  It was in Rio, where my worries started to drift away and my inner reckless took over.

Since then, I have traveled to Buenos Aries, Argentina and Manaus, Brazil by myself. Looking back, I realize that during my adventures, I put myself in a couple of sticky situations that could have ended terribly, but through the grace of god, they did not.

I am currently sitting on a beach in the middle of the rainforest in Manaus, Brazil reflecting on my choices. I have traveled throughout Brazil and Buenos Aries. My phone was stolen. (In Sao Paulo ironically) I misread my iternary and went to the airport when my flight was not scheduled until the next day…twice. I’ve ridden on the back of a motorcycle for the first time. I’ve seen many world wonders. I’ve flown first class. I’ve rode on a speed boat. I’ve made friends from all around the world some of whom spoke English, while others did not.

I am damn near broke, phoneless, and covered in bug bites, but I would not change a thing. Between my travels, my research, and my amazing mentors, I have had the best summer ever! I learned, I created, I laughed and I cried. But most importantly, I had safe and reckless fun!

Me at the metting of the Negro river and the Amaazon river

A Doomed Trip

I'm a planner. Spontaneity and last minute decision making as well as deviating from the plan give me anxiety. This is one of the aspects of my character that has really been tested in Brazil, because normally even when I begin the day with a plan it usually gets deterred by a new adventure, a language barrier, or any other countless things that can happen while traveling.

This is all to say that planning our weekend trip to Foz do Iguacu was an absolute anxiety enducing nightmare for me. Everything last minute. Everything going wrong. Every problem solved produced a few more. I really and truly thought it was just not something I was meant to experience.

Even after ATM debacles, debit card denials and finally successfully booking the bus tickets just 6 hours before their departure, sometimes the bus breaks down in the outskirts of Curitiba at 11 PM and you anxiety reaches an all time high as your brain races to figure out a way to shelter for the night. (Another bus came for us about an hour later, no worries)

BUT the good news is, that even despite all this challenges and tests, you may just end up in the most beautiful place you've ever seen enjoying a free capirinha at "capi hour" at your hostel that's built out of storage containers wondering how it all worked out without meticulous planning execution.

So, my aniexty-ridden friends, take the 18 hour bus ride though rural mountainous Brazil and try not to fret about things that are out of your control because you still may end your day with a free capirinha in hand.

And some pretty great new memories:

Iguazu falls!

Although kind of cute, these animals are lowkey dangerous

Brazilian side of Igauzu falls

Got a bit wet for this picture but totally worth it! Another picture of the Brazilian side

Hola Again!!!

                We (Abrania, Jennifer, and I) have been here in Nicaragua for almost seven weeks, and we have completed four of the total six weeks of the previously mentioned Women’s Empowerment internship.

                The research of the Women’s Empowerment internship centers around the rural community of La Danta, La RACCS, Nicaragua which is about a 10-12 hour trip from Managua.  We are specifically interested in the prenatal care practices of pregnant women in the 12 sectors of La Dante including the sectors El Cerro, La Mona, and El Santa Fe. Using Barrier Analysis, a research method created by Tom Davis, we are trying to discover the barriers that hinder women of the community from attending 4 or more prenatal health visits; prenatal care is one of the first steps in helping to prevent infant/maternal mortality. The Barrier Analysis method requires that 90 surveys be completed with 45 being doers of the behavior of interest and 45 being non-doers of the behavior of interest. In the past 2 visits to La Danta we were able to obtain two thirds of the needed total through hiking to the homes of all three sectors, going to schools, and having health stations.

                Another goal of the Women’s Empowerment internship is to decrease infant and maternal mortality through empowerment of the women of the community. The past week in the community featured two levels of the empowerment through trainings. We had a one-day training for the general women of the community that featured education about nutrition and prevention/combating anemia. The other training (2 days) was for a group of women that volunteer to help improve the health of the pregnant women and other mothers of the community; the group of women have the title of “madres voluntarias.”

 We are currently preparing for the fifth week which will be spent in the campo* (La Danta). As this is the third and final week that we will spend in the campo, we will strive to complete the research and trainings that we started during our previous weeks in the community. We are exactly on schedule with the amount of Barrier Analysis surveys that we need to have conducted, so I am pretty hopeful that we will be able to obtain the remaining third (30 surveys) during the upcoming week.

In closing, I am super excited to say that I have really been enjoying the internship. The time that we spend in the campo is challenging, but it also allows us to better understand the barriers that the women of the community face on a daily basis. The final two weeks will be both amazing and bittersweet.

Hasta la proxima vez,

Kayla Somerville

*campo means countryside or rural area in spanish

Our 2nd Week in La Danta, Nicaragua

The Ambulance

This is the “ambulance” and our form of transportation to our community en La RACCS. We pack as much of our supplies, mosquito nets, mud boots, and bags on top and hope we have enough room for ourselves below.

La Danta: Presentation of Nutrition Information to El Cerro

We traveled to a distant part of the community during our second visit. Some of the community members were nice enough to lend us horses to make the journey. We presented the statistics we collected from our health stations during the first visit and discussed portion size and food groups with a group of women from this sector of the community. We also reviewed danger signs during pregnancy and discussed the steps to take if one of these danger signs occurs to oneself or a neighbor.

La Danta: Women’s Empowerment

This is a picture of Kenia, a nurse from AMOS who works specifically with the community of La Danta and a few communities nearby. We were going house to house on this day gathering data for our barrier analysis. We are currently looking for barriers to pregnant women in the community completing at least four prenatal checkups during their pregnancies. We will be leaving tomorrow to go back to the community for further training with the “Madres Voluntarias” and to collect more data from the women in the community.