Video Clip!

Hey! I found this cool YouTube video explaining the OTS Global Health semester ... check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgQMQkLYF0&feature=player_embedded

I'm home!

Sorry I am such a terrible blogger ... I am already home and trying to adjust to the frigid temperature of good ol' Boston! But here's a recap of the last couple of weeks of my semester:

I forgot to mention in the last post that before we left Luna Nueva for Las Cruces, we took a day trip to Guatuso in the Maleku indigenous territory. We heard from the cacique of the Maleku people and learned all about their history and culture. We toured their medicinal plant garden, saw a reenactment of a traditional Maleku dance, and even got to try our hand at some archery!

Once everyone was settled into Las Cruces, the data collection began! Everyone in the program broke into groups of 4 to conduct their specific research. My group researched the loss of traditional knowledge of wild edible plant species in an indigenous community. Here is the abstract for those interested:

Wild edible plant and fungi species are invaluable resources for indigenous communities because they provide nutritional value, dietary diversity, and an opportunity for food security.  Studies suggest that increasing acculturation in some communities has resulted in the loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) regarding wild foods, a trend that may lead to decreased nutrition and diversity in indigenous diets.  In the Brunka indigenous communities in Costa Rica, no research has been done to assess this suggested trend of a diminishing wild food cognitive domain.  This study aimed to determine the differences in wild food knowledge among informants of varying ages and genders in Boruca, a main Brunka community. Free-listing was used as a method to evaluate individual knowledge. A species informant curve revealed that approximately 59 species comprise the wild food cognitive domain of adults in Boruca. Our results also indicate that there is a direct linear relationship between age and number of species mentioned.

Non-jargon translation: We found that traditional indigenous knowledge about edible plants in the rainforest is being lost generationally. This was my first experience with field research and writing a scientific paper about my findings, so it was a stressful and tiring couple of weeks (especially because we were studying for finals on top of all the research) ... but the stress all paid off in the end. All the work got done, I did really well on finals, and I gained valuable research experience. Here are some photos from Boruca and our poster session - the presentation of our research and findings to our peers and professors.

Thanksgiving fell in the midst of all this studying and research, however Thanksgiving is a purely American tradition and is not celebrated in Costa Rica. So we passed the holiday writing our papers, studying for finals, and missing home. Much to our astonishment, our professors had been plotting for weeks and surprised us all with a huge Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pie ... the whole nine yards! It was a lovely surprise and was arguably the best Thanksgiving I have ever celebrated. After spending the whole day missing home, this surprise dinner helped me to be truly thankful for my wonderful experiences in Costa Rica and all the life-long friends I made in the program. 

After Thanksgiving, finals and our research presentations, we were preparing to enjoy our last weekend in Costa Rica at home in the station. But our sneaky professors had another surprise in store ... they told us to pack up all our belongings and took us to a "mystery location" to enjoy our last weekend together. We arrived at Tortuga Beach in Osa on Saturday, and spent the weekend enjoying the beaches and pool. It was one of the best weekends of my life (second only to my Welcome Back Weekend ... more to come on that later!) ... the beach we discovered was totally deserted and was hands-down the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We spent the nights dancing (salsa with the locals and some American dancing too!) and the days relaxing at the beach, playing in the surf and exploring the sea caves. Here are some pictures from this awesome weekend (sorry there are so many!):

After that unbelievable weekend, we traveled to San Jose. We had our last dinner together, had one last night on the town, said our goodbyes and headed off to the airport. 

(My professors and I)

It was a super long journey home (14+ hours in airplanes and airports) ... but I finally made it home! I have been back now for a week, and am so happy to be home with my mum! I also made it down to Providence last weekend to catch up with my friends at PC. It was the best weekend ever!!! My amazing friends threw a surprise welcome back party for me, and it was SO great to be back with my friends! 

I think my face in the last photo says it all ... I'M HOME! :)

La Selva --> Luna Nueva --> Las Cruces

Our week at La Selva was rather busy. We had a series of lectures on climate change and its effects on global health, as well as a series on shamanic practices involving hallucinogenic plants. It was a very interesting week, to say the least! We also took a field trip to a Dole banana plantation, which was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of shots of La Selva and the banana plantation:

After our week at La Selva, we traveled to the research station, Luna Nueva in San Isidro (right next door to the Soltis Center!), home of the Sacred Seeds Sanctuary - a large collection of traditional medicinal plants. We spent a few days there, while conducting research projects on various medicinal plants. My group focused specifically on the Sarsaparilla plant, which has supposed antirheumatic, antiseptic and antipruritic properties and has been used by indigenous groups to treat psoriasis, chronic rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis. It was a very interesting project and a great hands-on experience with field research!

After all the research, we had a well deserved day off. A group of us took a bus to La Fortuna for a delicious lunch (we needed a break from rice and beans!) and spent the afternoon shopping. 

And then, the endless traveling began. It took us two days to get from Luna Nueva (way up north, near Nicaragua) all the way down to Las Cruces (way down south, bordering Panama) and an ungodly amount of hours on a cramped bus ... but we made it! There were a lot of delays due to the recent mudslides and many roads were closed, but we finally arrived back at Las Cruces and have settled in here for the remaining 2.5 weeks of the semester (wow, time flies). 

Yesterday, we had our last lecture of the semester!!! Woohoo! That means the next two weeks will be devoted to studying for finals and conducting my final research project. I am really excited to get going on the research ... I will be traveling back to Boruca and living with the Brunka people for 3 days while I conduct my research. I will be investigating the knowledge of wild edible plant species amongst the Brunka people ... it should be fun! I will definitely keep you all updated on the progress of my research. And thats about all for now (it's about time I started studying for finals ... I spent the whole morning reading! oops!) ... adios!

oh yeah ... i have a blog

OOPS! Sorry to all my avid readers! I have been neglecting my blogging duties lately ... my deepest apologies. As a reward for your patience, here is an epic update of the last two weeks!!!

After midterm vacation, we had a lovely week in San Jose with our homestay families. While in San Jose, we had a handful of exciting lectures, including such topics as Dengue, Filariasis, Snake Bites, Nematodes, and Nutritional Diseases. We also went on fieldtrips to a water treatment plant, the national museum and the center for disease control in Costa Rica. It was a nice week, getting back into the swing of things and relaxing a bit.

The following week we traveled to La Selva research station in northern Costa Rica, where we have set up camp for the last week. On Monday, we "visited" (... trespassing might be a more accurate description) a pineapple plantation and learned all about the evils of the expansion of the big pineapple companies. We even had the opportunity to interview students at a primary school near the plantation to hear about the negative health and ecological impacts of the plantation firsthand. It was a great trip, and we even got to play some soccer with the kids after our discussion!

On Tuesday we had more classes at the station, and then Wednesday was another one of my favorite days of the program thus far. On Wednesday we traveled to La Colonia, a Dengue-ridden town in Limon on a Dengue Campaign. First we stopped at the local health care clinic and picked up a couple of physicians that knew the area, and then we traveled on to the primary school in La Colonia to talk to the students about Dengue. We spoke with each class in the school about the symptoms of Dengue and also taught the children how to recognize and eliminate breeding ground sites for the mosquitos (Aedes aegypti) that carry this deadly disease. After our health education campaign at the school, we split into groups of 4 or 5 and visited all the houses in the area. At each house, we spoke with the people living there about the best methods of prevention of Dengue and searched their yards for breeding sites. We were able to find many breeding grounds and even collect some A. aegypti larvae to examine back in the lab at the research station! It was such an awesome day, and we public health warriors felt rather accomplished after our long and successful Dengue day.

On Thursday we rolled out of La Selva for a 3 day trip to Kekoldi, a Bribri indigenous community about 4 hours away. On the way to Kekoldi, we stopped at EARTH University for a fascinating lecture about the university's joint efforts with NASA to find a cure for Chagas disease ... in space. The lecture was out of this world (literally!). 

Once we arrived at the Kekoldi community, we got to see their iguana farm and learn about their efforts to repopulate the endangered iguana population. Then we embarked on a "20 minute walk" (with our luggage for three days) to reach the station where we would be staying the next two nights ... it ended up being an hour hike up some of the steepest slopes imaginable. It was a tiring trek, but well worth the sweat and scrapes ... the station we stayed at was essentially a tree house in the canopy of the primary rainforest. While at the treehouse in Kekoldi, we learned all about Bribri culture and got to do some awesome activities, including a hike to a gorgeous waterfall, tattooing ourselves with natural dyes from the forest (don't worry, the tats will only last for a couple of weeks!) and making chocolate! We also were able to speak with different members of the Bribri and Cabecar communities about indigenous land right issues, their efforts to preserve their natural resources and retain their unique culture. 

After our incredible trip to Kekoldi, we traveled back to La Selva for Halloween weekend! Naturally, we dressed up and went to a discotech in celebration of the holiday. It was a great night of dancing and singing karaoke ... unfortunately it was also pouring, so we had to cancel the spooky night hike to see glow-in-the-dark mushrooms as we had planned ... but the singing and dancing helped us to forget our disappointment!

And there you have it! The most epic update ever. This week promises to be relaxing (I just finished up a couple of big projects/presentations) and I plan to make the most of it! Hopefully I will have time for some hiking and bike riding around the station this week. Well, that's all for now folks!