It's going to be nice only thinking about one class and be in a city where we can hang out, meet other students, and get to experience culture away from the biological station! I do like Las Cruces, especially our fantastic meals (mangoes again the other day!) but it does feel like research summer camp a lot. We have our whole days planned out for us and we always stick together as a group. This is really great most of the time, but not in terms of the typical "study abroad experience" when we're all speaking English and on a mountain in a rural area. I will miss looking down from the mountain:
Anyway, here's what's been going on. We toured an EBAIS in the town of Agua Buena on Monday. EBAIS stands for Equipo Básicos de Atención Integral en Salud, the meat and potatoes of the Costa Rican healthcare system. EBAIS are primary care facilities, and although there is not as much choice and specialization as in the US, it is much cheaper (pretty much all services are free with the Caja social security, mandatory for all workers), and very accessible.
It was really cool. The EBAIS is assigned to a certain population size in the surrounding area (I believe around 8,000 people). Again, anything medically necessary is free, including prescriptions. Even Tylenol and Ibuprofen is free, with a prescription, and as we saw in the pharmacy in the EBAIS, all the drugs are available right there. Furthermore, despite being one of the few countries with Catholicism as an official denomination, any type of birth control short of a hysterectomy is free and confidential after the age of 14, which was impressive.
We took a trip to the Ngobe territory today, crossing a precarious bridge to get there.
The Ngobe are an indigenous people in the isthmus, and we'll be visiting them in Panama as well. One of our professors, Hector, had stayed with a couple during his research on ethnobiology, and we spent some time talking to them. The woman, María, is a midwife and had some handcrafts that we looked through. I got some great armadillo earrings, score.
We also took a look at the Ngobe EBAIS. It was a stranger experience than going to the EBAIS in Agua Buena, since this one was in an indigenous territory and nonindigenous citizens aren't supposed to live there. That being the case, we stood out a whole lot more than when we were in Agua Buena, and the looks of people in the waiting room while we were conspicuously taking notes were more noticeable. Maybe this kind of visiting happens a lot in this territory, but it felt awkward -- I can't imagine someone coming and taking notes while I'm waiting for my primary care doctor.
It was quite a tumultuous road to get there, as evidenced by this photo:
By the time we got back up and over those bumpy roads (and my faith in the Safari vehicle we were in has been completely and utterly affirmed), we had some lunch and then it was time for lectures. We're into the area of microbiology now, ahhhh, my comfort zone.
Here's a picture of all of us in the Ngobe territory:
Anya
No comments:
Post a Comment