When we first met, I was still living in the United States, anxiously preparing to move to Brazil and to start the long-awaited journey of pursuing a Fulbright. A quick, very busy three months later, you have seen firsthand all the highs and lows of moving to and living in Manaus. The adjustment has been far from easy, but it has brought me heaps of joy.
Our research has recently moved from the literary review stage to the fieldwork stage. I visited, alongside two professors at my affiliated univeristy, an indigenous community this past week. I was lucky enough to sit down with the women of this community and their midwife. We had wonderful, open conversations about pain during labor, differences in Western medicine and their community's medicine, pregnancy practices and the understanding of birth as a whole. They invited me to visit them for a weekend in May, when I will have more time to sit down with individuals in the community, the midwife in particular, to conduct interviews. It is such a blessing to have your research be so well-received and supported by a community. It feels exciting and a little nerve-racking to be entering this stage of the research process.
My life in Brazil feels much more settled. I am still working on making and solidifying friendships, spaces that feel like my own and a solid routine, which is a difficult feat in the every-changing agenda of a researcher.
