So in a direct response to the last blog post I was successful in procuring a seat on the sailing trip as a reward for score one of the 3 highest B's in the class.  I like to think that I was rewarded for my mediocrity while others were rewarded for their perfection... not the worst way to go through life.  So in any event the ten lucky students loaded on to Dr. Smiths boat and enjoyed a sunset cruise in the Caribbean.  Complete with beer and sweet breads it was indeed the ultimate study break.

In cadaver news we have progressed onto the final frontier the head and neck.  W/ a scheduled removal of the brain on Monday there is never a dull moment in medical school.  If anyone would like to see pictures of this you will have to wait until I get home for break.

In other medical news having recently joined the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) I am now privileged to partake in activities sponsored by the organization.  For instance this week there was a catheter session where we learned the basics of how to insert them, and although I would not recommend anyone come to me for this service yet I am well on my way to a professional carrer of saying "nurse can you please do this for me."

We have reached the home stretch and have only 3 more weeks of classes left before finals.  Only 7 exams stand between me and Christmas break and I cant even begin to imagine the amount of information that still needs to be processed in this time... but Paige and Katie will be down for the next week and their coming has been a great motivation to get ahead so that I will be able to spend more time with them in the week to come.

For now that is all.  I am anxiously looking forward to my quick but much needed return to the US and hope that everyone is doing well.

Joel

I'm on a boat... Hopefully

Greetings and let me first apologize for being so distance over the past few weeks. Between block exams (which went well!) and coming down with the flu (which didn't go very well) I have not had much time nor energy to blog. But im back! and ready to go. So although our first round of tests is rapidly fading into history the second round is rapidly approaching. In an attempt to motivate us and get us to study that little extra bit our Histology professor whom lives on a boat has offered up his vessel to the students of the class. The catch, he will take the top 5 A's top 3 B's and top 2 C's in the class on the next exam. His logic "in life the people who get A's always get everything they want, well this is my way to give back to the B and C's" So in a class of 45 10 of us will have the luxure of a sunset cruise on this. Now if thats not motivation then I have no idea what is...

Other then that I would like to take time to acknowledge how I miss Fall. Yes I know I am in the Caribbean and the weather is perfect but there is something to be said about breathing that cool fall air, the color or the leaves and the smell of fires and pumpkin such. It also dosent help that any time I watch TV there are ad's for Dunkin Doughnuts pumpkin coffee's and the closest Dunking is not even an hours plane ride from here. Do not worry though I am adjusting and will get through this but it is the greatest struggle momentarily.

I hope all is well to all my friends and family around the world and I promise I will be back again next week.

Live Laugh Love

Joel

Inside of you...

Its amazing how one push of a saw blade or one slight motion of a scalpel can reveal so much about the human body. Our most recent endeavor has been to explore the thorax and explore we did with the help of our trusty bone saw we were able to remove the chest cavity and explore the lungs, heart, and every other structure that has to do with this area...as you may imagine a lot, welcome to Med school.

Outside of the lab our class has been gearing up for our first block exams next monday, and an air or anticipation has transcended all of us Med1's. Needless to say this next week will be the most taxing yet as we prepare.

Over the past weekend an intramural volleyball team run by Ross Vet. school that I was invited to join won our first game of the season. One of the team mates is a fellow Skidmore grad so it really is true that 1. no matter where you go you will find some one from up state NY (I have meet 2 already) 2. Skidmore may be a "small liberal arts school" but we have a presence everywhere. We are named NADS and surprisingly chanting Go before our name really works... what a coincidence.

On Saturday the Med 1 class finally had its White Coat Ceremony which was postponed due to hurricane Irene. This ceremony is the symbol of our entrance into the medical profession and it was quite a moving experience that really hit home just to what extent our responsibilities will reach.

Lastly it has been my goal to become a "local" at the Marriott coffee shop. I would one day like to walk in and have a complimentary cup of mud. I have reached the point where they are aware that I come in at 650 and get a small coffee and go off to school, but am still asked if I have the 5 cents to make it 2.05 so that they can give me a full dollar back and no change (so baby steps at this point but I promise you it will happen).

Other then that it is all about spectirns, holocine secretions, familial spherocytosis, Cop I, and epidermis, and which I wont bore you with the nitty gritty details of. So until next time live laugh love.

Joel

The Hash

Yet another week down in Med school and it is flying by. Over the past week we have moved from dissecting the muscles of the deep back to the upper limb aka arm, well stopping to perform a mastectomy (removal of breast) to see whats inside... Not only have I been learning a lot but I also attained a great formaldehyde rash that engrossed my entire body for an evening. Note to self wash your scrubs more then once every other week to avoid such unpleasant skin rashes.

The time put into this process is enormous but it is amazing at how much I have already learned. From basic cellular function, to clinical correlations with anatomy, to the recognition on neuronal bodies on slides there has been vast arrays of materials shoveled at all of us. Just another day in paradise I guess.

The highlight of this week though had to have come from outside the class room. Yesterday I was lucky enough to join a "drinking group with a running problem" called the Hash House Harriers. Which apparently is an international running organization that holds runs all over the world. So for all reading this who enjoy running look up this organization and see if there is one near you b/c it is probably one of the most fun things I have been a part of in some time.

Cadaver Lab

The Hash was invented in kuala lumpur in the late 1930's and as the story goes a british couple living there began to constantly argue b/c the mans wife said he was getting to fat and he needed to lose weight. So the man decided to start running in the woods and would always end at a restaurant called The Hash. Apparently over time he became very fit and other people would come to him and say "hey I want to run as well can I come with you and get fit and such". Well the man now very in shape said fine fine but I dont want to wait for anyone I am to fit to jog... so he would run ahead and leave saw dust markers for people behind him to follow. The man became known as the "hare" and was chased after by the "hounds." Eventually this tradition made it back to England and was then spread all over and it is now a global club.

Anyway the local St. Kitts hash consisted of about 100 people and takes place once every 3 weeks. Each race a different hash member is in charge of making a course. Now the course can be anywhere on a beach, up the side of the volcano, through downtown. But the only way that you know where you are going is to continue following the saw dust markers which is not always easy as there may be multiple junctions in the road.

For my first has we started at the base of the volcano and ran down to the beach. The second we hit the beach it started to downpour... hashers being brave of soul and thick skined trucked on, from the beach we made a B line for one of the smaller but still very steep mountains next to the volcano and ended up following saw dust all the way to the top. Sadly due to the rain I was unable to get pictures but rest assured they will come for my second Hash, just take my word that the view from the top was beautiful as the storm had moved out to sea the sun was out and you could see lighting over the water (I know medical school is tough right). Anyway on to the last and most important part, thats right the drinking. Coolers and coolers of beer were brought and the post race festivities began. Little did I know that anyone who was a virgin hasher (first race) had to become christened into the Hash. This consisted of first taking a knee stating your name, getting beer dumped on your head (baptism), chuggin a beer, and then having any of the beer that you were unable to chug dumpped on your head. All an all a great experience but I would advise against beer showers as they tend to make one very sticky.

Anyway with only two weeks until our first block exams everyone is starting to feel the pressure of our first exams and you can feel the anxiety in the air. Once we have a feel for how effective our study schedules are I think everyone will be more at ease but thats wont happen until we get this first exam out of the way, so bring it on.

Sunset at The Strip

Well one week of medical school is done... a lot more to go. After the first week I just have to stop for a second and think of how much information can be thrown at you and how much one can actually retain if the willingness is there. The highlight of the week has had to be the dissection of our cadaver. We focused on the superficial and deep back muscles, innervation and blood and will move on to the shoulder and arm this week. Having a brand new school has the advantage of great ventilation so leaving the lab at the end of the day does not coincide w. smelling like formaldehyde for the rest of the day. A normal week day consists of waking up a 545 exercising, catching a bus at 7, class until 4 and then studying at school until 8, returning eating and studying some more. Although this may or may not sound daunting and excessive to some I can assure you that it is actually fun and rewarding!!

A huge advantage of this school is that the professors are here to teach, there is no research conducted so they have our attention 100 % of the time. They really have our backs and are willing to do what it takes to get us where we need to go.

Getting up early and running every morning has been an interesting experience. Although it is an island there are many wild animals that one may come across and indeed the early am is a great time to spot them. I have trotted across a group of monkeys, a horse (still not sure what was up with that), and watched a cat take a bird out mid flight.

Tropical Storm Maria has been brewing south of St. Kitts for a few days now and from Friday night on the entire island has been on high alert. Furniture has come inside, storm shutters have gone up and supplies and water have been purchased. Originally the storm was supposed to pass directly over the island but shifted and the worst part of the storm passed us by. The only real downside to the storm was that it canceled the white coat ceremony until next weekend. For those unfamiliar the white coat ceremony is where our class is officially welcomed into the school by dawning our white lab coats and taking a pledge uphold the standards of medicine and its education. So until next week we all must wait.

Well that is it for now, if there is anything anyone wants to hear more about let me know and I will expand, elaborate, and delve into new topics.

Joel

Staycation

Orientation week has come to a close and the hours until the real fun begins can be counted almost on one hand. Living in St. Kitts for the past week has been a perfect vacation or staycation I should say since I am living here. Over this past week out class of about 120 primarily from the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico have had the opportunity to slowly ease into island life and become familiar to the campus. The campus itself is a beautiful, modern, and right on the ocean. Many of the class rooms look directly out to the ocean from the cliff that we are situated on.

-The UMHS Campus-

During orientation we had the privilege of each personally meeting the new Dean of the school as well as small group tours of the campus by President Ross. The hands on presence of all faculty at the school is impressive. It is obvious that they are concerned about our success and want nothing but the best for us and are willing to go out of their way to make sure it happens. One of the highlights of orientation was the hurricane lecture, where we were advised on what to do if a storm ever comes acros St. Kitts. Hopefully this wont happen during my time here, as a true hurricane has not hit St. Kitts since 1999, that being said we are only half way through hurricane season so we still have some ways to go.

This last week also allowed us more time to explore the beaches and towns of St. Kitts. From exploring the capital Basseterre (the capitol) to the rain forests there is much to do on the island. A few days ago a group of 4 students and President Ross went zip linning in the rain forrest. Five different zip lines through canopies and across ravines defiantly got our adrenaline pumping.

Yesterday was the Presidents Beach Party Bash, which is basically a welcome to the island day of water sports, volleyball, food, and of course open bar. What a blast it was to just hang out on the beautiful beaches of St. Kitts, hang out, use jet skis, see wild monkeys, and play some volleyball. Although hanging out here has been great it is on everyones mind the work that is to come and I am looking forward to getting started with the primary reason I am here. Getting in the groove and hitting the books A great end to a great orientation. Now the real work begins. For the first semester I will be taking anatomy, histology, and cell biology, and can not wait to dive right in tomorrow.

-Frigate Bay-

Its back!

Joel from afar is back in action. This time coming to you from the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies. I have been here for three days and am getting adjusted to the island. My parents accompanied me down but unfortunately had to leave early as the hurricane threatens to put their car (at JFK) under water. The time they did spend here was full of touring the island, visiting the school and sitting on beautiful empty beaches. We ate a variety of restaurants ranging from small shacks on the beach to elegant restaurants inside the Marriot.

St. Kitts as an island is still very undeveloped and although the basic amenities are available it is still vastly untouched.

In one week I begin classes and for the next week I have only to settle in and attend orientation events and lectures. I am just ready to start as the anxiety of the work to come builds and builds. Until then though I guess I will enjoy the beaches and sun. I am lucky to have a great room at the Royal St. Kitts which over looks a man made pond and is only minutes from the ocean. All in all the first few days have gone smoothly and I am settling in just fine. I realize that this period of relaxation will quickly vanish so I am trying to live (laugh love) it up! I hope to be able to update the blog once a week or so so check back each weekend for any new information. I hope everyone in the city is weathering the storm...

a view from my room

a small taste of St. Kitts

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.