YOLO? (Don't let this deter you, there is substance to this post)

Disclaimer: Sorry in advance for the randomness/semi jumping around that I do here...

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I'm currently in the midst of what has probably been my most taxing semester in a long long time (hence why I've been m.i.a.). Between grant writing and my community needs assessment course, I have had assignments due every single week in the month of October. So it's been hellish, and while I love October with its pumpkins and leaves and sweaters and fall, I have never been so glad to see a month end. Which, when I think about it a little deeper, makes me really sad and brings me to the point of this post: I'm 23, this is the height of my youth and vivaciousness (and lets face it, looks) and I feel like I'm squandering it.

I will go ahead and make my apologies about this post's title, but when you think about the idea of the phrase "you only live once" isn't that technically true? You live and then you die. And I haven't been doing much living lately, more of a trudging along, lets try and make it through one week at a time. It's pitiful really. And to top that off, I saw this incredibly inspiring documentary last night that made me feel even worse about my terrible attitude.

Girl Rising is the true story of 9 different girls from all around the world, each having faced terrible things like poverty, child slavery, and sexual assault, but who managed to triumph over the adversity that they face. It's a documentary that stresses the importance of educating girls around the world; about how an educated girl can raise the GDP of her country, have healthier children, and live a safer, more productive life. These are girls who have fought the odds in order to go to school and get an education because they value it so much. Meanwhile here I am complaining about school and just wishing it would end.

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I like to watch these documentaries because even though they make me feel like the most selfish person in the world (and let's be honest, Kim Kardashian is way worse than me, who needs a 15 carat diamond engagement ring?!), it also reminds me just how lucky and privileged I am. This dose of gratitude is definitely refreshing in the midst of a crazy time in my life.

I'm a big believer in the adage that everything happens for a reason, whether due to an act of God, fate, or what have you. I know for a fact that there was a reason that I didn't get into a masters of public policy program at UVa (it was so I could come to come to Emory to get my MPH). And there have definitely been romances in my life that I'm so glad were not meant to be. This idea of a master plan for myself has gotten me through some tough times. But what about the kids born into poverty? What about the kids diagnosed with cancer, or who are abused by the very people meant to protect them? These are instances where I can't see that adage holding true, which shakes my faith a little and brings about more of that guilt I've been feeling. So what's a girl to do? Well as my friend and trusty roommate B says,"At least we're going into a field that helps people. Sure we won't make a lot of money, but at the end of the day we can say we have made a little bit of a difference and that we can, which is a hell of a lot more than most people on Wallstreet can say."

The Political Machine

I've said it once, and I will say it again. Politics and political parties make me want to say:

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Because we are sure as hell not getting anything done the way things are now. As I've gotten older the stakes have gotten higher, with the happenings on Capital Hill becoming more interesting/important to me. For a while things like furloughs and budget cuts seemed like some far off problem for someone else, until they literally hit home and affected my family. And now I find the current government shut down personally affecting me; today should've been the day that I restarted my internship from last semester, except now with the government stalemate in D.C. places like the CDC are basically shut down until some resolution is reached.

So while I've got a lot of emotions like the sapster above, mine are a little different. I'm mad and frustrated by the incompetence. I'm pissed off that politics has become more about blocking a bill because it's endorsed by another political party and less about the actual issue at stake. And I'm disgusted at how such a great country as the U. S. of A. can lack a basic guarantee to healthcare, one that every other industrialized nation in the world has. How is it that we spend the most but enjoy middle of the road health?

If you aren't sold on the idea of universal healthcare (if you are still a little confused, it's a complicated thing and I def don't have everything 100% ironed out in my head yet, so head on over to slate.com and read this simple article), I'd suggest reading this gem by Ezekiel Emanuel (yes, Rohm's brother). He presented to my bioethics class first year, first semester at UVA and I've been hooked. It's a simple, well thought out argument about how healthy citizens make a strong nation. And even though some may argue that the rich will end up paying more for things like Obamacare, I guarantee that we are still paying the brunt of things when those who are not insured finally have to go to the ER to seek medical treatment.

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**I am also well aware that this may cause some drama and people to get all mad and feisty with me. Bring it on Biddies, the world needs more intelligent discourse.

K.I.T.

This is an ode/giant apology to the ones I've failed to keep in touch with:

It's not that I don't love you,
I really truly do
It's just that my life has been taken over
by this giant thing called schoo(l).

I hate talking on the phone,
like a lot a lot.
Mostly because I am so awkward,
and partly because I forgot.

I promise nothing much has been going on at my end,
it's mostly school and work
these group projects are already making me bend.

I got a lovebird named Lemon,
its butt is blue
I call it an it
because I'm not sure if it's a female or a dude.

My cousin got married last weekend
on Friday the 13th.
Boy that open bar got the best of me,
I can help it, I like free drinkth.

So that's all I have to say,
I promise I will post more.
Gotta give the people what they want,
with funny stories galore!

Lemon says herro!

On why I am not looking forward to classes starting...

This isn't just your old "Oh but I love summer, boo school" sort of dread (though it kind of is because lazy days by the pool are awesome). First off, I'm a creature of habit so having to switch from my summer to school routine is simply unpleasant. I've had this nice working-out, surfing the net, reading, cooking, evening shifts at the library groove going for the past month which I've really quite enjoyed but will no longer be plausible.

Second, I'm not looking forward to the stress that school and assignments bring, to myself and my peers. In general I feel like I've calmed down considerably since my middle school days where I studied and worried about grades non-stop. "Well that doesn't sound very responsible of you, since you are in grad school after all" some of you may be thinking. It's a work smarter not harder philosophy baby. If I've done a project or taken a test and turned it in, there's no use worrying about it anymore. I'm not saying this to discredit the worries/concerns of my peers (I certainly have other things that I will needlessly obsess over), it's just that when other people stress out, I pick up on that energy and then I start to stress out. And I've just enjoyed having such a nice, relatively stress free summer; it's probably added years back on to my life!

And then there's this underlying thread of competition that seems to run through grad school in general. It kinda sucks. Granted, I could just be imagining something that isn't there, but I'm pretty sure this is encountered everywhere, including in the workplace. How do you deal with it? You could take the bait and attempt to one-up every person that you met by listing all of your accomplishments. If you're like me you could crack jokes (recall the "stand up and introduce yourself" episode from last year in which I said I spent the summer waiting tables, hence my people-person abilities). Jokes aside, I might have to take up meditation or something though because school starts in a week! Who has 2 thumbs and is not ready for classes to start?!

Grumpy hamster is not ready for classes to start either...

Sometimes you can go back

I was fortunate enough to visit the Bahamas not once but twice this summer. Last weekend I returned with my team members to present our findings at the second annual One Eleuthera Health and Wellness Symposium, which this year just so happened to be focusing on cancer. During our 9 hour long conference I learned a lot about the biology behind the BRCA gene mutations (the BRCA gene normally works as a tumor suppressor, without it the genes that cause breast cancer grow unchecked). It was cool/humbling/nerve-wracking to present my work to esteemed doctors and researchers, but it went off without a hitch.

This trip was action packed, in addition to the conference we got to attend Tarpum Bay's (the settlement we lived in) and Hatchet Bay's homecoming celebrations. These were weekend long celebrations, kinda like a fair but with more drinking and jungliss (a Bahamian term for ghetto looking girls who look tacky, like they are from the jungle. both a singular and plural noun and verb, it's now a part of my regular vocab and I'm trying to bring it back to Atlanta). This was a bittersweet visit, since this time I don't know when I will be back, but the Bahamas, namely Eleuthera, is now a part of me and I most certainly will have to return. I'm missing those beaches and the people already!

Hello Eleuthera!!!

The narrowest point in the world, the Glass Window Bridge, with the Atlantic ocean in darker blue and the Caribbean in light blue. 

The Craigslist Queens

As I write this I am sitting in my most awesomely decorated new apartment. Coming from a place that was already furnished with essentially nothing of my own to contribute, this past month has pretty much been consumed with worrying (and when I was actually done wasting energy worrying) acquiring furniture. So whether you are a post grad, a young adult, a more mature adult, or still in school but needing to upgrade from an old fold-up card table and air mattress to something more substantial, then listen up because have I got some life advice for you!

Here are some tried and true methods for furnishing a new place (or adding to your repertoire):

1. Buy off your landlord/lady/liege. We were lucky in that the reason our landlady was renting out her place was because she was getting married, so we had the great opportunity to buy things like a table, chairs, dressers, bookcases, a coffee table, and a t.v. off of her for a steal. Bonus: we didn't even have to move them.

2. Look to Facebook, where if you are in any sort of class group page, many people will be selling/giving away things for dirt cheap. I unfortunately couldn't carpe any of these deals as I really had no place to put them and was out of town during the peak post-grad furniture dump bonanza.

3. Thrift stores. People are all about upcycling these days, and if you are creative enough you can repaint some of those really ugly pieces of furniture into something bright and awesome. I unfortunately have neither the patience nor the supplies (because unfortunately by the time you gather all the paint and primer you can sometimes end up spending way more than it's worth) for this sort of endeavor. But one day I really hope to transform something.

4. Use what resources you have. This may be furniture that you already have, or the generosity of your parents. I am fortunate enough to have a mom who is super pumped about me decorating my first adult place that she bought me 2 super classy chairs from Target. Thanks Mom!!

5. Freecycle.com. This is an awesome jem of a website; you join the yahoo group that corresponds to the area that you live in. Daily, people post things that they are looking for or giving away and everything is totally free! That's how I ended up getting the awesome brand-new birdcage that will house the new member of my family (more on that later). I figure I saved myself at least $50, and it's a great site/concept for those who are especially concerned about the amount of waste/junk that we humans can accrue. Just always bring a friend with you to pick up your new trash-to-treasure and always be sure to send a thank you post!

and finally #6. Craigslist. I must admit, I was once one of those people who turned her nose up at the idea of getting something like a piece of furniture used. Granted, I would never buy something like a bed/mattress off of Craigslist; however, my roommate and I really lucked out in finding/buying a really nice (and cheap) ikea couch off of Craigslist. I do emphasize the lucking out part because with anything that's fabric and that people have been laying/sleeping on you really have to be careful. Bedbugs are no joke people! But this thing is great. And there really are some jems on the site, along with some god-awful stuff that's incredibly overpriced. We also ended up getting 2 side tables for $5 each, and I also got my desk and chair for a total of $50. You just have to look and be really careful. Never go alone, and if you find yourself given directions to a shady part of town that has a large group of men outside of the house were you are supposed to be looking at a couch, then turn the f-around (yes this did happen to us and yes, we got the hell out of dodge). While there are such things as Craigslist Queens (i.e. savvy female shoppers such as myself) there was also such thing as the Craigslist Killer, of which there is a Lifetime movie about.

There are some things that I think you should be careful about buying used (like mattresses); when it comes to cleanliness and a good nights sleep you sometimes have to suck it up. But you can really cut costs if you are willing to see the potential in things. Your table may not match your chairs, but hey, that boho mismatched look is totally in anyway.

Classy chairs and free bird cage

Do yourself a favor and frame your posters

Our craigslist couch. 

Can I go back already?

I've been back about 2 weeks now; in some ways it's gone by fast and I think "wow 2 weeks!" and other times when it feels longer I think, "wow only 2 weeks??" The constant rain since the day I returned isn't helping things much. Yes, with the exception of about 2 days the second week, it had rained pretty much everyday for a week straight. Talk about depressing and tan fading. Skyping yesterday with my team members and seeing all of our co-workers in the Bahamas finally made that homesickness hit full force. How can you not make connections and feel a little empty after living someplace for 6 weeks and delving deeper into the culture and the people than you ever would on any week long vacation?

pretty much sums up our last night perfectly. 

I'm very thankful to have to opportunity to go back, though there were definitely some things I missed and am glad to have now that I'm back. These include:

1. Cheap groceries/the Dekalb farmer's market. I ate kale everyday for about a week when I came back. I will never complain about food prices again; everything is just so much more expensive on a tiny island where everything has to be imported and there's no longer an agriculture industry (our Bahamian friend and the proprietor of Sweets n Treats, Miss Mary, explained that Eleuthera used to grow a lot of pineapples and tomatoes but the younger generation just doesn't want to farm, hence the lack of locally grown produce).

Eat all the produce!!!

2. Netflix. Maybe this has caused more trouble than it's worth, but I've started The Office from season 1 (never watched episodes consistently or got really into it) and now I'm obsessed. Yes a little late to jump on the bandwagon but better late than never. After reading Mindy Kaling's book (which is hilarious, you need to read it!) it makes you look at things a little differently, especially knowing that Kelly isn't actually a complete ding-bat. And Jim...need I say more?

Do something useful with your summer and read this book. via

3. Making money. It's so nice to be working and getting a paycheck instead of just spending money constantly. During the week I'm just working nights at the Emory library (still trying to figure out what to do with myself during the day...) which is not exactly a busy scene but is a cool change of pace. I unfortunately spend a lot of time puttering around on the internet, but manage to get some work done (we do still have to have a comprehensive write-up and presentation to show everyone that we didn't just go to the beach everyday for the past 6 weeks... we worked in the morning and went to the beach in the afternoon).

4. Air conditioning. Oh how I love you. And after going a month and a half without you, find myself getting more chilled than normal. It's a beautiful thing.

Currently moving into a new apartment, and coupled with a lack of anything notable going on (sometimes no news can be good news) has made it so that I didn't have a whole lot to say. But once I get settled and am no longer in this weird limbo of unpacking from a trip just to pack everything up and unpack again, things will feel a little more back to normal and posts can become a bit more regular. I have a few things in the works but won't jump the gun on spilling just yet...

I can't even...via 

Winding Down

We are really getting down to the wire as far as our time here (can't believe there's only a week left), so needless to say a post is long overdue! It's just steadily gotten hotter and hotter here this past month, which has slowly sapped much of my computer browsing energy in general. And now for some updates:

1. Last week we finished our final settlement survey, making our total number of women surveyed a whopping 180. A great, large number of people and data (trust me, took hours to input all of the surveys into SPSS statistical software based on the data dictionary I'd created. Believe it or not--because I really don't--I've taken on the job of data inputer and stats test-runner extraordinarre. And even more shocking is the fact that I like it). Now we are visiting one settlement in the north, central, and south regions of the island in order to tell communities what we've found and get any extra input.

This is what 180 surveys looks like

We are so pumped we are done! (photo cred: Sara)

2. Also as of last week I am now feeling 23! Yes, the only thing better than having my 21st in Cyprus was having my 23rd (man that sounds old!) in the Bahamas! Spent a relaxing day at the beach, followed by a delicious dinner at the fancy/famous Tippy's beachside restaurant (a favorite of Mariah Carey and Matthew McConaughey) which came as a big surprise from my team members as I thought we would just eat at the fish fry. We made our appearance there later, when the crowd was noticeably more Bahamian/local and got our groove on to some local Bahamian jams (along with about 5 different birthday songs played, to my mortification, in my honor. the best was probably when the song "Birthday Sex" came on, to which one of my team members turns toward me and seriously tells me "sorry but you ain't getting none of that tonight").

Perhaps the most adorable dancing partner ever (photo cred: Sara)

3. We will be coming back! Yes indeedy, we've been invited to present our project/findings at the One Eleuthera Health & Wellness Symposium on cancer the first week in August. I really can't begin to describe how awesome/what an honor it is to have people be this appreciative about our work. It's amazing and really starts to hammer home the idea that slowly but surely I'm starting to become a "public health professional."

I could not have asked for a better team members (photo cred: Sara)

People always tell you that when you go abroad for an extended period of time you are going to go through phases: upon arrival you will be so pumped but after about a week you'll start to get into that moody/homesick/irritable towards all your surroundings period. After this comes the calm contentment that you feel because you've finally become truly comfortable with your environment. I've definitely gone through all of these stages. I was excited, and once that wore off I was hot/sweaty/itchy/generally unpleasant; now I'm coasting, and when I stop to look around at the clear Caribbean beneath my feet I get sad because it's a feeling of calm and beauty that I wish I could (and know I can't) bottle up to take with me and remember forever. I've had my ups and downs here, but Eleuthera and my time spent on the island has been an experience that certainly will stay with me forever. Not your typical summer internship but something that's equally valuable and in a way far more special. Now I just have to look forward to the depression/rea-daptation phase that comes upon your return (but oh, the reunion with a.c. will be so so sweet).

To the North we went!

Pink Sands (if you squint you can see a tinge)

This past week we traveled up to northern Eleuthera in order to make it easier for us to survey settlements and not have to worry about traveling back and forth the hour and a half it usually takes. We lucked out and got to stay on Harbour Island in a fantastic beachfront house. Harbour Island is a small island off the coast, about a 5 minute water taxi ride from the mainland. It's an adorable tourist town where many a wealthy vacationer (and apparently some celebrities) like to park their yachts while indulging in some pink sand beaches. There are few cars on the island, as most get around via golf cart, and compared to the rest of the island, most of the buildings are kept up (probably to look good for the tourists). We had a lot of fun going to the beach everyday and visiting the local bars at night; though nothing could top our first night there, when we got to hang out on the owner of Walgreen's private yacht.

Be still my interior design-loving heart

can I bring you back to Atlanta

Yes, as we were leaving the marina bar we came across a group of college guys, one of whom hopped onto the back of our golf cart. He introduced himself, saying he was from Texas, at which point one of the girls in my group exclaimed "I'm from Texas!" Lo and behold she had actually gone to grade school with some of the guys so we had the chance to see how the other half lives. The owner, one of the guy's dads, had married into the Walgreens family and lets just say they are doing well. It was very hard to leave, though nice to return to our friendly neighborhood of Tarpum Bay.

We did do some work while up north, visiting the various settlements. The most notable had to be Spanish Wells, where the people look like they are from West Virginia, have accents that sound Scottish, live in what looks like the Florida version of pleasantville, and make up perhaps the largest percentage of white Bahamians on the island. They're descendants of the puritans who came looking for religious freedom and the Tories who left following the American Revolution. Over half of the island has the last name Pinder that, along with the weird looks of the locals, indicate that the rumors of inbreeding aren't just rumors.

Don't let this deceptive facade fool you...

Top off our strange visit by seeing a tricked out golf cart that looked like an old 1950's pick up full of Amish people (and their million kids) who looked like they belonged in the coal mines of West Virginia and we were ready to get the hell out of dodge. Currently wrapping up the last of the settlements that still need to be surveyed and we will begin putting together a preliminary report of findings that our stakeholders can have before we leave (yes, we do work while we are here).

How the U.S. got accused of sending canned goods that cause cancer (aka notes from the field)

For the most part we've been relatively well received by the different groups of women that our contact has been able to drum up from different settlements. We have them take a survey and after give a 10 minute presentation about breast cancer in the Bahamas and the importance of getting mammograms for early detection. Last night was a different story; it started off well enough, despite the fact that some of the participants were rather snarky and shrugged off any offer of help (some were looking blankly at their surveys for over 15 minutes) and would look at us and laugh behind their hands.

After the presentation, during question and answer time, a more outspoken lady with a mohawked, bleached stripe of hair running from her forhead to the nape of her neck, started to ask us why breast cancer was becoming so much more of a problem now. Without giving us any time to address her question, she started going into this rant about radiation and how foods from the U.S., including our produce, were making people sick; she claimed that the canned goods from the U.S., with their labels of "export only," were the reasons the Bahamas shouldn't buy food from the U.S., and that they never had this problem in her granny's day (I guess granny lived to be 92). She did a good job stirring up the crowd, which started getting heated and talking all at once, not giving us a chance to say that 1). it's way better to eat fresh vs. canned anyway, 2). a big part of the reason people are so fat and unhealthy here is because they don't eat any fruits and vegetables whatsoever (lay off the conch fritters people) and 3) that people should stop inbreeding in order to prevent the BRCA gene mutation from spreading (we'd never actually tell them to stop inbreeding but seriously, with such a small island and cousins marrying cousins, that's the bulk of the problem as far as genetics goes).

this is pretty much how I felt last night. via

Now I don't know about this whole U.S. "export only" thing, but maybe the reason why white stripe was so unhealthy is because she's a major smoker (believe me I could smell her and heard that phlegmy smokers cough). She also didn't feel any qualms about taking a huge plateful of the free cookies we have for after the presentation. In general, with a thing like cancer it's hard to give people one definitive reason for the cause, which many have found frustrating. I'm hoping that overall we at least reached one person in the crowd last night, and that we won't find ourselves run out of any more meetings.

It's a Bahamian thing, mon

Some updates from the field: Bahamian time has started to become the bane of our existence as we really attempt to get our project off the ground and running. It's that relaxed, island time mentality that's clashing with our U.S. sense of urgency, but can anyone blame us that we want to arrive on time (and even early) to the survey sessions that we've scheduled? Meetings with stakeholders that should take 30 minutes at most end up lasting over 2 hrs because of tangents and long-winded stories. I'm definitely going to have to learn to let it go and accept the fact that things aren't done very snappy here.

The list of things to go into our limitation section definitely keeps growing. If it even looks like it's going to rain (which it has practically everyday this week, we are in the rainy season after all) then people will not show up to any meeting that you may have scheduled. Every rain is the first rain here it seems, ironic since we are on an island that's all too familiar with hurricanes. Literacy is also an issue which we've tried to solve by offering to read surveys if the lady happened to "leave her reading glasses at home." It's worked really well and has increased the completeness of our surveys tremendously. Next hurdle to tackle is to make sure that everyone is taking their surveys by themselves; I've seen way too many surveys with the exact same answers as I've imputed the data for comfort.

From the Caribbean (left) to the Atlantic (right)

Last week/this past weekend we did about 3 beach days in a row; our sunburns were an indication that we should probably take a few days off. I already feel like I'm much browner than normal, and I've certainly gone to the beach more in the 2 weeks here than in an entire year back home (terribly sad). We visited the Glass Window Bridge, the thinnest strip of land in the world, where on one side you see the Caribbean and on the other, the darker blue of the Atlantic.

Potcake Paradise

The strays here break my heart. They're called pot cakes (apparently named after the peas [aka beans] and rice mixture left at the bottom of the pot that local residents would feed to the dogs). Even though they are a little mangy looking they all look to be in pretty good condition and seem super friendly. I was nervous to go running around the neighborhood at first (not alone of course) because I didn't want any of the dogs to chase us, but even though Blackie (the local black lab looking dog I caught swimming in the ocean) and a pal ran with us for a bit, you could tell they were just playing and soon gave up after a while. The only dog that gave us a problem were owned by locals, who were nice enough to shoo them away for us. Apparently you can take a part of the island home with you by adopting your own pot cake; there's a nonprofit that adopts out puppies from the island and ships them free to the states http://www.potcakeplace.com/.

Some neighborhood potcakes

It took a few days of adjusting but I now really like where we are staying. Though hot, buggy, and in a rougher part of the island (I think in general the southern part of Eleuthera is poorer) it has its charms. The houses are colorful (if somewhat faded) and the people are really nice. Everyone waves and says hello. The neighborhood kids have become our new best friends. I'm still getting accustomed to this neighborhood camaraderie. The other day at a nearby beach, a local Bahamian man came up to me while I was looking for shells and gave me the most beautiful conch shell I have ever seen. I was really taken off guard, thinking "am I going to have to pay him for this?" but no, he just wanted to tell me about it and give it to me as a gift. He then offered to take us out on his boat to go snorkeling or fishing anytime we wanted. And even though I was still a little suspicious and guarded, I'm really starting to get the sense that people here are just nice and do things with no ulterior motives or hidden agendas.

Fresh from the ocean, all he did was brush it off. 

Now before you think that I'm just here goofing around in paradise, I will say that we finally got preliminary approval from the Bahamian Ministry of Health and will begin work today. We are doing surveys of local women in 18 of the settlements up and down the island in order to find out the barriers to women getting mammograms. As I've mentioned, the Bahamas, and Eleuthera in particular, has the highest rates of breast cancer in the world. It's partly a combination of bad diet and all the normal causes, but what's particularly key is that Bahamian women have a higher than normal prevalence of the BRCA-1 and 2 genes, which are also associated with breast cancer. Eleuthera doesn't have it's own mammogram machine so women have to be flown to Nassau to get tested. The Cancer society has a program to help those who can't afford the test on their own; however, because many other islands also need to fly their residents to Nassau, Eleuthera has been only able to send 45 women to get tested. So we are going to see why women aren't signing up for this program (past research indicates a disinclination to even getting tested and a fatalistic attitude towards a diagnosis of breast cancer) and what can be done to promote this mammogram program. Our results could even be used to bolster the argument that the island itself needs its own mammogram machine. Finally some public health in action (in addition to some tanning).

Not your momma's Bahamas

I've finally made it to paradise! It's been a whirlwind these last couple of days trying to get oriented to my new surroundings. I'm still getting used to the heat and the fact that most of the places around here don't have air conditioning, our house included (though we have a small unit that we use at night). Needless to say I'm sweating a lot and between the sunscreen and the bugspray (which I wonder is even working as I still find myself covered in bug bites) I've just resigned myself to being one big disgusting grease ball these next 6 weeks.

our home for the next 6 weeks. 

I'm definitely experiencing a bit of culture shock here. First off, I'm an obvious minority (the few white residents definitely look a little backwoodsy, complete with leathery skin), and although English is the language spoken here, I sometimes wonder if people are speaking in a foreign language because I have such a hard time understanding. Think a mixture of Jamaican and native Hawaiian and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about.

view from our porch

Second, the poverty here is striking. As I've said, this is not your momma's Bahamas. I should've realized this, as the institute giving out the research grants is giving them for projects being down in low resource countries but somehow it didn't even register. I'm living in Tarpum Bay, a settlement in the southern part of the island of Eleuthera; this is a poor area, with a 75% unemployment rate. Stray dogs roam the streets (called pot cakes), joined by the occasional goat or chicken owned by one of the residents. There's trash, the houses are run down, and abandoned buildings are common. But despite all this, the people are friendly. Everyone waves and the kids, though shy, are excited to talk to us (and recommend Miss Mary's as the best place to get ice cream).

our local pot cake (stray) dubbed Blackie taking a swim

someone's pet goats

The beach is obviously beautiful, and conch salads and grouper burgers are common. We've experienced sticker shock in the grocery store though because everything is so damn expensive. I don't know how people manage when the median income is $15,000 a year. We definitely have our work investigating the barriers to getting mammograms cut out for us. The Bahamas, and Eleuthera especially, has the highest rate of breast cancer in the world (around 20% of women get it); 1,300 women need to be getting mammograms, but only around 45 a year end up utilizing the Cancer Society's assistance program (patients have to be flown to Nassau to actually get screened as there's no machine on the island, a whole separate issue). So there you have it, a nice contrast of poverty and paradise.

How to get bikini ready (according to Buzzfeed)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/the-only-thing-you-need-to-read-to-get-ready-for-bikini-seas

I love this!!! Perfect since I will be in one in t-minus one week! And when in doubt remember this quote:

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Enjoy it while it lasts and quit being a playa hater

So I'm now half-way through grad school...

via Tumblr

Boy time flies! I finished my last final today (boo epi! I'm so a words person, risk and rate ratios just mean nothing to me), and it's just scary to think that this time next year, I will be getting ready to graduate (and either looking for, or hopefully already having, a job). In some ways I will miss school, but a paycheck will be nice.

To tie a nice little ribbon around things, my friend/future roomie B and I signed a lease and put the deposit down on our condo for next year! Very very excited; it's the culmination of the end of a long search. Our place has so many trees, a spot for a little porch and some potted plants. And of course plans for a dog named Ripper (after getting her stuff stolen at the beginning of the semester, B decided that we would need to get a tough dog to protect us, hence the name Ripper was born) and a bird for me!

It's been an interesting 2 semesters and looking back here's what I've learned so far:

1. Grad school is one of the first times that you may have friends studying the same thing as you. Which is weird because sometimes all you do is talk about public health, but it's also nice too.

2. Grad school is awesome because I'm actually learning things that will help me in the real world. I'm so glad I decided to go

3. Undergrad did not prepare me for the job market (I'm sorry, as much as I love and value the liberal arts--the world would be missing something if people didn't study it--I didn't learn that many specialized skills, hence lesson #2.

4. Grad school is also awesome because they give you free booze. At least you know your tuition is going towards something useful.

5. Getting an internship takes persistence; over 65 applications' worth of persistence. But it pays off in the end when you find something you really love.

6. You will work your butt off in grad school, but teachers aren't out to fail you and your GPA will probably be better than it was in undergrad.

7. Public health=group projects, which aren't so bad when you are actually working with people who care (I'm generalizing here, but usually you don't go to grad school unless the field is important to you--and you also don't go to grad school if you're dumb).

8. Small pox, as well as ebola and all kinds of other nasty things, is alive and well right across the way at the CDC (thanks Colin Talley for that daily reminder).

9. The next big epidemic, think mass death on a Spanish Influenza of 1918 sort of scale, is inevitable.

10. Public health is pretty awesome, and I think I've fallen even more in love with it than when I started (although don't get me started on my Curriculum design class...)

Bring on sweet summer time in Hotlanta and the Bahamas!

Bahama Momma

Took all these during my first trip to the Bahamas pre-college. 

Summer is right around the corner; I can practically taste it's sweet freedom! And freedom it is as this semester has been the busiest yet. My summer plans are awesome but are definitely very different from what I had imagined. I'd pictured something more along the lines of a traditional 9-5 internship here in Hot-lanta, but life has a way of bringing awesome opportunities. Instead, I have been lucky enough to receive a research grant to go to the Bahamas!

I will be living on the island of Eleuthera for 6 weeks with 2 other grad students while we conduct a hybrid needs assessment/program evaluation for the cancer society on the island. The organization just recently hired an outreach coordinator, who has a big job to do and isn't get paid a whole lot to do it, so our team is going to assess what are the biggest needs of the community in order to help craft a plan for the outreach coordinator to be able to do the best job possible. Again, coming into grad school I had never imagined that I'd get the opportunity to travel abroad. I hadn't even bothered to go to the research abroad information fair they had held in the fall because I didn't think it was something I really wanted to do, but after hearing that they pay you to go and do research that's actually applicable to what I'm learning, my interest was piqued. And the rest is history. So yes, I'm not getting paid to do this, but how often in life do you get to go on an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas for 6 weeks? That's my reasoning, and I'm so pumped I decided to take this opportunity. 

Post-trip I will be back in the ATL, synthesizing our project into something that will hopefully be publishable. I will also be helping this Emory emergency medicine doctor write up the results for this project he's doing in Ghana, assessing barriers to accessing EMS services (I'll actually be pilot testing this survey in Atlanta in the next couple weeks so be ready to volunteer to sit down with me). I will also hopefully be getting to continue to work at my CDC communications job; I sat my supervisor down and basically told him how much I loved working there and that I'd love to continue, even if it's unpaid (lets face it, I'd do anything for free at the CDC). My library job that I'll also be continuing to do over the summer provides me with some monetary cushioning. Yes, I have my fingers in a lot of different pies, but it's prime-time here for working my ass off to make connections and expose myself to as many opportunities as possible.

Let's go summer!!! 

My first and only encounter with a shark was in the Bahamas while we were kayaking.

I wouldn't mind seeing one again, as along as my leg wasn't in its mouth!