My mom sent me a list of requests for this blog including hopes, goals, etc for the samana project. Unfortunately that is not well developed at this point. Meeting with the peace corps worker we found that the Italian NGO in the area might have other plans for the building we had our eyes on. I also spent last week just sort of reacclimating. Hopefully, when I’m back to living in san pedro, Milagros and I can spend our evenings planning. Also, I’m planning in the next week or so while I’m living out here in the country on doing some prep for that.

Today was a good day. A long day, but a good day. I spent the morning shadowing with Consuelo. We saw a lot of kids today. I held one poor HIV+ baby for a long time today. He was adorable and a couple of months old. He was doing better. I’m such a sucker for kids. We also saw a patient who had had a rare skin condition where her whole body had been covered in scaly skin with pus dripping everywhere (pleasant picture I know) for about a year, but she is currently doing much better. She has just what looks like very bad acne scars on her face and she sports a wig to cover what little hair she has. The pictures I saw of her from before look very painful. It’s been an interesting experience being her about to start medical school before when I shadowed it felt like I was there to get a taste of things, but now I feel like I have to start remembering stuff so I can apply it as a physician one day. I’m learning about how to deliver medications, how to do an HIV quick test, and Consuelo has mentioned learning how to put a needle in a vein. Also, this is a good place to learn because I’m sure some of the things I see here I might never (or rarely) see in the states.

After the clinic this morning we got around to waiting for Consuelo to finish up her work, so we could go to santo domingo. We talked to her husband for a while. He’s really cool in a very nerdy way. He’s also a physician and an epidemiologist (they’d met while working with the CDC). He’s invented this computer program which I guess is the gold standard for epidemiology programs around the world called EpiInfo. So, it was cool today to get to learn how to use that software from the guy that wrote it. I’m learning that I like this epidemiology stuff….it picks the part of my brain that is the math stuff that I had in engineering.

While in santo domingo we visited casa rosada which is an orphanage for kids with AIDS. It was a beautiful place. It reminded me that I need to get Milagros to take me to where the kids of the cancer patient are. We then ran errands at the Clinton Foundation office and a pharmacy in santo domingo. On the taxi and guagua rides in between I picked Consuelo’s brain. She was born in Cuba and came to the states when she was 10. She worked for a while as an epidemiological outbreak investigator for the CDC. So, when they have an outbreak and they can’t figure out what it is they called her to come and try and figure out what was going on. This took also took her around the world as the CDC consults with the world health organization. Super cool.

Anyways, we ended the night with a dinner at Consuelo and Andy’s place. They also have a Dominican physician living with them who is incredibly nice. He’s been working at the clinic for almost a year now, and he just got back from a course in epidemiology in Guatemala. It was really great to get to meet and know these people. Overall, it was a good day. Tomorrow consuelo’s coming to a hospital in san pedro with Milagros and I in the afternoon. Then I’m not sure what the plan is. I just know I have no work until Tuesday due to Semana Santa (Easter….it’s a big deal here). Then next week I’ll officially start my rotation which I think will take me all over the city. Also, I’ll get to meet the big boss man who I hear is cool. He also used to be the head of pediatrics at Columbia University. We’ll see what comes….