the end of my journey...

so guess what...i'm HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

will finish post tmrw!

all i can say is...it's weird to be back, and it's cold :(

Thanksgiving and other shenanigans

Hola to whoever still reads this thing ... =) Lately, I've really been slacking with updating this thing...partially because I have like 3 essays to write before Friday...and partially due to pure laziness... lol.

It's so crazy how this weekend is my LAST weekend here in Oahaca (my key is broken..so the h will have to do since it's how you would phonetically pronounce it anyways..)!!!! O__O This following week is week 11...my LAST week here!!! By this time the following week, I would be home...perhaps hanging out with my best friend...or perhaps still sleeping in my bed :) I'm really really happy to go home!! Especially after reading all the facebook statuses about shopping, holiday lights, holiday cookies, etc etc. Don't get me wrong though, I'm definitely sad that I'm leaving this wonderful place that has taken me in for 2 and a half months, but, listening to holiday songs, and just the fact that Christmas is almost here makes it a bit less sad for me. I'm going to miss all the friends I've made here, but I know we will keep in touch...I hope.

This program was great. I've learned so much and have grown so much. I've learned more about medicine and have made sure that this is definitely what I want to do. Despite the amount of readings and essays, the essays were interesting in that it has opened my eyes to what public health is. Also, I've learned so much about the Hispanic culture that surely, when I go back to LA, I won't look at them the same way. I'm glad I was able to because one of the reasons for me coming on this trip was to be able to learn more Spanish as well as other things so that I could help the Latino population in the states.

Personally, I've grown a lot. This program was challenging for me in that I was thrown into a group of so many people with so many different personalities and backgrounds. In a way, I had to find myself among these people. Also, the fact that I was in a country with a whole different culture and lifestyle made it hard in the beginning to get used to. BUT, I feel like at the end of it all, I've grown a lot. It was a good self-identity kinda thing...I'm more confident and assertive. :)

HOKAY. This was not the post to analyze this trip...we'll save more for later.

Let me just start off with Thanksgiving!!! It was definitely a memorable day. I was planning on going to the Thanksgiving banquet thing with everyone else, but, I didn't really feel like going. So after studying at Cuiles, due to lack of sleep, I had a huge headache and couldn't study anymore. I decided to go and shop at Fashion District for scarves and then spent almost $50usd on 5 scarves...but, they were nice scarves!! WAY better than the cheap scarvesz from Forever 21 that I bought before! There, I saw Judy and John! Then, we met up with Trieu and Andy and decided to eat sushi. I felt like getting ramen...but was thoroughly disappointed at how small and disgusting the ramen was. It was literally, a handful of noodles smaller than my palm (my handsz are tiny too), with half an egg and 2 shrimps. UGH. I was so sad watching my friends eat their delicious sushi :( BUT, despite the nasty food, I had a great time. Then, afterwards, we went to the famous Dona Domi's for torta. It was my FIRST time eating at this place! 2 of our other friends met up with us and we went. Dona Domi's only opens at 10pm ...so we went to eat AFTER dinner. Such fatties we are.

Dona Domi's tortas are delicious! The bread is toasted perfectly and the meat is pretty tender. It's incredible how a small, little old lady cooks and does everything herself. We had such a good time chatting and everyone talked about their drunkest moments...although, I really didn't have any ;P.

Overall, it was a memorable Thanksgiving....the rest of the time afterward has just been full of essay writing. I plan to finish latest Tuesday so I can shop and play Wednesday-Friday :)

Can't believe it's all ending so fast! :( BUT IM GOING HOME SOON so YAY!

mezcal everwhere here! "arriba, abajo, en centro, en dentro!" :) this mezcal was strong enough to kill flies apparently. ew.

dona domi!! making tortas

our first time eating at dona domi's

la torta muy rica

en dentro de la torta...es de torta de cecina

john getting harrassed ... pretty much sums up his life everyday here. hahahaha. i love this picture!

okay. essay time!!

SO MUCH SO MUCH TO UPDATE!!!

WAHH!!! I haven't updated since...the first week of Puerto!!! AND believe it or not, I'm actually already back in Oaxaca city!!!!! However, I am actually super happy to be back in Oaxaca. It feels like "home" haha. Also, I love the cooler/dryer weather. Puerto was nice and all, but the weather was horrible in my opinion. I hate HATE hate humid weather!!! THOUGH, humidity DOES have its benefits as it did help clear my skin up a bit. :)

Anyhow, I have a LOT to update about! Mm..let's see. Last week, we learned about reproductive health. On Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday, we had lectures by Dra Adela and Dra Isabel about women's health (ie. family planning, birth, parteras). Then, on Thursday, we went to visit parteras in this small pueblo named Rio Grande Tuxtepec or something like it...haha.

The parteras visit was okay. It wasn't as exciting as I had thought it would be...I thought we were going to be seeing live births partera style, but NOPE. It was just interviewing the midwives. So basically what a partera is is a traditional midwife. They are different in that they use herbal remedies to treat birth. Parteras are a type of curandera. A curandera is a traditional healer. When a woman has stomach pains, the partera would use herbal teas to heal them. Also, a partera is not at all intrusive as Western medicine is with the birthing process. In Mexico, during labor, NONE of the mother's family/friends can be in the room with her. However, the partera usually allows many people inside with the woman if she wants. The woman can also choose WHERE and in what POSITION she wants to have the baby in. So, you see that the woman is the boss when she is with a partera. Also, they are more culturally sensitive.

Anyhow, it was HOT HOT HOT (as it always is on our brigades), and we needed to walk ALOT. I couldn't help but think to myself how spoiled we are in the states with our nicely paved roads, our AC buildings, our fast internet, etc etc. Here I was, complaining about the heat when people live their lives there everyday. It really made me feel awful. Haha. I guess you really need to count your blessings. I mean, this whole trip itself with all the excursions and trips to pueblos has really opened up my eyes. Okay, I got sidetracked AGAIN. We went to visit 3 parteras. The first one lived in this little wooden shack with chickens walking around during our interview. The second partera, Dona Josefina, lived in a better place. She was really interesting to talk to and listen to because she was very energetic. The last one, Dona Lucia, was also very interesting. We were able to see the rooms where the women gave birth in for the last two parteras. Dona Lucia had some medical equipment which apparently the government provides her with. She also has a certificate for being a certified partera, which is interesting to see. None of the parteras charge much since the people who live there are poor. It is interesting to note that with Seguro Popular, the women can get all their pre-natal care as well as labor/delivery in a hospital free. However, many women still choose parteras though there may be a cost because they have confianza (trust) with the parteras. Trust is a VERY important value in the Mexican culture. There are some parteras though, such as Dona Lucia, who doesn't charge anything. She just takes whatever the people bring her...such as small items, food, or whatever. They all note that they cannot survive just on being a partera alone; thus, many of them have a side job as well.

On Friday, we went to a school to talk to middle school aged students about family planning, or in other words, sex ed. It was really quite the experience. We prepped to talk about condoms, the pill, IUD, arm implants, etc etc. and even had a banana as a prop. You can imagine what the banana was used for....hahaha!! It was so much fun though because the kids were NOTHING like I imagined. I imagined them to be immature and uninterested, but they were the opposite! They all raised their hands with so much enthusiasm..it was hard to tell who to give the prizes too! We gave out condoms as prizes hahaha. This was a great highlight for this trip. I definitely believe in family planning, especially to kids in Mexico since there is such a HIGH rate of teen pregnancy here!

On Saturday, our last day at Puerto, some of us went to visit Mazanillo and Carizalillo beach in the morning. Carizalillo beach is so beautiful and it reminded me of the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. Some people received Henna tattoos, but I didn't because it wouldn't stay long and I didn't want to spend the money. During the afternoon, we went to Adoquin, which is a street with lots of stores for shopping. Got myself a souvenir pen and some bracelets, and a necklace. At night, we decided to cook ALL the food we had left over including other people's leftover food and we had this GIANT feast with 8 people. It was so much fun! People that wanted to eat would contribute their food they cooked or wanted us to cook, or wait to help with dishes after. We made fried chicken, bell pepper stir fry with bacon, pigs in a blanket (hot dog wrapped in bacon), fried rice, stir fry beef and broccoli, and Dana's delicious pasta. It was SO much food!! We also finished our leftover wine which made me super dizzy. Serene then brought out her Bailey's and I had that with leftover ice cream we had. UGH. By the end of the night, I was SO FULL. The next morning, I was SOOO tired still from the alcohol. Then, I took Dramamine which made me knock out the entire trip...9 or 10 hour trip. I seriously gained weight in Puerto from all the delicious dinners Judy cooked for us, and the lack of walking I did. It's so sad because my pants are now tight again :( Must lose weight in these last two weeks!! Though I'll probably gain it back in a week in the US. Lol.

ne at Carizilillo beach

feating!

Oh I don't know if I mentioned this, but I also went surfing the weekend of our first week in Puerto! It was so scary because the water wasn't that DEEP, but it was still deep enough that I was not able to stick my head out of the water if I stood AND the fact that I don't know how to tread water made it even more scary. I think Jeremy and Roger (surf instructors) thought I was a hassle. I was so afraid that I clung onto to the board for dear life. How could I even stand? And THUS, I didn't. They forced me onto 7 waves but I didn't stand on any of them. I ALMOST did, but then fell off. Haha. I was just SO afraid of going underwater. Anyhow, I just did it so I can have the experience to say I tried surfing. Haha.

Okay. Now FINALLY onto this week. Monday, we had our lecture back in Anturium. Then, went to Cuiles to study in the afternoon, and at night, got to watch Harry Potter with a bunch of people from our trip! IT was SO much fun! We went to a theatre in Plaza del Valle called Cinepolis and bought ticks for the 9:30pm showing. DUDE. I have to admit, walking into the theatre made me miss home so much because it was seriously like a legit movie theatre. It felt like I was back in the states. The movie was great too! Glad I got to experience watching HP in Oaxaca :)

Yesterday, we woke up bright and early to visit curanderas in the Sierras in a small pueblo named Cupalapam. The first thing we did was visit this beautiful Catholic church with things built as long ago as the 18th century. Then, we went to visit the Herbolario which worked together with the Centro de Salud of that area. Basically whatever patients the Centro de Salud couldn't treat, they would send them over to the curanderas next door. The curandera showed us some common herbs she uses and then demonstrated a limpia or a soul cleaning in front of us on Joaquin. First she whips the person with aromatic herbs from head to toe. Then, she uses an egg that MUST be from a ranch and rubs the egg all over the person from head to toe as well. These two acts are supposed to "absorb" all the bad energies that are present in a person. Afterwards, the curandera takes a mouthful of alcohol and spits it on the person's front and back (gross..). Lastly, she take a cup of water and cracks the egg in it and then "reads" the egg. I personally didn't get a limpia because I don't really believe in it. A couple of us didn't so we just roamed around town.

Afterwards, we headed for our hike into the caves. We waited a LONG LONG time before the first group FINALLY came out. I was SO scared because I didn't know what to expect. Since I slip so easily and am afraid of heights, I was terrified waiting outside. But, I decided to go and I was really glad I did. It was such a cool experience!! We got down and dirty in mud and bat poop! We climbed ladders and looked at stalactites and stalagmites, crystals, strange shadows, and stood for a couple minutes in PITCH DARKNESS. It was AWESOME! Never did something like this before! There was only one part where I was super scared. There was a ladder that was like super perpendicular to the ground, and it was kind of high. When I was about to go down, I was so terrified of slipping and the height and all, I just kind of froze. I felt myself kind of short of breath and my body was paralyzed. I began tearing up even from fear. I couldn't even comprehend what the guide was saying to me, but then I heard Serene, "Linda, bend your knees!" And then, I was like "OH YEA! Bending my knees would make it easier..." So I did, and even though I was SUPER scared because it was really slippery, Dana was on the bottom holding the ladder. So, I was okay :) I was touched by my friends who were like "Guys! Pay attention to Linda! Don't worry, Linda!" And everyone who said "Linda, I'm proud of you" Seems so silly, but it really helped me during that time :) We were supposed to be home by 4pm, but we ended up not leaving Cupalapam until 6:30. It was really disorganized and badly planned because we were also supposed to go ziplining as well. But, that didn't happen. Ended up getting home around 9pm. BUT, it was still a LOT of fun!!! Sad that it's our LAST field trip though ...

So, yep. Next week is our last week. I have no clinic rotations and I'm really happy because I get to have time to write my papers without much stress. =) This weekend is my last weekend here in Oaxaca. I gotta finish buying everything I need! Alrightey! This took forever to update...

Life on the Beach

Hey guys! So first week of brigades have finally ended and it was actually VERY tiring. I thought that we would be trekking through a forest to learn about the different diseases, but instead we just went to small towns. On Thursday, we did our brigades on chagas which is a very scary disease that is trasmitted by the chinche bug. The treatment for this disease costs 100,000 pesos, which is around $10,000USD/year! O___O crazy! It was SO hot though. OMG. I was sweating buckets!! The heat gave me a really bad headache, and I felt so dehydrated. Plus, we had to walk up and down hills...and we walked a LOT. Oh well...at least we burned a lot of calories! YAY! However, overall, I felt that the chagas brigades was boring. We walked so far and so much just to go to a total of 3 houses. It was pretty lame.

a Chinche (dead)

Then, later on, Andy, John, Judy, Trieu, Serene, Lisandra, and I decided to walk to Super Che, the Costco of Oaxaca, for groceries again. It was nice because we walked along the shore of the beach. Judy and I collected many seashells! We are planning to bring them back to the states and put them in glass jars! ^_^ The whole walk to Super Che took around 1.5 hours!!! Whew! But, it was a LOT of fun just walking with good company along the beautiful coast. I absolutely LOVE the ocean. I could probably sit on the sand and just watch the ocean for hours.

dead puffer fish we found on the beach...doesn't it look SO sad? LOL

Today, we went to educate a tiny pueblo on dengue and chagas. It was such a cool experience. The ride there was an experience itself. We drove for 1 hour or so along the BUMPIEST dirt road ever! Halfway, one of the vans got suck in this ditch. The drive was beautiful. We saw papaya trees, weird looking cows with humps, and just fields of different foods!

When we got there, there was already a ton of people gathered there. Apparently this was a community meeting. A couple of us got up there and explained the dengue disease, its transmission, and prevention tips. The people who explained the disease were AWESOME! Afterwards, we were split into groups to explain chagas. Joaquin did most of the talking in our group...most of us just stood there and listened...and gave him "moral support" hahah. But, it was fun and very interesting. I definitely love this public health aspect of the trip despite it being exhausting and HOT.

Angela and Edgar explaining about chagas

The people from the pueblo took us down to see this river. I love this picture because John looks like a freakin gangster with gang signs thrown up from his posse haha!

The people at this tiny pueblo (probably only around 300 ppl) were so hospitable. This one family cooked food for all of us. Even though it was only just beans and rice...it was the BEST beans and rice I've had! :) It was a great experience being able to eat a meal with these people.

Then, during the afternoon, we decided to go to the shopping areas near Super Che again. I bought a couple of nice stuff for friends and family there, but definitely the things are more expensive since this is a very touristy area. Definitely waiting until we get back to Oaxaca to buy more things. On the way back, we walked again. We spent a heck of a long time taking pictures of the GORGEOUS sunset though. It probably was why we ended up getting back so late...but it was worth it!! We also saw baby sea turtles that just hatched make their way into the ocean! It was SOO CUTE and definitely one of the highlights of this entire trip!!!

cute baby sea turtles!

Sunset... *sigh

TOMORROW, i get my FIRST surf lesson! I'm pretty stoked...then I have TONS of work to do. SIGH. everything is winding down now...3 more weeks!

Time to work in Puerto =(

Last night was the first night we had to start doing work...we had our first lecture at 6pm with Dr. Salcedo on dengue. It was surprisingly...kind of...boring. I think it was the fact that it was hot and we were hungry. Also, after listening to so much English for the past couple of days, it was kind of hard to immediately switch back to all Spanish, so it was a little difficult for me to translate again. I hope this isn't a sign of how fast I'm going to lose my Spanish skills when I get back to the states.

Today was the first day of our Dengue brigades. It was interesting learning about the disease. Basically dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes that are of the species Aedes aegypti. Their whole biological life cycle lasts about 2 months, and it takes approximately 10-14 days for them to hatch from an egg and develop into an adult depending on the temperature and environmental factors. The cause of dengue is NOT from the mosquito bites, but rather from the virus present in the mosquitoes. The medicine used to kill the larva is called abate. It is put into the water to kill the larva. The larva dies by ingesting the abate, and the chemicals kill the larva.

Water is delivered to the people twice per week. Since the people are allocated a specific amount of water, they try to save as much as possible by storing it in tanks and cisterns. However, by leaving the water there, it harbors mosquitoes. Dengue symptoms are very similar to many other diseases; thus, it is very hard to distinguish from other diseases. If untreated, it can develop into hemorrahgic dengue. Basically, conditions and accessibility is a huge contribution to this disease. Treatment for this disease is only symptomatic meaning there is no cure. =(

Vector brigades consisted of checking houses for the Aedes mosquito larva in random houses (ie. random sampling). These houses have been routinely checked for larva, and if the house turns out to be positive for larva, then they apply treatment immediately. Anyhow, it was really hot, but it was also interesting going into the houses and checking the water. It was interesting for me to see the rural setting since I wasn't really exposed to it during my clinical rotations. These people live with chickens and dirt floors and stuff.

Overall, after 4 hours of checking, we only found 1 house that had 1 Aedes larva. I really enjoyed this new experience! Tomorrow, we have chagas brigades and then on Friday, presentations on how to prevent both diseases!

Anyways, I think I'll upload pictures tomorrow...today's internet is really sucky! :(

Arrival in Paradise!

We have finally arrived in Puerto Escondido & I must say it is P A R A D I S E!!!! We arrived at 5:30pm on Saturday after a long 10 hour bus ride. Luckily, I slept the WHOLE way through thanks to Dramamine. Usually I don't get carsick, but the ride was so curvy that it made me super nauseous. On top of that, my stomach was hurting so so bad. When we left in the morning, I was shaking from the pain. Dramamine just totally knocks you out so I had a good rest on the bus. =) My stomach WAS feeling better on Friday, but at night, I decided to go out and some friends and I decided to get Chinese food. Then, at night, my host mom fed me cold delicious grapes, and also apple bread that we all baked together. It was a lot of fun BUT my stomach wanted to murder me that night. =(

Anyhow, on Saturday night, after everyone was settled in, we had dinner and a presentation from the medical director in Puerto. After being seafood deprived since I've gotten to Oaxaca, I was SOO happy to see FISH! :D

Judy and I are rooming together. We live in a cute little room studio style with our own little kitchen. The bathroom is super cute too...our shower is decorated with stones and our sink has the face of a sun inside! I absolutely love all the decor of this place! It's very beachy! In fact, there are huts everywhere around here and the beach is literally less than 5 minutes away!!!

our cute bathroom ^___^

The rest of our place is pretty sweet as well! We are living at a place called Casa Mar which includes a nice pool and hammocks for us. So most of the time during the day, I just chill by the pool "trying" to read. It's seriously hard to do work here. Ugh. Sucks because we have TONS of essays to write.



Yesterday, they had a welcome thing for us at Zicatela beach where we got free surf lessons. Well, I didn't because I couldn't due to unfortunate circumstances of being a female. Enough said.
It was nice though seeing people surf. I really want to be able to do that next week for sure. I got horribly burnt. I was literally FRIED. My back and legs are burned badly :( It hurts to sleep. At night, most of us went to Super Che to buy groceries since we all have a kitchen now. Judy and I bought lots of things to cook Asian meals every night ^_____^V YAHH!
ASIAN FOOD!

Today, I just tried to finish reading. During the afternoon, I went back to Zicatela to read while John and some other people went back to surf. I had a whole coconut to myself while reading too! Afterwards, I saw the most beautiful sunset while sipping on some fresh coconut juice =) Paradise, like I said.

Tomorrow will be the first day of class. *Sigh....I guess we gotta do work now =P

Dia de los Muertos!!

Okay guys, I'm feeling a LOT better today...still really sleepy and tired from my stomach problem, but at least it's bearable now. Don't have much time to rest anyways today since I have so many things to do before tomorrow. (ie. UPDATE this blog! Haha) I'm trying to shower, but apparently, my family is low on water. I guess it ties in with the whole lack of potable water in Mexico issue. They are allocated an amount of water for a certain amount of time unlike in the US where there is water every time you turn on the faucet. So I guess I'll update this thing while waiting for the little amount of water we have left to run so I can shower!

So, Dia de los Muertos shenanigans started happening on Friday the 29th! The real celebrations start on the 31st all the way through 11/2. Dia de los Muertos is a holiday that resulted from a mixture of indigenous and Roman Catholic beliefs. On this day, they believe that their deceased family members will come back to visit. Thus, people here build altars with offerings of the family members favorite foods, drinks, as well as with personal items. The view of death in Mexico is interesting. After someone dies, they have a period of grieving usually lasting 9 days. Afterwards, they have a huge celebration because they know that they will reunite with the member someday. Celebrations include foods such as tamales, and mole. They also respect death because they know that death does not discriminate against class, or race. In the end, death will get you. Lol. Kind of a macabre thought.

Anyhow, Day of the Dead is filled with festivity and joy. It certainly isn't a depressing holiday at ALL! The cemeteries are lit with candles and live music. Beautiful altars and tapetes (huge pictures made of sand) are built! Comparzas (parades) fill the streets. It's really an exciting time to be here during Dia de los Muertos!

Our group did a LOT during this holiday. It was honestly extremely exhausting especially since I did so many shifts at Hospital Civil the days right before Muertos. We were going to be entering a altar/tapete building contest at the Panteon General (closest cemetery near us). Thus, it needed a TON of prepping. On Saturday, all of us went to Mercado de Albastos to buy supplies. Then on Sunday morning, at 7am, some of us went to prep for the altar/tapete. It was a lot of hardwork! We dedicated our altar/tapete to Macedonia Alcala who was a famous musician in Mexico and was influential somehow in the Mexican revolution. So, we based everything on our altar off him from little skeleton figurines playing the guitar to musical notes constructed out of flowers. Speaking of flowers, we had SO much! We adorned our whole altar with a TON of cempasuchil (marigolds?), which is one of the flowers of Muertos. The tapete was so beautiful too! In fact, everything we did was so beautiful that we won second place, which is the first time in Oaxaca Quarter Abroad history! We also won 3500pesos which we are donating. =D AND, we made it on the news! BUT, lemme tell you, it was a LOT of work, especially the tapete. I worked on it with Judy and Andy after and oh my goodness, dizzy spells and sore thighs from squatting so much. Ugh. Can't believe they worked on it since 7am! On Sunday night, all of us went to a bigger cemetery in Xoxoctlan. Dude. It's kind of amazing because it feels like I'm at a mini-fair outside the cemetery. There are games, and tons of food being sold and so many people! Xoxo, I felt, was more traditional in that people actually camp out ALL night at the graves. The whole place is light up and it just feels so peaceful. Kind of. I guess pictures will explain better...

Panteon in Xoxo at night!

On Monday night, all of us went to a small pueblo to see how Muertos is celebrated there. It was an interesting experience, and the smell reminded me of Davis because it smelled like cow poo everywhere. But, bands walk around town and play music and pass out mezcal. It was fun because we just danced with them and walked. There were also parades...and by that time, some people were already drunk from the mezcal. The most memorable part was the Mexican mosh pit. People just get really close to each other and start dancing...lots of pushing and shoving...I literally feared for my life and grabbed onto the closest thing to me which was Joaquin. LOL. But, I had to keep HIM from falling too because if he fell, then I would fall. So finally, I got out of the mosh pit and my heart was beating so fast by then. Quite the experience though.

all made of sand

On a random note, I HAD CHINESE FOOD!!!!!! :D Opened by legit Chinese people! (and cooked by them too) It was a bit greasy...and definitely wasn't the best ever, BUT, it totally satisfied my Chinese food craving. I was filled with emotion with each bite I took.

Happy happy!!

Puerto in less than 24 hours! Crazy stuff. 29 more days!