1. I participated in an education abroad program called Impact of HIV: Tanzania, in which I spent a month in the country studying the history of this disease and the public health response to it. I took classes and went on field trips to local clinics and other pertinent locations to put the HIV epidemic in a real-world context. I also gained a broader cultural knowledge by living in the country and learning basic Swahili.
2. I think the most important thing I gained was a better perspective on the privilege I have as an American. Going into this experience, I almost expected things to be more similar to my life than they were. The amount of poverty I saw opened my eyes to all the things I take for granted, like reliable electricity and clean water. The importance of infrastructure, as well as what a challenge it is to establish it, became very apparent.
I also spent more time studying public health than I ever have before, and I found I am interested in it. The sociological factors that influence medicine and the perception of disease were fascinating. Public health might be something I want to pursue in the future; I feel it would be a useful application of my microbiology degree.
3. A large portion of the class associated with my study abroad was dedicated to our final project, in which we selected an aspect of Tanzanian life and its relationship to HIV. My topic was religion and how it affects the perception of HIV. While completing this project, I was able to delve into what its like to live in Tanzania, as a majority of our information was collected through primary interviews. Conducting interviews with real Tanzanians gave me a fairly unbiased look into the problems they faced. While my focus was on what religion means for HIV, I also got a sense of what religion means to Tanzanian people and how they tackle the problems they face.
Interestingly, something that came up during my interviews, as well as on some of the site visits we did as a class, was that HIV is not necessarily the number one problem for most Tanzanians. HIV medication in Tanzania is free because of US-based donations; however, challenges such as lack of nutritional food and clean water impact both HIV positive and negative citizens alike. This sheds light on the level of poverty that most people must deal with. Basic necessities are not always obtainable.
Simply living in the urban area of Iringa for a month also gave me a lot of insight into how much I take for granted. Although there was certainly more infrastructure in this area than the rural village of Kilolo, which we visited one weekend, there were still issues such as power outages and lack of hot water. Internet was expensive and unreliable, and some roads were unpaved. Houses were crammed together and half-built. My professor explained that because of the high inflation, money loses its value very quickly. This meant that people buy as many building materials as they can if they come into any money, then leave their projects unfinished until their next significant paycheck.
Despite the economic challenges faced by many Tanzanians, I was blown away by the friendliness and hopeful demeanor of most people I met. I found that everyone was welcoming of me and excited to hear about the work I was doing. I enjoyed talking with people and learning about the country as I conducted my research for my final project.
4. This transformation was significant for many reasons. I had a great time seeing a new place and exploring a new culture, and it inspired me to travel more after school. It also introduced me to the world of public health, something that I was aware of before but had never taken a class on. This experience has caused me to think about what I want to do with my degree in the future. Before going on this trip, I planned to go to grad school and work on a Ph.D. in microbiology. Now, I think I may want to incorporate more aspects of history, sociology, and public health into my future educational plans. While I certainly still want to pursue higher education, my interests and focus have broadened from simply wanting to do research, to wanting to do research with the intent to directly help people.
