Adios, Las Cruces

So, more details about our research project: Coto Brus, the county that San Vito is in, has an abnormally high rate of gastric cancer.  Costa Rica actually has the second most incidences of gastric cancer in the world, second only to Japan.  We're investigating the role of nitrates and nitrites in the soil, since nitrates are  converted into carcinogenic compounds in the stomach.  As a county with lots of farming, its possible that nitrates from fertilizer could have a role in the high incidence of gastric cancer.

The cool thing is that our professors said that Dr. Ortiz, who works with OTS and practices in San Vito, uses a lot of the information from the program, so if there is anything that needs attention drawn to it, it is put into action right away.  Not to say that we'll find breakthrough significant findings with our extensive data collection of two weeks, but it's cool that the research program here is very directly stimulating public health interest in the community.

We've had a long, class-filled six days this week.  But it'll all be worth it because our next two weeks are going to be significantly less classroom-based.  On Monday we're moving to Las Alturas, where we'll be assisting at a clinic.  We'll be doing a lot of work in the roles of medical records technicians/pharmacy technicians so we can actually practice what we've learned about the EBAIS system, which is awesome.   We learned more medical Spanish (not actually that useful as conversing all the time in Spanish, because so many Spanish words are cognates to English!  Makes sense, since they both come from Latin, but I'm pretty sure that someone with no Spanish background could find his or her way around a pharmacy).

We're also going to visit the Boruca, another indigenous group.  They have these elaborate masks and dance festivals that I actually researched for my Spanish presentation in San Pedro.  We'll actually be doing homestays there, and living with families in the territory.  And then...Panama!!

I won't have Internet in the next two weeks (or electricity or hot water), which also means no PDFs assigned to read!  I'll have to budget my camera's battery power the same way that we'd have to budget those 27 disposable photos back in the day.

Also, I just finished all my reservations for spring break!!  I'm really excited for our upcoming trips and visits this month, but I'm not going to pretend that I am craving some time to sleep in, go ziplining, and chill on the beach for a week!

Hasta luego!

Anya