Vitoria da Conquista

I am exhausted.

Sorry about not blogging the past few days….it’s been a little bit rough on the south side of the hemisphere. Between crazy class sessions that go on forever, never ending bus rides, and a flight to Vitoria da Conquista, I’ve pretty much been sleeping, eating, or studying.

Monday was actually sort of a relaxing day-we only had class in the morning. They gave us the afternoon off to go to the beach because we were going to the annual health conference later that night. As usual, the beach was amazing. We grabbed hamburgers and OJ on the way (and the OJ was the best I’ve ever had), and plonked down on the beach for a good three hours. Once again, I did not get burned! The health conference was very….different. It’s open to anyone, and the public is encouraged to attend. While we couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, we were able to get a feel for the overall mood of the room. First of all, it was packed. There were probably over 300 people there, and it was just the opening night (the conference goes on for three days). And people were ANGRY. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much passion at any type of conference. The main debate while we were there was better pay for technical workers, and both sides got pretty fired up.

Tuesday began normally with class, but after lunch we hopped on a plane to Vitoria da Conquista, which is a city about the size of Grand Rapids, located more inland and in the mountains. It’s VERY different from Salvador. It almost looks like the US southwest-very dry, kind of like a desert, with red dirt that sticks to everything. It’s a much slower paced town than Salvador as well. The main modes of transportation here are motorcycles and donkeys. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see donkey-pulled carts with 5 or 6 kids piled on the back while we drive to the hospital. When we first got here, we got to meet the Vice Mayor, who talked about the history of the city, and then presented us with the flags of Brazil, Bahia, and Vitoria da Conquista. We ended up getting dinner at a traditional Brazilian steakhouse. It was probably the best meal of the trip. Sides included bacon and flour flavored beans, French fries (I mean, batatas frites), rice, salsa (non spicy, so it’s just chopped up tomatoes and garlic, etc), and potatoes in mayonnaise, which is a traditional dish in Bahia. For the meat portion of the meal, our host came around with huge steaks on skewers and sliced off bits whenever we wanted it. We had 3 different cuts of beef, chicken hearts, chicken sausage, chicken wrapped in bacon, and one cut of pork. Because we had such a huge group, and because it was a slow night, the owner gave us a great deal. It only cost us each R12…which is about $8 in the US. You just can’t beat it.

Yesterday (Wednesday), we visited the senior citizen center and the reference center. The senior citizen center was gorgeous-very clean, outdoor pool, smiling workers, hummingbird bushes, and a yoga center. I missed most of the lecture though. Our translator was horrible…her English was about as good as my Portuguese. Normally I would be more empathetic, but MSU refused to pay Mariana to be our translator, and we “had” to have one, so they just hired whoever they could get last minute. I got really frustrated, and combined with my lack of sleep from the night before, I just had to get out. I ended up sitting out by the hummingbird bush. The reference center was cool, but kind of backwards. They basically schedule all the 2nd level appointments for VdC. So, if your primary care doctor tells you you need to see a diabetes specialist, the reference center is the one that sets up the appointment. That part makes sense. However, the patients don’t get to pick their days or times, or even offer suggestions. The reference center picks a date, and then the appointment notification is driven via motorcycle to the person’s house. They can either say yes, or they can request another time, which means the drivers go through the whole system again. We also ended up doing some short visits with the occupational health center and the STD health center. We decided to get some pizza for dinner (I think Brazilians may be more obsessed with pizza than Americans…every 3rd restaurant offers it), and I went to bed rather early.

I'll be updating more retrospectively this weekend....love you all.

B