The Jamaica CourseJOURNALS
I woke up early this morning to take a shower from our garden hose faucet, but I can’t complain because the water was hot! After breakfast, Dr. Scarlett gave the first lecture on food safety issues in Jamaica. Here is something new I learned: fish toxins, such as ciguatera and scombriod, are not affected by cooking fish tissue. Interestingly, we had just eaten fish for breakfast… After lecture, we broke into our individual groups. I will be working with the mosquito group, which will allow me to gain experience with collecting mosquito larvae/adults for identifying vector species. We will also be surveying the communities’ knowledge, attitudes and practices toward mosquito breeding. Last year’s group did not catch many adults, but since then, Jamaica has had an outbreak of malaria. Although we are not working in the region endemic to malaria, it will be interesting to see which species we can identify. I think we will be focusing more on the community survey though, and I am excited to work with the community. I have been so thankful for the frequent showers here – they have kept it cool but humid. I’m just waiting for the heat to set in. We all went to see a play tonight on campus – “Disco Inferno.” It was great! I’m so glad we can experience the Jamaican culture while we are here. Kristen |
