Inspired by Michelle's blog that she has started as she heads off to Kenya, I've decided to bring mine back to life. I figure it's been about a month since I've been here, probably about time to let everyone know what exactly I'm doing in Lima.
The kind of shocking news of the day is that plague has returned to Peru. As I am sick today with a cold, I of course starting thinking I have the plague (I know I don't actually have it, don't worry). Turns out I probably don't. The cases so far have only been in a northern department, pretty far from Lima.
Last night as I couldn't sleep with my cold, I was thinking about how Caitlin and I (Caitlin is another Masters in Public Health student from UW down here with me) could write an article at the end of the summer titled "A Comedy of Errors: Why students shouldn't do short term project abroad." OK, maybe not quite so definitive as "should never happen", but it is almost comedic the number of obstacles we have faced. I imagine that they are actually not that many in comparison to what some students face doing global health work. Nonetheless, the stress of trying to finish a project before most of the team heads back the first week of September, makes each obstacle a little more funny. Fortunately we both have good attitudes about it and know that this is part of the learning (something we can say as students). Though I have also spent some time venting about it too.
Just to give some background to what it is I'm doing here: I'm in Lima for 6 months, the first three with a UW project in a town called Puente Piedra, and the second three with Socios En Salud (PIH) doing my MPH thesis research. For the UW project, I have 2 roles. The main role is to work with Caitlin on doing a health/needs/asset assessment of a public school as part of a new project called "Escuela saludable -- Comunidad saludable" (Health School, Healthy Community). It's a joint project between UW, Univ of San Marcos (in Lima) and the school itself. We originally were going to do a quantitative health assessment of the high schoolers, but when we got here found out a doctor is doing a pretty comprehensive baseline study of the school. (first obstacle) So we changed paths--happily, since we're both not so into quantitative work--and are now doing a qualitative study that should hopefully inform this other study and future projects as well. We have spent the last month doing applications to human subject review boards both in Lima and Seattle and getting the workshops ready.
My other role is even harder to explain--basically I am researching the possibility of UW setting up a kind of volunteer program that transcends individual research projects and mutually benefits a community. The idea might be partnering a UW health professional or student with a health professional or student here to work on a project in the community. (it would be the same community or area to begin with) That's been an easy one to put on the back burner, but I've been trying to think about it and get some ideas going. Makes me realize too how much we can each push our own agendas. I am really interested in supporting already going local projects, so that's the type of partnerships I am looking for. For example, these comedores populares, which I will explain in another post.
That's it for today. Hasta la proxima.
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