Santo Antonio de Jesus

Classes finally wrapped up and I am in the middle of my village stay here in Sto Antonio de Jesus. It is a small city located on the other side of the bay from Salvador. The voyage to the city was beautiful- a short ferry ride to the the other side of the bay and then a rocky ride through gorgeous green Bahian country side. The country side is full of small hills, many palm trees, various animals eating grass on the road side, and some houses doting the horizon. It has been a great break from the concrete and bustle of Salvador.

Last week I helped vaccinate people over 60 years of age with local PSF agents. PSF, in theory, is a Brazilian national health program that focuses on prevention in families. PSF centers are placed in the middle of neighborhoods, primarily low class, and contain agents that check up on each individual in the assigned area. I really like PSF because each agent resides within the assigned community and knows the socio-economic realities and necessities. The agents check for dengue, HIV/AIDS prevelance, tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes, etc. They administer vaccinations and help educate citizens about healthy life styles.

We had some interesting vaccination patients. The trouble about working with elders are that they are very forgetful. They forget how old they are, they forget if they had the vaccination or not, they forget what their name is, they don´t know if they slept, etc. One woman in particular, had a combination of all these problems. The hardest part about PSF is that they patients can be non-compliant a lot of the time. This is a combination of a lack of education and trust in the Brazilian health care system.

This past weekend we went to a beach called Itaparica, the same beach I went to over Easter weekend. It is a very local beach with few tourists and lots of great views. Everything about the beach is cheap and wonderful, so I will most likely be doing the same thing next weekend.

I have some real school work to catch up on and a presentation about domestic violence to prepare and give on Wednesday. Beijos.