Anniversary week at the UAC

One last post from mom before her return to Michigan last week.
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Weekly flag raising and re-dedication

This rainy morning the students of the lower campus, whose square is outside my kitchen window, gathered together for the weekly flag-raising ceremony. Nursing, Veterinary Science and Tourism students lined up together with their professors and sang the national anthem of Bolivia as the flag was raised, then listened to a class president inspire more effort for this week´s celebrations.

Students here have a requirement to give back to the community. For many it takes the form of laboring to maintain the grounds and buildings. This week is busy as students are preparing for the anniversary festival of the UAC. Gardens are springing up, litter is disappearing, decorations are being hung, and the flute music for traditional dances resounds.


Smoothing out the court


Taking litter to the recycle station

Of course, last evening, students took adavantage of the repaired court. They have lots of energy, even after working all day!




This week each Carrera, Agriculture, Education, Nursing, Eco-Tourism and Veterinary Science, are practising their chosen dances and spending many hours on on the fields in preparation for game competitions. Even the teacher and administrators find time to dance together.








Love and respect for Bolivia: people, culture and land, are fostered every day here at the UAC, during this week´s festival those values will be highlighted. It is a real privilege to be here, even as an observer.

Preparing for a flu pandemic

Another post from my mom.

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Dr Wendy Maidana and her public health colleagues in Coroico have started a series of "charlas" (talks) to classes of students and to groups of teachers in our area.
The topic is H1N1 and H5N1 influenza.

Using a computer presentation here on Campus and a poster presentation in the villages, they talked about who, what, where, when, why and how of prevention and treatment. Special emphasis on handwashing for the teachers included supplies of liquid soap and towels for demonstration to their students and use in the classroom.


Dr Wendy Maidana and Micaela Soliz, nursing student, presentation for San Pablo teachers




For the UAC students, they played a very dramatic movie featuring rapid transmission of a virulent virus from birds to surfers, airplane passengers, and a whole new nation. Gripping, graphic, and memorable, the stuff of nightmares, actually. And necessary in the dormitory environment and in a culture that shakes hands, hugs and kisses whenever they meet.

Here on campus every building has the influenza prevention poster, and I saw the same poster in Coroico. The public health effort is evident here, although no vaccine is available yet.

New construction

Another guest post from my mom. Thanks, mom!

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Campus Leahy is growing. A new dormitory is popping up on the hill next to the garden and an office building is solidly planted on the slope across from the workshop.




Both are in scaffolding, which looks different every day. Men and women work together on the sites, which I have not seen at home in Michigan. From the path to lower Campus Manning, the cholita costume shapes suggest bees moving over a hive.




Unlike my town, no huge cranes tower over the sites...wheel barrows are pushed up and down planks, and workers hoist beams to one another, many hands together. (And many observers, too, with many comments and suggestions from on-lookers waiting for transport or just 'curbsite managing'.)

The architect came running to Dr Wendy when we arrived from morning visits on Tuesday. Behind him, supported by two workers, a woman struggled along, her face covered by a bloody cloth. Dr Wendy opened the health clinic on Campus Leahy quickly.
Under the towel was a large wound, just over her eyebrow, spurting blood. Michaela opened a clean dressing and with a small icepack, ready in the freezer, compressed the woman´s wound, winding gauze around her head. This injury, so close to her eye, needed hospital treatment in Coroico. She was given an antibiotic injection, and put in the ambulance for the 30 minute trip.

We are fortunate here in Carmen Pampa that the UAC supports a school of nursing and an on-site health care provider like Dr Wendy. With so many people living, studying, and working here, the chance for illness and injury to someone is increased.

Hugh's mom at the UAC

The next two weeks, my mom is here visiting, and she will share her impressions of Carmen Pampa. Enjoy!

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This visit started out luckily, with no missed connections or baggages (2 backpacks and 3 suitcases). Sarah, Hugh and I stayed at my favorite "home away from home" in Bolivia, Hostal Naira, which had accepted my e-mail reservation by from home in Ann Arbor.



Friday started early, travelling with Dr Wendy and nurses Michaela and Irene to San Pedro for public health visits. The farm families are out in the fields at daybreak, so we try to arrive while they are still at home breakfasting.

We carry vaccines in a cooler, all the families' health documents, measuring scale, and a large backpack which doubles as small emergency room.

Some families are very happy to see us, some not so pleased. The children cling to mama's skirts, the memory of injections obviously still painful, while Dr Wendy documents height, weight and treatments both on the clinic record and each child's pink or blue tri-fold, which brothers or sisters run to find, each kept in a plastic sleeve.



Photo: A baby weighing.

Every visit includes medicines for parasites, vitamins, and a careful discussion of the signs of influenza, as well as a lecture on the importance of fruits and vegetables.


Photo: Oh,no! Hide me, Mama!
In and out of the ambulancia, up and down the paths to the homes, we are finished in time to travel back to Carmen Pampa and open the clinic health post before lunch.


Photo:The ambulancia returns

The camera tells all

I downloaded the photos from my camera tonight, and realized what an incredibly busy -- and successful -- week it was.

It started with a birthday on Wednesday -- Father Freddy's to be exact. He turned 38 this week.


Photo: Father Freddy on his big day, flanked by Ecotourism Department Head José Luis Pinto and Sister Jean on the left, Vice Director Hugh Smeltekop and Education Department Head Andrés Pardo on the right.


Following the fiesta, agronomy student Verónica Huanca defended her research project about lichens on coffee bushes. She identified 122 species of lichens, with a project inspired by Dr. Arvid Boe, a collaborator from South Dakota State University.



Photo: New graduate Verónica Huanca signs her graduation document.


Thursday, Mariana Llanos defended her vet science project, discovering that 86% of dogs in Coroico have at least one parasite, and that some parasites, like giardia, are more common in the wet season. Her research helps the residents of Coroico know what parasites their canine companions suffer from so that they can treat them. This is important both for the health of their pet, and for the owners' own health: some of these parasites infect humans, too.


Photo:Mariana Llanos poses with a canine friend before her defense.


Today our three latest nursing graduates who were celebrated at the College's inaugural mass came back to campus today to sign their graduating documents.


Photo: Sister Jean talks about how these young nursing graduates help fulfill the mission of the College, making Sister Damon's vision a reality.


After the ceremony with the nurses, vet student Reyna Carrizales defended her research project about disinfection techniques at the municipal slaughterhouse in nearby Coroico. She discovered that disinfection with bleach or ammonia eliminated pathogenic bacteria like E. coli. The slaughterhouse, which was not disinfecting at all, now uses bleach, and, according to Reyna, consumer confidence and meat consumption in Coroico is up.


Photo: New graduate Reyna Carrizales.