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| First day. Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil with Jo Francis. Shout out to my girls, Lyly, Qua and Hang! |
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| Went on a walk with some friends at a park near hotel. It was the night before we separate to out home stay families. Felt like the beginning of a horror movie, "Hi, we're... and we're in Brazil.... weeee!" DEAD. Let's hope not. Lawlzzzzz. |
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| Warm welcome to a temporary home with lots of fruit! |
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| A beautiful hospital associated with the Santa Casa Medical School, my host university. |
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| We take the bus to school, it takes us around 30 minutes total. FYI, you don't get off by waving your hand, you press the stop button. |
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| Dia Primeiro de Escola. (Fatima, a student in my program, is great! And fashionable!) |
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| Neighborhood day in Bom Retiro, a very poor area and abandoned area. We walked through a "crackland", where people deal, smoke, i-don't-know-what-else with crack and live on the streets. We walked really fast and were "situationally aware." |
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There was a huge Bolivian community, so we had delicious Bolivian food today for Lunch! This is my friends' meal, chicken, potatoes, full plate of rice, and fresh cinnamon apple juice.
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| I weent on a run today with Bethany. A picture of our neighborhood, lots of hills. Because i'm so out of shape, it was a HILL-arious run... NOT! |
Enough with the fun, a tragedy is on my mind..
On Sunday, a fire in the city of Santa Maria in a night club killed 235 people, 141 are admitted into hospitals with 70 in critical conditions - and 20 of them are suffering from chemical pneumonia. Apparently, there are issues concerning limited respiratory machines, supplies, and funerals.
How did a fire lead to so many deaths? Allegations include: fireworks on stage, overcrowding (twice the capacity), poor emergency equipment (the fire extinguisher did not work), and only one exit. The security guards initially thought it was a fight, stampede, and did not allow people to leave at first.
Side note: I'm in Sao Paulo so I was not close, thank God. (Not that I would be at a club, right, mom?)
This tragedy has caused many people to question.. 'Who's fault is this?/ Who is it to take responsibility?' Was it the responsibility of the customers? Should they have checked the fire exits as a responsible citizen? Is it the government for not regulating the club? The owner? The security guards? The band member who (may have) started the fire?
How would you answer that question? I think most people would automatically say authority. The government. I think I initially said authority. But why? Is it just easier for me (or we) to blame authorities because in the U.S. we are capable of suing? Should there be more public health warnings? Or are we just used to those warnings because so many people have legally harassed industries and now there are warnings on EVERYTHING in the U.S?
I don't know. I don't know who's responsible or why things happened the way they did. But I do know that there are social determinants of health. The environment people are in is definitely important in determining health. Yet, perhaps, symbols/warnings/signs can communicate and, eventually, determine life or death. I don't know.
Read more about it (or google it, bro):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/28/brazil-nightclub-fire-police-question
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21269004
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/01/30/santa-maria-fire-aftermath-brings-more-tragedy/
Tchau,
Lynn
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