I finally got my Cameroonian Visa. Well, I got my visa last Monday, and I've had my plane tickets from Ethiopian Airlines for a few weeks, but this is the first time I've gotten to post about it. The visa looks pretty spiffy, actually, and it was much easier to get than I was led to believe.
I also heard that I need both a yellow fever vaccination, which I have, and a cholera vaccine, which I have been unable to find. The cholera vaccine is not technically required, nor is the vaccine itself very effective against cholera, but apparently I may be needed to bribe officials for not having it. I guess I'll find out how true that is.
Also: my plane flight from Dulles International airport to Douala, Cameroon takes three days. That's right. Flight leaves Dulles September 10th at 8pm, arrives in Rome on 11:20am on the 11th, leaves again for Ethiopia at 12pm and arrives at 7pm. After an overnight in Addis Ababa, I leave at 9am to Libreville, Gabon, arrive at 11:40, and the final leg departs at 12:30pm and arrives in Douala at 1:25pm on the 12th. I'm getting tired just typing it. The good news is that reviews on airlinequality.com say that that Ethiopian Airlines has good service and plenty of alcohol. I'm still not exactly looking forward to that flight.
I bought an MP3 player specifically for the flight over. Anyone have any suggestions for good songs to put on this puppy?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Internship in Cameroon!
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" - Gandhi
I thought it may seem like a pretentious way to start off this blog, but this phrase has been a mantra for how I have hoped to live my life. One of the greatest changes I wanted to see is the reduction of easily treatable or preventable diseases that account for a large portion of the global disease burden.
I recently finished my undergraduate work and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology at the end of the Fall semester of 2007. I started out as a biology major, but I switched after taking a few anthropology classes. After meeting Dr. Jackson, my current mentor, I knew I had change majors. I really enjoyed my time studying anthropology, which is more than I can say for most of my time in biology. To be fair, however, having finished a pathogenic microbiology not too long ago and having enjoyed it, I think my maturity level had no small role in it all, which is slightly embarrassing to admit. Another reason I switched to Anthropology was so I could graduate in a reasonable amount of time, as opposed to spending another year finishing a biology degree. That having been said, if I could do it again, I would probably take that extra year to minor in public health and get my pre-med program on paper. Nevertheless, I do not regret my choice in studying anthropology, a course of study that to me, felt like being at home.
After I graduated, I tried to move into public health. I had studied the interactions of humans and disease in anthropology, and public health is a very sociological field, so I did not and still do not see the shift as very extreme, but On paper, it's a bit different. I wound up working for a newly hired professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health named Dr. Haider and I spent about 7 months working with him on various public health issues from a competitive grant proposal from the CDC on pandemic flu preparation, to editing articles on the diffusion of innovations. I even got to work on program development with the formation of a global health graduate certificate program. Overall, my experience with Dr. Haider was inspirational. I got to work with the Maryland Department of Health, the pandemic flu preparedness program, and see Hans Rosling give one of his famous lectures
at the Swedish Embassy.
During that time, I also applied to schools of public health. I put a lot of my hopes into the University of Maryland's newly founded school of public health. It was a mistake, and I should have applied to far more schools than I did. I also came to the belief that I need more field experience, which brings me to where I am now.
On September 10th, I'm leaving for a public health internship at the University of Buea in Cameroon to work with pregnant women with HIV and possibly malaria. I've got to admit that I'm not as excited as I think I should be, but that doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to this internship. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm eager to discover it. Along the way, I hope to document as much as I can. I'm not sure how much internet access I will have, but I intent to use every opportunity to update this piecemeal memoir.
I thought it may seem like a pretentious way to start off this blog, but this phrase has been a mantra for how I have hoped to live my life. One of the greatest changes I wanted to see is the reduction of easily treatable or preventable diseases that account for a large portion of the global disease burden.
I recently finished my undergraduate work and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology at the end of the Fall semester of 2007. I started out as a biology major, but I switched after taking a few anthropology classes. After meeting Dr. Jackson, my current mentor, I knew I had change majors. I really enjoyed my time studying anthropology, which is more than I can say for most of my time in biology. To be fair, however, having finished a pathogenic microbiology not too long ago and having enjoyed it, I think my maturity level had no small role in it all, which is slightly embarrassing to admit. Another reason I switched to Anthropology was so I could graduate in a reasonable amount of time, as opposed to spending another year finishing a biology degree. That having been said, if I could do it again, I would probably take that extra year to minor in public health and get my pre-med program on paper. Nevertheless, I do not regret my choice in studying anthropology, a course of study that to me, felt like being at home.
After I graduated, I tried to move into public health. I had studied the interactions of humans and disease in anthropology, and public health is a very sociological field, so I did not and still do not see the shift as very extreme, but On paper, it's a bit different. I wound up working for a newly hired professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health named Dr. Haider and I spent about 7 months working with him on various public health issues from a competitive grant proposal from the CDC on pandemic flu preparation, to editing articles on the diffusion of innovations. I even got to work on program development with the formation of a global health graduate certificate program. Overall, my experience with Dr. Haider was inspirational. I got to work with the Maryland Department of Health, the pandemic flu preparedness program, and see Hans Rosling give one of his famous lectures
at the Swedish Embassy.During that time, I also applied to schools of public health. I put a lot of my hopes into the University of Maryland's newly founded school of public health. It was a mistake, and I should have applied to far more schools than I did. I also came to the belief that I need more field experience, which brings me to where I am now.
On September 10th, I'm leaving for a public health internship at the University of Buea in Cameroon to work with pregnant women with HIV and possibly malaria. I've got to admit that I'm not as excited as I think I should be, but that doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to this internship. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm eager to discover it. Along the way, I hope to document as much as I can. I'm not sure how much internet access I will have, but I intent to use every opportunity to update this piecemeal memoir.
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