Packing

Hello!---hello--hello--lo-lo-o (for some reason I image cyberspace as a bright white voluminous space with an echo). I'm new at this blogging business, so welcome to my blog and I hope the inter-nets will welcome me as well...

Episode 1: Packing

I'm packing again. This is at least the 7th time I've packed up my life to move to a new dorm room, apartment, country, etc in the past four years. Funny, every time I pack, I inevitably end up spending half the time unpacking the events, memories, and junk that came before. It has been fun to "unpack" college a bit:

...Meeting my beloved freshman year roommate on my first day at Couzens (who I soon learned ironed her dollar bills and referenced her mother "Eleanor" daily)
...Doing yoga under glorious pink New Zealand sunrises and on tranquil Santa Barbara beaches
...Drinking RoosRoast pre-sunrise and balancing 3 plates as I deliver orders at SELMA
...Wheel-barrow-ing cement blocks to clear space for a "tranquility garden" that my ASB group built in Washington DC
...Eating oatmeal with craisons on the colorful mats of the RussYog studio to start the day
...Singing about everything from Coronation Masses, to drunken sailors, to cows and panthers with Arts Chorale
...Giving bjs to a miniature blow-up doll in a theatrical version of "Airplane"
...Slack-lining across the Nott's lawn with a colorful umbrella for balance
...Concocting stir fry creations with local veggies and good friends

I recycled many old notes from class. I donated a heap of clothes to Good Will. I've been listening to the Graduation mix that Ebeth made us and singing "To Sir, With Love" and the Avett Brothers with nostalgia. Thank you to everyone who played a part in my amazing undergraduate college experience. Thank you to my roommates, my hallmates, my housemates. Thank you to all the class partners, professors, bosses, enthusiastic Arts Choralers, RC Players, fellow AW and ASB volunteers, SELMA friends, boy friends, girl friends, KAMSC peeps, sophisticats, hipsters, loving family members, and strangers-who-I-made-eye-contact-with-every-time-I-passed-you-on-the-diag. Thank you to all who helped me learn, grow and create myself throughout the past 21 years. I love you all.

Ok, now I'm ready to start packing for Ghana, Africa.

I fly out this Monday morning to Ghana, where I will help conduct public health research for the next 8 weeks. The group includes several professors from U of M's School of Public Health, 2 public health graduate students, several Ghanaian students, and 2 other freshly graduated seniors from PitE (like me!). Our study has evolved from pilot studies completed during the past 2 summers, and it focuses on the health outcomes of small scale gold mining in a rural village in Northern Ghana. See, when the Ghanaians mine gold, they dig up rocks, grind the rocks into a powder, and add MERCURY to bind the gold particles and pull them out of the rock. As I'm sure you're aware, mercury = bad news for both human and environment health.

Our job is to survey about 120 miners and family members living in this mining village. In our survey, we ask many questions (about their family, nutrition, socioeconomic status, and health) and collect biological measures (including hair and urine samples, blood pressure, and lung function). This year, we are also analyzing water quality and drinking water sources for villagers. Most of the villagers speak Fra-Fra (one of 46 languages spoken in Ghana), so we will have the help of 3 interpreters as we conduct our surveys...I'm so excited!

As I pack this time, I have gathered a rather different set of supplies than I needed for my move into Couzens Hall in 2007. I'm leaving my pink winter hat and hanging closet organizer at home in favor of some fashionable zip-off hiking pants and Malaria medication. (I still have my shower shoes though!) I don't know if I will have frequent access to internet when I'm staying in Bolgatanga, but I will try to share stories and updates from Ghana as much as possible.

Signing off for now,
C#