You're back?!

Oh yes, should probably explain. Jackie and I came back, with great support from NYU and the International Health Project office, to complete our research from last year. Jackie also had her boyfriend Carlos to visit and live with, and I just came along for the ride for 2 months. I am staying in the apartment of our bosses, which is pretty nice and central. They live in the US, but keep this apt as an office and for their four -70C freezers full of placental samples infected with congenital Chagas. I live alone now, but next week another 3-4 researchers will come for a few weeks so it'll get tight.

While we are here, we've been sorting and analyzing data. Each of our 425 patients we collected last year has 350 unique data points (questionnaire, bloods, EKGs, echoes, etc). It's hours with Stata, which is pretty user-friendly. We'll use a few weeks for follow-ups on ~100 of our participants who are most at risk for having Chagas disease progression, as the disease takes 10-30 years to develop fulminant heart failure and we want to catch what is changing. We'll do another EKG, echo, and take blood samples to culture for the parasite and other assays. Oh, and chat up a storm when we can (I really miss working with the patients). Yay!

And great news: our awesome bosses earned an R01, the biggest NIH research grant, to run a long-term Chagas cardiomyopathy project! So basically it will be our study expanded exponentially, with a goal of 3,000 people over 5 years with follow-up.  So anyone in medical research looking for a project to help out on, let me tell you about Chagas...

Trip to the Supermarket

Convenient for me, there's a big supermarket one block away. The markets are far more "exotic" and cheap, and they lend themselves to beautiful photos of piles of fresh fruit and veggies basking in flickering sunlight, so I'll save the scenic shots for those. The supermarket is pretty American, but not with the overwhelming selection. Anyways, here's a few Bolivian things I encountered:

No better idea than pre-peeled garlic!
Especially at $8/kg, or $0.50 for this bag

Salt! The color rose salt is from the iron content.
The white is straight from the Bolivian Salt Flats!

A 2L bottle of rum&coke has never looked
so good. Gotta drink it before it goes flat!

Cheese!  Never heard of criollo, but its fresh, cheap, and pretty salty

Splenda sold by the plastic bagful.
Not sure that's legal?

What about that super food Whole Foods sells? Quinoa! I know it's somewhere in this store, but after looking for it during two different trips I give up. Why so hard to find, and expensive? The globalization of crops sometimes doesn't help countries like Bolivia. Malnutrition in children has increased in the quinoa growing regions, likely because its mostly exported now... food for thought (NYTimes article).

Can you unlock your cell phone?

The unlocking kit, priced
$40-$60 at the market

Well I did! But before writing, I just did a lot of online searching to make sure it's not terribly illegal. I am still looking for a job, you know.

In January 2013, the cell phone carriers were protected under the DCMA (Digital Copyright Millennium Act, a noteworthy law from 1998 where congress and Clinton unanimously agreed that it should be illegal to disseminate devices or services that work to circumvent copyright). This meant that cell phones were "locked" under a carrier, and unable to switch SIM cards to another.

Dialing *123# is an easy
way to see usage. Call
me! +591 7532 0896

Then later in November 2013, angry consumers used an online White House Petition, which is guaranteed a response if it gets over 100,000 signatures in 30 days, on any matter (petitions.whitehouse.gov)! Anyways Obama took notice, and ultimately 5 carriers agreed to provide unlocked phones or create and easy unlocking system after a contract was carried through.

Anyways, Bolivia has been unlocking cell phones for years. So today I went to the cell phone market (>30 stores specializing in phones) to get mine unlocked for $40. Super simple! I can now sign up for internet, on a daily basis its $0.30 for 55MB if I don't want to buy a package. Calls and texts are on a simple pre-paid basis (free using Whatsapp- download it!). Such reasonable prices. But I must admit I am a bit sad that gone are the days when people are not perpetually connected to the internet. Luckily, when out in Bolivia, I shouldn't be flashing my iPhone around, so good incentive to put it down : )

False Advertising

Don't get me started on this, and how the food industry has really taken advantage of promoting "special health advantages" of their products. Vitamin water. Come on. Don't really need to be spending your money on a flavored sugar beverage like that. Please just skip anything selling health benefits. Go to the produce aisle, or better yet a farmers market. That's healthy.

Can you read past the sticker? In Spanish?
The 14 vitamins and minerals in this help...
-->Fortifiy your immune system (you wouldn't
have gotten the flu had you eaten more)
-->Good development of your nervous system,
especially your brain (sounds important)
-->Growth and development of your bones
-->Prevent anemia (no one likes low rbcs)
-->Generate more energy (why drink
coffee?? heard that was bad for you!)

Last year while in Bolivia, as most children do, I would pass breakfast by reading the cereal box over and over again. I usually made a papaya and yogurt smoothie to replace milk and threw in some of my favorite honey O's, "Angel Miel". However, like a good conscientious healthcare practitioner, I wanted to wage war against the box for the bizarre health claims they made. The cereal tastes good and has lots of sugar. True, it has vitamins and minerals, but most people aren't at risk for deficiency of these. It's not going to protect your child from cancer.

Luckily, it seems someone has taken the stand and won a small war with the ever-controlling food companies. This year, the misleading health claims on all the boxes have been... stickered over!!  Success, Bolivia! Here's a lesson for you, American food giants. Stop exploiting the masses!

Another year, another me, another Bolivia

It's unbelievable how much has changed in the past year. Bolivia yes, but also myself.  Don't get me started, but suffice it to say I lost a most special, amazing person who was once my better half. Yet around me I have discovered, reinforced, and relied on a strong safety net of friends and family who love me much more than I could ever have realized. And life goes on, and I'm patiently waiting this year to find out where I will go next for residency. Can only hope to be stronger than before, and with a lot more love for who I do have, what non-material wealth I hold, and the great opportunities I'm allowed.

And that brings me to Bolivia. Some things have changed. Like a few of the terribly busy intersections now have pedestrian lights! I was so happy to get to calmly stroll across the street (which can have anywhere from 4-8 lanes, depending on how people drive). Then I realized the green"walking man" only had a 2-flash warning before the traffic started up again without delay, and cars were honking and accelerating towards me yet again. Wow the 20-second countdowns in NYC are quite the blessing!

Anyways it's a weird feeling going back to an old home. I already know and have explored more markets than most people here- Pozos for hardware, Abasto for fresh veggies, Mutualista for my painting supplies, Florida for the fish, 7 Calles for fabric. But everything is slightly different. Then you see familiar faces. Gerson greeted me with a hug warmer than I could have dreamed of. Jackie and I sat together over Coke Zero laughing about the bizarre ways we accomplished things last year. I surprised Victor, my good friend and painting teacher, who was overflowing with questions. And over the next two months, I will catch up with everyone from Dr. Flores to Junior to dance class friends to the vinchicas to the coffeeshop lady. It's nice to be back : )

Reposting this, as it's relevant to coming back
“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place...like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.” -Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran