Leave a comment Posted on February 23, 2017 Uncategorized

Lassa Fever Reflection!

Just last week, my technology class had to present to our peers about our chosen topic. My group mate and I choose the topic of Lassa Fever, this is a hemorrhagic fever that was discovered in Borno State, Nigeria in 1969, when two missionary nurses got the fever. This virus is caused by rodents, and eating infected rats that are not thoroughly cooked. The rats themselves get infected by the filth surrounding them and the environments that they live in. Evidently, this is an animal borne disease. I thought that this was an appropriate topic to choose and an interesting one because since we live in Senegal, we see a lot of rodents around. For the most part, this is caused by the fairly filthy “boutiques” (shacks that sell little snacks and food, as well as useful items like matches or toilet paper), these boutiques are many times located near homes and they attract the rats; which then enter multiple houses. Not all of these rodents are affected, but some are. That is another danger of the fever, one can not really tell if the rats is infected or not unless the human physically turns the rat out and there will be little grey or white spots on its stomach. Moreover, in some cultures, people eat rats and if that was an infected rat then the human would catch the disease as well.

Francisco Martins via Compfight

In all, because we live in an area where this disease can easily occur, choosing this topic can easily educated people about the dangers and how we are at risk. To add on, knowing that we live in a place where some people are exposed to getting this infection, teaching my classmates about this disease can really help prevent it.

With all the research that I have accumulated for this project I learned a lot of interesting facts and even some connections to other diseases. For instance, Lassa Fever is very similar to Ebola. They are similar is such a way that they have the same symptoms, I find it quite interesting to see how the two diseases are extremely close yet pretty distinct; Both are animal borne diseases and both show the same symptoms. However, the death rates are very different and the treatment is too. Moving along, I learnt that there are not many deaths involved in the case of Lassa Fever, compared to other hemorrhagic fevers this particle sickness has a pretty low death toll. I specifically learned that there were 273 cases of the Lassa virus and it included 149 deaths in Nigeria. Looking at it like this it seems like many deaths; However, comparing these statistics to others, even the number of cases discovered are low in itself. Furthermore, knowing that there is no specific vaccine or treatment for this condition, it is still extraordinary to see that the death toll in that country is low, noting that Nigeria is the most affect country in West Africa. As I previously mentioned, I also learned about the cause and transmission of the sickness.

Link

My learning towards this topic did not really make me grow in a drastic way. However, it helped me realize that you have to be aware of what you put in your mouth, because what you are eating can have a big impact on your life. Also, it helped me grow in such a way that now I try to be more safe and organized not only in the kitchen, but that also shifted to being organized in general. My learning did not only help me grow, be it can help the community learn about the virus. As previously stated, it can help with awareness, but also medical support and knowing what is going on.

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For my next, I want to incorporated one of my passions to make an impact on our community. I believe that my passion for photography can have an impact on our community. This days many people use photography as a leisure activity, to take picture of themselves, or friends and places they visited, that is great, I for one do the same. However, we can use of skills in picture taking and putting it to even better use. For instance, taking picture of issues around are community and making a website to raise awareness. When one sees a website to raise awareness, there are always pictures that give more meaning to the issue and it motivates people even more to go change and fix that problem. If all, I want to use my photography to raise awareness about a certain issue that can be on a website or somewhere that can have an impact of people.

Link to my presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zIJcyYAEXfltIMP1jJi7lkh06afzLpTlMbqIgOfoTWM/edit#slide=id.p

Leave a comment Posted on January 20, 2017January 20, 2017 Uncategorized

Images//Citations

Don Voaklander via Compfight

Irudayam via Compfight

Work Cited

Kriz, Jonathan. Puppy. October 2010. Flickr. January 20,2017. https://www.flickr.com/photos/27587002@N07/5170590074/in/photolist-J7g8U-drymfD-8SUChJ-drymAT-drywHm-dryiNa-85BN6U-drynh8-8JgLv1-drytQN-85BNLN-dryneZ-dryjg8-6JTCnN-drywq1-6BFR7y-drykig-6JTCCJ-6JTCwm-6C7tuG-6C7xVE-4umafo-qLaa7-85yDAH-cbeeC7

Robinson, Scott. Dance. June 10, 2006. Flickr. January 20, 2017 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/165316414/in/photolist-fBhP1-4hPSv8-aP5Av-aXk25M-VxQAC-76ZLvk-eACpd2-5W1QUz-a1bbT9-7yFQsm-oBuBmx-75RFLi-VxdCR-r8A6Md-74joYG-nfru2Y-b3CUqF-2pESd-3b2rF-8ztt1t-f389Xp-VxQv7-kUV4BK-HkFso-Vxeag-VxdT6-VxQaN-d8j6yj-VxPBL-6pdPK3-VxQrE-VxPXL-VxeH6-Vxedz-4SoWMb-dMBQt4-8FbBmR-anXUQz-2SC9WE-5L7Y4w-VxeU4-Vxe5K-VxPQu-2jp8Z2-diQDaS-b9q3FV-bxhywS-VxQEQ-6noXaX-ix962u

Leave a comment Posted on January 17, 2017January 17, 2017 Uncategorized

Twitter Connect Reflection

For the past weeks my technology class has been quite active on Twitter to try to interact with people of the media in order to obtain answers to various questions on our topic of choice. For this Twitter Expert/Academic Connect Assignment each student needed to first create an academic Twitter account. To insure other Twitter users that this was an academic site we had to add a profile biography with the school information.

One initial step we took before following people and introducing our topic is that we have to tweet three times a class for a period of time. We had a summary tweet, we had to reply to a tweet and finally re- tweet a tweet. This would insure future follows that the person behind the account is not a robot but an active participant of the community.

I also believe that we did not jump straight into following and asking about our topic because that can somewhat come off as aggressive and it may give the wrong impression that we only created an account to ask questions this one time, while in reality this platform can serve for future projects. Twitter Icon

Moreover, the purpose of this assignment is to connect with people from around the world on social media about our Genius Hour project . Getting in touch with people would open up our options for getting information. We had to first follow at least ten people that were involved in our area of interest for me this was Lassa Fever but specifically in Africa.

To get accurate results and truthful answers we could not just blinding follow people who have the same interest or who work in the field. We had to do a little bit of ‘research’ on this account to see if they are active and if they are trusted people. One would rather follow an expert or someone in the academic fields rather than a hobbyist or even an author; However, the cases may vary, though one would think that an expert or an academic figures are more trusted because of the years of experience.

After we followed the ten people we had to create a Twitter List which helps categorize the people that we are following. These ten (or more) people would all be put into the same list because they should all have interest in your topic broadly.

For the next couple of weeks we had to continue the three tweets per class in spite of the fact that now we had to reply and re-tweet a tweet from an account our list . This allowed the person behind the account to know that we are interested in their page and in their content.

For me I decided to follow eleven people who were interested in the same topic as me or who were simple knowledgeable about health and medicine in Africa. I did not find any alleged academic figures who found find this assignment so I leaned more towards, experts like doctors, hobbyist and organizations.

This people relate to my Genius Hour Project in such a way that they are all people who know what they are talking about and who can provide me with more information. They are people who was really answer any questions I have with great detail and resources. Some of these people included: @drasatrust; @NCDCgov; @anthrozoonoses;

@HealthFolk; @WSPID; @ZoonoticDisease; @DrKhabbazCDC; @ISNTD_Press; @Fmohnigeria;

@UWCOHR; and @nighealthwatch.

In regards to the questions that I asked these experts, I tried to vary each question and ask different ones to each person to get a plethora of answers. To be more specific, I tried to based my questions of my Genius Hour Presentation, and the topic I will talk about, like, the Transmission, the Cause and more. This would allow me to fill in the gaps of any questions I have regarding this topic before the presentation. Some of my questions asked are just simple yes or no answers, however, the people I asked always seemed to answer with more with gives more depth, and helps answer my questions better. That was greatly appreciated. As previously stated this helps in such a way that now I obtain more information to add to my presentation and this allows me to share the knowledge that I have acquired through these experts.

Here are two examples of the questions I asked:

Sadly, looking at the engagement of these people, only one person out of the eleven decided to follow back (@anthrozoonoses); However, even if some people did not follow back, they were still active and engaged with me in a different manner. For instance @nighealthwatch liked many of my tweets regarding our common point of interest which is Lassa Fever. Also one of the doctors replied to me when I left I comment on their page about a post I thought was interesting- even in the beginning of the process, when we were trying to build connections. Moreover, the members on my list did not ask for any extra assistance. Furthermore, once I asked a follow up question, I still did not get a response back since that time and onward. I tried to keep the conversation going with follow up questions but as stated, the users did not seems to engage in the next questions and no answers were given.

All in all, I got pretty good results, most of the answers I got were resources and those resources were perfect and covered all the topics in my presentation. They gave out a lot of detail and explanation about the Infection as a whole but also some more precise aspects.

This process of connections with the outside world on social media is not only relevant to academic themes. One can use this outside of school if they are curious about a certain topic. But, this Twitter connect formation can also be use in other more sophisticated ways to link up with people in countries where aid is needed, this social network can be a platform to help others even if you are miles away (ex- Chicago Girl). One way that I might be able to use this procedure in the future is to at least make a difference on a small group of people or even a community. Whether its big or small I want to help or make people experience something that they’ve always wanted but never had the change to. To be more specific, I have been thinking about linking up with organizations for blind children and just go to these local places and read for the children (ex-Mbour, Senegal)- and Raising money and giving the funds to these organizations, so they can supply themselves with the necessary tools to better the lives of these children.

To conclude, although this was a long assignment, in the end, with pretty good results, it helps better my understanding about Lassa Fever. And hopefully this process with not stop here, but we will use it for other purposes.

–Here are some of the resources that I got:

http://bit.ly/1QlPHm8 #NHWResources #NgHlth
bit.ly/drasalassa
the medical anthropology quarterly article by Brown and Kelly 2014 reviews the LF literature see also Annie Wilkinson’s work

2 Comments Posted on December 8, 2016December 8, 2016 Uncategorized

Great Wolf Lodge- 2009

GWL- Entrance

In 2009, my family and I decided to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia. GWL is a resort containing an indoor water park as well as an outdoor park with many hotels around. Great Wolf Lodge is known as America’s largest Family of Indoor water Park Resort. I would love to go back to the GWL, however, in my opinion is it a more valuable location for younger more active, agitated children. This resort does not only have a water park, but it also includes ride, the tornado and alberta falls.

One of my favorite aspects about going on this trip was the ride there. I really love travelling and this gave me and family to opportunity to go on a road trip. This is one of my passions for learning about new things and the roads and stopping by various sites before our arrival. But when we arrived, my learning experiences did not end there. GWL also provides a lot of knowledge on the environment and the history of the building. Many times their are story-times on the history and the place. It was very interesting to learn about the creation and people of GWL.

Our stay at GWL was exceptional, I wanted to stay longer than we were suppose too. It was fun spending quality time with my brother, sister and father. My mother on the other hand was pregnant with my other brother, so she did not have as much fun as we did.

Every morning we would wake up and go to the indoor pools, my favorite part was the bucket. It was a large wooden bucket that was about 15 feet from the ground. the machine would fill it up with water and once it’s full, the container would tilt over and all the cold water the pour on the person right under them. My too siblings were obsessed with the Tornado, to sum up, this ride consist of four people going on a raft and swiftly twisting and turning through the tornado tunnel with water splashing from every side. I of course was a “scared-y- cat” back then so I never tried the ride, I just stay under the water bucket XD but my brother and sister told me that it was the best water ride ever. Looking back I really wished that I went on the ride. Moreover the afternoons were quite simple, we just relaxed in the hotel rooms and occasionally went to the spa. But the hotel did offer a lot of activities. But the night was the most eventful. The kids would dress up in there PJs and f go to the main wall for stories or other planned activities to helps the kids bound.

All the all, The Great Wolf Lodge was an amazing stay. And even after 7 years, I still remember every memory for vididly. I hope to go back in the near future so my (now born) brother can experience what we did. (And so I can go again) 🙂

What about you? Where is your favorite place to go? Or you best vacation stay?

Here is the GWL offical Williamsburg, VA website: https://www.greatwolf.com/williamsburg

Here is another great blog about another family’s stay at GWL (In Grapevine, TX)

4 Comments Posted on November 29, 2016 technology

Communities! The Pros and cons

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Firstly, what is a community; a community is a small group of people whose members reside in a specific locality and share a government, often they have similar cultural backgrounds and heritage. I believe that it is really fun being in a growing community with loving people who support you and your ideas. As well as help people grow. Of course, not everything is perfect there are some pros and cons of being in a community.

Link

I think that one positive aspect of being in a community is the provided support. Even with a small community and because most times the members of the community have the same values and ideals, this can allow people to express their ideas freely, with no worry or fear that someone with be against what they think. This is a conclusive facet because with the support and acceptance of new ideas that can help the development of ones community and can create a greater impact. Moreover, if support is provided then it can lead to less tension between members and healthier relationships within the group.

Another positive attribute of the being in a community is the impact. I slightly touch upon this subject but community always have big impacts on others’ lives. Because of the close relationship and the connections between members it would seem easier to get along in order to create projects and/or organization that can benefits small groups of people. For instance, now there are many communities that create organizations that help with nature (ex- Go Green). Furthermore, it is not just one person who impacts other, it is a whole group of people and together it creates a greater impact with more ideas.

A final pro of being in a community is building relationships. Communities are usually pretty small, so it is easy to meet to people. Communities allow others to create new relationships based on common interest and commonly, the community members have the same ideologies and passion, therefore, is it almost guaranteed that the friendship with blossom.

Link

Living/ being in a community is great, but there are also exceptions. One con of being in a community is being the real you. Although this is quite contradictive to my previous point. In many circumstances people feel as though, they have to change themselves or how them act in order to fit in with the community they are in.

A final con of being in a community is competition. This mainly happens in the field of sports communities, but also elsewhere. Everyone wants to be at the top and want to be acknowledged. I noticed multiple time in communities, that if you are surpassing someone they will try to surpass you, get the acknowledgement and be seen.

28 Comments Posted on November 23, 2016 Uncategorized

How to improve my school?

I really love the school that I am in, but there are a couple of things that I would change and many students bring up these points in conversations like this. Firstly, we have a small little “restaurant” in our school called “Shady Shack” they sell a wide variety of food; some are healthy but others not so much. In our school in general Physical Education is taking fairly seriously and we want to be a good, fit, healthy school. However, it is quite contradictive looking at the prices of Shady Shack. For instance, a chicken salad is 3500 FCFA- this is about 5 USD, but in Senegal this is fairly expensive for a salad and for us kids. But in comparison a less healthy, oily food like a grilled cheese sandwich which only cost 1000 FCFA. The difference is wild. If staff, educators and parents constantly push us to eat healthy and leave off the junk food why not reduce the prices of the healthier foods to a more affordable price. If this were the case I feel as though more people would buy salads or other healthy foods.

Another thing that I would improve are the sanitary conditions. This is quite straight forward. Yes, we live in a developing country, however, many students believe that there is no effort being put fourth for the bathrooms. The water pressure in our school is really low in some areas (some bathrooms) and after using the restrooms many people do not or can not flush, which leaves very bad odors and that can also led to sickness.

To conclude, overall, my school is really great and I love the environment these are just little things that not just I, but also fellow classmates would want to see change.

Leave a comment Posted on November 17, 2016 Uncategorized

Week 6-Commenting.

This week and last I have done quite a lot of commenting. One thing that I really enjoy about it is that it allows you to open up the conversation and connect with people outside of the your country and find people with similar interests. I also enjoy that the commenting is a very open space, like a no judgement zone and people give a lot of helpful feedback. I do not find anything annoying about commenting I just feel as those if you have a lot of comments I find it a bit challenging to know when to reply or when to just approve the message. I have found some really interesting posts to comment on, especially the creative posts (Free write (Week 5)) that we had the opportunity to write about. I feel like those were worth commenting on because they truly show creativity. My posts are getting a lot of quality comments like compliments but also feedback about my stories.

Comment starters:

I love the way you…
This connects to the time…
This makes me wonder about…
*questions*
Your writing is amazing…

Comment Examples

I liked the way you described the setting, it really brought a picture to my head and creates imagery.
This is very relatable because it is something that happens to many people around the world.
This makes me think of the time I went to Mexico, the same thing happened to me.
Wow! How did you feel afterwards?
Your writing is great, I love the detail that you included.

3 Comments Posted on November 17, 2016 Uncategorized

Game 2- #16stubc Flipboard magazine

Today I visited three very interesting websites. I visited Jennifer, Jagga and Anisha’s wonderful posts. All the blog posts were really different but they can all connect to the audience in one way or another. For instance, Jennifer’s post talked about summer and how fun travelling is. Her amazing writing skills and imagery made it seem like a was in a plane or as as if I wanted to travel. We are barely half way through the school year and her post made me want to go back to the summer days. Jagga’s post was also like a dream that many people with talents and skills experience. She talked about her singing performance for school and all of her emotion and feelings throughout the process. I feel as though many people can relate, whether you are a dancer and an athlete when it comes down to public performances or games you always feel nervous, but in the end the feeling of success is great and she clearly touched on a relatable subject. Likewise, Anisha talked about a topic that is familiar to nearly everyone, junk food. Her controversial topic was an opening to see different perspectives and ideas. Just as she did with her post, those commenting also left their input on the topic. All three of these posts were well developed and it was a good reading.

Leave a comment Posted on November 14, 2016 technology

Possessed Photography

Picture

It was winter day, cold, gloomy, the sky was a faint grey, the clouds were invisible and the atmosphere was dull. Everyday repeating my routine; get up, shower, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, work and repeat. But today seemed different, something was off, I thought that I was sick in the inside, but i felt good in the outside. I was a photographer for a realistic fiction author, his themes always revolved around death and paranormal activity. My job was to find locations that can be turn into scary settings for his story line. Today, decided to go to an abandoned park during the day of course to not encounter any paranormal things. I just took random pictures that would fit the story line of the book. When I was at home later in the evening I looked back at the six pictures they are looked pretty normal, except for one. It came out all white with a black shadow. It was weird but I did not think anything of it, maybe my camera was just glitching.

The next day I had to take more pictures but I just decided to stay in my apartment and take picture of my guest bedroom. No one ever sleep there, I almost never have guests. The space was pretty small. The bed lied against the left side wall with a beside table and a small alarm clock and the blinds were right behind the bed. It’s not the best guest room but that is all I had. I decided to just take pictures of the bed and the blinds. SNAP! SNAP! After just two pictures the lights started flickering, it was a bit odd because the other lights in the living room were not. Again, I thought nothing of it, maybe the light bulb needed to be changed. I turned off the lights and used the flash to take the last four pictures. It did look better. As I walked out of the room the lights turned on again. At that point I was beyond frightened because I knew that I turned them off. I ran out of the room as soon as possible and slammed the door behind me.

After the shock, I proceeded by looking at the pictures that I took. Some of them looked great, others, not so much. But when I across the last picture, I was shook. I examined the photograph about six times and I was shocked every time. There was another black shadow. But this time the background was not white. The background showed the room I was in but, it seemed more dull, and dark. Just above the bed there was a black ghostly figure it was a girl with long black hair covering her pale beat up face. With a short dress ripped apart. Slouching. Drooping. I was beyond scared at that point. I needed to rest my head, so I slept on it.

When I went to bed, I was frighting, I locked to door of my room just in case and kept one light on. The night went on pretty smoothly, until, 6 AM hit. The alarm went off. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! It was so loud i could not even hear myself think. After a couple of moments, I realized that the alarm was not coming from my room but, from “the other room”. I was terrified, but, I would not sleep with that noise. I grabbed the baseball bat and headed to the room. I walked it and I saw nothing, a was relieved, but still the chills ran up my spine and back down again. I turned to every corner of the room swinging the bat in the air. Nothing. I headed to the bedside table to hit the snooze button of the alarm. Just as my fingertips skimmed against the button, a felt an aggressive pull on the bat. As soon as I knew it it was gone. Shaking, I slowly turn around and the figure lay before me with the bat in the air. Swinging.

Try to finish the story in you dare! I can’t think of an ending- Thanks.

Leave a comment Posted on November 1, 2016 Uncategorized

Mr Eugene (Guest posts)- Activity 2

I live in Dakar, Senegal and there are a lot of beautiful and interactive places to go to. One of my favorites is Accrobaobab. This is a ‘sports’ environment located about 65 km south from the capital (Dakar), the activities include zip lining and tree climbing; this is available to young adults as well as children starting at age of 7. If one decides to go in a large group this can be a great team building activity. The baobab tree can grow as high as 100 feet tall, which makes the zip lining even more entertaining. Another place that I love visiting in my home country is Saly. Although most tourist know this site, it is an amazing relaxing place for a vacation stay. Saly is a region in Dakar where many hotels are located; it kind of seems like an island because most to all of the housings are located near the ocean (Atlantic). A lot of hotels that I’ve been to are really interesting, it allows one to have a glimpse and learn about the Senegalese culture. At night they put on shows, like singing Senegalese songs, or a Senegalese fashion show, so, this lets tourist learn about the traditions of the country. Finally, Saint- Louis is also another interesting site. This city is know as the historical place of the country. Many houses there are ‘conversed’ from the colonial times. The city is also known for its jazz music ‘brought’ by the the American soldiers also during colonialism. Finally, Saint Louis also has a major fish port. Most of the fishing takes place in this city. Saint- Louis is a great site to learn about the Senegalese history and how it turned out to be like it is today. These are just a few sites that I love in Senegal!

Accrobaobab