Order of Augusta

Today, I had my Order of Augusta interview. I have been a little worried about this and praying a lot so I didn't get much sleep last night. I woke up around 8:30 to prepare myself for some of the questions that Laurel and I thought of last night. I did my usual morning thing of taking a shower, drinking some coffee and eating a piece of bread and butter, and talking with my mom about whatever I can convey easily in Portuguese. Today, I talked extra long with my mom because it was kinda relaxing before I had to prepare for my interview.

I ironed my shirt last night and debated whether I would even wear pants since they would only see my face. I decided it best to wear pants but not necessary to iron them. It will become apparent why this was a good decision on my part. Before the interview I just kept going over the questions and praying. Soon enough, it was 11:30 and they called. The interview had 4 professors (Dr Atkins- Speech Path, Dr. Klandorff- Animal Science, Dr. Conner- English, and Dr. Stewart- VP of Student Affairs). They started the interview with introductions and then Dr. Stewart asked me about what the Brazilians think about the World Cup being in Brazil and what are their impressions of the coach. From talking with people and especially with my host dad, I knew that everyone was ecstatic about the World Cup, but I also knew my dad didn't like the coach. I thought that this was because he made them play a European style of soccer, so I went with that and Stewart completely agreed- dodged my first bullet. I believe Klandorff spoke next and mentioned that he had talked to "Doc" Blemmings about me. Doc wrote one of my medical school letters of reference because we really connected over common interests in hunting and camping, especially out West. Klandorff asked me about BBB and why I thought it was "genuine" as if other organizations were not. I answered this question by saying that BBB invests in its members (connecting them with research opportunities, etc) and invests in the WVU/Morgantown Community (Stewart St Adopt a Road, Bartlett House, other community service). He liked this answer and replied "good answer." Next was Dr. Aktins. She made the comment that she liked my tie and the colors of my tie (its the same blue and gold tie that I've worn since the beginning of college for all of my important WVU functions). I remember she asked what are my two favorite and most beneficial community service activities. I replied that both of my study abroad trips are my favorite (I wanted to bring them up sometime in the interview and this seemed like a good plug-in). I talked about how these trips have been very difficult but more rewarding than any service I have done while in the states. I talked a lot about this and she replied "good answer." Her next question was a request to see me salsa dance. This is where I was very happy that I decided to wear pants. Without hesitation, I stood up and gave my best acapella salsa dance. I apologized that it wasn't that great and that I needed my girlfriend to keep time for me. When I glanced up, they were all crowded around the screen loving my failed attempt. I don't actually think that Dr. Atkins thought that I would do it. Next was Klandorff again and he asked me about my Portuguese. I think I was a bit too modest here and they might think that I still do not speak much Portuguese (which isn't far from the truth). I was thinking about rattling off something in Portuguese but I wanted them to feel as relaxed as possible with me, and I know personally how hearing something that you don't understand can make you feel very insecure. Next, was Stewart again but I can't remember what he asked me. I know we talked about WVU being in the Sweet Sixteen and he informed me that Bryant had broken his foot. Afterward, I looked on Sportsline and sure enough Bryant broke it in practice and is out for the season. After that Dr. Conner asked me about the recent health care bill. I was very happy that I studied up on this. This was possibly the only current event in America that I was somewhat familiar with and I think I did an alright job fielding his question about how this will effect my future occupation. I tried to sound as bi-partisan as possible, but I used my recent overnight stay in a public hospital here as a reason to believe that this could lead to hospital overpopulation. Also, I threw in that since I am so young, this will be great for me because I will be able to stay on my parents insurance while in Med School until I am 26 click here. I tried to ride the fence as much as possible because I thought in this mixed company establishing a strong argument or opinion could lead to unfamiliar territory and get me in trouble. He also asked me about why I might want to become a orthopedic surgeon and I said because it is the most useful specialization in developing countries when it comes to correcting club foot, cleft palate (I guess this is more plastic surgeon though- glad they didn't pick up on that). He also replied "good answer" at the end. Next, was Klandorff again. I think he felt that he needed to lead the interview with me since we both come from similar disciplines in the sciences. He asked me about the hybridization of Populus tremuloides and Populus grandidentata and I was very happy that he brought my research up. I think I really sounded confident when answering this question (I guess I should be- I studied them for 3 years). He even asked me a theoretical question about what are the implications of hybridization for future populations. Again, I think I did pretty well thanks to Dr. DiFazio's Quantitative and Population Genetics class and from my independent study. I brought up that there was also a third invasive species of Popular present (Populus alba or European Popular) and I said how these hybrids could lead to increased assexual reproduction with more vegetative vigor which would in turn decrease the effective population size and sexually diversity (Sorry to bore you with the details but this was a good 7 minutes of the interview). After that they asked if I had any questions for them and I turn this opportunity to brown-nose. I talked about how I had researched each of their respective publications and how I knew many people who spoke highly of both Atkins, and Stewart (thanks lindsey and tiff!) Also, I commented how I used Klandorff's Animal Phys book with Dr. Vona Davis and I think I might have had him blushing in front of his colleagues ( I think this was a good move- guess we'll wait and see). After that I thanked them and hung up the phone. In total it took about 45 minutes and I felt pretty calm about the whole interview.

Immediately after the interview I started to worry that it possible went to well because they didn't grill me very much. I thought this could be a bad thing because it could mean that they weren't that interested in me and they had already made up their mind. Of course this could also mean that they had already made their mind up in a good way and that they just wanted to confirm their decision with feeling that they had to put me through the wringer. I know, I over analyze things, but this is how my mind works. I mean I guess its not really that big of a deal. Only possibly means a 50k+ scholarship to med school. Who cares, right?

I didn't really worry about the interview as much as I thought I would. I did feel pretty worn out so I talked with my mom and ate lunch to calm myself down. By the time I was ready to leave it was already about 1:30 and I decided to skip CADEC ( I justified this in my mind by the fact that I already volunteered ~9 additional hours at the hospital on Monday night). I went for my first run without taking any shoes of sandals and I ran very fast on the sand because the tide was low and I was able to run in the packed sand. I made it to my normal spot (~3.2 miles I think) in my normal time of 25minutes and returned in only 24 minutes while running on sand! I guess I was feeling pretty stress-free. After returning I swam in the ocean (just about took my iPod in with me) and then did a few leg exercises on the beach. I returned a lot of emails the rest of the day and read more of the Snow Leopard. At about 7:30 I went on another run to my normal spot and ran it in record time. I keep getting faster at this distance and I think I am running ~7 minute miles. I returned home and ate and talked with my host mom. Nicole used my comp to talk to her mom and we all Skyped together. Then I called my parents and again all talked together. I feel kinda bad because I was supposed to talk to both Caleb and to Joe tonight, but I'm glad that Nicole got to speak to her family. I think they are arriving here this Sunday.

Brazilian Health Care

On last Friday and again on Monday night, I have been able to shadow a doctor named Sandro from the Clinic Carmen Lucia. He has been very open with me and very patience while working through language barrier and my ignorance of medicine. On Friday, I shadowed him from 8-12 in the Carmen Lucia Clinic. This clinic is funded by the PCLB Foundation which is owned by the owner of Subway (This is who Daniel Weiss works for). The clinic is very clean and neat and not very crowded. They have one doctor, 4 dentists, and a few dental hygienists. The day that I shadowed Sandro we only had 5 patients and spent a lot of personal time which each. Sandro says that he really enjoys working here because it is rewarding.

The public hospital that I shadowed Sandro in on Monday night was a stark opposite. This hospital is apparently the premier children's hospital in the whole state and people come from pretty far to get the quality of care offered here. However, this hospital is total chaos.

We arrived at 7 at night to begin the 12-hour shift. Immediately as Sandro arrived he had people coming up to him asking to be seen next. Sandro is a very genuine and tries to help everyone he encounters (including me), but he eventually had to push through to get his stack of orders and make it to the physician's room. In this room there were 3 other physicians and only 2 patient tables. All 4 of the doctors work from 7 to 7 but after 1 in the morning only 1 doctor is on at a time. They must bring all of their own personal equipment in a doctor's bag (looks like something a doctor would carry back in colonial times). The hospital has almost all the divisions that you would see in a hospital in the US, but some of the building is in decrepit shape. Also, I think every bed in the whole place was taken. The waiting rooms are really the saddest part. There are people sprawled out everywhere while waiting to see the doctor or waiting to finish their IVs. Some people stay here for up to 3 days with there children in the waiting room because it is hard to get in once you leave, so they just live in the waiting room and sleep. These conditions were so different than what I am familiar with in the US, and with what I expected based on the standard set by Carmen Lucia Clinic. There seemed to be very little order what so ever, and the amount patients was astonishing. I didn't count how many patients we saw that night, but we probably only spent on average 10 minutes with each patient. Also, the paperwork was very time consuming. Multiple forms were needed for each patient similar to in the U.S., but here their were essentially no nurses and the doctors were responsible of ordering all the meds, x-rays, labs, etc. I really don't see how Sandro does this twice a week. I was starting to drag at about 3 in the morning and I don't know how many times I put the stethoscope on backwards.

You have to keep in mind that this was a triage or a kind of "Health Plus" or "Health Works" in the US. There were no emergencies in this department but there were a lot of unstable or "red" children in very close quarters with small babies with a simple cough or "green" patients. Also, the amount of time that these people waited showed extreme dedication to their children, but that amount of time worsened the condition of many of the patients. For example, there was a child there that had severe pneumonia who was not seen for 4 hours. By the time Sandro saw him, he immediately put him into surgery. Right before we left, we visited him and he had already drained over a liter of fluid out of his lung.

Being from "comfortable" America, this seemed like an injustice to me. The quality of health care in the US is so superior to what I experienced here. At one point in the night while watching Sandro scribble furiously, I had a sleepy reflection. Recently, I have not only been trying to stay up on the health care bill, but also trying to figure out what side of the fence I am on. I have my reasons for being both for the bill and against it, but I thought of a new variable that I had never factored in before. How will the hospitals handle the additional influx of 32 million people suddenly having health insurance? It takes at least 7 years to train a doctor once graduated from college, and decades to plan and build new hospitals. Do we have the infrastructure to do this? And it won't be a slow transition. The current bill calls for all people to buy insurance by 2014 or face fines. The insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against people based on pre-existing conditions, so how will we cope when this potentially "sicker" demographic suddenly has insurance? I am still trying to find answers about this but I haven't found many news outlets or even blogs that have addressed this question. Any answers?

After we left the hospital at about 3:30, Sandro was hungry so we drove around to find a bit to eat. Of course nothing we open so we just went back to his place and raided the fridge. I slept in the extra bedroom that actually had an operating fan! I slept really well but I had to wake up at 8 because Sandro returned from signing out of the hospital and wanted to eat breakfast with me. After this we took his dog "A Breezy" (Laurel, thought you might laugh at the name) for a walk and then went to the beach. I got back to my house just in time to leave for class. I ended up being 10 minutes late to class because I was so into my book "The Snow Leopard" that I stood in the wrong line and missed the right bus. Jiame was at the class since Daniel and Geli are leaving for the states tomorrow. He took us to Shopping after class and I ate a 30 cm Subway sandwich. So much for not eating American food while abroad, but I guess I already broke my creed with McD's last week. We were late for our Portuguese class and of course our professor was on time. In the second class, we had our first test of the semester. Even though this semester has been very challenging, I guess its been my easiest semester ever in classic academic terms. I mean I've been here over two months and I just took my first test! However, I never really escape education here. Everything is education here and I learn constantly. I'm just glad that the learning is getting easier now!

American Oasis

I woke up today and realized that I had forgotten to my homework for my Portuguese class. One of my assignments was to write about my past weekend in Pedra Azul. I really got interested in this and wrote a lot because I found that it was a pretty good way for me to learn new verbs and some new words. My writing in Portuguese is very similar to my speech, like a child. When I first arrived here, I felt very ignorant when speaking because I didn't even know how to formally say what my name was or where I'm from. Now, my Portuguese is improving, but I still sound very ignorant, however now I'm O.K. with that. I have learned that it is better to speak than to seem closed and unfriendly. Also, now Portuguese is a lot more fun for me because I have learned some basics in my UFES Portuguese class. Now that I have my foot on the first step of this language ladder, my learning is beginning to "snowball." Don't get me wrong, I still have conversations that are very difficult, but I am able to decipher things much more quickly now. I think this is due to my learning of the basics. One thing that I have learned through this experience is when entering a new culture with a new language, try to get the basics down before your departure. I knew that I should have been studying more Portuguese before I left, but I honestly had almost no time (or the little time I did have I was spending it with my friends before I left). I have no one to blame for this lack of preparedness but myself. However, I have had the opportunity to speak to several students here at my university and every single study abroad student had to go through some kind of intensive culture and language training when they first arrived or before their departure. For example, the PITT students I met last weekend at Pedra Azul had to go through 6 weeks of 5 hour per day intensive Portuguese training in Rio de Janiero before they came to UFES for classes. I've still only had 4 weeks of formal Portuguese training to date! ( I didn't have UFES Portuguese classes for my first 3 weeks). Another example is the Peace Corps. I was talking with my Laurel's parents (served in Peace Corps Bahrain) and they said that they went through six weeks of intense language and culture training (it seems that six weeks is the optimum amount of training). Please don't misinterpret me. I am not complaining about Amizade (even though they did tell me that I didn't need to do prior Portuguese training, and any that I did do would just be bonus). I am merely stating my opinion that next time I enter a program like this I am going to ensure that I go through language training prior to departure or ASAP when I arrive. I know that this would have made a huge difference in my experience at the beginning of this trip.

That being said, because of my lack of language and communication, this trip has stretched me in completely new directions. I now understand much more non-verbal communication and I am able to communicate more with just my hands and "acting out." Also, even though it was really tough, I kinda liked it because it was almost like I could completely tune out even when people were talking around me. You can't really do that with your native language and I am now starting to do that less with Portuguese.

Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox now. After I did my Portuguese homework, I got on the bus to go to Banco Verde. Banco Verde is the recycling plant I volunteered at last week and it is located in a section of town that I am very unfamiliar with. I was already running late so I just got on the first bus I saw to terminal Ibes when I arrived at terminal Vila Velha. This was a mistake. I knew it was as soon I started going over the third bridge into Vitoria. I will save you the details of everywhere this bus went, but I was stuck on it for about 1 hour. This trip would have usually taken 20 minutes. I called Nicole and we agreed that I would just meet her at UFES since going to Banco Verde would be useless since I could probably only stay for about 30 minutes. By the time I arrived at UFES, I was hungry and hot. I scoured the surrounding area for a place to eat and do homework but all I could find is a McDonalds.... I have this thing about eating American food while in foreign countries. I think it takes away from the cultural experience, so I never do it. However, as soon as I stepped into this AC, clean, American Oasis; I couldn't help myself. I ordered a McUnica Bacon (or something like that) and it was awesome. Directly after finishing my meal, I got a slight stomach ache. Probably due to the fact that I haven't eaten anything this fatty or enriched. I stayed in this American embassy for another 3 hours and got quite a little bit of homework done (AC really helps you concentrate, surprisingly).

Once again, the first intensive Portuguese lesson was very beneficial and the second one was very slow. After the class, we rode the bus with other students from Italy (Oliver and Juicy?, sounds like "Juicy"). We communicate in broken Portuguese and every now and then Oliver says something in English. He made a comment about the buses that I had never thought of before. The bus has a turnstile in the front where a worker takes your money. It is very tight and hard to get through with a backpack on. He made the comment that this would never work in Italy or the US because it discriminates against obese people. He's right, there is no way you could get through this if you were intermediate overweight. Come to think about it, I don't know if I've ever really seen a fat person on the bus here. The seats are so close together that even I inconvenience people just with my shoulders. Brazil is certainly not a place that is accommodating to the overweight and very different from my home state in this respect.

Family Tradition

Today is really my first day blogging without my camera, so I apologize for the lack of pictures from today, but hopefully my camera will miraculously be healed by God soon. I took it out of the box of rice today and the lens is still really blurry and I don't think that it is going to dry out any more. I tried to put the memory card in it and it won't snap into the slot. I think it is toast. This is pretty sad for me because I have been everywhere with that great camera and it has recorded some really great memories for me.

We had class today at 10 but I went with Daniel at 9:30 to buy paint for CADEC. Class is always very interesting here because it doesn't really ever feel like class because there is only 3 of us in the room. This is kinda good and bad. It's good because we can all voice our opinions easily and it usually leads to a pretty interesting conversation. It's bad because I can never skip class and not be noticed (just kidding, Daniel).

So the buses here are pretty crazy. I don't know if I would call the drivers extremely talented or just plain stupid, but riding the buses is kinda like an amusement park ride. Riding the bus while standing up is pretty hard, riding the bus while standing up and reading a book is very difficult (I've almost mastered it), riding the bus while keeping paint cans from sliding everywhere is pretty impossible.

At CADEC I went about removing all the wall decorations and cabinets and then smoothing rough patches with a putty knife. I didn't have much to clean the walls with so I just used water and a towel. It was disgusting how dirty everything was. After this I mixed up some ready patch and filled in the many holes. The job was really hot and tiring because I had to keep the door closed and the fan is broken in this room. Also, I was working on top of a stack of chairs as a ladder and scrubbing the walls and ceiling. The combination of sweat and dirty water left me soaked by the end of the day. Everyone thought this was really hard work, but I prefer this any day to working with 40 kids. I think that is one of the hardest jobs I have ever done.

We finally got back from CADEC at 6 and I got some great news via email. I was recently awarded a spot as a WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior and today I got word that they want me to interview for Order of Augusta. I believe that about 30-50 Outstanding Senior awards are given each year and only 8 go on to be Order of Augusta. Order of Augusta is the highest honor bestowed upon a student and there could possibly be a scholarship to med school associated with it. Also, yesterday I received an email from Dr. DiFazio that I have been nominated for Outstanding Senior of the Department of Biology. I don't know if I will get this honor since I'm sure there are many competitive candidates and it doesn't help that I am going to med school.

I was talking to Laurel when I read the good news and then my mom walked in. I told her that I needed a haircut and we immediately went to the barber shop. This was my first time in a barber shop since my mom, me, or Laurel have always cut my hair. I guess I should have been nervous about have a man cut my hair that I couldn't even communicate with, but I used my broken Port and hand signals to get the gist across. I actually think it turned out pretty good but he left the borders very jagged and didn't use a razor on my neck or around my ears. He did however use a razor on my hair. After he went around with scissors, he then took a straight razor and pinched my between it and his thumb and then pulled out on my hair. I have never seen this done but it did a great job and I feel like my head can breath now!

Since I now have fast internet, I bought unlimited calls to landlines through Skype for only 12 bucks a month. Isn't technology amazing? I called Mama and Papa and it was great to hear their voices again. I can tell that they are worrying about me, but I tried to reassure them as much as possible. I then tried to call Grandma (forgot that she is still living at Norm and Marianne's) so I called her house phone. I also tried to call the Beatty's, but I just left a message.

I wanted to go for a run today, but I thought it best to rest until I get completely over my cold/cough/scratchy throat. I really don't understand this sickness, but I am going to beat it NOW. I already had it for about 3 weeks and it really got bad last week. Every time I think I am over it, I wake up with a really scratchy throat and I cough half of the day before I can really breath normally. Crazy climate.

I Feel Home

So I didn't blog any while I was away this weekend so I am going to try to describe my weekend quickly and with the use of pictures- hope you enjoy, this might be boring.

Friday:

We met at Daniel's at 7 which meant that I had to wake up around 5:30. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the sunrise but I still wasn't early enough. We drove past Domingos Martins and met Jiame at a store by his house. We went to a local school with 5 grades and only 2 classrooms. Then we went to a coffee association where we got to see a coffee bean "de-husker" (just made that word up- the machine takes the bean out of the pod). This was the beginning of our coffee making adventure.


After the coffee association we visited the agriculture office of the region and talked about a lot of topics. Jiame is using this office to help him re-forest a section of his land. We finally got to Jiame's sitio and went to check out the waterfall. I got some great pictures of a coral snake and of the waterfall and then proceeded to fall about 30-40 feet down the waterfall and ruined my camera. Not a good day. I was so mad at myself and I still can't believe that I wrecked my camera. Even though I was furious, I strangely felt a sense of home in the mountains. There is definitely something spiritual about being in the mountains and I felt more home today than I have since I left.

I helped Jiame make dinner and we ate outside. He has an unlimited supply of jokes and funny stories and kinda reminds me of a combination of Pap and Bill Beatty. Needless to say, I hope I get to spend more time with him.

The picture below is of Jiame and Nicole performing their improv singing





Saturday:


We woke up early to get to Pedra Azul but barely made it there on time. The breakfast that Jiame made was so good and was pretty close to a normal American breakfast.

Pedra Azul was very beautiful but I'll let the pictures describe it. I met some kids from PITT that live in Vitoria and go to UFES. This gave me someone to talk to and of course poke fun at. Little did I know that WVU had just won the Big East! (probably a good thing because the trash talk could have gotten out of hand).Swam in this pools-fridgid.

This was pretty cool. All they had to get up a pretty steep section of rock was an anchored rope. I kept thinking how this would never be allowed in the US. It was crazy that we didn't have to be strapped in, but pretty safe at the same time.

Me and Dan solving the worlds problems. I really enjoy talking with him and he is pretty knowledgeable on a lot of topics, especially history.





Sunday:

I slept in till about 8 but the flies were horrible and woke me up. We had another awesome breakfast and Jiame is really spoiling us for when we go back to our homestays. We went to a local horticulturist and he showed us around his large property. He specializes in orchids and some were beautiful and ornate. One orchid species he had goes for about $10,000 USD in Sao Paulo.The next few pics is our coffee making process. In the first one I am roasting the beans (you can actually see the coffee trees behind me where the beans came from. The second picture is me grinding the coffee beans after roasting- smelled awesome. The third picture is me and Jiame's wife enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Recycle

I barely slept last night because I was up hacking my lungs out and it was especially hot in my room because of the recent rain. I am going to bed at pretty decent times, but I think it is safe to say that it is impossible for me to get quality sleep here. I thought I would become accustomed to the heat by now, but I don't think that is ever going to actually happen. I wake up several times throughout the night drenched in sweat and I don't even use any type of cover. I guess it makes sense that I am burning up down here because I am usually really hot back home even in the winter. Anyways, its all part of the experience, right?

Nicole and I met a man named Itamarco on the street outside of Daniel's apartment and he took us to Region 3 of Vila Velha (I usually volunteer in Region 5) Itamarco is a micro-financier/political activist that is trying to clean up Region 3, especially focusing on the watersheds. One river (or rather canal) used to be a profitable fishing stream but now it is very polluted and the fisherman moved away. He has several projects running to try to change this condition. One project is called Banco Verde (Green Bank) and turned out to be my job for today. Banco Verde (shown below) is run by a man named Joao who is also a political activist/volunteer/mason. Banco Verde accepts cans and plastic bottles from people and in turn issues Banco Verde currency. This currency is only good in their small grocery store which runs on donations from supermarkets. It only contains the essentials but it give people a very easy way to attain the necessary foods. I really liked the structure of this NGO and I think that it has a pretty self-sustainable business plan. However, the business plan revolves around Joao who is a short energetic stone mason with a opaque cataract in his left eye. He has many ideas for Banco Verde and you can catch his passion for the project even through the shroud of the language barrier.

I really liked this manual labor and I felt like this place was much more active than CADEC. I felt like Nicole and I were pretty useful here and that they were really happy that we were helping out. However, I couldn't have picked a worse day to be working and sweating outside in the extreme heat. I was coughing all day long and I just couldn't stop sweating. I thought about how much my Papa would like this hot work with recycling and I came to realize that this is one area we are not cut from the same cloth. My body really just doesn't do that well in extreme hot. I have always thought that I really liked working in the heat, but this near 100% humidity really throws me a curveball and my body is working hard to adjust.

The picture shows only about half of the plastic which was turned in while I was present. It was a stinky, hot, sticky job but I felt like I was helping to make a difference in the community.

A great thing about this project is that it gives people an incentive to recycle and anyone can do it. The man pictured below was a mute (we got along pretty well) and he brought in two loads of this size on his wagon. He earned enough to buy enough food for probably two weeks (two large boxes) and apparently he comes in twice a week! This place is really making a difference in the recycling habits of this community!
We left Banco Verde around 2 and went to our Portuguese class at UFES. For some reason I had thought that I should bring an extra shirt today and I was really glad that I did (we weren't told what we would be doing, we thought we were going to be shadowing Itamarco all day). My cough got a lot worse at UFES and by the time I got back to my place I was feeling pretty crappy but all the pharmacies had already closed. I finally was able to watch an episode of house that I had been queuing up on my internet for 2 days. This was probably the second time that I have watched English entertainment in over a month. I tried to go to bed early but couldn't fall asleep. I got to talk to Alex on Skype and she caught me up with all the happenings back home. Thanks Alpo!

Chicken Foot

Just as I was about to leave this morning, I got a text from Daniel that he had sent an hour before (gotta love the cell service) that said that Nicole was sick and there wasn't class this morning. I called him to tell him that I was sick as well, and he allowed me to skip volunteering today. This is the worst my throat has felt yet and it was kinda hard to breath this morning. I am starting to sneeze a lot and my head pounds when I do. My mom made some juice for me and chew on ginger root. The weird thing about this cold that I have had for about two weeks now is that it gets better throughout the day and then I relapse every night. My family is still blaming it on the change in weather, but I'm thinking that I am having a reaction to something environmental possibly in my mattress. I really sprayed it with Raid last week, so I don't think there could be anything alive in it, but you never know in Brazil!

I decided to use this day to work ahead, so I went to the beach and finished the Jeffrey Sachs book for my Political Science class. I also caught up on my blogs. I went to the store to buy some lemons, caju juice, acerbola juice (it wasn't until tonight and I finished my last bottle that I found out that this was essentially "from concentrate" juice- I just thought Brazilians liked their juice how they like everything else- super sweet), and activa yogurt (really been missing yogurt). I returned home and tried to ate the lemons with salt and drank the juice and as much water as possible. I gotta get over this cold- its been affecting my life for 2 weeks now! I tried to sleep for a little bit during the day, but after it rained the heat was only amplified. This seems counter-intuitive to me, but my mother explained that the rain cools the ground, but the ground boils the water and makes the air a humid, tropical oven! I got to talk to Laurel a little and worked a lot on my Biology publication. I should have it done for review soon. This is probably going to be another long process, but as many people have told me, it would be a shame if I didn't publish what I put so much work into.

For dinner, my mother made me chicken noodle soup. I guess that's another thing that crosses cultural barriers. I had a somewhat pretty good conversation with her and it is amazing how much easier it is for me to carry on a conversation with my family compared to a stranger. During this conversation, I glance up at my mother's plate and noticed there was a chicken foot sitting square in the middle of her soup. I didn't think anything of it because I had some unidentified chicken meat in my soup as well, but I thought it was there to make the broth only- I was wrong. My mother proceeded to pick up the whole chicken leg and start crunchy on it starting with the three toes. At this point I asked her about eating the chicken foot and she said her whole family eats them and fights over them at family dinners. Kinda sounds like the Woleslagles and the turkey gizzard at Thanksgiving!

The two pictures are of vistas near the Vianna region and Domingos Martins area that I visited yesterday