Brooke
Finkmoore is a second year Master’s of Public
Health student in the Infectious Diseases program.
She has been in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil researching
Leptospirosis in urban slum areas and working with
a survey team of young women who balance full-time
family, professional, educational, and surveying
responsibilities.
Brooke
has embraced a very coastal attitude. In Bahia, “Neon colors, spandex and platform shoes
are underrated because it’s all the rage here
and people look great!” She encourages future
students to just “go with the flow.” And
she tells us that the best way to watch a Bahia sunset
is to “swim to the boats parked off the coast
of Porto da Barra at dusk and climb inside.”
While
the above sounds like a lazy beach vacation, during
her stay Brooke has encountered a few setbacks:
the rain encroaches on her sunbathing time, the
need to use a computer constantly is not exclusive
to the United States, and sometimes she has felt “helpless
and disconnected from the population I was working
in by living in a nice area of town.”
To talk to Brooke more about her research and travels
in Salvador da Bahia, you may research her at brooke
(.) finkmoore (at) berkeley (.) edu. |
