It appears that we may all have come to then end of our blogpost relationship with Joel from Afar. Tonight is our last night in Sao Paulo and tomorrow we head out to a retreat for three days where we wil relax do evaluations and say our goodbyes to the group. I will contiune to Argintina to see Nida! and than head home to Saratoga to graduate, time flies. In any case check back a couple times more for some final pictures and videos that I want to post once i get back to the US and possibly some info from Argentina.

The last few days here have been busy with writing papers, finishing case studies and trying to do as much in teh city as possible. A couple nights ago I discovered that I am a line dance champion well at a Samba bar which specialized in line dancing I excelled like no other. It is a bummer that line danceing went out with the 1750s or was is the 1760s? Either way I really missed that boat on that one, but it can never hurt to know ones strenghts I suppose. Other than line dancing I have been running, ad realized that I missed te Sao Paulo marathon which was today if only I would have known I would have loved to run that o well.

Academically I am officially done with my college carer which feels good. IHP was an excellent way to finish my education allowing me to take what I have learned over the past three years and add in a whole new outlook on much of the information. I feel that it is imposible to sum up even small amounts of all the informaton I have aquired during this experience, but in time I am confident that I will be able to answer the dreaded question "so what was your favorite country." Other than that this trip has really helped to make me muh more aware of the health desparities across countries and withing classes in cities all around the world. Everywhere we went although there re completly different backgrounds the problems are all the same. The people with money get better health care than those who have no money. I guess that would be one of the major themes of this entire program, although we really did not address how to correct this problem but I suppose being aware of the issues is the first step.

So incase I dont get to put another post before I get back home thanks for following along, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed living it (if that is possible). Cant wait to talk to many of you soon!

joel

Ituveraba

My host family in Iteveraba w yoshi and francis

Rodeo

Church in the center square

Sunset (but really just a street light)

So the past five days have been some of the most action packed days of IHP. Last Thursday we all loaded onto the bus to travel six hours inland to Ituverava a small city (similar to Rome (NY)). As I mentioned before we came to this area during a five night festival which consisted of a rodeo and concert each night. I am going to go into detail on this as well as the academic portion which was really interesting as well. naturally I will talk about the festival first so if you really want to read about the academics first skip down some...

So the Cowboy festival each night it started at 9pm and went until 2 or 3. It consisted of a rodeo and followed by a concert each night. Every night there was a different group performing and they are all decently famous withing Brazil so everyone in the crowd was extremely excited to see each act. The best part about festival was that we were official guests of the Mayor in Ituveraba. Due to this we had all access passes to everything in the festival. It allowed us to ride rides for free, get in for free, and most importantly get into the mayors box as a VIP. In the mayors box was food and drinks! also on the house. The entire experience was crazy. We all were with host families as well and each host family also went to the festival each night as well. We would end up not leaving until 130-2 in the morning, which isnt all that late except that classes each morning started at 730...

Now you guess it academics. Once we all actually woke up from the nights passed we saw how much there was to see and learn about health and health care in this area. The first day we visited a sugar cane plant where they farm and harvest sugar cane as well as produce ethanol as a Biofuel. This is an extremely crucial industry here and provides many jobs in the community. The next day just to highlight another extremely interesting aspect of Brazil is when we visited the rural health workers station. Basically in each community (in many rural areas of Brazil) there are small medical stations staffed with a doctor and a few nurses as well as 10 or so health workers. It is the health workers job to visit all the people in the neighborhood once a month to check up on their health and make sure everyone in the family is doing well. Each station serves about 200-250 families. Any sickness that they come across is brought to the attention of the resident doctor. in many cases the problem can be fixed right there and there is no need for A) the person s stay sick B) go to the hospital and overburden the health care system. This system at least from our limited exposure seems to be extremely effective at addressing preventative medicine since all people in the community have their voice heard when a problem arises, and even if there isn't a problem there are still people within the community to talk to. Very efficient I was really impressed by this.

We are now in our last week of IHP which is crazy next week we go on a 4 day retreat and then I will be heading to Argentina. This week we are focusing on case studies and my group is looking into mental health and body image in Brazil in the transvestite population, there is a large transvestite population in Sao Paulo and we are all very excited to see what information we can collect.

Only two weeks left now... Over the past week we have had our fair share of lectures NGO visits and general exploring of the city and its surroundings. A highlighted NGO was GAPA which works on legal aspects for people living with AIDS. They provide support for the community and help out with legal assistance when ever possible. Next week they have planned a nation wide protest to tell the governement that more ARVs must be made avaliable to those who are sick. Also on the 26th is their 25 year aniversary party which we are all invited to. They will be releasing a book on this date that deals with women and AIDS in Brazil.



Last weekend we went to the beach which is about an hour away. We had origianlly planned to take the bus but one of our host moms decided that she wanted to come so we got to drive there instead. The system that they have on the beaches here is that you can get beach chairs and umbrellas and if you buy drinks then you dont have to pay for the chairs (great system). Apart from the warm water the second best thing about the beaches here is the fresh coconuts that you can buy and drink the water inside, very refreshing.



Tomorrow we are leaveing Sao Paulo for 5 days and heading 5 hours inland to Ituveraba for our rural stay. During the week we are there we are official guests of the mayor and his wife. Also during this time the regional cowboy festival is going on which apparently is a big party that happens for 5 nights staright so this should be fun. Academically we have a very busy schedule during this time, visiting hospitals and meeting with public health workers in the area.

Sooo ahh yeah I will put more info up soon and hopefully it will be more entertaining/informative not really feeling to creative at the moment so live laugh love for now.

Joel

Some overdue pictures of my time in Brazil so far. I realized after looking at them that I have snapped very few pictures in Sao Paulo as of now. So I will get on that and get back to you with some great images of my current surroundings, along whit that i will give a further update on Joel From Afar the Brazil addition. until that time enjoy the pics, and know that I am doing well learning massive amounts and taking full advantage of all that Brazil has to offer.



The IHP guys

Panorama: untitled

Rio at night at the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain

Fisherman

The Beaches of Rio at dusk

Brazil the beggining of the end

I apologize for the lack of blogging in the recent past, with the whole country transition and a quick trip to Rio time has gotten away from me. We have been in Sao Paulo for a week now and it is, well it is huge. 12 million people and high rises everywhere you look. We arrived in Brazil during recorded rain falls that haven't been seen in 50 years. The situation in Rio was pretty bad as I am sure that many saw on the news. Naturally that was where I headed within the first couple days if being in Brazil. By the time I arrived most of the rain had ceased and people were in the process of repairing te damages. I went to Rio to see Nida in Rio which was great after being apart for 3 months, and once the rain stopped we were able to enjoy the beaches and explore the city.

we are now underway with classes and are studying at teh Santa Canza medical school in the center of the city. We are currently learning about the general health system in Brazil which is universal meaning that any procedure or treatment needed by a Brazilian citizen is guaranteed by the government. As a professor said to us *Hopefully one day you in America will have health care like this*... maybe someday. This week we are also looking at women's reproductive health. Visiting NGOs that deal with these issues and hearing first hand accounts of different birthing strategies in BR. I got to visit an NGO called Catholics for the Right to Choose, which as it sounds is a NGO that pushes for the acceptance of abortion as something that in some situations should be accepted by the Catholic church. Very interesting view that is meet with much resistance here . Tomorrow we are heading to hospitals within Sao Paulo to get a first hand account off access to health care.

All in all I am loving the city. it is easy to navigate with a subway system and bus system that are efficient. I am living on a street that apparently has the most expensive shops in the Americas trumped only by Sacs 5th Ave. My host family is very nice and the city is beautiful. It is a problem taking the subway home at night since it is rush hour, and trying to get off the train feels similar to the birthing experiences which we have been hearing about all week (yeah it is that crowded). Look for more in the following days as we now have
Internet at our home so I will put up pictures and more stories and info very soon. I hope everyone is doing well and look forward to talking in person to everyone in a month!

A view of our class room and the valley in Mau Chau

Houses on stilits.

We got back from our rural visit yesterday. It is amazing how quickly time passess. The week there as well as the month in Vietnam is over. Although I am really looking foward to Brazil it is tough to leave here. Today at 8pm we head to the airport where at 12 midnight we take off layover in paris and finally land in Sao Paulo. A grand total of 24 hours in the air... Everyone is pretty excited about Braizl. Last night we had a fairwell dinner with our host families at the largest buffet I have ever seen. Foods from all over the world, fresh fruits, Vietnamese food. You name it it was there. At this buffet I expanded my list of crazy things to have tried by eating a grilled baby sparrow. It tasted a lot like chicken and looked exatly like the baby birds that I caught last summer, so i find my self in a pickle do I catch the birds and collect data or catch them and eat them haha.

Today most of us are saying goodbye to our families as well as working on a paper that is due when we land in Brazil. Yes we could do it on the plane but thats one of the only times we get to catch up on TV and movies. Being college students, and having our priorities of course we are going to watch the movies. That leaves us with today to finish up the last of our assignments. Well I guess that is it for now. Look for updates from Brail!

Joel

HaLong Bay

View of the mountains from the boat
Out boat
Kayaking through the caves
Killer penguin
Amazing Views
HaLong bay fooolll


This weekend IHP went to HaLong bay. The only way to really describe the area is by saying that if you have seen Avatar, well imagine the floating mountains but in water, that is what it looked like. We had the privilege of sailing on a boat for a day and a half through channels between these mountains that were jutting out of the water. Our first stop on our trip was a gigantic cave that we got to explore. It was a pretty neat area but it was lite up by neon blue, and green, and red, which reminded me of Disney world more than a cave in Vietnam, also there were penguins in the cave (see picture) Mario Kart anyone? After leaving the cave we took the boat to the beach where we got to jump into the extremely salty water. That evening we were served (I am assuming) fresh sea crab, fish cakes, and squid. It all tasted really good, from dinner we moved on to the highlight of the evening... Karaoke. Barbie Girl, and Man I feel like a Women may or may not have been sung at this time, but I can assure you if they had it sounded good. The next morning we got to take out the kayaks and explore the caves around the area. on all the rock walls you could see where the water level used to be and now the water is a good 3 feet lower, becasue of that we were able to kayak through what used to be underwater caves, now just regular caves and much more practical to kayak through. The caves led to huge rock quarries with walls hundreds of feet high, it was a great way to start off the morning. Upon return to the boat we set sail back to the harbor andheaded back to Hanoi, where I am currently working on a paper due tomorrow. Tomorrow we head to inland Vietnam for a rural homestay for the week. Here we will look at what access rural Vietnamese have to health care and the different methods of treatments they use. Also on the schedule is a volleyball tournament, not really sure what that is about but I am pretty excited bout that.

Case Studies

Today we had our second round of case studies. Groups looked at issues ranging from the two child policy and how that affects womens reproductive health to the effects of street food play into the health of the Hanoi population. My groups over the past 3 days have been reseraching Health Seeking Behaviors of rural and urban populations. We interviewed doctors, and a scholar on urbanization. We also traveled to a rural area to interview the people. We returned to the National Traditional Hospital and talked with some patients seeking health care there as well. Our main goal was to assess how social networks affected the health seeking behaviors of these different groups. In short we found that people in urban areas felt like they had less social support than those in rural areas. In many cases rural people will accompany those who are sick to hospitals. The flip side of this though is that the urban population has much greater access to health care, on average it takes 5-10 minutes to seek care while rural people may have to travel anywhere from .5-2 days to get care. It is a very interesting topic and we only touched the surface of the issue.

Tomorrow our group travels to HaLang bay for the night. We will be sailing on a boat around the coastal islands of Vietnam. On monday we will leave Hanoi and go for a week to a rural home-stay where we will continue classes as well as gain perspective on the health and lives of rural Vietnamese.

Sapa

"Midnight train to Sapa"



This weekend four of us traveled to Sapa an area in central northern Vietnam. In the past this location was used as a mountainous retreat for the French. It was later mostly destroyed during war time and later rebuilt as a tourist destination in the 90's. We traveled by over night train which left at 8pm and arrived at 5 am. From the station we were meet by our guide Co Pra (sounds like Cobram bad ass I know) and made the final hour leg of the journey by bus. Needless to say the area was beautiful. In Sapa one can look upon the tallest mountain in Vietnam and although there was a lot of mist you it is possible to feel just how big it is. Sapa and the surrounding region is home to two of the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. In Sapa they set up a market to sell hand made goods to tourists as well as to each other. From the second I stepped out of our car until the moment we left we were constantly accosted by these people to "buy from me." At first this was very hard to deal with but once we grew accustom to this we rather enjoyed interacting with the locals. After arriving we were feed a quick breakfast and then we lead up to Dragon Mouth Mountain. It was a small mountain that over looked the bigger ranges in the area. The hike up the mountain was easy and along the way there were orchard gardens you could stop and look at. At the top we were treated to a 360 view of Sapa and the surrounding area. Funny thing though, we were told that it would be about 40 F the whole time so we all packed for cold but instead it was warm, sunny and 70 so we were very hot by the top, I suppose that is what you get for not doing your own research.

That afternoon we were driven to Lau Chi Valley. This valley is home to the Mung people. Again the second we exited our van we were greated by people eager to sell us their goods. By now we were used to this and enjoyed their company through out our two hour walk through the village. As we descended down the path into the valley we passed by terrace after terrace cut into the mountain for rice farming. As a stark contrast from rural South Africa these people had running water and could grow much more of their own food. Still the conditions that these people are living in is less than ideal. It was also much more dificult to interact with the people since we can't speak Vietnamese. Within the village we observed a clinic and being good IHP students we inquired about the levels of care that were accessible to the Mung people. Basic care is available to these people but if anything serious should occur they must travel to Sapa which is about 10 K away (6 miles for those reading this from the West). We also found that like in BBR many people seek traditional methods of health care although as of 2009 ethnic minorities are covered under the health insurance policies of the government, making more treatments available then were previously affordable. As we continued to walk through the village we came across small shops that were selling very nice items for very cheap prices. Spoiler alert!! (I may or may not have acquired some very nice gifts from some people at home).




We learned a great deal about the lives of people from rural Vietnam on this journey to their village, the more I learn though the harder it becomes to accept the levels of poverty that these people live in when there are so many basic necessities that are presently unavailable for no other reason than it may not be cost effective... The more we learn the more I realize has to be done everywhere to bring better health care to people in need, but this is a conversation for another time.

Upon our return to Sapa we found that there was no running water in the entire city. This was fine for us, but as you can imagine some of the older tourists were quite unhappy that they could not shower. We were assured that the water would return but alas it never did so we had to go another day and a half with out a shower, so basically a day in the life of a college kid, especially and IHP college kid.

The next day we went to another village and observed more rural life, with beautiful scenery and water falls. That afternoon we were on our own to explore Eliza decided to get a massage and get cupped. I had never heard of this but as her back would later show it consists of creating suction on ones back with a cup leaving circular bruises from her shoulders to her back, basically one can now play twister on her back with all the bruises. As we were about to depart to the train station the company whom we were supposed to pay decided to inform us that the price we were originally told for the trip was actually less than we owed. After about an hour of argument through a translator we avoided this hidden fee. It was not the best way to end our stay in Sapa since we left feeling like we had almost been cheated. All in all the weekend was great and the experience valuable. As the saying of the weekend went it was "Sapa cool."







The view of the Mountains from our room...



Xander, a local seamstress and myself, he bought the shirt I didn't.


Eliza and Xander on the See Saw


Bridge shot, Stefan is this artsy enough for SCAD?



IHP


Did this one with the self timer haha



Seeing double??

The food chain (or convery belt)

Yesterday my host brother took us to a Hot Pot resturant. For those of you unfarmiliar with the concept (although there are many styles) each person has their own boiling vat of water in front of them. THey can then choose what to put in ie pork, chicken, shrimp, noodles ect. The food is than cooked and you take it out of the water and eat it. This particular place was even more intersting than that because through out the entire resturant ran a conveyer belt that you took plates off of. Each plate would have 2 or 3 bites of shrimp, or some greens ect and you would take that what ever you wanted and place it in your pot. The down side to this was we were sitting at the very end of the conveyer belt. So between where the food was placed on and us were 50 other hungry people who had "first dibs" on the food they wanted. At first we didnt realize why we were only gettting the dishes that no one else wanted, not to mention how rare it was to see a plate of noodles go by. It than dawned on me that I was on a metophorical low end of the food chain, and everyone else was in a sense choosing what I could eat. I thought it was pretty funny to be in this situation. Needless to say all we had to do was ask for noodles and they would be brought to us, but if we had to rely on the convery belt itself we would have had much water and little noodles, I know the extremly tough life I lead.

A few pics

Eddie and I at the Waste Management Center and the cool hole poker
Cool ladder
Bridge at night in the center of Hanoi

Purchasing Power

Probably one of the best things about Hanoi, Vietnam in general is the amazing purchasing power the US dollar has. For instance I can get food for lunch consisting of noodles, bread, tofu, and chicken, with a coffee for under 1.50. It is a very good feeling to get so much and spend so little. The other day I also bought seasons 1-5 of lost for about 16 dollars so coming back to the US is going to be pretty hard to adjust to in that aspect. On Sunday we went to see Alice in Wonderland, and the cool thing about movies here is that they start at 9 am so if you want to catch an early movie you can catch a real early movie. Also one can buy a bucket of beer (5 beers) and enjoy them at the movie, why anyone would want to do that ay 9 am is past me but at least the option is there.

We are already in week 2 of 3 in Hanoi, it is crazy how fast time is going. After next week we will be heading to a rural home stay for a week and then we will be leaving. Very hard to believe. This week we have begun to focus on our case studies. I am once again looking at health seeking behaviors of individuals, but this time our group has chosen to focus on the health seeking behaviors or rural vs. urban people. We plan to talk to people in Hanoi, as well as travel to a rural area outside of Hanoi to obtain information on this topic.

This weekend the group is splitting up and traveling to different parts of the country. I will be heading to Sapa which is in northern central Vietnam. It is located in a mountainous region where the main attractions are hiking, and visiting the weekend markets that are set up by the different ethnic groups in the area. This area was in the past well known for it tiger population but presently there are only 100 left in the country and very few in the area, I hope to see one but I am not getting to excited about it since if I do see one it probably means that I am in trouble...

Joel

Field Classes

Two days ago we took a trip to the Hospital of Traditional Medicine. This is a government sponsored organization that provides Vietnamese with an alternative option to modern medicine hospitals. It was very interesting to view becasue for all practical purposes the building was a modern medicine hosptial. They offered surgery, dialysis, internal medicine, had an urgent care center, and many other departments that one would see in other hospitals. The difference came with methods of treatment. As was explained to us at this hospital treatment is most of the time a mixture of modern and traditional medicine. in the case of a surgery modern techniques would be used for the actual surgery, but for recovery and any further ailments traditional remedies would be used. Within the hosptial there is a center where all these medicines are made. in the storage room are hundreds of containers of roots, leaves, herbs, spices, ect. Each person is individually evaluated and a treatment specifically for them is created. We observed a women with gangrene on her calf, the doctors told us that they had successfully stopped the spread of the disease and although much damage had been done there would be no further damage to this woman's leg. Patients at this hospital stay for anywhere from 1-3 weeks while they are treated. Another large area of this hospital is acupuncture, and methodical massaging. Both of these practices are very effective at restoring health to the patients in need. As in SA the amount of privacy that the patients recieve is much less than what is considered adequate privacy in the US. The group found itself in more than one awkward situation as doctors lead us in to rooms where patients were actively being treated. After a visit like this it is really interesting to reflect on how I view medicine and how other countries come at the same problem. I am completely unfamiliar with these practices yet in this culture it is believed to be more effective than any other treatments, and really who is to say that it isn't. most of the remedies used have been in practice for generations. I found this trip to be extremely valuable in helping to shape my view of how the world perceives medicine and treatment.

Watch Tower in the center of Hanoi


Houses on a lake in Hanoi.
Artsy? roof shot at the Temple...



Temple of Literature built for Confucious

Sunset Cape Town on top of Lions Head Mountain

Vietnam

I have been in Hanoi for 3 days now and it is an experience to say the least. First off the weather is extremely different than I thought it would be. The first two days here is was 90-95 degrees and muggy (hotter than SA) and now it is 65 and chilly (jeans and long sleeve shirt weather), but next week it is supposed to get to over 100 so I go from hot to cold to hot. The city of Hanoi is full of people, foods, and MOTOR BIKES. It is impossible to cross any street without almost getting hit by at least 59 motor bikes. Most streets are two way streets but there are no "rules" and you can enter the opposite lane and drive into oncoming traffic if you choose to. You can also bring you motor bike onto the pavement if you choose. When crossing the street on foot you ahve to man up step into traffic and let the bikes swarm around you as you move to the other side, or wait for a car to go by and follow quickly in its wake. With all this chaos it would seem like people would be getting hit all the time but that doesn't seem to be the case, it may seem crazy but there is some respect for pedestrians as long as they themselves are respectful, still I am waiting for the frist IHP student to get bumped by a bike... After two days of staying in a hotel Eddie and I have moved into a home stay about 5 K from the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH). Our host brother Tam (tom) and our host sister speak English while our parents do not. Tam and his girlfriend have both just graduated from high school and have applied to many schools in the US and are waiting back to hear from them, they have just as many questions for us as we have from them.

We started classes today and to get there it is a 15 minute bus ride through busy streets. Today was an orientation of sorts and tomorrow we start right in going to visit the public hospital and hearing a lecture on Agent Orange and its health effects on the community. It still amazes me how quickly I went from being in SA to Vietnam. One plan ride and 24 hours later I am completely immersed in a new culture and find that I have to quickly adjust and learn not only academically but culturally to the people and surroundings. It is very taxing at times but worth the stress.

I am only just beginning to understand understand the culture here. For instance it is not proper to say "goodnight" because that implies that the people you are saying goodnight to are going off to do "romantic" things. So there is a lot to learn but between our classes and living wiht my family I feel like I will learn quickly. Check back soon for pictures!

Joel

Tomorrow the group will be leaving South Africa and heading to Hanoi Vietnam. I have to say I am pretty disapointed to be leaving SA so quickly. My experience here has been amazing from Jo'burrg and BBR to Cape Town my time spent here has been worth while. We are all looking forward to our next leg of the trip and meeting our new host families.

This past week 8 of us came to Cape Town for our "holiday" aka spring break. The time spent here was packed full of all the things that we could possibly do in the time we had. One of the most exciting things that I did here was a hike to the top of Lions Head mountain to watch the sun set. The view from the top was amazing and as the sun went down we were lucky enough to see the green flash of light as the sun completely vanished. The way down from the mountain was guided by the light of the full moon. This full moon hike is a local tradition and we were lucky enough to be around for one. I also tried Sand Boarding which was similar to snow boarding except on sand dunes. This sport had the benefit of being able top wear shorts and a t shirt instead of layers of clothes, but the down side was that you had to re-hike the dune after each run.

Cape Town is a vibrant city with almost every activity imaginable. The people are really friendly and the drinks are cheap. I cant really find anything negative to say about this city!

For now I have to go catch a flight but hopefully will be back to update on Vietnam fairly soon!

Joel

zzebras

Dam run pic...

So our academic time in South Africa is almost at an end. Currently we are working in smaller case study groups looking at different aspects of health in Bush Buck Ridge. My group is looking at the health seeking behaviors of individuals. We have interviewed 13 different individuals and have found that people in this area choose between multiple health sectors including but not limited to home remedies, clinical care, traditional healers, and religion. The various reasons for people to seek these different aspects of care are very interesting and are going to provide us with an impressive presentation. It is amazing to see that much of the problem with health in this area is rooted in causes other than biology. For instance basic transportation and infrastructure are inadequate in many villages. This directly affects the availability and accessibility of health care that people have. A well paved road system and more effective ambulance system would go a long way at creating a better overall health in this rural area.

This weekend in during our breaks from paper writing we found the to go on a safari in Kruger park. We saw all of the big five ( lion, elephant, wildebeest, rhino, and cheetah) minus the cheetah. After our tour of the park we had a barbecue where we tried impala. The thought process on that one was "well we saw that animals now we have to taste it." The next morning a dedicated 5 of us got up at 430 am to drive an hour to the mountains to do a 3 mile run up to a dam. On the run we came across baboons in the road, which was slightly intimidating because I have heard of how aggressive they can be, just don't look them in the eyes hahaha. The dam itself was really cool and worth the up hill run. Post run we had an amazing breakfast where I had my first cup of coffee in 2 weeks it was Dam good ( get it no? no?). The rest of the day we relaxed and wrote our papers that were due the next day surrounded by mountains on all side. We had access to pool both heated and unheated, why you would need a heated pool is beyond me but it was there.

In a completely unrelated and non academic story I have been working on my mustache. Pretty impressive right now three weeks in and I am looking dirty.

Lastly a group of 8 of us are heading to Cape Town on Thursday for a week of vacation. As of now we plan to relax, do some hiking, kayaking, and other touristy things. I am really excited to check out Cape Town.

More pics to come later, the internet is just to slow...

Joel

Just a normal drive to the college.

Host mother and IHP'ers

View from the bus...

Our host brother Fauna, Eliza, and Alex

At the Three Escarpments

Our academic portion of SA is beginning to wind down with only two 8-12 page papers and a case study presentation all due by next Monday these next few days should be a breeze (haha). Over the past week we have had the privilege of coming in contact with many different people from the local community. We heard from a representative from a local NGO who has focused on bringing water (which is much needed) to Bushbuckridge. We have also had the pleasure of listening to a guest lecture on the issues of redistributing land in post apartheid SA. The highlight of the week was the visit to the local hospital. The experience was very different from any tour that of medical facilities that would be received in the US. First off the three wards shown to us were the Maternity Ward, Pediatric Ward, and Mental Illness Ward. We were escorted around these areas and it became obvious very quickly that privacy is not an issue in SA. Patients did not have separate rooms and the entire experience was a little awkward for us as we were literally walking through these hospital wards with 15 people. The facilities themselves were very impressive. Also the care that is provided by the hospital was impressive. A theme that I have noticed though is that places like these are excellent, but the problem is accessibility. This hospital is "centrally" located but some of the villages it serves are more then 100k away. There are clinics in most of the villages for minor health problems to be dealt with but for major issues people need to make the trip to this hospital.

Last night I ate fried locust for the first time. It tasted similar to bacon/fried chicken skin. If it wasn't for the visual of what I was eating I would have enjoyed it much more. To date exotic foods that I have tried since coming to SA have consisted of tripe (sheep's stomach), sun dried worms, and locust. All very interesting but none will in the near future become a staple in my diet.

Last weekend our group traveled from BBR to the mountains and got to survey the many different views and tourists sites that that mountains had to offer. One of them as the pictures above show was the Three Escarpments, the second were naturally occurring potholes (and no that wasn't just the least maintained road in SA) made by the river over the years. The final place that we stopped was at "God's Window" It was a lookout point that overlooked all of BBR and the surrounding area. A really amazing view I must saw. The heat in SA gives everything that you look at from far away a sort of hazy view so looking out from God's Window the plains below looked hazy and blue. It was easily one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen.

That is all the news I have for now. Next week I will be traveling to Cape Town for our break and then heading to Vietnam after that.

Joel

Bush Buck Ridge

Sun set in Bush Buck Ridge

We have been separated into home stays and are all living in various houses in three separate villages. The villages have surprised me in many ways. There is electricity and cell phone service in all houses but no running water. This basically means that I can make phone calls and read at night but am taking bucket showers (which is very fun!!) and using an out house. The family that I am living with consists of my host mother her youngest daughter and her two nephews. My host mother is a teacher at the local school teaching 10th grade biology and a 12th grade tourism class (tourism being a major source of income). I am living with a fairly wealthy family who has many amenities that other people don't have. All the people in the village are very excited to have "mulungo" or white people living in their village and come every night to our house to play soccer or talk to us about American movies and music. Many people live in poverty with 80% of the population jobless yet the sense of community here is amazing. Everyone at least at first glance seems very happy and content. There is sharing of food and neighbors are always out and greating each other.



We are holding classes at the Wild Life College and the drive every morning to get to the college is basically a mini safari. Everyday we see an assortment of animals be it elephants, giraffes, baboons, or rhino's every ride is an adventure. The weather is very hot and dry aka a lot of sweaty clothes but it is much better then the snow I left behind.

Academically we have been going on many site visits to different people in neighboring villages. Yesterday we visited a herbalist who "does not practice witch craft but will attempt to cure sickness." People from all over will come to him and he through the use of herbs he will attempt to cure AIDS, Stroke, Diabetes, and high blood pressure. The experience was like nothing I have experienced before. The idea that modern medicine isn't the answer was difficult to accept but many people will choose the herbalists remedies over western medicine, is it more effective... probably not but that is the belief of many people from this area. We have been focusing our studies on HIV/AIDS since this is the primary problem that leads to TB, and other opportunistic diseases. Interestingly though we are focusing much of our time on assess how to get more adequate nutrition, water, and overall sanitation to this area to increase general health which would decrease sickness. We have meet with many groups that deal with domestic violence, and sex education in attempts to reduce the spread of this virus through these vectors. An overall better general knowledge of the disease and how it is spread is needed in order to effectively stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

All in all I am loving SA the country is beautiful and the people are extremely friendly. The way of life is completely different but well worth living. In the near future our group will be busy learning more about the local culture, writing many papers, and participating in different case studies applying to health issues w/ in Bush Buck Ridge.

Joel

Looking for Mandellas Cave...

South Africa

First off I would like to address two things 1. sorry for the delay in any updates there hasn't been computer access for a week but I now have it available, 2. Please look past any spelling errors as my education has not exceeded the 5th grade/I dont have time to proof read. That being said...

I made it into SA last week and our frist week or "orientation" has been crazy. For the frist week the group stayed in the burbs of Johannesburg. We went to the Aphartied muesum and toured around J'burg. SA's struggle w/ Aphertied can still be seen very easily in the everyday fabric of SA, but from all we have heard the country is moving in the right direction. A noted speakers that we have heard from were from Andrew Fluck who was the ex minister of police under the Aphartied regime. His story was very interesting and long story very very short he has since reconciled his actions during the previous government and worked towards an equal SA. During our first week we lived in Wilgesprite which is a community area that played a large role in the promotion of equal rights during Aphartied. The area is beautiful and hilly and in the hills across from us it is rumored that Nelson Mandella hide in the caves of the mountain during exile. Needless to say Francis, Yoshi, and I found the cave picture below.

Yesterday we left Jo'burg and traveled 8 hours to Bush Buck Ridge where we are currently staying at the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) until Friday when we move into our homestays. The drive here was beautiful resembling New Zealand with its huge mountains down to rolling green hills. The weather is hot and sunny all the time with an occasional rain shower that lasts only an hour or so. At SAWC we are in the middle of Kruger park and at night we can hear lions roaring from just outside the protected areas that we are staying. While on a run this morning just on the other side of the fence we looked on to herds of gazelle and wildabeast and even an elephant.

Tomorrow classes start up again and we will continue our studies on health and the community with visits to hospitals, local traditional healers and other site visits. The National Center for Youth Development has also offered out group to participate in a data collection task to gather information on what needs the youth in Bush Buck Ridge have. So over the course of the next 3 weeks we will be partaking in this study as well. It is going to be really cool to have work that we do actually implemented to help positively affect the health of others.

That is all for now but there will be much more to follow as well as some more recaps if time permits. I hope everyone is doing well! (Picutes arent working at the moment, but I will update with them soon.)

Joel

Joel the Lobbiest

Over the course of our two weeks here we have talked to grass roots organizations, NGO's, Doctors, and other activists young and old. On our full final day we got to tackle Capitol Hill. Our goal was to lobby for HR 2103 Bill aka The International Protecting of Girls from Under Age Marriage. In the AM we were briefed by other lobbyists on how to address representatives in both the House and Senate. We were also briefed on the national situation in which currently 60 million girls between the ages 8-16 are married off by their familes to men as much as 40 years older then them. This practice causes perpetual poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the disempowerment of girls in areas of Africa and India.

Once farmiliar with both the information and edicate we headed to Capitol hill where we were broken up into groups by state and meet with representitives where we were constituents of that particaular Senate or House representative. The art of lobbying was not as easy as it may enitially seem. It was very challenging to quickly make the points needed to convince the representatives staffer that it was importatnt that they sign this bill. After interacting with two different NY state representitives within the house all people in our group were frusturated at how hopless this task seemed to be. Upon talking to other groups though we found that there was some success in getting the attention of representitives and pushing them towards endorsing this bill. Although lobbying for health bills can defiently be ruled out of a possibly carrer for me I earned a new respect for people who dedicate their time to lobbying.

Talking to one of the lobbiest after all of our meetings we asked how she could day after day do this work which seemed to be in many ways meaningless. She answered that "Lobbying in the US saves lives and for every health bill that is ignored the cost is not just a defeated ego but also results in the lose of lives..."

In other news we are heading to South Africa tomorrow afternoon and everyone in the group is extremly excited. Below are a couple pictures that were highlights of my time in DC it was a great start to what promieses to be one of the best experiences of my life.

1. DC Subway it is really cool looking.

2. Washington Monument...

3. Old school cop car


4. Doing Community Service



Lastly to any peeps from Skidmore reading this I already miss you guys and am sorry that I cant be there for this semester and am already looking foward to seeing everyone during senior week! Have a great semester!

Joel

Group Life

So I am still just killing time until I can finally talk about the real interesting and new experience to come. Recently though the group has visited multiple NGO's including The Heritage Foundation, Teen Aids, and the Woman's Collective. These groups all represent different people with different ideas. For instance The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that is independently funded and aims at achieving a traditional American life through changing public policy. While the Woman's collective serves DC women assisting in HIV/AIDS prevention and counseling. Although extremely different these groups both do amazing work and it was very eyeopening to be able to see from the inside how these NGO's work.

Anyway to touch on the title of this blog, living in a group of 35 in close quarters is an interesting dynamic. Being so close all the time has its pros and cons. For instance there are always people to talk to and hang out with, but at the same time it is pretty hard to find any quiet time. Two of us got sick a couple days ago and are just recovering, the after math of that though is now many more people are getting sick, bummer for them. I am glad I blazed that trail.

In quick summary living with 35 new people is really cool. There are always interesting stories that are being told. The group dynamic makes me excited for the countries to come, with all the different backgrounds and interests these experiences promise to be enriching and fun.


Joel

The start of IHP has been extremely interesting. Our group consists of 35 students, two traveling professors, and a coordinator. We are currently living in a hostel four blocks from the capital building and every night you can walk out into the street and see the giant illuminated dome of the building in the middle of the street.

Most of the classes so far have been orientation/overviews but we are quickly getting underway with reading, and assignments.

Our main topic of conversation presently is how to define Health. After much conversation we came to the conclusion that Health is not just related to biomedicine, doctors, and clinicians. Instead it suggests a much broader meaning consisting of mental states, culture, environments, economy, and much more. To really drive this point home our first field assingment was to aid in a volunteer program in DC. The various programs were comprised of painting schools, reorganizing libraires, and cleaning nature trails. All of which as we discuessed play into the overall definition and meaning of Health. Naturally I choose to work on the nature trails. Our gropu of eight volunteers from IHP were assinged to demolish an old chicken coop on Herritaghe island. The work was fun and rewarding as we got to use sledge hammers, pickaxes, prybars, and hammers to demolish and clear this rotting structure. The overall volunterring experience was both physically rewarding as well as a stimulating conversation starter, since each group was asked to present on how their activities contributed to an overall general increase in Health.






As official classes start tomorrow I am looking the multiple guest speakers, and case studies that are schecduled during the rest of our time in DC. I am also extremely exctied for our departure next Wednesday for South Africa.

Just packing, check back in a week or so for a more enticing read!

Joel