And classes begin...

From the moment I arrived in DC I knew my life here would be busy.  And indeed it has been.  Our week started with a day of service - MLK day.  My group volunteered to remodel a homeless shelter.  The largest homeless shelter in the United States, actually.  This shelter holds approximately 1400 beds on one given day (amazing!) and our job was to help by painting the inside second and third floors.  It was a very rewarding experience for me knowing that I was having an ON day instead of a day OFF.  However, not everything was peachy at the shelter.  I feel I must share a quote from a conversation I had with a homeless woman while painting near her "room".  I was putting tape around the edges of the wall and she came out of her room and said to me "you know what this is like?" [referring to our painting] "this is like putting a bandage on cancer." ...  I was speechless.  Here I was thinking we were doing something to improve these peoples' lives but she was right, we weren't.  We were just changing the appearance, the superficial, making things 'look' better, but not actually finding a solution to the problem... homelessness.     

(so I must admit that this is not my photo, I stole it from the internet because unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along this day, but nonetheless this is the homeless shelter we worked in)

Tuesday was my first official day of class! I was excited and nervous because I wanted to begin but at the same time I didn't really know what to expect.  We were assigned to do three readings and even though I finished them all I was still nervous about our class discussion.  But at the end of it all, things went perfectly fine.  We started the day with a guest lecture on the Affordable Care Act and other state health policies.  It was very interesting to see what the act entailed and how it has or has not been implemented in different states.  We also talked about Medicaid and how it has been reworked to accommodate higher income families.  Overall, this lecture really got me excited for my future studies in public and global health issues.  It has given me a new perspective on the American health care system and ways of improving it to include and provide more access to care.  

Class went great!  My professor is from Chile (or was it Costa Rica... ahhh I already forgot!) but she also spent her post graduate years doing work in Brazil.  So she was able to teach us some Portuguese through a song... it was fabulous.  She also talked to us about globalization affecting health in other countries such as Brazil.  We watched a video on the Amazon and on how it has been diminishing due to rapid resource use and development.  But it was also nice because it focused a lot on medicinal plants and animals found in this region of the world and those which have yet to be discovered.  A major message of the film was that we must get out there quick, before the forest and resources disappear.  It was great... I am so much more excited about Brazil now!    

(photo also taken from the internet, but for a better reason this time.)  This is known as the Giant Waxy Monkey Frog in Brazil.  The slimy poisonous wax found on its skin is used for medicinal treatment by shamans in South America.

Wednesday, day two of class, was also really successful.  We talked about public health and more specifically health relating to our own lives and our environment.  Our assignment for today was called the River of Life drawing where we were asked to draw a river with tributaries representing positive influences on our health and damns representing negative influences (shown below, no judgement on my artistic ability it hasn't improved much since 5th grade).  We also watched a film on social determinants of health, like income, education, and race.  It was extremely interesting to know that in the United States higher income individuals, with greater education backgrounds, and typically of a 'white' race live a longer life then any other individuals.  The CEO of a company will live longer than the company janitor for example.  Very interesting!

After class today I also made an attempt to visit some of the most famous DC monuments.  However, due to the extensive distances (3 miles walking) and extreme wind conditions (like 30 degrees F and without proper winter attire) we failed to make it all the way to the Lincoln Memorial and Reflection Pool. Nonetheless, we did make it past the Capitol building, the American Indian Museum, Air and Space Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Castle, and finally to the Washington Monument.  We weren't able to go into all of these wonderful places, but that will be a task for this upcoming weekend! =) Hope you enjoy my tidbits and pictures!