Hot, Humid, and Tons of Mosquitoes!

I’ve been in Bolivia for a little over two weeks now, and so much has happened I don’t know where to begin. I should have started this blog earlier, but it is what it is. At least I’m starting it sooner than later, right?

So far my time here has been enjoyable. I am working with Mark, a fourth year med student from Loyola, Alice, a recent graduate from Yale, and for the next couple days Becky, a resident pediatrician. We work at the clinic in the little town of Palacios from Wednesday morning to Saturday. After the last patient on Saturday, we pack up and drive two hours back to our house in Santa Cruz. We have Sunday completely off, to wander the streets of the city or just be lazy. Mondays and Tuesdays we schedule consults at the public Hospital Japonés in the mornings and do other miscellaneous errands. And we’re back at the clinic on Wednesday to start the week all over again. An exhausting but always rewarding weekly schedule.

Santa Cruz is like no other city I have ever been in. Sandy streets, buildings built from metal sheets, and skinny stray dogs are typical. There are always “micros” (what the locals call the inner-city bus) full of Bolivians trying to get to their destinations. And like every city, there is the really nice neighborhoods with fenced in brick houses and their gardens remotely segregated from the other ‘not-so-nice’ parts of the city. That’s where we live, the “Barrio Aeronáutico,” in a beautiful two-story house with a huge kitchen, dining area, living room, tv room, and of course our air-conditioned bedrooms (air conditioning is a huge luxury).

Even in the short time I have been in Bolivia, I have experienced many different things. Alice unfortunately caused a minor accident with a taxicab, and got the Bolivian police involved (thanks to our connections through our boss Dr. Douglas nothing major happened); that of course made for an interesting afternoon. So many mosquitoes have bitten me it looks like I had chicken pox all over my legs. Yesterday, Caballo 2 stepped on my foot after an unsuccessful horse ride. Caballo 2 is one of two horses kept at the clinic; the other’s name is Caballo 1. Creative names huh? On the other hand, with these bad experiences, there have also been better ones to make them worth it. I have successfully learned how to drive a manual car, and I have yet to get stuck in the mud! Thanks to Mark and Becky who have let me sit in with them while seeing patients, I have been exposed to a lot of new medicine. Conditions including diabetes (85% of the patients that come to the clinic are affected), chagas, gastritis, and gall bladder disease are very common and go untreated for years because of patients’ limited resources to pay for medications. Through observation and some conversation, I have learned some about the Bolivian culture, but I know I have yet to understand it.


That’s enough for now. More details and stories soon... As they say in Bolivia, Ciao Ciao!