new point of view

The clinic where i work in Port-au-Prince is only a few hundred yards from the sea. I only know that because someone else told me. I've never seen the water from second floor clinic windows- only the walls surrounding the clinic, the streets beyond the walls, and the entrance to the slum community across the way.

Sometimes it takes a change in perspective to realize what is actually around you. Heading up the mountain a little ways you get an entirely different view of the city.

Towards the sea:

And up the mountains:

I remember being really struck by the beauty of this place when I was taking these photos. My point and shoot digital camera can't capture the panorama beyond the frame or the way the light fell just so. But I remember my heart going a little faster and thinking that in that moment, it was a good thing to be here in Haiti.

I think I've hit the point when I need another little trip up the mountain to find a new point of view.

Miami Rice Miami Vice

In Haiti, imported rice is called diri miami - miami rice (Almost anything from the USA or beyond is thought of as coming from Miami - the closet major US city to Haiti). You can find a nice, brief understandable summary here of the links between US domestic agriculture and trade policies and the high prices faced by the Haitian farmer and consumer. (Thanks to K whose blog i stole link from) The author mentions Bread for the World as an organization taking positive action in the US policy arena - I highly recommend checking out their site and joining their campaign.

The LA times recently published a story that talks about some of the structural challenges to revitalizing local rice production in Haiti. There is a nice little slideshow where I got the graph pictured here.

marathon mind games

I've come to realize that the hardest part of my daily life in Haiti is the fact that I am living it inside my own head. It's a daily fight for me to keep my thinking positive - about why I am here and what i am doing. Mental struggles over motivation, productivity and output quality are nearly universal amongst PhD candidates. There is an entire comic strip series "PhD: piled higher and deeper" dedicated to the quirky mental and social worlds of graduate-level academics.

For a thousand professional reasons this season in Haiti is an amazing opportunity. I know that the work matters. I work for some incredible Haitian mentors and with a great team of co-workers. I have a tremendous amount of autonomy in directing the work and am gaining a lot of managerial experience (a long term plus/short term minus as it's not my favorite thing). If I am faithful on my end, this experience could prepare me for some exciting opportunities to come.

All of this comes hand in hand with lots of expectations (my own and those I assume others have for me and this project). Expectations are really hard to have in a place like Haiti where so much feels totally out of your control. Work expectations are at an all time high right now. We are (hopefully) only a few weeks away from finally starting the big intervention. I have piles and piles and piles of work to do in these weeks - and am keenly aware that my work productivity is the limiting factor to when the entire project actually gets started.

I usually thrive on such pressure - enjoying the adrenaline rush that comes with finally focusing and producing - but this Phd thing is much more of a marathon than the sprints to a deadline that I am used to. These days I just can't seem to find a pace that feels like progress.

Organic or not? Never to early in life to ask!

Interesting NYT article about the use of sucrose in Similac's Organic infant formula. Apparently the formula tastes much sweeter than non-organic varieties which use other forms of sugar. Some public health types have expressed concern that the sweeter formula is potentially associated with overconsumption (and in turn obesity risk) or early tooth decay.

No such controversy over the most local/organic infant food on the market - breast milk. That said, it is interesting that the self-labeled "yoga mom" (is that the new a soccer mom??) fed formula from birth....but shouldn't assume there was not a good reason!

And while you are there....Being the daughter of a sales and marketing type, I have a somewhat random but special place in my heart for stories like this one about retro-marketing (think the new/old Volkswagon beetle brand). It opens with spotlight on a Chicago company that is trying to revive brands retired by other corporations. I didn't know that some of the brands - like Salon Selectives or Eagle snacks - had ever left the market in the first place...and that's exactly the point! Another NYT link on the marketing theme is this video profile (search "Camden High Fashion" - thanks Eva!) of a high school in Candem NJ that is putting on a fashion show sponsored by an urban clothing brand. Is it a benevolent self-esteem builder or corporate manipulation for market access or perhaps a mutually beneficial bit of both?

What's your Geographical IQ?

Calling all other map-lovers - an incredibly addicting little geography game can be found here
Another cool site I just found is for Washington DC's Newseum. Click on an interactive map to see a copy of today's front page from newspapers across the US and select corners of the world (unfortunately no papers from Haiti or sub-Saharan Africa yet) .

Enjoy!

Living the dream

One of my primary motivations for getting a PhD was to open the door to opportunities to teach and mentor students. (Another motivation was avoiding the $50,000 in debt that the MPH program at Emory would have required). The older I get, the more I realize that most of my "gifts" are not so much natural abilities as the product of the many privileged opportunities for training, mentorship and practice. My hope is that in a small way, having a PhD in Nutrition from Cornell (which I should qualify as most Haitians do with "si bondye vle" - God willing) will better equip me to create similar opportunities in a university or
other research/training institution somewhere like Nairobi or Rwanda or even (more and more as years go by) in my hometown of Chicago.

This dream of teaching is one of the the things that drew me to my current research site in Haiti. The clinic where I work is sponsoring a Masters in Public Health (MPH) program in collaboration with the Cornell Medical School in NYC and Quisqueya University, a local institution. The vision of the program's founders is that by providing a high quality MPH in Haiti, seasoned practitioners will remain actively working in country. Many people who leave Haiti for advanced training never return (which is something I cannot personally fault anyone for). The program is using a unique team teaching model that tries to pair an academic from an international institution with a Haitian faculty member.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to support a colleague of mine from Cornell who came to teach a 2-week module on public health nutrition to a group of 35 Haitian health professionals (nurses, physicians, pharmacists, dentists and even a psychologist). Despite missing about half of what was said due to my lack of French (my Cornell colleague is French Canadian), it was a fantastic (but exhausting) chance to participate in the process of designing and delivering an graduate-level course in nutrition. I personally gave about 4-hours worth of lectures and several of the students have asked me to serve as their ongoing mentor for nutrition-focused thesis projects. Though another connection, I am a member of a team developing an internship program at the clinic for undergraduate Nutrition students from Quisqueya and the National University of Haiti. All wonderful experiences for me (although not so helpful in getting my current research done due to the time commitment) - and hopefully not too bad experiences for the students involved.

Like all dreams coming true this one has its reality checks. I'm not the biggest fan of standing up in front of a room and talking. I love the creative process of designing a lecture, developing slides, and imagining what it will sound like....but the actual delivery? Not so much. Hopefully that will change with time and practice.

I've always been a little afraid of becoming a stereotypical academic - focused on the details while missing the reality of things. However, my Cornell season has shown me the tremendous value of being in a community of people committed to advancing knowledge that supports action - who challenge and encourage one another to think bigger and deeper - and where there are concentrated resources like well-equipped libraries and computer systems to support the process. Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, I would love to keep a foot in both - up the ivory tower and down in the community trenches. A good first step would probably be starting to attend the yoga class offered in my neighborhood here - need to be really flexible to reach between those extremes.

Game on!

These last few weeks have been insane. Returned from A exam to political manifestations followed by 2 weeks assisting with a nutrition course for Haitian MPH students followed by a quick trip back to Chicago to fix never ending computer woes and then a wonderful 48-hour visit from one of my favorite friends since my Wheaton days that just ended today.

Note that no where in there do I mention any progress towards a PhD...because there hasn't really been any....which is why the game is back on..NOW!