For those of you aren't quite sure what the trip is for, it's a medical internship through Child Family Health International (CFHI). CFHI is a non-profit organization that sends pre-medical and medical students to underdeveloped countries to intern and learn about healthcare abroad. A good amount of the fees go toward compensating the doctors for teaching us and to help out the hospitals and clinics. I'll be spending 7 weeks in Quito, the capital and 2nd largest city, which is nestled in the Andes mountains at 9,400 feet in the Pichincha province. The other 3 weeks will be spent in Chone, a small rural town near the coast. The internship is a urban/rural comparison, so I'll get to see the contrast between healthcare in Ecuador's more developed regions versus a less developed area. I'm staying with an Ecuadorian family and their dog, Rosquita.
Every weekday I have clinical rotations in the morning for 4 hours, followed by Spanish classes at the Amazing Andes Spanish School. We've been switching between grammar, medical terminology, and situational stuff that would happen in a hospital like describing symptoms and interviewing patients. Andrew (another Beaver) and I are the only ones in the group that aren't in med school, so some of the medical stuff is a little over my head but the other students are helping me out with that. The anatomical terms are almost all identical to the English terms, so that makes things easier.
I'm still trying to get to know the city; the only place I've been to so far is La Mariscal, aka Gringolandia. It's a really popular area with tons of dance clubs, bars, and European style pubs.
Every week we switch Doctors and hospitals. Last week I was with Dra. Guamán, a family physician that travels around the city to different clinics every day. The first day, we (one other intern and I) observed for a couple hours at a clinic in the west side mountains in a poor area, and then they had a ribbon-cutting celebration for their new second floor. They had us stand in front of the community members with them as if we were important people, while the administrators, engineers, and doctors gave speeches.
Then we were given wine to toast with and cake. So all in all it wasn't a very stressful day. On Friday we went to a day care in the mountains to check up on the growth of the kids and to check for malnutrition. One girl was malnourished and tachycardic, and it was apparent; she was small for her age, skinny, and was really quiet in comparison to the others. She's on the right in the pic:
Last weekend a bunch of us went to Baños, a small town with a lot of waterfalls, a hotspring, and tons of adventure-type things to do. More on that, and an interesting story about emergency stitches in a rural Ecuadorian hospital, later.
Every week we switch Doctors and hospitals. Last week I was with Dra. Guamán, a family physician that travels around the city to different clinics every day. The first day, we (one other intern and I) observed for a couple hours at a clinic in the west side mountains in a poor area, and then they had a ribbon-cutting celebration for their new second floor. They had us stand in front of the community members with them as if we were important people, while the administrators, engineers, and doctors gave speeches.
Then we were given wine to toast with and cake. So all in all it wasn't a very stressful day. On Friday we went to a day care in the mountains to check up on the growth of the kids and to check for malnutrition. One girl was malnourished and tachycardic, and it was apparent; she was small for her age, skinny, and was really quiet in comparison to the others. She's on the right in the pic:
Last weekend a bunch of us went to Baños, a small town with a lot of waterfalls, a hotspring, and tons of adventure-type things to do. More on that, and an interesting story about emergency stitches in a rural Ecuadorian hospital, later.
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