Yalowich By the time Rachel Yalowich returns home, she’ll be more worldly that just about everyone else her age.

The Cheektowaga resident and West Seneca East High School graduate has already walked on three continents this year and is learning about foreign cultures first hand through a program at St. Lawrence University.

The experience of studying abroad in Nairobi, Kenya this past summer and currently in Copenhagen, Denmark have provided her with much more of an education than your normal college credits.

“I want to see as much of the world as I can,” Yalowich said. “The more I travel, the more I learn about different cultures. I think it’s so important to develop a global perspective.”

And she saw the poorest of the poor in Africa this summer. Yalowich, who is studying international medicine, shadowed health professionals in Nairobi and witnessed what she called “great disparities” between public and private health care systems. While she described private hospitals being akin to U.S. hospitals, the public ones don’t have the resources to treat diseases as effectively.

That brought her to learning from a group called SODIS in the Kibera Slum, the second largest slum in Africa with 1.2 million people. The SODIS work to educate people in Kibera and other places on safe water disinfection using solar energy.

“If water is left in clear plastic bottles in the sun for six hours or 48 hours on cloudy days, the UV light actually kills the bacteria in the water,” Yalowich said. “People who practice SODIS techniques have been able to greatly reduce their chances of succumbing to diarrheal diseases.”

Yalowich also spent three days living in the southern part of the Great Rift Valley with the Maasai people. Medical care was severely lacking, as the Olkramatian dispensary was run by a nurse and a nurse’s aide, who had no formal medical training. The closest hospital was 50 kilometers away.

To close the trip, Yalowich spent a week in Uganda to see how the country is battling AIDS. It wasn’t all work, though. She got to go rafting on the Nile river.

For the fall semester, Yalowich is studying at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, including taking classes on Danish language, human trafficking and medical classes. During her three weeks of personal travel time, she said she plans to travel to Prague and Germany and will catch Oktoberfest in Munich.

A career in medicine is the goal for Yalowich, but traveling will remain in the curriculum.

“I don’t know what I want to specialize in, but I know that I don’t see myself in just a private practice in America,” she said. “I have a hard time staying in one place. I would love to return to Africa and other developing parts of the world practicing medicine and working towards creating better public health systems.”

(Story ideas for this feature can be sent to Cheektowaga Bee Editor Matt Krueger, Bee Publications, 5564 Main St., Williamsville, or by calling 204-4915.)