Football aside...

Aside from catching football matches in the evenings, I am actually getting work done in the laboratory in Fortaleza. A few of my projects will involve molecular testing using PCR to detect certain organisms that cause diarrhea (Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Enteroaggregative E Coli) and I have spent some time during the last week trying to get one of these tests functioning properly. I still need to work out some problems with the protocol, but work is progressing well in that area. In addition, I have been working to translate background, protocols, and IRB (Institutional Review Board) documents for the vision study that I would like to pilot later in the year. Finally, it seems that our study of physical fitness in children in the community may actually commence next week.

In other news, we were able to check out some apartments in nicer parts of the city (read: closer to the ocean) and may soon be moving to another location. This Sunday will be election day across Brazil with Presidential elections and other state and local elections. Interestingly, in Brazil all adults are required to vote in the election. In two weeks, our fellow Fogarty Fellow Tracey (Fogarty Fellow - Salvador, Brasil) will be visiting Fortaleza, and we hope to travel to some of the beaches of Ceará that we have not yet visited. That weekend will be yet another holiday weekend, with two more holidays to follow in November.

Regarding my schedule for the remainder of the year, I will be returning to the US briefly in late December and early January for Christmas and to obtain necessary supplies for my vision study, as well as to begin to set up my schedule and plans for the fourth year of medical school. I´ll then return to Brasil for the last 5 months of my fellowship, beginning my vision study and continuing other projects. At some point in that five months, I plan to spend a week of my vacation in the Amazon. I'll ultimately leave Fortaleza sometime in mid-late May. What I'll do from there is still up in the air, as I plan to either begin fourth year of medical school on May 28, June 11 or June 25. I plan to do a little traveling in South America on the way home. I'd like to at least spend a few days in Argentina, and a week in Peru, and if I elect to start fourth year in June, I'd also like to add in stops in Chile, Bolivia, and/or Ecuador. Starting fourth year in May would technically be a month early, but that would allow me time to do one extra rotation early, and so I may consider doing so to allow me more time to experience ophthalmology prior to making a final decision regarding the field to which I will apply for residency. I'll figure out those elements of my schedule over the next few months.

Football, Ferroviário, Fireworks

Last night I took in a match involving the third football team in Fortaleza, Ferroviário. Ferroviário is currently in competition in Brazilian Serie C. Serie C is a competition with multiple stages in which teams are divided into groups of 4, with teams playing each other team in their group home and away, with the top 2 teams in each group then advancing to the next stage. Ferroviário is now in the second to last stage, and sits in second place in their group. The top 4 teams from the final group of 8 will be promoted to Serie B for next season. If Ferroviário were able to manage a draw against Bahia last night, and a a win or draw on the road this Saturday, they stood an excellent chance of advancing to the final group of eight.

Last night, Ferroviário took on first placed Bahia, from the city of Salvador. The game was held in Estádio Presidente Vargas, rather than the larger Castelão that I have previously seen games in. Vargas has a nice atmosphere, as it is a smaller stadium with concrete bleachers and an enthusiastic group of fans. The Ferroviário fan club sets up behind the opposing goalkeeper and creates a considerable amount of noise in the form of drums, fireworks, and songs. At halftime, they march to drumbeats to the opposite end of the stadium to continue the harassment of the opposing keeper in the second half. Last night, I saw fireworks set off in one corner of the stadium three times, and many more times outside the stadium.

Ferroviário vs. Bahia
Estádio Presidente Vargas
27 Set 2006
2030

Ferroviário took on Bahia in a critical Serie C match last night at Estádio Presidente Vargas. Throughout the first half, Ferroviário created numerous chances with a clear advantage in team speed that allowed their outside midfielders to penetrate deep into the corners to produce crosses into the penalty area. The Ferroviário strikers placed heads or feet on a few of these crosses, but were unable to find the back of the net. Bahia had a few chances on counterattacks after defensive mistakes by Ferroviário. At the half, the score was knotted at 0-0.

Returning from halftime, Bahia took the opening kickoff and came out with a bit more enthusiasm, immediately creating high quality chances. The Ferroviário parried a few well taken corners and free kicks away before a 2 on 1 break by Bahia resulted in the first goal of the game, putting Ferroviário down 1-0 on their home turf. Ten minutes later, Ferroviário would penetrate deep into the penalty area, only to be tackled from the side by a Bahia defender. The referee blew the whistle immediately, pointing to the spot to award the game's only penalty kick. After a bit of dissent from Bahia, the kick was taken, with Ferroviário placing the ball past the outstretched arms of the Bahia keeper. The game resumed with the score now tied at one, and Bahia again mounted attacks that required brilliant goalkeeping to keep the score level. With five minutes remaining, Ferroviário had their best chance of the match with the recently substituted left striker penetrating deep into the area only to push a shot just left of the goal post. The game ended a few moments later in a tie, with each team gaining a hard earned point in the standings.

Ceará VS. Náutico

As I posted Monday, there are three professional soccer teams in Fortaleza. Fortaleza EC plays in the top division (Serie A), Ceará SC plays in the second division (Serie B), and Ferroviária plays in the third division (Serie C). Fortaleza and Ceará are currently find themselves at or near the bottom of their respective divisions, but Ferroviária is currently tied for second place in their Stage 3 group in Serie C, and can advance to Stage 4 with some good play in their next 3 games. More on Ferroviária another time, but last night I was able to get my first look at Ceará SC as they took on Serie B leaders Náutico. The great thing about professional sports in Brazil is that is actually affordable to go to a game, unlike in the US. I paid the equivalent of $4 for a ticket, $1 for popcorn, $0.80 for a bus ride to the game, and $7 for a taxi ride home (because it was late). Even with the taxi ride, the entire night only cost $13, probably what you would pay just to park at some US stadiums.

Ceará 1 Náutico 1
Estádio Casteláo
19 Sep 2006
2030

In Campeonato Brasil Serie B action last night, Ceará SC and Náutico of Recife, Pernambuco played to a 1-1 draw. Ceará started fast from the opening whistle, finding themselves attacking with numbers 3 minutes into the match. A nice cross from the right sided striker found his cohort on the left side streaking past the sweeper unmarked. The left sided striker finished off the chance with a beautiful one touch shot into the left upper corner of the net. This early goal seemed to provide a source of enthusiasm for the crowd as the singing of the team song grew louder, and the drum beats of the Ceara fan club reverberated throughout Castelão.

Five minutes after the goal, Ceará would leave one of the Nãutico midfielders unmarked, and the player made no mistake in beating the goalkeeper with a perfect shot into the upper 90, squaring the match.

Ceará continued to have the better of the chances and possession, but they never constructed another significant scoring threat until 5 minutes remained in the half. The right sided striker again found some space streaking down the side line and was able to cross the ball into the penalty area where a teammate skillfully attempted to head the ball into the ground passing the charging Náutico keeper. This attempt beat the goalkeeper, but was unable to beat the goalpost, as the shot skipped harmlessly off the outside of the goalpost. Ceará had one more chance late with another ball crossed into the box which the right striker pushed just wide of the post.

The teams returned from the break with Ceará again having the better of possession and chances. A Ceará midfielder created a chacne by weaving his way into the penalty area, advancing to the corner of the goal area before dropping the ball back to a wide open striker 10 yards out. The striker again pushed the ball wide of the net, wasting a golden opportunity. Náutico would next threaten to break the draw when one of their strikers found himself on a breakaway all alone in front of the Ceará keeper. The keeper made a brilliant reflex save, and was able to collect himself to quickly gather in a second shot off a rebound. Ceará had a final flurry of chances late with five minutes remaining, all parried by some equally excellent goalkeeping from the Náutico keeper. In the end, the match ended in a draw. The story of the match was outstanding speed and attacks by Ceará, hurt only by a frustrating inability to finish chances, coupled with great goalkeeping from both sides. The match was a great effort by last placed Ceará against first placed Náutico, but the Cearense have to be disappointed that they were unable to earn three points in the standings for their efforts. With the draw, Náutico drops to second palce in Serie B, trailing Sport, also of Pernambuco. Ceará remains in last place, and must improve their play over the last three months to avoid relegation to Serie C.

Flamengo 4 Fortaleza 3

Yesterday, I would have ran the 10k race that I thought I had registered for, but instead learned Saturday that my registration had been cancelled, apparently because I lacked a CPF number (Brazilian social security number). That was a little disappointing, but I still was able to enjoy a football (soccer) match last night.

Journeying to the match was quite interesting as we first boarded a bus for Terminal lagoa. After arriving there, we transferred to the bus that would carry us to the stadium. Like most city buses, this bus was designed to carry about 50 seated passengers and 20 more standing passengers. Last night though, the bus had approximately twice that number of passengers crammed into every possible place. At one point in the trip, we rounded a corner and due to the weight distribution, the bus briefly was riding on 2 wheels. After a 20 minute ride though, we arrived at the stadium, resolving to take a taxi home...

The game was unlike any sporting event I have observed in the US. I never have been to a game where fans set fireworks off before and during the game. It was also quite interesting to hear all of the fans shouting in words that I had no chance of understanding. They were definitely very passionate about their team. Fortaleza has three major professional football teams, the best of which is Fortaleza EC of Brasilian Serie A. They also have Ceará FC, a Serie B squad, and a third team in Serie C. Fortaleza is in Serie A this year, but is currently near the bottom of the league table, meaning that they will msot likely be relegated to Serie B at season's end. For those of you unaware of how football works in most countries outside of the US, each year the bottom few teams of each division are demoted to the next lower division, with the top teams then being pormoted to the next higher division. The top teams of the top division (Serie A) are rewarded by being invited to participate in continent-wide champions leagues in addition to continued participation in Serie A. My report of last nights match follows, and I do still plan to post some Salvador photos at some point this week...

Flamengo 4 Fortaleza 3

Estádio Castelão
Fortaleza, Brazil
17 Sept 2006
18:10

A high scoring match saw Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro knock off Fortaleza EC in Serie A of the Brazilian league. Some highly questionable goalkeeping by Fortaleza allowed Flamengo to jump to a quick 2-0 lead, despite a few early chances by Fortaleza. The Fortaleza keeper displayed an inability to hold onto the ball, frequently giving up large rebounds leading to Flamengo scoring chances. Fortaleza was able to get one back shortly before the break with a nice set piece, but Flamengo responded quickly, scoring for the third time on what was also a nice set piece off a free kick from the far corner. The score stood at 3-1 at the half, with Fortaleza needing to return with more inspired midfield play and tighter goalkeeping if they were to have any chance at achieving any points from the match. Indeed Fortaleza returned from the break with a bit more speed and creativity from their midfield, and were able to get within 3-2 on a beautiful goal early in the second half. From the ensuing kickoff, Fortaleza quickly regained possession and had an incredible scoring chance within the Flamengo 6 yard box, but failed to capitalize. A few moments later, the combination of fast Flamengo strikers, slow Fortaleza defenders, and questionable goalkeeping led to a fourth goal for Flamengo. Fortaleza was able to get a third goal late, and had a few more scoring chances before full time. Fortaleza and their fans appealed for a penalty with about 2 minutes remaining after an attacker went down inside the six yard area. The attacker appeared to simply slip, and the referee saw it this way as well, ignoring the pleas of the Fortaleza captain for a penalty. Flamengo withstood a final corner kick for Fortaleza before the referee blew the whistle for full time, signalling the end of a high scoring affair in the Brasilian Serie A.

Reunion, Reunião (Meeting), Racing

This past weekend was a holiday weekend, with Brazilian Independence Day falling on a Thursday, making for a nice four day weekend. This allowed Ben, Nate, and I to travel to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil for four days, which also allowed us to meet up with Tracey Newlove, the Fogarty Fellow in Salvador, Brazil.

Salavador is a beautiful city (photos to follow later this week), located more than 1000 km down the coast from Fortaleza. Salvador has many hills, and more variable weather than Fortaleza. Salvador also is on a peninsual such that the Atlantic Ocean is to the east, and a bay is to the west, allowing one to view a beautiful sunset over the bay. I greatly enjoyed this change of scenery for a few days. It sounds great to have the weather forecast be sunny with a high of 87 and low of 76 everyday, but it is actually nice to have a little variety at times. Indeed in Salvador, we experienced cooler weather, and rain during 3 of the four days that we were there. Despite the rain, we still were able to explore parts of the city of Salvador and a few beaches north of Salvador.

The first two days were spent exploring parts of the historic downtown, Pelourinho, and the area near the bay. We ate at some good restaurants, walked through Pelourinho, and met some other students traveling in Salvador, some from the United Kingdom, others from Norway and others from the US. We were able to get a room cheaply at a hostel in the Pelourinho area. Saturday was the day that we planned to travel to a beach north of Salvador, Praia do Forte. We read in our travel guide that this beach had turtles and a castle, and we hoped to see both. We also hoped for sun. Unfortunately, we saw no turtles (they're actually raised in captivity for release into the wild, and they charge admission to see them), and were unable to find the famed castle of Praia do Forte despite driving northa nd south of the beach in search of the castle. It also rained for part of the day putting a damper on our day at the beach. Despite these facts, while searching for the castle after the rain had stopped, we discovered a beach 10 km north of Praia do Forte that was more isolated, much less touristy, and quite beautiful. Reachign this beach required a hike through a small town across a stream, around a lagoon to reach the ocean. I definitely preferred this small quiet beach to the touristy Praia do Forte. We returned to the city Saturday night and dined with Tracey in the Rio Vermelho area of Salvador. Here we had one of the few bad experiences in Salvador in which a man came up to us while we were eating at an outdoor restaurant, and after trying to sell some product or upcoming event, said something to the effect of "Gringos go home." This put a little bit of a damper on the evening, but we still enjoyed the chance to see a little more of Salvador and talk.

Sunday afternoon involved further exploration of the Pelourinho and Barro regions of Salvador. Our flight was scheduled to leave Salvador Sunday evening at 10:35 pm, and arrive in Fortaleza at 1:30 am after a stop in Recife. We reconfirmed our flight prior to heading to the airport in Salvador, taxied to the airport and checked in for our flight. We were then told that the plane was delayed leaving Sao Paulo, and the flight would be an hour or so late. In fact, the plane arrived about 2 hours late, and we departed 2.5 hours late, arriving in Fortaleza at 4:00 am, arriving back at our house at 4:30. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except for the fact that our PI, Dr. Guerrant was giving a presentation the next morning at a hotel near Praia do Futoro for an HIV conference, and we were expected to attend. This required us to wake up at 7 to taxi across town for the presentation, going on 2+ hours of sleep. This was followed by a day with a very long meeting about our projects, also on 2+ hours of sleep. The meeting refocused our projects, and now I have about 4 projects that I am in some way working on or planning. We're still continuing with final preparations for a physical fitness study, I continue to plan a vision study, and now have a project involving PCR testing for cryptosporidium and enteroaggregative E Coli that I am currently working on. Later in the year, we all hope to collaborate on a project that will bring together some of the diagnostic tests that we are working on for a small study in HIV patients.

The remainder of this week will be focused on my PCR project, and continuing to plan my vision study. Friday, Chris Brown, the final member of the Fortaleza crew will arrive. Chris is another medical student from my class at UVA who will be here for part of the year this year. This weekend I will be participating in a 10 kilometer race here in Fortaleza. It is part of a series of races across Brazil that apparently attract some of the elite runners in the country. I have been running quite a bit here in Brazil, and look forward to seeing how I can do in a timed test with other runners. The setting for the race is perfect as there will be two circuits of a course along Beira Mar, bordering the Atlantic Ocean near Praias Iracema, Meireles, Nautico, and Mucuripe.

Salvador photos should be up later this week, and I hope to post a few thoughts on life in Brazil early next week.

Independence Day, Salvador, Round 3: Federal Police

Thursday will be our second national holiday in Brazil as the lab will be
closed for Brazilian Independence Day. Currently, we're in somewhat of a
holding pattern with respect to our projects, as the physical fitness
project should hopefully start in about 1-2 weeks after we receive final
approval from the Institutional Review Board. I'm also working on writing
up a proposal for a project that would involve some vision assessments.
That interests me for a number of reasons, as visual impairment is a huge
problem globally, and I am still considering ophthalmology as a potential
field of medicine (I'm also considering internal
medicine/pediatrics-infectious disease).

The last national holiday occurred on a Tuesday immediately after our
arrival, and so we weren't able to take advantage of the potential four day
weekend to travel elsewhere in Brazil. Given the current delays in our
projects, we have decided to take advantage of this four day weekend to
travel. Early Thursday morning, we'll fly to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, to
return late Sunday night. Salvador is about a 25 hour bus trip, or in our
case a 3 hour flight down the coast of Eastern Brazil. Salvador is also
home to the other Fogarty Fellows in Brazil, so we should get to spend some
time with Tracey and Ricardo while there. In addition, Salvador is a
beautiful city with a significant African influence. I look forward to four
days to explore the city, and will certainly post some photos on our return.

Finally, today's events included round 3 with the Federal Police. Ben and
Nate successfully registered as foreign students on a temporary visa,
however I will still have to send my passport either to Brasilia or
Washington D.C. for a notation to be added. I hope to complete that process
after returning from Salvador to finally end my struggles with the Brazilian
Bureaucracy...

Rodizio

This weekend has been rather eventful. Saturday, I remained in Fortaleza to do some work, and spent the afternoon on the coast on Avenida Beira Mar. Ben and Nate journeyed a half hour inland to some mountains near Fortaleza along with a Brazilian friend. Unfortunately, they were met by an armed robber who apparently may have recently escaped from the local jail. They lost their bags, digital cameras, cell phones, wallets, and a small amount of money, but thankfully they escaped unharmed.

Sunday afternoon, we joined Ila (One of the Brazilian Fogarty Fellows) and her husband for lunch at a Rodizio. It's a place where all sorts of meat, seafood, and vegetables are served buffet style, and in addition, circulating waiters bring different cuts of meat right to your table. We ate quite a bit, as the photos below illustrate...

Nate, Ila, Chris in Line at the Buffet



Meat Delivered to our Table



A Great Dessert



Chris Enjoys the Great Dessert



Chris, Ben, and Nate outside the Beach Park near Fortaleza