Friday, after finishing our first week as interns, all of the interns and I went out for some local dinner. We've been asking around for the best, local restaurants and different foods to try. Recently, I've tried nopales (cactus) and it's quite delicious. We still have a list of restaurants that we've been told to try, both in Brownsville and "on the island." "On the island" refers to South Padre Island, which is about a 30 minute drive from Brownsville. It's a rather touristy area, but many people in Brownsville go there for the beach.
Saturday, I went to see the Brownsville Farmer's Market. The School of Public Health (SPH) just started this Farmer's Market this year as a way to educate the community in an attempt to change the city's and county's growing rate of obesity. They are also able to offer $10 vouchers to encourage lower-income families to eat healthy and create healthy lifestyles as a part of the Tu Salud, Si Cuenta! (Your Health Matters!) program. The Farmer's Market wraps up for the season at the end of June, since the major crop season here is coming to an end as it is getting hotter and hotter. Afterward, a group of the interns and I decided to check out the beach "on the island." Let's just say that the sun is much hotter down here than it is in Michigan, and my Michigan-wintered skin didn't handle it too well, more sunscreen next time, until then... Sun 1: Me 0 :(
Today at work, I translated a lot of a powerpoint slides (of which there are still a lot to go) from English to Spanish. These are a part of the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program that will be used. For the young girls, the presentation will be done in English, but the mothers presentation will be done in Spanish. A great part of the day was the Flu Presentation by Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch, a professor at the SPH (check out her CV, I guess by the time you do everything she's done, you are allowed to have a 15 page CV). The presentation was all about the flu virus and its unpredictability as it moves, shifts, travels, and drifts and manages to stay one step ahead of vaccine creation.
Brownsville has been at the center of the recent H1N1 Influenza A (Swine Flu) outbreak, so the school here is involved in a lot of research within the community, on a grant from the National Institute for Health. The county, health officials, and SPH faculty have been involved in reporting and surveying individuals with flu-like symptoms, while the lab on campus checks for positive swine flu cases. Houston is running a similar study; however, they are working within a hospital setting, preventing necessary follow-up. The study in Brownsville is unique as it reaches more cases that aren't reported in hospitals or medical facilities, with the help of many Promotoras and community workers who go house to house administering surveys. This method has allowed researchers to see neighborhoods where the flu is more prominant and spreading more rapidly and health educators can perform real-time interventions in these areas.
Tomorrow should be interesting as I go-->
I'll be going to see the recording station in Matamoros, Mexico where the radio-novelas are recorded. Matamoros is Brownsville's sister city, I can see it from my dorm, we're that close.
Take care yall and keep reading, there will be more stories to come :)
I’ve made it,
I’m living in the dorms here on campus, which when someone described them as a motel room, I thought they meant small room, bed, dresser, and bathroom. Instead they really meant motel room. These are old motel rooms that the university took over and made into dorm rooms, they even still have the metal tissue holder by the sink, the hairdryer on the wall, and the connector doors between rooms.
