July 4th a Birthday in Belize

Monday July 4^th

It’s my birthday, I turn 26 today.

Instead of partying it up I am here at the UB library using the Internet to do homework. Outside the weather is a deep gray and it seems like even if I had wanted to go somewhere I would not have been able to. Last night we had a heavy downpour of rain and it seems like it will linger possibly for the entire week. The good news is that I was able to do more homework and talk to my parents and siblings J. However I now have the worst craving for my mom’s food today, some Dove mint chocolate ice-cream and a good steak. This week we are learning about emerging diseases and all I can think about is the huge mosquito that bit me last week and getting Dengue or Malaria. Thank you for prophylactics but it’s a shame that they are not available to everyone who needs them. Also the use of DEET (which to me is cancer in a bottle) is handy here since everything can bite you. Beware of the horse flies!

July 3rd 2011

Sunday July 3^rd

Today, Cailtin, Debby and Elizabeth left to go back home (U.S). The guy on the motorcycle came at about 8am. His bike has this distinctive sound that can be heard a mile away. When he pulled up Debby freaked out because she thought he was only coming to pick up Cailtin since he had asked for her the previous day. She looked so horrified. Elizabeth and I went outside and he asked if they were ready and said he was going to UB to pick up the truck (Debby was relieved). After about 15 minutes he was back and they packed up and headed to the airport in Belize City. The House is so quiet now, but within a few hours Suzie will be arriving. Anyway, I’m exhausted and feel lazy and I turn 26 tomorrow.

Suzie arrived at around 2pm and we headed to the Bull Frog, the weather so far has been cloudy and there are intermittent showers. Of course on a Sunday, Belmopan the capital is deserted and 1 or 2 cars passes by. Suzie was so surprised at how small Belmopan is and I also expressed my dismay when I first got here because many African cities that are smaller in comparison have more activity on the weekends. After eating lunch and using the internet we walked back home to avoid getting showered in. I also emailed Dr.McKay, the dean of nursing, to ask for tomorrow off since its my birthday and it is also the Fourth of July. Hopefully I get a green light, if not, I can always celebrate when I get home.

Saturday july 2nd (aint no other day like a holy day :)

 Aint no other day like a Holy-day

Saturday July 2^nd

So today would have been the day we would do the Health Fair for San Martin but things have not really worked out as we planned. We think that next year it would be better to have the health fair especially since they take time to plan, budget for and execute. Also by then we will have built relationships with organizations throughout Belmopan and also UB will have more “buy-in” into our vision. Caitlin and I are definitely interested in coming back and seeing how the process has proceeded.

So this Saturday I went to church with Rich and Chris and their daughter. We went to the same church we visited last Saturday and this time a different guy preached. He sounded un-Belizean maybe Haitian (he had this accent that is very familiar in Florida). The church was filled with mostly children from the orphanage and there were a few new faces that I had not seen last week that were present. After singing a few hymnals without the aid of a piano and also participating in Sabbath school the preacher began preaching at 10am. The message was interesting and very different from what I have heard and lasted about 45 minutes. During the 45 minutes I found myself sweating from the humidity and heat that was interrupted by short bouts of rainfall. Coupled with the hot weather the flies and bugs were buzzing around and would bite anyone they were able to land on for more than a few seconds, so to deter them I would fidget in my seat and try my hardest to pay attention. The message was different and Chris mentioned that she didn’t like the way the sermon was preached because it seemed like a sermon that was used to scare people into being good. She also said that she realized that most preachers in Belize would preach those types of sermons and wondered why that was the case. After the sermon we headed back to Chris and Rich’s house and made lunch, which consisted this week of baked potatoes (Belizean potatoes seem a little more starchier than potatoes at home), salad, stir fried garlic and broccoli, and a fruit salad (mangoes, cantaloupe, pineapple, banana) that I made. MMMMM… after eating so much fried food this week having greens and fruits felt very rewarding. As we ate we talked about the how my research was progressing and they also wondered why the Belizean government did not allow imports of vegetables and fruits into the country. Its interesting because there are many factors that are affecting the health of people here and politics has a large part to play.  It seems like everything is PUBLIC HEALTH, everything is related to health here. As 2pm approached Rich and his wife dropped me home and told me they would pick me up next week. When I came home the house was empty and the girls had left me a note indicating that they were at Perk-up, a coffee, Internet café. I was glad for the solitude and rested on my bed for a few hours before getting back up again and feeling somewhat bored. After a few minutes I turned on the TV and surfed the channels looking for something and found a CNN special about sex trafficking of women which is also an issue here in Belize, sometimes its sucks to be a woman because in many societies you are a voiceless individual. I wonder if next year we can tackle this issue in a survey or intervention?

Friday July 1st (Mental health issues)

Friday July 1^st

Third day of collecting household surveys and we are super tired. I feel like I am a lot flexible but I am glad that we have started collecting our data. We have almost finished 1/3 of San Martin in 3 days. Isn’t that amazing? We have really hustled and bustled in the hot sun. The weather seems to be holding its wrath from us but the skies are turning gray so maybe they are slowly going to let loose and prevent us from doing any work.  I woke up at 7am and left the house at 7:50am for a meeting at 8am. I was the first one there and Dr. McKay the dean of nursing and Roberta who has been a tremendous help throughout the entire process discussed how the project was going so far. When Elizabeth, Debby and Caitlin arrived Dr. McKay discussed what she wanted from them by the 8^th of July, which included their experiences, feedback to improve and any other comments. At 11am we then headed out into San Martin. I went to Tita’s home and she wasn’t able to aid in administering the survey in the beginning part of the day so I walked around by myself. I was not nervous and continued on the street we had began the previous day.

            Today the house that stood out to me was a house with a lady who told me she had paranoid schizophrenia. She was very open with me and told me her story of the abuse she tolerated as a child mainly from her mother. She said her mother used to listen to her sister who was her mom’s favorite. At the age of 15 her mother decided to wed her to a guy she was not in love with because her sister had seen that she was interested in another guy. Because her mother really valued her sisters opinion they married her to a guy who was also in love with her but who she was not in love with at all. She said she did not want it but did not have any where to go and so she married him. She said her husband who is now her ex-husband loved her but she did not love him. She says she would fight with him and they would fist fight and she ran away periodically but would return in the end. Eventually her husband was frustrated with the entire process and would stop fighting with her and try to find out what was wrong. She says she would tell him “I don’t love you” and he would be hurt and leave. During this period she became more depressed and then became pregnant. She says she really was depressed and would start to hallucinate and have an inner voice tell her negative things. Her family thought she was crazy and she said something was wrong but the hospitals here were the worst. She also said no one would diagnose her they only were willing to put her in a mad house but she says she is convinced she had paranoid schizophrenia. As we talked some more she told me she was diagnosed and then had her second child. After her second child was born she started going to church a whole lot more and she credits that with helping her to heal. As she told me her story she would start crying and would tell me I have never told anyone this. I was touched and as I listened to her story I was drawn to tears. We ended up speaking for over 2 hours about her experience and I was touched. Why is there a lack of mental health services in the developing world? Why is there still that stigma?

Things need to change.

Thursday June 30th 2011

Thursday June 30^th

Last night I literally put my head on the pillow and feel asleep within 2 minutes. I worked out last night so that was a plus (for me at least). Well-being involves, physical well being. This morning we were out of the house and by 9am we had began to survey the remainder of the St. Matthew street and had started on the next street. As we were surveying I got to talk with Tita a lot more and she opened up about her family and all the problems that she faces especially since she is one of the only siblings who is working currently.  It must be especially difficult if everyone relies on you and also blames you for not helping them when they are in need. She told me that sometimes she feels like she cannot go on and that she sometimes feels like giving up but she wont give up yet. She also wants to visit the U.S. one day and I told her she should. At lunchtime I took her to Ice point where we had lunch and talked a lot more. She told me about schools here in Belize and the lack of resources. After lunch we continued to survey the houses and were able to start on the next street. At 5pm I was burnt tired and Tita and I departed ways. When I got to UB, Caitlin and Debby were there. We waited for an hour and Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen. We then left the campus and headed home where we found a little kitten that was blind. After trying to take care of it with the help of our neighbors, we fed it and prepared for bed. No workout tonight.

I am exhausted.

Wednesday June 29th (The beginning of data collection)

Wednesday June 29^th

We all woke up today at 7am and were out of the door by 8am. Today was the first day of surveying. We decided to split the group up as follows:

Stacey (me) + Tita Balona

Elizabeth + Alicia

Debby + Caitlin + Roberta

That way each group had a Spanish speaker with them. We also split each street into 3 sections and we each had 8 lots to complete on each street and we will be doing that per street visited. The first house I visited was right by the UB gate. A blue house with a brown smaller structure in front of it. I was a little nervous, maybe not nervous just nervous excitement. After saying good morning the male head of household approached the gate. His wife and other family members followed him. I remember thinking “Oh man, this will be interesting”. I then introduced myself, told him what I was doing and asked him if he was willing to participate. He then looked at Tita and spoke in Maya and Creole for more information. She explained more in Maya and I think the exchange was just to assure him that I was not a con. He then looked at me, smiled and said, “Come in”. After a flurry of words in Maya, a family member rushed in and came out of their house to present a chair for me to sit. I thanked them and then we talked a little where I further explained what I was doing and then read the consent form to him. He then signed and we began the survey. After completing the survey in 18-20 minutes we proceeded to talk about San Martin and he told me how much appreciative he was that we had decided to come to San Martin to do something with health because he said there was a lack of it in the community. It is very interesting because he also talked about having the health center in San Martin but seeing that it was closed which did not make sense to him. After a few minutes he proceeded to ask Tita questions about City Council and what they were doing and she answered and made small talk. After staying with them for about 45 minutes we proceeded to the next house, which was comprised of women. We found them in the middle of making flour tortillas and the head of the household was around the hearth flipping the tortillas. After introducing myself, she agreed to take the survey and we sat around while she cooked with other women. As I went through the survey questions she and the other ladies would laugh and then she would answer the questions. As we went through she I got the sense that the other ladies were her daughters or family members. Once we reached the end of the survey it began to rain and by then it was approaching 11:30am, we continued and it began to rain harder. Soon we were joined by another Belizean woman and man who came to buy tortillas. After they talked she looked at me and said that she did not like foreigners asking intrusive questions. I smiled at her and she continued talking to the lady we had just interviewed, telling her how she had some researchers come and ask her information about her home and how she did not like it. I know it wasn’t us but I understand where she is coming from especially if people come and ask you questions and then do not do what they say they will do. It does get old and if I was in the same position I would be over it.

            After the rain had subsided I thanked the ladies of the household for their time and went to the next house, which coincidentally was Tita’s house. Tita introduced me to her common law husband, her daughter, son and grandmother. We then went to the kitchen located in the back of her compound in a separate structure where the sweet smells of home baked breads and stewed chicken wafted through the air. After sitting and talking to her daughter who also wants to become a doctor like me, Tita volunteered her grandmother to do the survey. We proceeded through the preliminary consent form and survey while Tita enjoyed an early lunch. Her grandmother is pretty awesome and agreed to teach me how to cook Belizean food if I ever wanted to learn and with time permitting. After thanking her for her time, Tita and I went to the next house. For the rest of the day until 5pm we visited each of the houses in my zone made small talk and performed the survey. Despite one break to get lunch at 1pm the only time I got to raise my feet up in the air was later in the night when I returned home at 5:30pm.

            Today was exhausting but very exciting. I have heard very interesting stories. One story that sticks with me is the story from a housewife who has not seen her husband in more than 10 years because he has abandoned her. The story broke my heart because I wish I could help her or give her information on how to track her. He literally can be anywhere in Belize, in Central America or in the World. Public Health is hard because this field covers many aspects of health including mental health, emotional health, chronic health, maternal health, community health, communicable disease etc. It’s so broad and now I understand the dilemma PH practitioners are faced with when you get an answer that you cannot change or make better. I wonder how many other situations we will encounter such as this one.

Tuesday June 28th

At last...... 

 

Tuesday June 28^th

I woke up very optimistic today. We were approved yesterday. Although the sun was very brutal its exciting because we will be able to collect data soon. Today we set out at 8:30am and were in San Martin by 9am to finish the remainder of the mapping. Yesterday it was mostly Caitlin drawing the maps but today I will be doing the mapping while Debby is taking pictures of each house. Caitlin will then be matching each house with the descriptions of the houses so that we have a visual map of everything around us. As we began mapping the sun was out and it wasn’t too hot but by 11am the sun was a little stronger and we were all sweating. We definitely want to finish mapping today because we don’t want to be ut doing this tomorrow. We would rather start collecting data. At 12:30pm we were all starving but decided to push on since we had a little more left to map. By 2pm we had finished the entire San Martin community. Drenched in sweat, tired and 2shades darker we decided to capture the moment of relief and excitement by asking a few passing young men to take our picture. After that we all headed to Ice point for lunch and then home to get our computers and then headed to the UB library where we each finished homework from our other online classes, socialized through Facebook but mainly to bask in the cool AC which was a relief compared to the sweltering hot sun outside. In the evening we headed home and decided to finalize the notation for houses to indicate to us how many times they had been visited. As I have mentioned earlier in other blog we have decided to visit each house twice because we will be limited in the number of people being able to actually go out into the community and administer surveys. I AM EXCITED!!!