To repeat once again, I´m fine. Just a cold that doesn´t seem to quit, nothing to be worried about (mom). Okay, I have a lot to catch up on. This probably won´t be as in depth as I would like it because I would like to get back to my newest literary addiction, Eragon. That´s probably selfish of me, but what can I say? That book series has me hooked. I realize that I cannot fill you in on all the details of the last week and a half so I´m going to put this in a highlights format. Picture this ESPN SportsCenter and instead of Top 10, we´re doing Top 5.
#5- Saying goodbye to San Jose
Last friday was my last day at the San Jose clinic. I have to admit, it was a little sad. I didn´t have much work there, but I made a lot of friends. I don´t know why I didn´t introduce you to these characters before but here they are. My German friends: Kehrstin and Korina were my favorite. There were three others, but they didn´t talk to me much. Kehrstin (spelling is something weird like this) and I took a bunch of photos together that she´s going to put on fb in a couple of weeks. These girls were great. We kept each other very entertained during the dull moments. The staff: Sandra, Noella, and a doctor and a nurse whose names have escaped me. Sandra was the insurance manager on the floor I worked and she loved to practice her English with me. She lived in New York for a couple of years, but doesn´t know any of the health vocabulary. Noella was my favorite nurse. Whenever she was working all the interns get excited because she always gives us something to do. She´s probably one of the hardest workers I know, and she didn´t hate us like some of the other nurses did because we didn´t know a lot spanish vocabulary. The doctor whose name I forgot was wonderful. She was pretty young and must have just gotten out of medical school. She always took the time to explain cases to us when we didn´t understand. We got to talking one day about her moving to the U.S. to practice medicine there. I told her that it was a great idea, especially after I found out their salary here. General doctors receive 2000 soles a month. That´s about $700 a month! I understand that it´s cheaper to live here, but still doctors usually have to take up two jobs. At last, the nurse whose name I also forgot. She probably taught me the most. She let me help her in everything she did. She taught me how to administer medicine in the iv and all sorts of other things. My favorite person at the clinic: the elevator man. They have a man that operates the elevator for patients. He was the best. So happy all the time. He loved talking to us and would always fill us in when surgeries were happening. I love all of these people and will miss them. I will be sure to visit again before I leave.
#4- Reunion
On Thursday, we had a reunion of sorts with people from Centro Tinku. There was only one girl with me at Centro Tinku when I was studying, so I was excited to meet the people that came before and after me. We met at someone´s apartment and had a party with LOTS of food, just like the peruanos always do. I met two more Germans (their everywhere, I wish I knew German) and two girls my age from the Washington and Colorado. We had a great time and decided to do some travelling together. We´re planing to go to Arequipa together sometime in mid-October.
#3- Shopping
The day after the reunion, I called up Anna (the girl from Washington) and asked her if she wanted to do a little shopping with me. She decided to take me to this mercado called Morino. It had everything. It was huge! Every movie, every kind of shoe, every type of clothing, every kind of toy. It was great. I wanted to get something for the institute dance that night, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Everything was just a tad short ;) Finally I found a pretty shirt for about $10. I will be sure to return there to get some new things before I come home. I had a great time with Anna. It was really nice to be with someone and be able to speak English. It was nice to express exactly what I want to express in exactly the way I want to express it.
#2- New Clinic in Ttio
Boy, is this clinic different than the last. It´s a free clinic for the poor. People line the hallways waiting to be seen. It´s always busy and there is always something happening. I get to work in the Obstetric Center! My amount of work depends on the doctor that is supervising. My first day, I assisted the doctor with general check ups for women after they have had a baby. I got to take the initial measurements: weight, temperature, and blood pressure. I was really excited because I never could have done all that in the other clinic. Unfortunately my days since haven´t been so exciting, a lot of folding bandages. That´s okay though, someone´s gotta do it and I usually find that people reward you for doing the dirty work. I get to follow the doctors when they´re making their rounds. Everyday there is a whole new batch of about seven young mothers with their newborns. Some of them are just so young. Today, they doctor had me hold one of the babies (only 7 hours old). She was so precious and reminded me of how much I´m missing baby Kathryn. The clinic had about 80 births a month, but I have yet to be there for one. I can´t wait for more experiences there.
#1- Dance
My favorite thing that happened in the last week and a half was the institute dance on Friday. It was so different than what I expected. For some reason, I was expecting something similar to our dances. Wrong. First, they had a karaoke. I decided to pass on singing in front of everyone. I wasn´t scared, there was just a lot of people and they all like to sing karaoke a lot. After an hour of that, they started playing the music. It took a while for everyone to start dancing, but once they did I realized how different our cultures are. Most of the songs were salsa and you aren´t supposed to dance unless you have a partner. Naturally because I´m so tall, I didn´t think I would dance much. Once again, wrong. They were all excited to see the gringa dance. The one guy taller than me asked me to dance, and we danced for quite a while. I think he kind of likes me. He walked me home from church last week and asked for my number. I don´t really feel the same way, but what happens if he continues persuing me? I have a hard time turning down people in English, let alone Spanish! Anyways, then I danced some more with this other guy. He was one of the guy´s that asked to take a picture with me at Piki. We danced for almost an hour together, but once again I´m not interested. He´s pretty short and he has long hair that he pulls back into a ponytail... not really my type. There were a lot of traditional dances from Bolivia and Arequipa that I´d never seen before. It was quite an experience. After the dance, ponytail kid asked me for my number. Luckily, I don´t know the house number by heart and I hadn´t purchased a cellphone yet. Got out of that one! One of my girlfriends turned to me and told me he was my admirer. I rolled my eyes and then she said there are better boys out there. So it looks like Peruanos don´t have a problem with how tall I am. And I thought I would have a vacation from boys.
No comments:
Post a Comment