Thursday, April 21, 2011

Stephanie Holt - Thailand

Stephanie is a Pharmacy student at the University of Utah pursuing her Doctorate degree. She traveled to Thailand with the college of pharmacy to complete a clerkship there this past Spring.

The college of pharmacy collaborates with the study abroad office to offer pharmacy students the opportunity to be exposed to and participate in healthcare in a developing country. This spring semester, 12 pharmacy students traveled to Thailand for 5 weeks to learn about unique disease states and the healthcare organization offered there. Through my travels, I not only learned different aspects of tropical medicine, but I also gained a better understanding and appreciation for different cultures. I was surprised when I saw how directly culture and economic status impacts both patient outcomes and the quality of care.

Thailand has a very different patient population and epidemiology compared to the United States. I am familiar with patients being treated for chronic disease states like diabetes and high blood pressure, but in Thailand I was exposed to less familiar conditions such as leprosy, malaria and tuberculosis. These are more prevalent in underdeveloped countries, so I do not receive much experience with them in my clerkships. This experience gave me the unique opportunity to see how these conditions are presented in actual patients. I was able to sit in clinic visits as physicians followed up on patients with leprosy. I have read about leprosy in books, but when I saw the patients in clinic, it made much more sense to me. I gained a new respect for the causative organism and the severe symptoms they can cause in patients. It was very educational to learn from physicians who had a lot of experience in this area. The patients were always so grateful for their care.
 


We toured many hospitals. This was very informative and eye-opening. The hospitals we saw only had hard benches in the waiting area with no air conditioning. There were several beds in every room with nothing for the patients to look at except for the wall. I felt bad for both the patients and hospital staff. It would be difficult to practice medicine in these circumstances once accustomed to more elaborate buildings such as those in the US. The medical team of nurses and physicians was always very attentive toward its patients. We discussed treatment plans with physicians and compared the differences of medical practice between the two countries. It was really interesting to see the different treatment regimens and this again supported there are many different ways to practice medicine.


Thailand is very proactive when dealing with alternative therapies of medicine. Healthcare providers utilize traditional medicine more heavily than in the United States but still implement many philosophies of western medicine. Most practitioners have experience with both perspectives. I had the opportunity to be exposed to many different types of traditional and alternative medicine. A common belief is that illness occurs because there is an imbalance of the body’s natural state. Thus, natural methods and products will help remedy many conditions. Healthcare providers are trained in various massages, acupuncture or cupping to provide natural ways to provide patient care. They also rely very heavily on herbs for health prevention and management.  Interacting with providers and researchers in Thailand gave me an appreciation for alternative therapies and helped me relate to and understand better patients interested in these options.


We visited poorer areas of Thailand such as an orphanage and the slums. At the orphanage, the children were so excited to play with us. Many of the children who are HIV positive will never be adopted. It was sad to see how prevalent HIV was and the real impact it has on individuals and society. I couldn’t have understood what the slums were without actually experiencing them myself. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Our guide informed us the slums are a part of the evolutionary process to post-industrialization. America had slums after World War II, and it is economically necessary for Thailand to have slums and proceed through the same process. One image that stood out in my mind was a little girl around five years old skipping home from school with a pink backpack on. She went to what looked like a shed (the size of what could occupy a Honda civic) and unlocked the bicycle lock on the door. When she opened the door, I had a view of her entire living area. There were 2 bookshelves, a television and a stove all tightly snuggled into that tiny area. There was a little square piece of carpet left where I’m sure the family sat on the floor to watch TV and eat dinner. That was what they lived in. It was unreal. This experience taught me and all of my classmates about compassion and thankfulness for what we have in America.
 

My clerkship abroad exposed me to new circumstances and experiences I could not have received in the United States. This amazing opportunity helped prepare me to interact with patients from different cultures and be open-minded to different options of therapy. Ultimately, this program facilitated my education and has helped me provide better patient care.

Parker Smith - Edinburgh, Scotland

Parker is studying Political Science at the University of Utah. He is currently participating in an internship with the Scottish Parliament through the Hinckley Institute of Politics.


I have been granted the interesting opportunity to intern in Scotland with the Scottish Parliament this semester. As a political science major who has traditionally focused both his studies and interest in US politics, I came here with the expectation of getting a unique and up-close look at how another country approaches politics. What I saw were several small differences that suit and compliment the Scottish people and their culture. I also saw several similarities that were interesting to view in the Scottish context, and which I believe to be universal to almost any government. In this blog, I’d like to recount a few of my experiences as an intern and tell how they provided me with some of these insights.

Me looking down on the city of Edinburgh from the top of Arthur's Seat

 The first hot political topic that was thrown right in my face when I got here was Scottish Independence/Devolution. In brief, the Scottish government is still part of the United Kingdom and has only limited powers. In fact, Scotland has only had this “devolved” government with limited powers since 1999.  Scotland now operates as a power similar to the way one of the United States would operate with the US Federal government. The powers that Scotland and a US state have are different, but that’s a basic analogy. Anyway, all my co-workers at the Parliament belong to the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is pushing for complete independence from the UK. There were numerous times when the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) I worked for and his staff would make comments, jokes, and express their longing for separation from the UK. I would just have to laugh uneasily and nod my head in unconvincing agreement. The problem I was having was that the rhetoric they were using was exactly the same as the rhetoric I heard at the Utah State Legislature when I interned there in 2010. For example, you will hear from SNP members: Westminster (the UK government) is tying up our natural resources and robbing us of revenue; Westminster is messing up our health care; Westminster is messing up our education; Westminster is overreaching with their powers; Westminster is too big, etc., etc.

Me on the Parliament floor with the First Minister, Alex Salmond

I don’t want to get into my own personal politics too much. Suffice it to say, I was immediately rebuffed by this kind of talk, but I also found it interesting that half-way around the world people were saying the exact same things they were in Utah. As time has gone on, there have been two things I learned from seeing the Scottish Government fight against the UK Government. First, I think nearly any body of government has some level of resentment towards the body of government above them, and the more the lower body feels they don’t have authority that they should, the more that resentment grows. The egos and desire for greater personal power of some politicians can certainly be a factor here, too. Secondly, I also learned that different policies and government structures are better for different places. So, while in Utah I found all the anti-federal government talk to be largely headache-inducing, I now feel differently about the same sentiments expressed in Scotland. As I’ve spent more time here and traveling all about the UK, I’ve realized that Scotland truly is a very separate and distinct country. They are very proud of their country, heritage, culture, and political identity, which are far different than England, Wales, or Ireland. Not that there are (much) bad feelings between these countries, but it’s easy to see how Scotland could be its own independent nation, whereas in the US, I have no desire to see a significantly weakened federal government and/or the secession of any state.  Currently, the push for Scottish independence is still in its beginnings; the support is building but is still not great enough to start pushing for an official referendum. After my time in Scotland living amongst the people and working in their government, I can say they’ve won me over. Or at least I don’t roll my eyes when the subject is brought up.

Me at a political rally with my boss, Alex Neil, and Alex Salmond

Another characteristic of the political culture that I found unique in Scotland was the tone of political discourse, particularly while Parliament was in session. When the US Congress is in session, and a senator or congressman has the floor, they speak to their opponents in what I would call, “feigned statesmanship”. For example, when a senator says something like, “what the esteemed junior senator from Wyoming fails to realize . . .” they are really just calling the other senator an idiot in a condescending, albeit polite, way. It can get so tightly wound in Congress that we had a huge controversy the other year when one Congressman yelled out, “You lie!” during the State of the Union address. In Scotland, the tone of discourse is far different. Every week in Scotland they hold First Minister Questions, in which any MSP can ask a question of the First Minister. The first one of these I sat through I couldn’t help but laugh. They yell, they jeer, they pound their desks, they throw around colorful insults, and it all left me with the feeling that I was watching 129 adults acting like children. The whole event, while getting at some important issues, is very raucous and sets the tone for much of the public discourse in Parliament and public discourse appearing in the media. At first it was very off-putting for me, and in a lot of ways it still is. I enjoy the statesmanship and politeness that politicians feel compelled to use when addressing each other personally in the US, despite the sometimes obvious contempt that boils below the surface. But as I’ve experienced more of Scottish politics, I’ve noticed the politicians here recognize that First Minister Questions are a form of political theatre, and although party discipline is much stronger here than in the US, there is still a healthy dialogue between parties. There are resentments, sure, but they get together and they work things out when they’re off the stage, just like any other government. So they whoop and holler and insult each other, and it all seems almost uncivilized. In the end, I think it’s just part of the tradition that makes Scotland a little more unique in its own personalized way.

Me standing outside the Parliament building

That is one of the main impressions I’ve taken away from my internship in Scotland—that everyone seems to have their own way of doing things. All these countries have their own unique approach and angle to tackle the political problems they face. But in the end, they’re still tackling the same problems, and they’re still playing the same game as anyone else in the democratic world. Politics is politics no matter where you are. 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Megan Gessel - Costa Rica


Small, pointed buildings silhouetted against a pink dawn sky. Fragrant ham and cheese empanadas wrapped in wax paper. The jolt of turns and bumps on long bus ride. Lush, tree-clad mountainside and lightly-pressing air. These are what I first remember about Costa Rica.

A collaboration between the University of Utah’s Political Science department, the Bennion Center, and the Study Abroad Office, our nine-day trip to the region of Monteverde in Costa Rica focused on community development in the Global South. Some of the themes we addressed included microenterprise, environmental sustainability, eco-tourism, power structures, and women’s role in development. The trip is part of a group of excursions called Alternative Spring Break, and it provides students the opportunity to do something unique and productive with their time off—this was all that and more, to say the least.

Our first full day in Costa Rica featured a trip to the nearby Reserva Biologica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde, or the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Wrapped tightly in our rain jackets, we embarked in small groups up the mountain to enjoy just a little of what makes Costa Rica so beautiful. Our knowledgeable guide, Jose, pointed out flora and fauna to us, including the Quetzel, one of the region’s most revered birds, and the labios ardientes, a flower aptly and humorously named “hot lips” or “Angelina Jolie” by the locals. The forest was lush, dense, vertical, green, cool- quieted by the mist and yet humming with life. I learned a lot that day, including that vines actually grow from the ground up and roots often from the top of a tree down. At the top, we stood on the Continental Divide, looking out to the Pacific on one side and the Atlantic on the other, although we mostly saw only mist and clouds.

That afternoon, we got to see the forest from a different perspective. Attached to clips and wires, we zip lined through the forest, and I don’t think I have ever done anything more frightening or more exhilarating. Sailing through clouds and rushing towards trees, I felt like I was flying, and in a sense, I was. Seeing the Cloud Forest helped me to recognize the need to preserve and care for our natural treasures, and with about 25% of the land now federally protected, I am grateful that Costa Ricans see this too.

The next few days offered opportunities to see local grassroots businesses, including a free-trade coffee organization, an artisan paper business, a women’s cooperative called CASEM, and several family farms. The farms and the women’s co-op were especially interesting to me. The first farm we visited, belonging to a man named Noe and his family, featured many of the main crops in Costa Rica such as bananas, coffee, and sugar cane. It was cool to see these plants in their natural state and to recognize how they are cultivated from the soil, because so much of our food in the states is seen mainly in packaging or supermarkets. Noe even showed us how the coffee is shelled and dried and how sap, a thick, sweet, and grainy liquid, is extracted from sugar cane. He and his wife also make homemade soap that was lovely, and they provided a good example to us students of a successful micro business. The other farms we visited were just as lovely, peppered with hydrangeas and other flowers as well as the crops listed above, and one even had a nearby waterfall that we chanced to swim in. Again, all around us, it was lush, green, and buzzing with life. 


The women’s cooperative, CASEM, was one of my favorite experiences throughout the trip. Upon arrival, the current leader of the organization gave us an introduction and some background information. Started about three decades ago, the organization began with five women and has now grown to nearly one hundred—even a few men. They produce handcrafted items such as quilts, jewelry, artwork, and clothing to sell to locals and tourist in order to make or supplement incomes. These women were inspiring because of their stories. Some of the trials they have faced include opposition from their husbands and other family members, broken promises, financial threats, and more over the past several years, and yet their triumph has been immense. They have helped to radically change the perception of women in their community, and in the process have gained a sense of their own self-worth. As one of the leaders remarked, “If I can create something that other people buy, that must mean it has value, and therefore, I have value too.” I was shocked to see that these women ever questioned their self-worth at all, but I was ultimately amazed and admiring of the support and love they exhibited to each other and us. Although I could not understand their verbal language (I don’t speak Spanish . . . yet), I did feel a bond with these women. 

The final third of our trip was spent in the village of Los Tornos, Monteverde. Here, we spent our time and energy attempting to restore the local community center, a pivotal aspect of the town where weddings, banquets, parties, and even soccer games are held. Some of the jobs we performed included painting, cleaning, sweeping, washing, and of course, aiding the local women in cooking for such a large crowd. What stood out most to me about this portion of the trip was the sense of community I felt. We did not work alone; we were aided by everyone from tiny schoolchildren to the mayor. Many of us did not speak the same language, but we communicated through gestures, smiles, and collective goals. I was impressed by the way everyone came together and cheerfully worked to better the community, and in the process, served and included one another. I was fortunate enough to get the job of sign painter, and spent my efforts painting “Bano” and “Salida de Emergencia” over various doors. At one point, my sketching pencil broke and I wasn’t sure how I was going to continue to make the letters look good. Always thoughtful and observant, our bus driver, Wilson, picked up the pencil and disappeared, reappearing with a large kitchen knife in hand. While I watched with curiosity, he painstakingly shaved the pencil into a usable point, serving me in a small and yet unforgettable way. I mention this experience because it is an example of the treatment we received from each and every one of these people: kindness, thoughtfulness, help, and inclusion. We set out to serve these people, and yet ultimately, I think it was they who served us more.


The final night, a going-away banquet was held in the freshly painted community center. We ate, danced, sang, and enjoyed each other’s company until the students finally loaded onto our familiar bus to begin our trek home. I freely admit that I saw several people cry, and though not everyone did, I recognized this as a sign of the remarkable experience we had shared and the relationships we had planted. Although I learned a great deal about community development and international aid and the complexities involved and enjoyed the gorgeous landscape and welcoming air of the Cloud Forest, ultimately it isn’t empanadas or tree-clad mountains or bus rides that I will remember. Rather, it is the feeling of community and belonging that these people offered, both that of the Costa Ricans as well as the fellow students and teachers I traveled with. Kindness, pencil sharpening, meals “cooked with love,” and friendship and community: these are what I will remember last about Costa Rica.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Liz Bergin - Costa Rica

Elizabeth Bergin is a senior at the University of Utah and will be graduating this year with a Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies emphasizing on Natural Resource Conservation.


As part of the Lowell Bennion Center’s Alternative Spring Break opportunities, I was able to take a course this semester which included a nine-day trip to Costa Rica. The trip was both educational and awe-inspiring. I feel truly honored to have been a part of a course that offered a hands-on introduction to important issues and trends within community development in the global south.
Our first day out of country was spent primarily traveling. We flew into San Jose, the capitol city of Costa Rica, and rode a positively bumpy route for approximately three hours to the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. There, we settled into our home for the week - the lovely Hotel El Amanecer (The Sunrise Hotel) in the Santa Elena area of Monteverde.

That first evening we had the pleasure of having author Mark Wainwright as a guest speaker. Despite our exhaustion from a day’s traveling, Mark’s talk on the evolutionary development of Costa Rica’s geography, agriculture, and economy was truly fascinating.
The following day, we started out by visiting the Reserva Biològica (Biological Reserve) in the Monterverde Cloud Forest. Having come from an environmental background, I found this visit to be one of the true highlights of our entire trip. The atmosphere of the Cloud Forest was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was raining the whole time, and we seemed to be in a never ending cloud of mist. Naturally, I went crazy with the photo taking.


After our wonderful morning at the Reserve, we went on the Selvatura Park canopy tour of the Monteverde Forest area. The tour included a 13-cable zip line with a “Tarzan Swing” at the end. Our entire group participated in it, and I’m told it was a positively amazing experience. I’m not afraid to admit that I, on the other hand, was simply terrified the entire time and was very glad when it was over.


Our next two days were spent visiting local businesses and farms in the communities around Monteverde. The central focus of these visits was to provide us with an understanding of the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of community-based efforts in international development.


On the first of these two days, one of the places we visited was the Vargas Family Farm where we learned about their family-based microenterprise endeavors. The farm was run by Noe, his wife Margarita, and a number of other family members who lived on the farm and shared the workload. On the whole, their farm produced a number of different crops which they sold locally, as well as homemade soap (Monteverde Natural Soap Company). As soon as I set foot on their farm I thought it resembled paradise. It was simply breathtaking.



The following day one of the places we visited was a craft store in Monteverde proper, it was called CASEM; Cooperative de Artesanas de Monteverde y Santa Elena (Women’s Arts and Crafts Cooperative of Monteverde and Santa Elena). While there, we learned about the struggles of the coop founders against sexual stereotypes, economic strains, and bad business partners; and ultimately their story of success. I found the visit to be very inspirational. Afterwards, we were able to shop in the store and purchase items that were entirely local made and thus support the local business ventures of a community developing its tourist consumer base.


Before our return day of traveling, the last three days of our trip were spent in a community of Los Tornos. It was a small town, approximately 190 people. The work we did there was to be our culminating experience in Costa Rica, as well as be our service work for the Alternative Spring Break trip. The project was to repaint the Salon Comunal Los Tornos (Los Tornos Community Center).



After arriving in Los Tornos, we met some key figures in the community project and visited other important buildings in the town before we assigned jobs and began working on the community center. The project was centered on painting the community center and the surrounding metal fencing, but it did involve a few small construction and demolition jobs on the side. Work was done with the help of many locals, including some school children.

After completing the community center “remodel”, the members of the community wanted to express their gratitude to us, so they threw us a party and put together a beautiful dinner. The whole community was at the gathering. It was really a very moving experience for some members of the group.

Ultimately, I didn’t view this project as being outside the community’s ability to accomplish on its own; it seems that we were able to supply it with material that they would otherwise have been unable to fund. And though I feel that there are surely more infrastructural-based, or generally life-improving types of projects that we could have been working on, I also feel as though we provided a valued service to the people of Los Tornos, however small. The trip was honestly a very beautiful and educational experience for me, and I will always remember it and the people who shared it with me.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

John Peterson - Costa Rica

John Peterson is a sophomore at the University of Utah pursuing an Honors degree in Political Science. He recently traveled to Costa Rica with the Bennion Center's Alternative Spring Break program.

            We spent the day after we arrived visiting the cloud forest around Monteverde. The humidity is so high there that it doesn’t even rain—it continually mists. The temperature is also much cooler than you might expect, partly because the sky is so overcast.
I was astounded by how lush the rainforest was. There was something growing everywhere you looked. The trees were a bit like apartment buildings housing the shrubs and ferns that sprouted from their branches and trunks. I kept falling behind my group as I tried to capture photo after photo.
Our guide, who was a native to the area, was very helpful in showing us unique plants and animals. One flower he pointed out looked just like a pair of plump, puckering lips. He told us it was called “labios calientes” (hot lips), or as he preferred, “labios de Angelina Jolie”. Throughout our walk, our guide was continuously whistling birdcalls. It must have worked, because at one point in the hike, he told us to stop and drew our attention up to the canopy where there was a little green bird partly hidden by the leaves. He told us the bird was a quetzal, a very special bird in Costa Rica and the rest of Central America. The quetzal, perhaps wanting to show itself off, flew off of its branch and over our heads streaming its long flowing tail behind it.

After our hike, we drove over to another corner of the forest to take a zip line tour of the canopy. We got harnessed up and, after a brief tutorial, began making our way up the steps of a little tower to the first platform. All of the platforms were high in the trees—a lot like small tree houses. It was exhilarating to soar over the trees like a bird with nothing but a harness and a carabiner to hold you to the wire above. Unfortunately, our visibility was limited since the clouds were so dense, but the experience was no less exciting.


            


















We spent the next two days visiting small local businesses in the communities around Monteverde. One of the major topics we had studied before coming to Costa Rica was micro-business and “bottom-up” development, so it was nice to finally see in action what we read about.

One visit that really stood out in my mind was our visit to Eco-Bambu, a tiny company made up of about ten or fifteen women who make products from recycled paper. Marta, one of the women now in charge of Eco-Bambu, told us the story of their business. The company had started with a micro-loan from the Japanese embassy and had slowly grown since. Originally, the women had had to hide their work from their husbands who were unhappy with them getting involved with anything outside the home, but as Marta explained, “Once they saw how much money we were making, they became very supportive.”

Their whole operation has remained very simple: the women receive paper from the surrounding communities and sort it by color. The paper is shredded manually, soaked, pressed and dried. The new paper sheets are then cut into pages for notebooks, paper bags, envelopes or letters. The women even decorate many of their products with hand-painted designs.


At the end of our meeting with them, we had the opportunity to participate in the process, helping press and dry the paper. They also had many of their products available for purchase which we bought up as fast as we could.

Another interesting visit was to the farm of Giovanni’s family. For the first few generations of its existence, it had simply been a sustenance farm, but the family quickly realized that they could make even more money through tourism. Just behind their land is a spectacular waterfall that can only be accessed by traveling through their property. They marked off a clear hiking trail to the waterfall and then charged an admission fee to use it. They also started selling food to the hikers to make even more money. As the trail has gained more and more attention, it has become a very profitable business for the family.

The attention has not been all good, however; many different groups are now trying to buy the land from the family for further development, and Giovanni really is the only voice advocating for them not to sell. Giovanni realizes that the business they have now, while it’s small, is sustainable—something he can pass down to his children and grandchildren—and he is worried what the family will do once the money the make by selling the land runs out. What makes him even more worried is that his children are planning on going into careers in the city and are losing interest in maintaining the family business.

We had been studying these very issues for several months before coming to Costa Rica, so they were not at all new to us. But to hear about them from actual people made them seem much more real.


The last three days of our trip were spent in a community of Los Tornos, about 10 to 15 kilometers from Monteverde proper. It is a much smaller town, one where all of the houses line a single winding road.

Our project was to repaint their community center. When I first walked inside, I realized why this was such an important thing for them. The building that served as their community’s gathering place looked dilapidated and forgotten. Much of the dull orange paint was faded and covered by mold, the lights no longer worked in side.

After visiting a few of the other important buildings in the town like the school and health clinic, we assigned jobs and began working in the community center. We worked quickly finishing the first coat of blue paint in the main hall of the center in the first day. I did not have very much experience painting and soon became a nuisance dribbling paint on people with my over-saturated paint roller. About halfway through the day, a few others—partly out of kindness, partly out of frustration—showed me how to paint without dripping.

As our work progressed, we moved up and out; up towards the ceiling to paint the metal girders that held up the roof and out to finish the painting on the outer walls of the center. We had gained the attention of the local schoolchildren who attended school just next-door to the community center, and they were eager to help with the painting project, sometimes contributing more comic relief than usable labor.

By the end of our project, we were all little more tired and colorful (red from the sun and blue, green and silver from the paint). The community wanted to express their gratitude before we left, so on our last night, they put together a beautiful dinner for us. The whole community was at the dinner. After the meal, we danced and danced to one salsa song after another. I thought I was a good dancer until I danced with the Costa Rican kids. We had fun teaching them American dance moves, which they mastered with ease, but after seeing that we were pretty hopeless bunch, they stopped trying to teach us theirs.

The party culminated with a presentation of gifts. Each of us was given our own hand-carved wooden box made by the people of Los Tornos. We had an opportunity to exchange words of gratitude and love with the people and give our last hugs of goodbye. Then we had to go.

I think what made this project—and really, this trip in general—so rewarding were the relationships that we all created. We had unity and camaraderie within our group—more so than I had expected. The visits were designed in a way that allowed us to ask questions and really get to know the faces of micro-business personally. While we were painting, we worked shoulder to shoulder with the people of Los Tornos. Other than language, there really didn’t seem to be any barriers between us and any of the people we met. I am very grateful for the opportunity to go on the trip and to make the friendships I made.