First day of work

I'm sure you all were wondering when Jennifer and I were actually going to start doing what we told everyone was the purpose of the trip - working in pediatric hospitals and clinics. Well, that day ended up being today! Last night Jennifer spoke with Dr. Espinel, who advised us to go to El Hospital Pablo Arturo Suarez, a hospital located in the northern part of the city. She got directions from Luis (Dr. Espinel's brother), and this morning we set out, clad in white coats, to learn some medicine. Unfortunately for us, the directions that we got were a little bit off, and what was supposed to be a 30 minute trip ended up taking an hour and a half. So we arrived on time - Latin American style (aka 30 minutes late). After a bit of confusion and waiting we eventually met our contact, Dr. Andres Corral, who was surprised to see two students instead of the one that Dr. Espinel told him was coming (yeah, don't know what that was about). But after some confusion, we finally met a pediatrician, Dr. Sandra L. (L = last name I can't remember!), who took us to shadow her in the emergency room.

The Pediatric Emergency room is not what you'd think. It's one room. Dr. Sandra sat at a desk, and everyone that needed to be seen came to sit in front of her. Dr. Sandra would then take a patient's file, take the history and physical (again, in front of the other patients), and discuss the diagnosis and treatment, also in front of everyone else. She would proceed this way until her shift ended at 12:00.

Then, we were told to get lunch, and we gladly obliged. Lucky for us, we found an extremely nice maxillofacial surgeon from Brazil who was very happy to show us the cafeteria on the roof (really - we had to walk on the roof outside to get to it). Afer we both ate a really nice lunch of baked chicken, rice, fried plantain, and some vegetable/meat soup for only $1.50, we descended back to the Pediatrics office, where the pediatricians were having clinic. Dr. Sandra went to eat lunch, but not before she shuffled us into the office of Dr. Rosas, another pediatrician. Lucky for us. Dr. Rosas is an awesome teacher, and speaks Spanish clearly and slowly! Needless to say, we both learned a lot, so hopefully that's a sign of things to come!

Our day ended just a little after 4:00, and our trip back home was a LOT shorter, now that we know where we're going. Jennifer, always one to seize the moment, took every opportunity to practice at home what we learned:

Unfortunately, they haven't taught us self-defense yet...By the way - I ate at least a pound of guatita yesterday. I was told while eating it that guatita is good for the stomach. Judging by my very happy stomach today, I can believe it! So fear not the cow stomach - it just may be good for what ails ya.