What better day to start a job in a foreign country than labor day. Ironic? Yeah. Today was Day 1 working with the group at Universidad Austral de Chile here in Valdivia. I was excited, but very, very nervous to start. When I think about it, I have been preparing for today for almost a year. A year ago, I talked my professor about opportunities he knew of for me to do my MPH field experience and thesis. All I knew was that I wanted to do some type of field work in infectious disease, and in Latin America. When I volunteered in Costa Rica back in 2006, I absolutly loved it and therefore knew that I could not do my field experience in any other way. I'm not going to lie...there have been parts of me that wished I did a simpler route and stayed in the Twin Cities. I then remind myself that I like to make mountains out of mole hills, so I shouldn't be too surprised with me being here. When I was setup with my research adviser, I was beyond excited to finally have an opprotunity to gain some insight into this field. Claudia has been great through it all. I told her I wanted to apply for a global grant through the U of M and she worked tediously with me to get a proposal together. It paid off, and here I am.
Today was exciting and equally, overwhelming. I first have to say, my hats off to people that come into the United States to work without fully knowing English. I think I have 1000 times more respect for you. It is very difficult to not understand someone, and to not be able to express what you want to say. It is frustrating becuase I don't want anyone to think I am the lazy, dumb American. I doubt they do, but it is such a natural feeling to have. All of the people in the lab are very, very patient and helpful. Marcelo spent a lot of time writing things out, because I told him I understand that better than I understand when he talks. That helped a ton. And then there was Spanish Dictionary.com. Holy man, I love that website. I don't know how many times we used that site to translate today. Of course, I tried my hardest to understand or to come up with the words on my own. Once I got a little more comfortable and a little less shy, I felt better saying straight out, "I have no idea what you are talking about". This whole language barrier is most definitely humbling. It makes me want to work twice as hard, and leave here practically fluent.
Language barrier aside, it was a good day. It was good to finally be here and start ironing out what is going to happen in the project. It was cool to see the lab, and see how things are different compared to home. The one thing that I still unsure of is exactly my place in the lab. From what I understood, it is really up to me. I want to get the most out of the experience for myself, while contributing the most to the project. I think as of now, I will be trying it all out. I'll be writing the questionnaire I've been working on (Epidemiology questionnaire addressing Leptospira transmission risk factors, and risk perception), going out to communities to collect environment samples, trapping and performing the necropsy on the rodents (big.wild.rats.), administering the questionnaire (my Spanish should probably improve before that), and working to detect lepto in the lab. The exciting and challenging thing that I may be doing is a certain technique I have done countless times in the lab in the U.S. It hasn't been done here, and no one is sure if it will even work. If I manage to get that up and running, and working, I will probably be the happiest person on the planet.
So that sums up the first dya, overwhelming and self-defeating. Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully a day where I know just a little bit more Spanish. I have the week to get aquainted, and then Claudia (my advisor) will be here for a week to get things going. This will be nice for more direction. Then the week after that is Chile's week long holiday celebration where people apparently drink a lot of chicha, eat empanadas, and not work (a week long makeup for my missed labor day). I'll take that. So, 2 weeks, and then a break. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.
Now, I am going to wrap myself in 5 blankets, and watch the worst American chick flick I can find on Netflix.
Happy labor day everyone! I hope you enjoyed the last day of summer, and have great plans for the upcoming fall.
Lost in Translation,
Ash
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