- Hung out at the port with some sea lions
- Visited a rural health center (posta), local health center (centro de salud familiar), and hospital
- Went to a few discotecas (which I suppose would be roughly translated to "dance club")
- Researched my ISP/discovered a (possible) topic
- Partook in many wine-filled barbecues (asadas) with my family
- Ate empanadas on the beach
- Tried manjar ice cream for the first time
- Shadowed a Chilean nurse
- Cooked charquicán, a traditional Chilean vegetable stew with my madre
- Began celebrating los días de patrias, Chile's 4-day weekend of celebrating their independence day, 18 de septiembre (September 18th).
Yeah! I think that's a pretty well-composed list of what my past few weeks have been like. A lot of class (5 hours a day typically) intermixed with hanging out with my family, pasantías (essentially field trips to different health centers), and getting to know the city. Arica is a really chill place where everything is relaxed and friendly, but I'm really itching to see more of the country. A frustrating part about SIT programs is that while you do travel quite a bit with the program, they highly discourage any other sort of travel. So while I'm enjoying my time in Arica, I'm very, very ready to see more! Luckily I will be able to do that come Tuesday when we leave for our first excursion - more on that later!
Two weeks ago we had an assignment where we really had to crack down and start researching our possible ISP (Independent Study Project) topics seriously. The ISP is a self-designed research project that each one of us individually designs and carries out during the month of November; anywhere in the country, about any topic concerning pubic health, traditional medicine, or community empowerment that we want. To say the least, I've been struggling to find a topic that really inspires me. I came to Chile thinking I wanted to research some aspect of tuberculosis among the indigenous populations, but that isn't really speaking to me anymore. Now, for the past week or so I've been doing some research on acute respiratory infections (bronchitis, pneumonia, and bronchiolitis) in children under age 5 with adolescent mothers. In certain areas of Chile (particularly in the South), child mortality rates due to ARIs (primarily pneumonia) are very high. In these areas, teenage pregnancy rates and poverty levels are also elevated - in the Araucania region in particular, where inequalities are the most extreme. I've always been very interested in social determinants of health, so searching the correlation between these different factors could be very interesting. I'm not completely set on it though. Just today I thought about researching linguistic accessibility to health services. Chile has a large indigenous population - both Mapuche and Aymara - and while the majority are bilingual, not all of them are, and language barriers are not an uncommon thing. I have no idea what my focus could be on this, but the universality of it peaks my interest. Language barriers exist all over the world - which means it's research that I could continue here in Chile, at home in Minnesota, or anywhere in the world. I'll definitely have to look into that one more.
In addition to all that ISP garb, I'm learning a TON about the Chilean Health Care system. Learning about the system is very interesting because we're also getting the experience to view it first-hand. The health system here consists mainly of two components, FONASA (the public system) and ISAPRE (the private system), and then there are also special, smaller systems for military members and those of indigenous descent. Anybody employed under a contract is automatically enrolled in the public system through a fixed 7% deduction out of their salary. Those who elect to can opt out of the public system for the private system, in which they pay the 7% plus an additional percentage based on their income, health risks, number of dependents, etc. Anyways, I could go on and on about everything else I've learned about the topic, but what's particularly interesting are all of the government-sponsored prevention and promotion programs, such a Chile Crece Contigo (Chile Grows Together). CCC is a program that supports and sponsors women through pregnancy, childbirth, and provides resources for the children and families from birth through childhood. When we toured the hospital we got the opportunity to talk to a nurse who works who assists mothers through the program, and she showed us the "care package" that goes home with every single newborn child born in the hospital, which included a pack-and-play type crib with sheets, a nursing pillow, a sling to carry the baby in, and clothes ranging from newborn sizes up to 6 months. Along with this comes training on how to breast feed and also referrals and information on when and where to get vaccinations. It's been really, really interesting to learn about and even more interesting to see in person.
Enough with the healthcare garb now (I highly doubt it's interesting to anybody except us public health nerds), this weekend is Chile's independence day! 18 de septiembre (Sunday) to be exact, but you would never know it wasn't actually a four-day thing. The celebrations started Wednesday for us when we had our own little fiesta de patrias in Spanish class, which included traditional songs, dance, games, and food. It all felt a little preschool-y, but was a nice break from class and ended with an amazing "buffet" of typical Chilean cuisine. We split up 15 or so different dishes - salads, entrees, and deserts - and split them between the 24 of us. I made charquicán with my mom - a (mainly) vegetable stew made of squash, potatoes, corn, fresh green beans, peppers, garlic, greens, and a little bit of meat that's served with rice. It was soooo delicious - very fresh and definitely something I would make and eat again (I'd probably leave out the meat next time though). In addition to our class fiesta, all the main stuff downtown started yesterday. There's a really big fería or fair (market) full of great artisanal products and also a carnival-like thing called las ramadas where there's lots food and games (such as the classic knock-down-all-the-cans-with-a-ball game, but here in Chile you don't win a stuffed animal for knocking down all the cans -- you win a bottle of wine). Today I spent all day in the sun in el centro with some girls from the program checking everything out - it was an absolutely beautiful, sunny, relaxing day. Tomorrow I'm going to my grandparents house in the Valle de Lluta again (they insist they're going to teach me cueca, Chile's national dance), so that should be interesting, haha, and Sunday there's going to be lots of parades and dancing and music (and drunk people) all around the city. Very, very exciting!
Tuesday, after our four-day weekend of celebrations, we leave for Putre - an Aymara town about 3 hours east of Arica. We'll be there for four days learning about traditional Aymaran medicine and community empowerment. I'm super excited for this excursion, both because it's the first time getting out of Arica and because I think the topics will really, really interest me. Also, we get to go to beautiful Parque Nacional Lauca and Lago Chungará! We will be a few thousand feet above sea level in the altiplano though, so it's going to be pretty cold at night, but that'll be okay (I'll just have to layer on the very few warm items I do have -- I reallllly wish I could go back and pack differently).
That's all for now, I'll try really hard to write a post about the rest of weekend of celebrations and the trip to Putre next weekend!
Chao,
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