I don't have too much exciting news from the past week, but it's certainly been a busy one. Starting on Friday, the day after our finals, my partners (Tom, Jane and Ashley) and I went into the field to begin our research. We spent Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday bouncing along the roads of southwestern Costa Rica and walking many, many miles to interview people about risk factors for gastric cancer. By the end of those five days, we had interviewed 251 people and walked by almost 1000 houses (we were only stopping at every other house and we could only complete an interview if someone over 40 was home). In case you're curious, it appears that salt consumption (with canned food intake serving as a proxy) and having ancestors from a certain province in Costa Rica are the most strongly correlated with gastric cancer prevalence. It was really interesting to see some results from our piles and piles of surveys and hours of work. Though I wore sunscreen every day, I still managed to get odd little patches of sunburn (behind my knees!) and I was pretty tired by the end of our field work. It was also refreshing to take a break from the back of the safari, though Christian (the driver) was a really fun guy to work with. These are my group members, and some others, bouncing along. (I know it's blurry, but trust me, it's an accurate representation of our week). Can you notice the pouring rain outside? That was another highlight. Imagine a little blond gringa showing up at your Costa Rican door in a huge poncho, in the pouring rain, with a clipboard. I'm making quite a reputation for myself here.
On Sunday, our one day off, I volunteered to go help Tom's older sister Maddie (Tom is in the green shirt). She did this study abroad program two years ago and received a Fulbright Scholarship to continue her research here. She is studying the Ngobe community, one of the local indigenous groups. They have pretty unhealthy diets and are almost all obese (at least the women are), but diabetes rates are incredibly low. Maddie has been investigating why that might be and she needed help running a little program that invited people to come answer a questionnaire and have their blood glucose level tested before being served a free breakfast. I administered surveys (I'm a pro!) and took heights and weights and helped serve some pancakes. I also explained what peaches are (in Spanish, of course) to some women who had never seen them. It was a nice, albeit early, morning and I was glad to help Maddie out.
After we finished our field work this week, I've been keeping busy writing my final paper and reading American Psycho and watching Mulan. Yesterday was Good Friday and we went into town to see the Stations of the Cross procession, which was a nice cultural experience and a good break from work and the field station. There was an impressive parade, though I think Jane (also blond) and I got just as many looks.
This morning, I went into town to buy the ingredients for a trifle, which I'm making for everyone and will serve at our Easter lunch tomorrow. I'm also going to decorate some eggs and, if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go to Mass in the evening. I'll definitely miss being home for Easter because I miss my family and, partially, because there is no Easter candy here. The coming week brings our poster presentation, more paper writing, a surprise weekend trip and the end of our program (Tuesday 5/3!) Then I've got one week to travel around Costa Rica and it's back to the States! I'll be back with an update toward the end of the week.
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