World Cup Fever

Go to the street view in Brasil Google

https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/brazils-painted-streets?gl=us


See how everyone has decorated for the cup
Also read about Brasilian Neuroscientist and the opening of the cup... exciting days ahead
http://www.fic.nih.gov/News/GlobalHealthMatters/may-june-2014/Pages/nih-brazil-collaborations.aspx?utm_campaign=ghm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ghmjun2014
Happy travels
 

The journey to Brazil continues....quando a gente quer, consegue

Three years ago, it was in Murphy´s Pub in Champaign, IL that everything began. I was invited for a social event by a friend of a friend. He was carioca and Brazilian and the only one I knew when I moved to Champaign. He invited to meet the exchange students who were coming from all over Brazil to do research and courses in the U.S. I said, why not? I arrived there and sat down with probably 20-25 Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students. I was excited to meet them and converse with them and thought my Spanish would be enough to communicate. However, I was in for a nasty surprise when I sat down and my brain could not interpret the sounds of Portuguese. I smiled and try to initiate conversations in English, but the loud noise of all the Brazilians speaking in Portuguese at the same time was overwhelming. I switched to Spanish and then they listened and laughed. They started to make jokes about my portunhol. At that moment I felt frustrated, but I promise, I will show these Brazilians that I will be able to speak in one year! Little did I know that my encounter with those exchange students would change my life forever.

I started learning Brazilian Portuguese on my own with a podcast/website called Tá Falado. The conversations of these podcasts were in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I started attending all the social events that the Brazilian exchange students posted, and practiced my bad Portuguese. They kept making fun of me, but I didn´t care because I wanted to learn. I continued practicing, made more friends, started to read the online Brazilian newspapers, dated Brazilian women, tried to Facebook in Portuguese as much as possible with my Brazilian friends. I took an intensive Beginner course in Portuguese, and my teacher from Fortaleza, really taught me how to write and conjugate verbs, enough that I could write emails and letters. I became a top student in her class. 

In 2012, I took a leave of absence from school and had the opportunity of coming to Rio de Janeiro to work on a social project. I lived there 6 months and I worked in Casa do Caminho Language Centre where I perfected my Brazilian Portuguese and could hold long conversations related to the economy, the problems that Brazilians face, and philosophical conversations one after the other I began to connect very deeply with the Brazilian culture. I had the opportunity to travel through different parts of Brazil and see how the culture and the vocabulary changed as I moved through different regions and states. I met people in Rio that I would never forget and as I flew back to Puerto Rico and the United States, I made a promise to myself that I would come back as a medical student. I simply knew, there was more for me here in Brazil, so much more to learn and to experience.

Now, I am back in Brazil, thanks to MHIRT. I will be working in a famous laboratory in the College of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo. My advisor Lea Grinberg, an MD/PhD neuropathologist trained here, in Germany and in Washington University St Louis, has many interesting projects in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer´s, Parkinson´s and vascular dementia. This week I had the change to experience the process of collecting the brains from the patients. I was shocked. The São Paulo Autopsy service is a huge enterprise! The amount of people required for the entire process that make it to the autopsy service is massive and it was definitely an experience to see fresh bodies postmortem and how the different it is from the bodies donated for my anatomy course. The pathologies I see are fascinating and the organs look better than any book. I have also had the opportunities to interact with family members who are taking about the history of their loved ones, including their lifestyle habits. I have so much to learn from the scientists, the physicians, and the people that work in the school. I am so grateful and happy to be here!

Welcome! Agandi?

It has officially been one week that Daryl and I have been in Uganda! We arrived here last Friday half past 10 o'clock at night at the Entebbe airport and then stayed at Entebbe Backpackers before walking up the next morning and getting a ride through a friend to Ishaka, where we would spend the rest of our time here for the summer. On the way, however, we stopped at the capital, Kampala, where we were able to see how busy and congested the city was. It was a big difference compared to our final destination of Ishaka, where there is bountiful land and small shops and stores that line the roads before Ishaka Adventist Hospital grounds. This place is where we will be staying at the Medical Director's house on top of a major hill, where anyone can see the rest of the small town of Ishaka. Even though a week has not been long enough I feel as if I have gotten a taste of the food, customs, and language here. Everything in Uganda is slowed down to a much relaxed pace compared to the fast scheduled atmosphere of America. When someone here in Uganda says they will arrive at, for example, 2 o'clock that person really means he or she will arrive between one hour to two hours later. As well there are so many different names for different types of food. For example there are many types of banana, which have different tastes and uses. There is matooke, which is one of the staple foods here and is eaten almost at every meal. But there is also gonja, which is a regular ripe banana, and also "sweet bananas", which are mini bananas that are super sweet. Lastly for the languages spoken here there is a hierarchy that can be used depending on where a person is at. English is at the top for international use, Swahili is then next, then Luganda (which is a uniting national language), and lastly the local dialects, which in Ishaka is runyankole. However most people here speak their native dialect. We are also just getting started with the research that will be done here and have only been able to go to one site or village for sensitization with the Ishaka Health Plan, which is the group we are working with, but I am looking forward to this coming week!

 

This is a view from on top of the hill of where we are staying at and we can view the town of Ishaka below.

8,000 Miles from Home with No Cheese in Sight

Hello from Ishaka, Uganda! Alex and I have been here for one week now and are loving it. We have been working both in the Ishaka Health Plan office and in the field this week, but we have also had time to explore Ishaka and the neighboring towns in the meantime. Since we will be working closely with IHP this summer to conduct research regarding community-based health insurance, the staff have been showing us the ropes in Ishaka and have taught us so much already.

Ishaka Health Plan staff and field workers: Susan, Kyankwenge, Susie Acuff, Kakunta Daniel (IHP scheme manager), Daryl Stephens (me), Alex Boss, and Elisa. We have really enjoyed getting to know the staff this week and have learned so much from them about the language and the culture. We know they will really take care of us when Susie is gone!

The view from the guesthouse at the top of the hill- below is the Ishaka Health Plan office and more of the hospital campus. Unfortunately, this picture does not show how big this hill actually is- nor does it show the crazy owl that supposedly attacks people as they walk up at night. Still, gotta love the view!

As we were leaving the village of Nyakashebeya after a sensitization about the Health Plan, many of the children from the school (who had patiently been waiting outside of the gate for us) decided to chase after the car to say "bye" to their guests. Some of them made it pretty far, but I guess it's not everyday that you get to see a muzungu (white person) in the village.

We had a "day off" on Friday to explore some of the places we will be going for our retreat in a few weeks, and we just casually saw some elephants chilling by the side of the road. Life in rural Africa is pretty great when you get to see such amazing sights as this.

And finally, the view from our abode- known here as the Medical Director's house. Bushenyi and Ishaka are beautiful, and I am so grateful to wake up and see this every morning (it is really hard to not wake up with all of the goats, crows, roosters, and even a donkey making noise early in the morning, but then again, it's all part of the package!).

(Ana- left, Amaka- right)

Boa noite, friends and family! This post will hopefully show you just a bit of how great Floripa has been! It's strange that we've only been here a few days, because it already feels like a home...but Amaka, Ana and I love it :) We start our lab work next week, so for now we're just exploring. I'll write a longer post giving more details soon, but for now- enjoy the show!

My first flight from Dallas to Miami! I think I heard English only when they gave the first set of safety directions. The Sao Paulo and Florianopolis participants all met in Miami to fly to Sao Paulo together.

 My first EVER international flight. It was definitely the largest plane I've been on. Have you seen the commercial with the toddler that comes and apologizes to the woman for "repeatedly kicking the back of [her] seat?" Yep... it was right.. doesn't happen in real life. Luckily the little soccer player/drummer behind me and I had the same sleep schedules! (PS- the food isn't bad)

Every seat had a TV for entertainment; I watched a little of Whoopi Goldberg Presents: Moms Mabley. 

 Landing in Florianopolis! The picture almost does the colors justice, and the mountains- much greater in person! Perfect weather. 

 This is our pousada-- a lot like an apartment anywhere else. Let me just tell you though, the best part is the view!

 This is right outside.. no more than 30 steps to where Ana is standing! It's part of the Lagoa da Conceicao.

 This is the jar we thought would never be opened. We tried hot water, cold water, knives (we were careful, don't worry), banging it-- all of the girls gave up! Luckily, our landlord Duilio is right upstairs. This is the kind of thing in the rental agreement right? Opening jars? He is basically the strongarm around here, and so nice!

 All of the walls around our pousada are covered in great art like this!

 This is just a short walk from where we live! This is more of the lagoa and you can even see the place we use (dark blue sign) to buy cheaper fruits and vegetables (1.69 reais per kilo... just put anything in the same bag for weighing)

Today we went to the mall to buy our Brazilian phones-- this is the view from the food court! (get your stuff together Galleria and Northpark) Can you see the McDonald's reflection in the first photo?

 A better view of part of the Lagoa from the top of the hill. Just past that is the ocean (whited out a bit)!

 Here is another view--you can even see our pousada in this one! Can you find it? The sand dunes on the other side of bridge are a visit for the future... more on that later! - Elizabeth