Throughout the course of my undergraduate education I have learned that biomedical scientists bear the brunt of tremendous responsibility. Each day members of this elite community delve into the intricate details of the unknown, patiently probing life for her secrets. Perhaps what is more exciting than the knowledge gained from research is the thought process that goes into the designing and planning of hypotheses and experiments. But rarely do we get to see the faces and communities of people affected by our work or circumstances that arise beyond our logical minds which give rise to poverty, disease predisposition, and political turmoil. The stories told below highlight my lessons and inspirations gained after spending a summer in Perú.

My name is Charles Martínez and I work in the Adam Laboratory in the department of Microbiology and Immunology at The University of Arizona. I joined the lab in the summer of 2004 conducting work on the protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia. Some of the principal interests in the field of Giardia research are antigenic variation and geographical genotype representation with respect to pathogenicity and asymptomatic infections.

Considering myself both a biologist and social scientist, I thought an experience abroad would enlighten my senses to infectious disease research and the underlying (or sometimes overbearing) sociological circumstances that mediate the relationships between pathogens and their human hosts. Collaborating with Dr. Charles Sterling in Veterinary Science and Microbiology, a project was created to investigate the types of Giardia genotype isolates present in a developing neighborhood of suburban Lima, Perú. This work would be conducted in conjunction with Dr. Robert Gilman of Johns-Hopkins University who has been conducting research on infectious diseases in Perú for more than twenty years at the prestigious Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima. My project would be to collect human duodenal samples of Giardia using a common diagnostic test known as the enteric string test. Collecting Peruvian isolates of Giardia will prove useful in understanding the parasite biology and pathogenicity, especially since we suspect that the genotype present in Perú differs from the major genotype present in the developed world.

A summer in Lima is nothing to get too excited about, especially when you’re used to seeing the sun everyday! Because Perú is in the southern hemisphere, I would be spending my “summer” as winter; 68-degree temperatures sure beat 112 degrees! I knew of the garua (fog) that covered most of coastal Perú during winter, but I had no idea that during my three month stay that I’d see the sun only ten times! Soon I found myself too busy to worry about the weather.

Each day I boarded a bus (bus means an old, converted school bus or van with street names painted on the side of it that may or may not give you an indication of where it’s going) for a 45-minute ride from the affectionately named “Gringo” house to the lab. Riding the bus was so enlightening: I could grasp a glimpse of Peruvian street life as I passed poverty stricken neighborhood after neighborhood, dogs roaming the streets, trash being burned or carelessly discarded along the road, and perhaps the saddest scene of all were the many people who would board the bus to tell their story of misfortune – having reduced themselves to begging or selling candies for pennies. My daily bus journey ended along the Pan-American Highway to walk a short distance to the lab.

Life in the lab was pretty much as you would expect it. Although the lab group is large and working on projects ranging from malaria, tuberculosis, Helicobactor pylori, Giardia, Taenia, etc., everyone was extremely helpful and made me feel quite welcome. Unfortunately I would not be working with these people on a daily basis as my work was centered on fieldwork. After coordinating patient enrollment, planning my work, and gathering materials I would rarely find myself in the lab. The idea of fieldwork was very exciting to me, but I learned very quickly that I would find myself far from being spoiled with all that was available in a lab. All I had to work with was a lunchbox of culture medium and other supplies taken from the lab. Now that I have done a little fieldwork, I am excited about the prospects of doing more, and I’m sure this interest will continue as I grow into my career.

Perú is a developing country, but the people and their colorful heritage is clearly first rate. My most memorable experiences stem from wandering the parks, streets, and countryside of this dynamic nation. Parque Municipal in the Miraflores district of Lima has some incredible artwork; Lima Centro is jammed with dozens of colonial churches, museums, and some pretty good street food. One of my favorites was the Museum of Religious Art found in the Catedral (Cathedral) where crosses, sculptures, mosaics, and iconry date to the era of Spanish arrival in the region. Being from a small city myself, I enjoyed my ventures to the South of Perú including the high Amazon rainforest ruins of Machu Picchu, the fertile Arequipa Valley, the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca, a flight over the cryptic Nazca lines, and waking up to the mountain sun of Ollantaytambu in the Sacred Valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Everywhere along the way, the people seemed so happy, so giving, so full of faith and love for their culture. Pride here has everything to do with character and nothing to do with power or money.

My BRAVO! experience was less about science and more about widening my perspectives regarding the international community. While there were many six-day work weeks, each day led me to someone or something that taught me about myself, where I belong in this world, and inspired me to never forget how lucky I am. It is my sincere hope that many more students continue to seek their own adventures and take advantage of the educational capital gained by participation in the BRAVO! program.

Charles Martinez, MARC student in Dr. Rodney Adams’s lab, Medicine