empowerment

Graduating college is terrifying, relieving, yet exciting all at the same time. Given the opportunity to live in Brazil has made the transition a little easier. Living in Brazil hasn't been perfect. I've been forced out of my comfort zone many times, It was harder to make local friends than I expected. It was harder to understand the bus system and get around. Eventually, you just have to go for it. You have to allow yourself to butcher portuguese and maybe you just need to ride the bus and see where it goes. You also meet other travelers who have come from many different paths! This trip has motivated me to continue traveling. For example, I am in Rio de Janerio seeing the olympics and after i'm going to Chile! Places i've always wanted to visit but had no idea when I would actually go.

In another aspect, going to Floripa and having three women as our mentors has been a great motivation. Seeing strong, successful and independent women run their own lab is awesome. Especially in a place like Brazil where it is so machismo. Not only do they exemplify strong women, they were all so laid back and personable. This has led to a very different lab experience than my others. 

Overall, this has been a totally new and great experience that I will forever be thankful for.

WARNING: IMPORTANT ADVICE FOR FUTURE MHIRT FINALISTS

I've looked like a complete idiot everyday in Brazil. But I really needed to. I had no choice! Every friendship made, every conversation I ever had with native Brazilians happened only because of my ability to speak Portuguese. The ONLY way to create meaningful relationships here is to be able to have an open mind to learning. I know what you're thinking 'how could I possibly learn an entire language in only two months?' I'm not asking you to learn it all! But just to try and master certain situations. Google translate, talk, mess up, and keep persisting. The trick is to mess up frequently and consistently. AND TO NOT BE SHY ABOUT IT. I've asked a million questions, googled translated practically every word I can think of, and sounded like a complete idiot a thousand times. But it allowed me to grow as a person, increase my vernacular and navigate busses, supermarkets, bars and general day to day conversations with people. I've met many Americans here who have varying levels of Portuguese fluency. Tomi for example has kept an open mind to learning Portuguese and has managed to pick up the language very rapidly here. Where as other people I've met haven't been as open to learning the language, or rather may have been too intimidated to even begin. And that's ok! But this lead to poorer relationships with native people who may not speak English well or at all. So do your research on the language! Try and learn the basics of how the rules and grammar function and build from there. I know it's tough. I studied two years of Portuguese and I felt lost so many times in Brazil. Now I've arrived at a point where some may consider me fluent. But I only achieved this through constant errors and sounding like a complete idiot. DAILY.  But it has been so worth it. So for the best trip possible, try to become fluent in the language of your country. Never feel bad about messing up and sounding dumb. That's all I've been doing here and it's definitely paying off now. Oh! I don't know about other countries but Netflix in Brazil has Portuguese options. So I watch everything dubbed in Portuguese. You can use subtitles in either Portuguese or English.

As my friend Tomi once wisely told me "you need to sound dumb before you can sound smart"

That was deep.

On Beginning Journeys and How to End Them

“What’s the difference between a researcher and a scientist?” I distinctly recall being caught off guard by this question, unsure if this was the start of a serious conversation or the beginning of some witty banter. “I don’t know,” I said, “a scientist looks for concrete evidence of something and a researcher just seeks more knowledge.” Dr. Linder, who insists that I call her Beth, seemed satisfied with this answer and then offered me another perspective: a researcher starts their journey by thinking of an answer to a problem, and a scientist seeks only to ask a good question. “So,” she asked me, “what do you want to know?”

This question became the start of my 11-week journey to think of the best question I could ask, specifically about female sexual dysfunction. This topic, of course, was partly inspired by my mentor’s previous work and partially inspired by my interest in the recently FDA-approved female viagra (flibanserin). In line with Beth’s previous work, I decided I wanted to know about the effects of fluoxetine, an SSRI, on sexual motivation in female rats. Beth was insistent on providing me with the opportunity to engage in all parts of the scientific process, from the beginning conceptual stages all the way up to data analysis and report writing. Needless to say. my experience in this lab has been beyond phenomenal. I have truly grown more independent as a person and, as a result of working closely with two medical students who were also on a research exchange for a short time, my mind has grown to incorporate other perspectives as well.

As my final stance on the unique experience of traveling like a local, I think goodbyes are always easier when we travel like tourists. Goodbye as a tourist means eating at your favorite place or maybe visiting your favorite beach one last time; however, this goodbye is much different. I am saying goodbye to the outstanding people I have met just as much as I am saying goodbye to Floripa. I will be returning to Memphis entirely content with my experience. I will also return to Memphis and get back-to-the-daily-grind with the humbling knowledge that this place and the people I have met have made more of an impact on me than I have on them.

Final Week of Maternal Health in La Danta

We arrived back to our community, La Danta, for our final visit. It was definitely bittersweet. This was our third trip to the community, and we had all developed friendships with the community members we had been working with. We had also mastered getting down to the shower by the river without falling down the hill which can be really tricky---even in our trendy Nicaraguan rain boots.  It had rained a lot right before we came, so the mud was as thick as ever. We actually had a short delay while driving to the Casa Base (our home away from home in the community) when we got stuck in a huge hole. Thankfully, we had a winch on the front of the AMOS ambulance and were able to hook this to a nearby tree and pull ourselves out. 

                                              

 We arrived on a Saturday in order to survey as many community women as possible the following day at church. We reached our goal of 90 surveys completed for our barrier analysis. We also had two training days with the Madres Voluntarias (Volunteer Mothers) during which time we taught and discussed topics such as communication skills, the three delays to receiving medical care, the danger signs during pregnancy, and how to do a home visit to mothers in the community. The last day we split into two groups and went to supervise the home visits that the new volunteer mothers were conducting. They taught mothers in the community about the danger signs that can occur during pregnancy and explained that the women should seek emergency medical attention if they experience one of these symptoms.

If a woman does experience an emergency situation during her pregnancy, it´s very important to act quickly. Most people in the community do not have a car, but the community has a system in place to locate a car or ambulance as fast as possible to rush the woman to El Ayote (a town 2 to 2.5 hours away). However, if the woman has a very serious complication, she may need to be taken to the better-equipped hospital located in Juigalpa, another 3 hours away. From our own experience in the States, we know that people do not always receive immediate attention, which also happens here in Nicaragua. Therefore, this additional delay can further complicate a very delicate situation.  

These are a few of my favorite things...in Uganda

1) The Town of Kabale

Living in Kabale for over the past few months has been great. I have found Kabale as my second home. The town always has something going on from an impromptu soccer game to trade show selling local crafts. Here you can see mountainous terrain and the field in the center of town where all the major events occur.





2) Hiking and Exploring Uganda

Every weekend trip’s journey has had its unique story. For example, to travel to Ssese Islands we took a car for 6 hours, a ferry across Lake Victoria, a motorcycle ride across an island, and finally a small boat ride to the island. Most if not all of our travels have involved some sort of hiking. In this picture we went hiking in Kisoro, Uganda near the three corners where Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet.

3) Beautiful Sunsets

The sunsets in Uganda seize to amaze me. No matter where we are we always make it our mission to catch the beautiful sunsets of Uganda. My favorite is pictured over the Rwenzori Mountains in Fort Portal near the Kyaninga Crater Lake.

4) The Ugandan People

The Ugandan people are very generous and kind people. I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to live with them, and they are always willing to lend a helping hand. Because I truly consider them my family I have not yet experienced homesickness. The first group of students were researchers from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) that lived and worked with us for the entirety of the summer.

ShaCoria and I with Dr. Esau and the dentist Frank at the general clinic on our last day in Uganda. We will miss them, and we can’t wait to see them when they visit us in the U.S.

 5) My research team

This summer the research team consisted of Kara, ShaCoria, and I and our wonderful research assistants Brenda, Joan, Margaret, and Blessings. Without them we couldn't have completed our research. Kara and ShaCoria made my summer better than I could have ever imagined. Throughout long trips on the bus and hours of transcribing interviews they always made me laugh. I have and continue to have the most supportive colleagues and friends. I learned an immense amount of valuable information from them including research methods, anthropological theory, and about life in general. I will be forever grateful for my time with them and my CBU MHIRT experience.