There are a number of established sites around the world where public health students at my school may go, but I have wanted to come to Chiapas ever since reading my step-grandmother June Nash's essay in Cultural Anthropology. So I am the first student from TU to complete an MPH Field Study in Chiapas. That said, about a year ago, Martha Benitez (an OG) did a Global Health rotation here as part of the College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM). The difference between that and what I'm doing is the intended nature of the work. For a medical rotation, the goal is to see healthcare in action internationally, to gain clinical experiences. In a public health field study, the work is generally anything but clinical. For me, I'm helping build a community engagement project to use the Sterile Insect Technique and help reduce the population of Aedes egypti mosquitos, the vector for Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, and Zika Virus.
This is actually my second time in Chiapas. After planning this trip, my partner Diana and I visited this past January for a few days in San Cristóbal and an excursion to Hospital San Carlos in Altamirano. I would say it is half coincidence, half intention. It's nice to be back and It's a lot easier having some experience of the way things move here.
On my arrival this time, there were two other students here from Touro already: Peter & Kat. They started an awesome blog for the COM Global Health program during their month here. Below is a multidisciplinary team photo after breakfast with some folks at ECOSUR, some folks at INSP/CRISP, and us medical students from TU.
Upper Left: Peter & Kat. Upper Right: Erica and myself
Bottom Left: César and Ariane. Bottom Right: Ana Laura and Iliana.
So this morning: I woke up, cleaned up, created this blog... all before 8:45am !!! And now it's time to start the day.... more on what that entails to come!
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