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!
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