Hey populace,
So, a lot has happened since last updated, as always. First and foremost, see that dingy hotel to your left? Well, it's got wireless internet down the hall from my room, pushy men who watch soccer and steal seat cushions from the lounge when they're drunk, and televisions with badly-dubbed Xena the Warrior Princess. And I call it home here in the interior of Bahia, in Santo Antonio de Jesus. And I like the very queer waitresses at the Lua Cheia (Full Moon) Restaurant, and the fact that pizza is your only vegetarian option besides salad if you go out at night. Because I got it like that.
I had been wondering what "Village Study" meant in the series of my trainwreck program, and have now realized that, to my academic director's benefit, it is the first time here that I have learned something from scheduled activities or classes. They have set all of the students up to observe/intern at certain health centers semi-concerning their independent projects, and I have thusly been assigned to work at the CTA, a health center in this city which works specifically, in my corridor, with HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Hepatitus B and C, and, occasionally, HPV. The center essentially gives out lab test results (but only after they wait 30 days in order to send and get back the results from 3 hour-away Salvador, because smaller cities don't deserve laboritories with testing capacity...except with Syphilis [?]), offers a psychologist for counseling regarding test results and social support with the aforementioned medical conditions, has a doctor/gynecologist that can do examinations, and rapid HIV testing along with a considerable concern for lunches lasting from 12pm to 2:30pm. I have sat in on everything from Hepatitus B notifications to the state to mentally disturbed HIV patients who harass nurses to negative Syphilis results to HIV/Hepatitus tests following medical accidents in nearby hospitals. And seen viral loads galore with near-minimal ethics. And been tested and given drugs essentially udner-the-table by angry doctors who storm around and won't do physical examinations on patients because of a lack of air-conditioning. And it's pretty insane.
Along with seeing gruesome pictures of STIs in a teach-in for nurses and hearing doctors say that "womyn have never sexually transmitted HIV to other womyn in the history of the world...and AIDS is arbitrarily defined by viral load and is more of a social term than anything else because our definition of AIDS is 100 points higher in viral load than anywhere else in the world" [350 vs. 200-250], I've just been having a dandy time picking out all the problems with not identifying peoples' sexual identities past the past 12 months of their sexual activity, identifying marijuana as a drug on par with heroin and crack, and having limitations on the amount of condoms one can receive for free per month. I've been learning juicy stuff.
And the nurse I work with answers the phone consistently during appointments for 5 minutes just to say that she doesn't have time to talk on the phone because she has appointments. The universal health system (SUS-Sistema Unico de Saude) is kind of like an idea people thought up on Sesame Street.
Ernie: Hey, Big Bird, everyone should know that it's okay to cry!
Big Bird: Yeah, Ernie, and we should have universal health system too! With testing and stuff!
Ernie: Good idea! Let's learn about the number 3!
And then they turned Cookie Monster into some freak who likes to eat apples, and I still looked weird when I had a good cry in public, and Brazil's health system was a dramatic social divide between the poor and rich, North and South, and substandard and expected, idyllic care systems. And so it goes, Vonnegut cried.
At night, I stay with an amazing queer girl from Smith named Alex, and we watch The L Word every night and occasionally grab a beer and run it like it's 'sposed ta go in the interior. Which is kind of like living in a slightly gayer version of Michigan for 2 weeks. But I digress.
I want to show you all my apartment (SNAZZY), which is here: http://www.bahia-online.net/newyork602.htm. Check it out. I'm gonna be staying in Bedroom 2. And yes, I know, it's beautiful and you hate me. Go ahead. Hater.
The hardest part of staying here was Halloween, because Halloween in Brazil is kind of like Carnaval in the United States: uncelebrated. Except by kids, who, according to the nice assitant here, "...love it because they get to wear things and get candy." Which is sad, because I do too. So, Alex and I dressed up (I was a hippy, and she was straight), bought 2 things of M&M minies and 2 serenatas (chocolate/doce de leite goodness), drew pictures of monsters and scary things, and watched Pulp Fiction on my bootleg version on my computer and got shwastey-face. And it was kind of like Halloween. Because we drew pictures of strangely-proportioned witches and caldrons and pumpkins and monsters. And Alex was straight, which was scary.
So I hope someone out there enjoyed Halloween for me and actually had a costume (I was going to follow my usual suit of being a republican whore and be Lula in drag, but I figured that progress is progress and I don't want to get myself shot in the interior of Brazil. Or a slightly gayer version of Michigan), like I enjoy pinhas for you.
I miss pinhas.
Also, credit to this post title goes to Alex, who, in describing the awful plot of The L Word (or, I'm gay, rich, and confused in Los Angeles), said "uh" in such a way to talk about the character Jenny, as "a gay".
Tip to readers: If you say "a gay" in front of me, I'll punch you in the face. Unless you're talking about I'm gay, rich, and confused in Los Angeles.
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