Bolivia Fieldwork Experiences
Meghna Nagam Bio Heading link
Meghna Nagam, MPH Community Health Sciences student, completed her fieldwork teaching sexual reproductive health classes in Bolivia, solidifying her desire to pursue a career in global health, including enrolling in the UIC’s College of Medicine’s Global Medicine program. Check out the blog posts from her experiences below.
Meghna Nagam Blog Heading link
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Meghna's Blog Post
At 13,615 feet above sea level, El Alto, Bolivia is one of the highest cities in the world. Although I’ve been here for 2 weeks now, I’m reminded of how unadjusted I am to the altitude every time I walk up a flight of stairs and find myself having to pause to catch my breath. Besides the lower level of oxygen than I’m used to, what strikes me the most about the cities of La Paz and El Alto are how no space is wasted. Houses and apartments are packed across the hillside and instead of trains or large buses running across narrow streets, these cities are connected by an intricate cable car system called teleféricos. Different colored lines connect these neighboring cities and taking these teleféricos are how I travel every day from my homestay in La Paz to the Center for Rural Andean Health (CSRA) in El Alto.
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(View from the green teleféricos line above La Paz)As for my practicum, I am working on CSRA’s Project 4250 that focuses on District 5 in El Alto. The project has 3 main components: preventing violence, promoting nutrition, and sexual and reproductive health education in the community. My days are split assisting with programs in all 3 of these sections. I’ve helped with a childhood nutrition class that teaches mothers how to make healthy food for their children ages 0-5 years, participated in a fair to enroll more participants into the project, and have been working on developing 3 sexual reproductive health classes that I will teach to adolescents and young adults in the community.
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(Spinach pancakes for malnourished children and carrot pancakes for overweight children made my mothers in the program).
(Sign from the community fair, it reads “Grand Fair for Fathers and Mothers of Children 0-5 Years”)Although it has been busy, I’m making sure to have time to explore Bolivia. This past weekend I traveled to Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. Other highlights of the trip included visiting a train graveyard, a hidden lagoon, and a hot spring (which was very much needed since it’s currently winter and temperatures drop below freezing at night). I’m looking forward to getting more involved in the community through my practicum and continuing to learn more about Bolivia!
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(Graveyard of trains from the 1800's).
(Obligatory perspective picture from Salar de Uyuni).
(Hidden Black Lagoon) -
Meghna's Blog Post
Time has been flying by! I can’t believe I’m already over two thirds of the way through my practicum experience in Bolivia. I’ve taught 2 of the sexual reproductive health lessons already and I’m learning how to adapt my teaching style to be the most effective.
Our first lesson focused on the basics of reproductive anatomy and skills like decision making and communication that are important when dealing with your sexual health. 29 students attended the session and our main activity for the day was filling in the correct names for the male and female reproductive systems as a large class.
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Student responses to the anatomy activityAfter the large group, students broke up into pairs to work on their ability to make informed choices about their health and how to communicate their choices to others. Everyone received a short scenario about a young person who is trying to make a decision about whether or not to drink alcohol. Students then had to consider the options available and their consequences before writing an ending to the story. I was very impressed by the thought people put into the assignment, and hopefully they continue to use these skills in the future!
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Example of the decision making and communication skills activityBased on student feedback from this lesson, the main change I made to the second lesson was to only utilize group work rather than entire class activities. There were two main reasons for this change. First, students reported that the work they did in pairs was very helpful for understanding the material from the lesson. Second, a majority of students said they felt embarrassed and scared to participate in front of the entire class. During session 2, which was focused on sex and sexually transmitted diseases, we played a game within groups. Each member in the group received a card with a sexually transmitted disease on it. A student volunteer then read out questions I prepared about STIs, like “Which ones can be cured?” and then participants would raise their card up if it was the correct answer. The class seemed to really like this game and I enjoyed being able to walk around and interact which each group.
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Hopefully the colors made the STIs a little less scary to talk about!And of course, I’ve been making time to travel! This past weekend we went to Copacabana and Isla del Sol which are located on Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. There was a lot more hiking than I expected (it took us 40 minutes to climb up to our hostel on the Island) but the views were definitely worth it. I can’t even put into words how beautiful it was, so here are some of the pictures that I hope do the scenery justice!
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Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill).
On the way up Cerro Calvario.
Finally made it! Ft. Lake Titicaca.
Incan ruins on Isla del Sol.
View of Lake Titicaca from Isla del Sol.
View of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana