Hi all from not-so-sunny Rio. Today´s my last day, and tonight I fly back home. It´s an 11 hour flight over the Atlantic but it´s direct which is nice! I´m quite excited about going home but I´ll definitely miss Brazil! It was sad leaving Salvador yesterday.
I went into hospital yesterday morning and we had a mini party. It was really fun, despite the fact that I had to make a speech in Portuguese to about 30 people (the whole haematology department)! Scary stuff, although I guess it shows how much my Portuguese has improved as I´d have found it much harder 4 weeks ago. I think they´ve enjoyed having me but as they said it´s been crazy time in the department- they´ve just started doing bone marrow transplants there which is huge progress, they´ve had new students in and most significantly, the residents (like junior doctors, they´re the first 2 or 3 years after graduation) were all on strike for a month, and only came back a week and a half ago. From my point of view it was a shame as I got on really well with them when they did get here, but from everyone else´s point of view it was a nightmare and all the doctors were really overworked. Although actually this last week they seemed to spend a fair amount of time in the afternoons sitting around doing nothing whilst the residents did it all! I can´t believe they´re allowed to strike, especially for that long. When I talked to them about it it did seem a bit more fair though- they get paid about 12000 US dollars a year which is about 8000 pounds, before tax. Brazil is expensive, and although that´s probably more than most Brazilians earn by a long way it´s still really not much after 6 years of study. Anyway I´m glad I´ll be working in the UK!
It was a fun week. I went out for a friend´s birthday on Monday and then on Wednesday one of the nurses at the hospital took me out to another all you can eat meat restaurant with her son and step-daughter. It was so smart- we drove up and were met by a man who parked the car for us and the restaurant was really smart and very expensive I think. Really how the other half live! We ate so much. Then they drove me to the other place they like to eat and showed me the restaurants by the sea with glass-floored balconies so that you can see the fish beneath. It´s by the marina and they pointed out their friends yachts! They used to live in England and were comparing Brazil and the UK and asking whether I though Brazil was entering the ´1st World´ I think their Brazil probably is but for lots of people it isn´t. One of the doctors drove me to the airport yesterday and showed me how much of the city is made up of favelas.
On Thursday night I went to a folkshow in the old centre which was really fun- lots of Afro-Brazilian music and dancing and a really impressive capoeira (Brazilian martial-art) show. The culture of Salvador is very unique in Brazil because of the huge African population and it was good to see a bit of it before I left! It´s all still part of the culture too- you see young boys all the time doing capoeira on the beaches.
I left Salvador and it was sunny and really hot, in Rio it was much colder and raining. I guess it´s good to slowly be introduced to the cold before I get to London!
Love Sophie
Saturday 2 October 2010
Friday 24 September 2010
A week in my life
Oops, it´s been a week since I last wrote! I have a couple of excuses though! I spent the weekend at a place called Praia do Forte, which is about 2 hours from Salvador. It was weird to get on a bus again after so long, and even weirder to get off so soon, I don´t miss the epic journeys that Jen and I went on! Praia do Forte is a weird little place. It´s where rich Brazilians go on holiday. They fly to Salvador airport and then get a bus straight there and totally skip big scary Salvador. It´s small, safe and very expensive but a nice place for a weekend to escape the city. 4 of us went from the hostel. 3 Americans, Erin, Sarah and Will and I. However we bumped into two Danish guys who had left the hostel the day before so we all stayed together. They are very entertaining so it was a really nice and fun weekend!
We spent most of the time on the beach. It was gorgeous- pine trees, sand and then turquiosy-blue sea. The sea bed was so flat that the waves were breaking about 100m out which was odd. They have a turtle rescue centre there so we wandered around there and spent the rest of the time sunbathing and drinking coconut water, açaí (a sorbet made from a rainforest berry and served with granola and banana, it´s yummy!) and caipirinhas. On the way back I sat next to an Argentinian woman and talked to her in Spanish which was so nice, it feels so easy and fluent compared to Portuguese. My Portuguese is improving a lot though.
I went into hospital on Monday and Tuesday but since then haven´t been very well. I got an insect bite (not even the doctors can decide exactly what it was but probably just a mosquito) last Wednesday on my ankle. By Thursday morning it was a little blister and every day it grew until over the weekend and on Monday it hurt when I walked and was about an inch wide. On Monday the doctors drained it and gave me antibiotics (as in their words `you´re foreign and can´t cope with our Brazilian bacteria so will probably get infected and ill!´) Sure enough I did and have spent the last 3 days in bed with a fever. Feeling a lot better today though and just ventured out to buy more antibiotics (I could only afford half of them when I bought the first lot, they´re expensive here.) which feels like a big achievement! It´s my last weekend here though so I hope I´m well enough to at least make it to the beach, and maybe go back to the old town. This time next week I´ll be flying to Rio, and a week tomorrow I´m flying home!
We spent most of the time on the beach. It was gorgeous- pine trees, sand and then turquiosy-blue sea. The sea bed was so flat that the waves were breaking about 100m out which was odd. They have a turtle rescue centre there so we wandered around there and spent the rest of the time sunbathing and drinking coconut water, açaí (a sorbet made from a rainforest berry and served with granola and banana, it´s yummy!) and caipirinhas. On the way back I sat next to an Argentinian woman and talked to her in Spanish which was so nice, it feels so easy and fluent compared to Portuguese. My Portuguese is improving a lot though.
I went into hospital on Monday and Tuesday but since then haven´t been very well. I got an insect bite (not even the doctors can decide exactly what it was but probably just a mosquito) last Wednesday on my ankle. By Thursday morning it was a little blister and every day it grew until over the weekend and on Monday it hurt when I walked and was about an inch wide. On Monday the doctors drained it and gave me antibiotics (as in their words `you´re foreign and can´t cope with our Brazilian bacteria so will probably get infected and ill!´) Sure enough I did and have spent the last 3 days in bed with a fever. Feeling a lot better today though and just ventured out to buy more antibiotics (I could only afford half of them when I bought the first lot, they´re expensive here.) which feels like a big achievement! It´s my last weekend here though so I hope I´m well enough to at least make it to the beach, and maybe go back to the old town. This time next week I´ll be flying to Rio, and a week tomorrow I´m flying home!
Friday 17 September 2010
A snapshot of Brazil
Brazil is really a crazy country. It´s so huge and varied in every way. I still only know a tiny bit of it but I feel like I´m getting to know it a bit better. Salvador itself is really unique as it is sometimes referred to as 'the second biggest African city in the world' (I´m not 100% sure this is true but it doesn´t really matter) 80% of the population are black and there are lots of African influences- in the food, the religion etc. Meanwhile many of the doctors are paler than I am (!) as they are of Germanic or Italian origin and clearly never go out in the sun, as my tan is only from two days on a Salvador beach and really not very impressive! The people are so much fun and the way the doctors treat their patients is so different from in the UK (or Peru)- they hug most of them to say hi and are much less formal.
One interesting thing at the moment is that there´s an election soon and so lots of campaigning is going on. One method used a lot is to cover a car or van with posters of the candidate and then drive along with a huge pair of speakers blasting out a song about the candidate. They proclaim how hard working and fair they are or how dedicated to the job. It´s really really weird and the songs are very annoying but it keeps me amused on my walk into the hospital! On the other hand, if you talk to any Brazilian they will tell you that the government is basically powerless. They make hundreds of laws (according to the guy who works in the hostel a lot more than most countries) and no-one obeys them.
The same guy lives in the favela where he grew up but is in the army and used to go on secret missions in Rio´s favelas to find (and then kill) the drug-lords. He was saying how he´d pretend to be buying drugs and drive up in a posh car, or would start going out with a girl from the favela so he could get in and have an excuse to be there. It´s so sad though, because he said almost all of his friends from when he was a kid are dead, mostly because they didn´t have money to pay for the drugs so they were shot, sometimes for owing only about 100 reais (40 pounds). It´s so tragic and scary to hear the stories first hand. If anyone there found out he was in the army he´d be killed too. And because the army (like him) pretend to be doctors,postmen etc any unknown people entering the favela re often just killed without questions, so most doctors don´t dare to go in.
One interesting thing at the moment is that there´s an election soon and so lots of campaigning is going on. One method used a lot is to cover a car or van with posters of the candidate and then drive along with a huge pair of speakers blasting out a song about the candidate. They proclaim how hard working and fair they are or how dedicated to the job. It´s really really weird and the songs are very annoying but it keeps me amused on my walk into the hospital! On the other hand, if you talk to any Brazilian they will tell you that the government is basically powerless. They make hundreds of laws (according to the guy who works in the hostel a lot more than most countries) and no-one obeys them.
The same guy lives in the favela where he grew up but is in the army and used to go on secret missions in Rio´s favelas to find (and then kill) the drug-lords. He was saying how he´d pretend to be buying drugs and drive up in a posh car, or would start going out with a girl from the favela so he could get in and have an excuse to be there. It´s so sad though, because he said almost all of his friends from when he was a kid are dead, mostly because they didn´t have money to pay for the drugs so they were shot, sometimes for owing only about 100 reais (40 pounds). It´s so tragic and scary to hear the stories first hand. If anyone there found out he was in the army he´d be killed too. And because the army (like him) pretend to be doctors,postmen etc any unknown people entering the favela re often just killed without questions, so most doctors don´t dare to go in.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Porto da Barra
Thought it was about time I wrote about my very fun weekend. I spent almost all of it at Porto da Barra, the main beach in Salvador itself and about 5 minutes walk from the hostel. I was told by someone here that it was listed as the third best beach in the world in this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/feb/16/beach.top10
I´m not totally sure that it is but it´s great fun!
A group of about 7 of us went from the hostel. The sea was rough so there were big waves for jumping and unlike most of the week before it was gloriously sunny. The beach was really busy but it seemed like most of the people there were trying to sell us something. We ate cheese on sticks that the sellers melt over little barbeques and drank coconut water- the coconuts are huge and green and full of water which is apparently really healthy. It doesn´t taste of coconut but is nice and really refreshing. They chop of the top and give you a straw and then you can go back and they cut it in two so you can eat the flesh. It tastes much nicer than the ones in the UK, which are much older and dried. Then later in the afternoon we moved onto caipirinhas (lime, cachaça, sugar and ice cocktails)! It was very relaxing and so nice after three days in hospital, which is really hard work. There´s so much going on at the beach, it becomes the hub of the city at weekends. We went back on Sunday until the skies opened and it started to pour with rain- the weather changes so quickly here.
On Sunday evening I went to a churrascaria with Jayne and Mike, an English couple I met in Lima and kept in touch with so we could meet up again in Salvador! Basically they are very Brazilian meat restaurants which have buffets of salad and then waiters who come round with different types of meat on sticks. You have a piece of card with one side red and the other green and they give you meat whenever it´s green. I went last time I was here and just ate salad but I thought I should try it now I´m not vegetarian! The meat was really nice but so filling- I didn´t really have an appetite all day Monday as I ate so much! Don´t think I´ll go back but it was a good experience and very cheap for what it was. Also the restaurant was right on the beach so we had good views of the huge waves breaking in the dark!
I´m not totally sure that it is but it´s great fun!
A group of about 7 of us went from the hostel. The sea was rough so there were big waves for jumping and unlike most of the week before it was gloriously sunny. The beach was really busy but it seemed like most of the people there were trying to sell us something. We ate cheese on sticks that the sellers melt over little barbeques and drank coconut water- the coconuts are huge and green and full of water which is apparently really healthy. It doesn´t taste of coconut but is nice and really refreshing. They chop of the top and give you a straw and then you can go back and they cut it in two so you can eat the flesh. It tastes much nicer than the ones in the UK, which are much older and dried. Then later in the afternoon we moved onto caipirinhas (lime, cachaça, sugar and ice cocktails)! It was very relaxing and so nice after three days in hospital, which is really hard work. There´s so much going on at the beach, it becomes the hub of the city at weekends. We went back on Sunday until the skies opened and it started to pour with rain- the weather changes so quickly here.
On Sunday evening I went to a churrascaria with Jayne and Mike, an English couple I met in Lima and kept in touch with so we could meet up again in Salvador! Basically they are very Brazilian meat restaurants which have buffets of salad and then waiters who come round with different types of meat on sticks. You have a piece of card with one side red and the other green and they give you meat whenever it´s green. I went last time I was here and just ate salad but I thought I should try it now I´m not vegetarian! The meat was really nice but so filling- I didn´t really have an appetite all day Monday as I ate so much! Don´t think I´ll go back but it was a good experience and very cheap for what it was. Also the restaurant was right on the beach so we had good views of the huge waves breaking in the dark!
Thursday 9 September 2010
Back to hospital
Just finished my second day in hospital, I´m exhausted but it´s really interesting and they´re really nice to me! On Tuesday night we all went out to a street party in the centre. It rained and rained but we still had fun, dancing to live music in the middle of the square and trying to avoid the old men who wanted to teach us samba! It was huge group of us from the hostel. I´m glad I went though as I´m too tired after hospital to do anything!
I´m based in the haematology department, but it actually seems to be mostly oncology- basically leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. I haven´t actually done ether haem or oncology in London yet so I don´t know very much but they seem happy to teach me! It´s actually really interesting, if rather depressing. I spend the morning in the ward and then have clinics in the afternoon. The hospital´s really good. It´s a public hospital, and apparently it´s a nightmare to get in to hospital as there are so many people needing help but they get totally free care there, which is great. Unfortunately lots of the expensive tests which cancer patients need are not available and so the patients have to decide whether to pay laods of money (which they often can´t afford) to go privately. I´m getting more and more pro-NHS! I talked to a nurse today who lived in the Uk a few years ago and she was saying how incredible it is and how jeaous she is. Compared to Peru though the Brazilain system seems good. The hospital is much nicer too, and they have soap and alcohol handwash which makes me happy, the hospital in Iquitos didn´t feel very clean!
The doctors are really friendly and I think I´m a bit of a novelty so they all want to teach me. Today I did half of a bone-marrow aspiration (very exciting, but I won´t do into any more detail as too many people are squeamish!). They keep sending me off to take histories, and the patients are so hard to understand. One of the doctors said today that he sometimes struggles too as they have a very strong local accent, so that made me feel a bit better. It´s so hard in Portuguese, way harder than in Spanish. Today was easier than yesterday though and I didn´t almost fall asleep before lunch like I did yesterday so thinks are getting better! I did think I might not manage 3 weeks without collapsing from exhaustion!
I´m based in the haematology department, but it actually seems to be mostly oncology- basically leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. I haven´t actually done ether haem or oncology in London yet so I don´t know very much but they seem happy to teach me! It´s actually really interesting, if rather depressing. I spend the morning in the ward and then have clinics in the afternoon. The hospital´s really good. It´s a public hospital, and apparently it´s a nightmare to get in to hospital as there are so many people needing help but they get totally free care there, which is great. Unfortunately lots of the expensive tests which cancer patients need are not available and so the patients have to decide whether to pay laods of money (which they often can´t afford) to go privately. I´m getting more and more pro-NHS! I talked to a nurse today who lived in the Uk a few years ago and she was saying how incredible it is and how jeaous she is. Compared to Peru though the Brazilain system seems good. The hospital is much nicer too, and they have soap and alcohol handwash which makes me happy, the hospital in Iquitos didn´t feel very clean!
The doctors are really friendly and I think I´m a bit of a novelty so they all want to teach me. Today I did half of a bone-marrow aspiration (very exciting, but I won´t do into any more detail as too many people are squeamish!). They keep sending me off to take histories, and the patients are so hard to understand. One of the doctors said today that he sometimes struggles too as they have a very strong local accent, so that made me feel a bit better. It´s so hard in Portuguese, way harder than in Spanish. Today was easier than yesterday though and I didn´t almost fall asleep before lunch like I did yesterday so thinks are getting better! I did think I might not manage 3 weeks without collapsing from exhaustion!
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Salvador
Hello from sunny Salvador. It´s a lovely place, full of gorgeous beaches with lovely sand and turquoise, wavey water. Shame I´m here to work, not just surf and sunbathe!
Jen and I had a fun couple of days in Rio. Saturday was lovely and warm and we spent time on the beach, jumping waves in the Atlantic and then wandered around drinking juices and looking at the shops. In the afternoon we decided to do something touristy so we went up Sugar Loaf mountain. The first bit was in the light and then it got dark so we saw the views in both the day and night. Rio is such a pretty city! We then went to meet our friend Marcia who we met in Puno. She´s so sweet and seemed really excited to see us! We met her Mum in their flat and then went out to a pizza restaurant. You paid a set price and they brought different types of pizza and soft drinks to the table. Then when we were totally full they brought out the chocolate and fruit pizzas. We then went back to the flat where they made us proper English tea and showed us their photos from when they were in England. It made me miss home!
The next two days were rainy and dull. It´s very hard to find things to do in Rio in the rain so we were quite lazy! We met some nice people though and did some shopping. On Saturday we went to another all you can eat place- I could get very fat in Brazil!
Yesterday Jen went home and I flew to Salvador. It was sad to say bye but I´m excited to be here. Oh and the taxi driver from the airport thought I was Brazilian which made me very happy!
Today is Independence day so I didn´t have to go to hospital. I´ve done pretty well out of Independence days in South America, though it is just one, not 3 days here! I went to the beach with some Australian girls in my room in the morning and then went into the centre and met up with a British couple I met in the Pantanal. It was nice to see familiar faces! We sat in a square and watched the world go by. There doesn´t seem to be too much going on for the holiday but there was lots of music everywhere and people dressed up. Up early tomorrow for my first day of school! I´m a little bit apprehensive...
Jen and I had a fun couple of days in Rio. Saturday was lovely and warm and we spent time on the beach, jumping waves in the Atlantic and then wandered around drinking juices and looking at the shops. In the afternoon we decided to do something touristy so we went up Sugar Loaf mountain. The first bit was in the light and then it got dark so we saw the views in both the day and night. Rio is such a pretty city! We then went to meet our friend Marcia who we met in Puno. She´s so sweet and seemed really excited to see us! We met her Mum in their flat and then went out to a pizza restaurant. You paid a set price and they brought different types of pizza and soft drinks to the table. Then when we were totally full they brought out the chocolate and fruit pizzas. We then went back to the flat where they made us proper English tea and showed us their photos from when they were in England. It made me miss home!
The next two days were rainy and dull. It´s very hard to find things to do in Rio in the rain so we were quite lazy! We met some nice people though and did some shopping. On Saturday we went to another all you can eat place- I could get very fat in Brazil!
Yesterday Jen went home and I flew to Salvador. It was sad to say bye but I´m excited to be here. Oh and the taxi driver from the airport thought I was Brazilian which made me very happy!
Today is Independence day so I didn´t have to go to hospital. I´ve done pretty well out of Independence days in South America, though it is just one, not 3 days here! I went to the beach with some Australian girls in my room in the morning and then went into the centre and met up with a British couple I met in the Pantanal. It was nice to see familiar faces! We sat in a square and watched the world go by. There doesn´t seem to be too much going on for the holiday but there was lots of music everywhere and people dressed up. Up early tomorrow for my first day of school! I´m a little bit apprehensive...
Saturday 4 September 2010
Rio!!!!!!!!
We made it! We're in Rio and yesterday went for a really nice walk along the Atlantic on Copacabana beach! It's much nicer than the Pacific in Lima, which was grey, stormy and surrounded my ugly buildings. I'm gald we travelled this way round. I feel closer to home too- the time difference is now only 4 hours, not 6 like in Peru, and it's the same sea I was surfing on in Cornwall in July!
We have 2 more nights here before I head off to Salvador and Jen goes home. Today we're planning to go to the beach in Rio, and maybe do some touristy stuff and go flip-flop shopping (mine got dyed rather brown from the mud in the Pantanal). Tomorrow we're hopefully going to a place called Ilha Grande with some Brazilian friends we met on the way to La Paz. The only problem is the weather- today it's forecast as 35 degrees and sunny, tomorrow 23 and rainy! Either way it's nice to relax and know that we have no more long bus journeys left.
We have 2 more nights here before I head off to Salvador and Jen goes home. Today we're planning to go to the beach in Rio, and maybe do some touristy stuff and go flip-flop shopping (mine got dyed rather brown from the mud in the Pantanal). Tomorrow we're hopefully going to a place called Ilha Grande with some Brazilian friends we met on the way to La Paz. The only problem is the weather- today it's forecast as 35 degrees and sunny, tomorrow 23 and rainy! Either way it's nice to relax and know that we have no more long bus journeys left.
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