Antes

In two days my wife and I leave for Guatemala. I'll be there for a little over a month; she's headed back after five days. Our first destination is Santiago on Lake Atitlan, our base for the vacation portion of the trip. We don't have specific plans, but some town wandering, swimming, kayaking, and eating are certainly on the agenda. After this brief summer vacation between 3rd and 4th year, I start at Mayan Medical Aid in Santa Cruz, also on Lake Atitlan. I'll be there for four weeks seeing patients in the clinic in Santa Cruz and other smaller satellite clinics, as well as studying Spanish.


Some of my thoughts going into this month:

I anticipate learning a ton of Spanish. This last year has been wonderful in terms of opportunities to speak Spanish in the hospital. Raleigh and the surrounding areas of NC have a pretty good Spanish population; and Wake Med, where I've done the majority of my 3rd year, serves a large Spanish speaking population. It's been fun taking care of Spanish speaking patients; almost all of whom have been incredibly grateful to have someone who speaks their language involved in their care. I wonder how the dynamic will change when the patients' language is no longer in the minority? Will the surprised smile I see after greeting a patient in Spanish be replaced by a frown of misfortune at having scored the US medical student? I doubt it, but it certainly will be interesting to see what sort of differences there are delivering care to similar populations in very different settings.

Is this something I can do more of in the future? My wife and I would like to make international medicine, in some way or other, a part of our lives. But neither of us has done any yet. I'm hoping this month is the start of something we can share together.

It's been several years since I was away from my wife for a month. In fact, that last time was before we were married. It's not going to be easy, but I think overall the experience will be a good one. At least the dogs will be at home to keep her company.


My goal for this blog is to be pretty free-form with it. I don't have a set plan, no set of questions I aim to answer, no particular theme I'll try to pursue. Rather, I'll share pictures as often as I can and I'll write as often as I can - about life on Lake Atitlan, the practice, the people, the fun, and whatever else comes to mind. If you're curious about something, just post a message after one of my posts and ask.


And now for packing, of which I have done zero.