When I first told my family I would be spending my summer in Lima, Peru, I am not sure they believed me. I think my parents thought it might be a fleeting idea that I would soon forget about. As the summer grew nearer, the reality began to set in that I would be a thirteen-hour plane ride away from home for three months. Yet, while I knew it would be hard to be far away from my family, I was extremely excited for the adventure to come.

It was through the UA BRAVO! program that I was able to go to Peru and work with Dr. Robert Gilman, professor of International Health at Johns Hopkins, in his laboratory at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru.

During my stay in Lima I lived with eight other people in what is known as the "Gringo House" in the upper class district of Miraflores. While I was a little apprehensive to be living with eight strangers it turned out that I felt much more at home being in a house full of great people.

My first hour-long bus ride to the University was interesting to say the least. It was my third day in Lima and my first time out of Miraflores. First of all traffic was complete chaos. While the laws of the road follow here in the U S were definitely not applied in Peru, I never saw one single car crash while I was there which utterly amazed me. It was also eye opening to see just how different the area around the University was compared to the area surrounding the Gringo House. It demonstrated just how large the income gap is in Peru, which was quite astounding.

In Dr. Gilman's lab I preformed research on Trypanasoma cruzi, a parasite highly prevalent in South and Central America, which causes Chagas Disease. T. cruzi is spread through an insect vector that thrives in many poorly developed areas. Chagas Disease can progress into a chronic stage, which in some people can lead to enlargement of the esophagus and colon as well as heart problems and eventually death. My project was to determine whether guinea pigs could serve as a model for chronic Chagas Disease.

The guinea pigs used in the project were infected before I got to Peru in order for them to progress into the chronic stage. When I arrived in Peru PCR was done on six different guinea pig tissues each week in order to assess whether the parasite had indeed moved into the tissues as it does in humans when it is in the chronic stage. A few weeks into the summer, we also infected the remaining guinea pigs with a different and more virulent strain of T. cruzi in order to see if it infected the tissues at a higher rate.

It was great experience working in a lab abroad. It allowed me to experience a completely different way of doing things. Especially when it came to resources, which were not as abundant and easy to come by as they are here in the United States. I am extremely glad I chose to partake in this opportunity and would gladly do it all over again if I could as it assisted my immersion into a completely different part of the world and opened my eyes to the many other places and possibilities that are available.

I would like to thank the BRAVO! program as well as my mentors Dr. Robert Gilman and Dr. Charles Sterling for this amazing opportunity.

Elise Madrid, MARC student in Dr. Charles Sterling's lab, Veterinary Science