Study Abroad Programs Blog

Medical Spanish in Peru

By Tina Lin - SALUD Program guest blogger traveling in Peru. We went to the Gynecology ward in hospital Lorena this morning. It seems like patients in this facility do not really have privacy. I felt a little shocked initially that the doctors and students would just gather around the patient to discuss her case in front of her. The beds are lined up in a row next to each other. One patient can easily overhear what is wrong with the patient next to her. There were about 8 students/interns, 1 attending doctor and 3 nurses. I can imagine this may be overwhelming for a woman who is still grappling with the idea of having late stage of cervical cancer. We saw about 7 patients in this early morning round. The most interesting cases were cervical cancer, woman with all three types of prolapse (rectal, vaginal and uterine), lady with pre-malignant tumor at the cervix and a 3-month pregnant woman with gastritis. It was especially hard to hear what the doctor was saying because he was soft-spoken. The age of the patients ranged from early 20s to late 40s. After our visit to the wards, we asked questions about prenatal care and abortion in Peru. The doctor explained to us that prenatal care is recommended but most people from rural areas just choose not to visit the hospitals. On top of lack of follow up, the rural women often carry unwanted pregnancies. Sometimes they would try to self-abort or go to an un-professional doctor. This causes a lot of problem including visits to the emergency, infection and perforation of uterus. Abortion is illegal in Peru. Some woman would drink the juice of a certain herb called ruda that is known to abort pregnancy (we do not know if it really works). Later on in the afternoon, I had Spanish class. We always have exams on Friday. This week I learned about pronouns and practiced more past tenses in Spanish. A classmate of mine just found out she passed her Boards. I start to wonder about what life would be like for me as a second year starting in August. At night, I went home to eat dinner and I spent a lot of time with the maid. She showed me pictures of her kids and told me about previous exchange students that also stayed at my house here. It was neat to see what other people have done. I also want to visit the farm that my family owns.

Travel to Honduras

By Glenn Rigby Located in Central America, Honduras shares a boundary with Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It is also bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Honduras (that's a lot of water). Christopher Columbus reached the coast of Honduras in 1502, after which it became a part of Spain's vast empire. The Spanish ruled for approximately 300 years, and then Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas. Besides lush rain forests, untouched cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges laden with pine and oak trees, Honduras harbors yet another priceless ecosystem: The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands it is no coincidence to swim with bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrotfish, schools of blue tang and even the colossal whale shark. The white sands, tall coconut palms and the easy-going Caribbean atmosphere provide refuge from the busy Central American cities, or across the Atlantic Ocean. Copan: A city located in Western Honduras, near the Guatemala border. It has a population of about 24,000 inhabitants, and has an unmistakably colonial feel. Copan also houses famous ruins of the ancient city that once dominated the territory. Outlined are some of the attractions of Copan's ancient Mayan ruins: * The Ball Court is the most artistic of its type in Mesoamerica, with unique sidewall markers resembling macaw heads. Below is a picture of one of the Court's side buildings. * The Acropolis is divided into the east and west court plazas and features the most monumental temples in Copan. * The Great Plaza famous for its stelae and zo zoomorphic altars scattered around it. The Hieroglyphic Stairway holds the longest known text left by the Maya civilization. It was erected by ruler number 15, known as Smoke-Shell, and is believed to be a lineage tree recording the ascension and death of all Copan kings from Ya-Kuk-Mo to Smoke-Shell himself.

European vs. Brazilian Portuguese

Falamos a mesma língua? By Alexa Boyce Many people wonder what the difference is between learning Spanish in Latin America vs. learning it in Spain. The answer is: there isn't one, except a few slang words and general accent differences. Perhaps the more interesting question is: what is the difference between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese? When I was in Spain studying Spanish, one of my classmates was a Brazilian named Roberta who claimed she could not understand a word of European Portuguese. In fact, very few people who attempt translation between the two are able to avoid even the most basic mistakes. Despite obvious similarities in grammar and vocabulary, most native speakers of one branch will need some formal study in order to understand the other. "The two languages are not mutually intelligible to any practical extent," states Wikipedia. In my experience, those who speak Spanish and Italian have an easier time understanding each other than those who speak different forms of Portuguese. Roberta recalled for me once a story that she was speaking with some Euopean Portuguese and attempted to relate that she had to call her mother. Unfortunately for her, the Brazilian Portuguese word for "to call" translated closer to "to have intercourse with". Needless to say, that caused a slightly awkward moment. Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language in the world, and is a major or official language in at least 20 countries. Portuguese is officially spoken in Portugal and Brazil, obviously, as well as in African countries such as Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome e Principe and Guinea- Bassau. It is also the co-official language (along with Chinese) in SAR in Macau and Tetum in East Timor in Southeast Asia. With the exception of Brazil, they all speak European Portuguese. According to Wikipedia, "Within the two major varieties of Portuguese, most differences between dialects concern pronunciation and vocabulary." Below are some examples: Words for bus Angola & Mozambique: machimbombo Brazil: ônibus Portugal: autocarro Slang terms for to go away Angola: bazar - from Kimbundu kubaza - to break, leave with rush Brazil: vazar - from Portuguese "to leak" Portugal: bazar - from Kimbundu kubaza - to break, leave with rush Words for slum quarter Angola: musseque Brazil: favela Portugal: bairro de lata or ilha. This page is a very informative and comprehensive site for more information, dictionaries and translation services.

Travel in Mexico

Presidential Elections - By Emilly Hogge Guest blogger traveling in Morelia, Mexico. One thing that I find pretty fascinating about Mexico at the moment is its politics. The Sunday that I arrived were the presidential elections, and from what I gather, the results still have not been decided. The candidates were only a percentage point or so apart in the votes they received, and therefore there has been some question as to who actually won. Just looking on the BBC website now, I see that one of the candidates is claiming fraud, that there were electoral irregularities (and thus that he is the correct winner). In any case, I know the elections are really on peoples' minds here right now. Support is very starkly separated between the two candidates, with the majority of people in my city supporting the apparent winner, Felipe Calderon. It is crazy to me to see how strongly many people show their support for him- they have the normal bumper stickers and signs in front of their houses, but also bracelets, school bags, and things people wear every day. One of our teachers at school explained this level of passion as stemming from the fact that Mexico had one ruling party, the PRI for more than 70 years, until the year 2000. In my host family's house, there have been two lively discussions among the family about the political situation, one over breakfast, and one during dinner. Each of my host family members seems very passionate about Felipe Calderon. My host father even mentioned something about marching, or protesting in the streets for Calderon if need be. Some of the discussions made me a little uncomfortable, as the ladies who clean our house were present for them, and I sometimes wonder how they feel about the political situation. One of my Spanish teachers here explained to me that Felipe Calderon, and the PAN party, are generally liked by more educated, well to do people. The other candidate, Lopez Obrador, apparently appeals more to people working class people who live in rural areas, and I wonder where the ladies working in our house fall on this spectrum. Actually, just now reading on BBC news, there is apparently going to be a protest in favor of Obrador in Mexico City this weekend, with a huge rally in the city center, the Zocalo, on Sunday. This is of special interest to me, as I have signed up for a trip to Mexico City for this Saturday and Sunday, and I know the Zocalo is on our list of things to see. I am pretty excited about seeing the City, just because it's such an important place in Mexico, and it would be neat to see this part of its history being acted out. But the grand scale of the demonstrations also seem a bit scary to me, as a foreigner traveling. I don't want to do anything foolish, or endanger myself. So. . I'm not sure yet what I'll decide to do, but this is definitely an interesting time to be in Mexico.

Medical Spanish

At Hospital Lorena with the SALUD Program - By Tina Lin, Guesst blogger traveling to Cusco, Peru. This morning we went to Hospital Lorena to shadow doctors. I attended the Paediatrics' grand round with 3 other students. A little bit about hospital Lorena: it is a hospital that admits mostly patients from rural areas. These patients receive aid from the government if they can prove their economic status. Most of these patients are not well educated and they often speak limited Spanish. The most spoken language in rural areas (el campo) is Quechua. I will explain more about Quechua later. The lack of knowledge about health and hygiene causes many problems we usually would not see in the US. For example, many kids presented with severe case of parasitic infection that are complicated by malnutrition. We saw a kid with tapeworm infection where the egg of the worm got lodged in the brain and caused several convulsions. Another case was infection with amoeba that manifested in stool with blood and phlegm. This kid was having diarrhoea almost every 20 minutes. Her father looked very tired but patiently waiting by her side and cleaning her. He told the doctors that the medications are not working and the medical team considered stronger antibiotic/anti-parasitic. Aside from parasitic infections, we also saw a girl with severe ascites. The doctors suspected that on top of being malnourished, the little girl may also be infected with tuberculosis. This is because out in the farms, most children are not vaccinated against TB and they live in over-crowded quarters that are poorly ventilated. She may be mal-nourished because most people in “el campo” have a lot of children. The mentality is that they want to have more hands to work in the farm. Another reason why they have so many children is that women are not well informed about birth control. The husbands believe that if women have access to birth control; they might run away with another man. The treatments for most of these children are usually antibiotic or anti-protozoic drugs. Most of the drugs purchased by Hospital Lorena are generic because the government funding is often inadequate for brand-name drugs. The doctors also prescribe conservatively. They will try to prescribe the first-line antibiotics like ampicillin before they try stronger antibiotics. I was told that the most common causes of parasitic infections are from unclean water or undercooked meat like pork, beef, or fish. After the visit to the wards, we asked the doctor about the living condition of the children (in terms of the rate of abuse). He told us that most cases of abuse are not resolved even if it was brought to the attention of government officials. The child protection officials are poorly paid and most of them will do what is minimally required. Sexual abuse is not uncommon in rural areas. Due to Machismo, it is often a taboo topic for girls or women to report cases of rape. Women will most likely just live with the abuse and keep the emotional distress to themselves. I learned a lot in the hospital today. In the afternoon, we had Spanish classes as usual. My classmates went out to a movie at night, but I went home to rest. I feel like the program really kept us very busy. I need my free time at the end of the day.