2nd week in Met

This has been another interesting week. I volunteered to be on-call everyday, which in hindsight might be a mistake. During the day I am seeing patients with Spencer, the other medical student, he is showing me the ropes and is great because he understands my level of knowledge and really goes out of his way to explain things. We go in, interview the patient then present to the physician. Next we all go in together and treat the patient. Afterwards I have an opportunity to “debrief” with the physician, which entails asking any questions or making any comments on how everything preceded. Last night I was on-call for the first time and discovered that my “black cloud” has followed me from Boston because we had a call about once every hour or two. I saw a gambit of patients. I got to put in an IV and monitor various patients (supervised of course!).

Tonight I am on-call again but this time the on-call supervisor is going to triage the patients then call me as if she were them (regardless of the complaint ie: “my kids are being too loud what do I do?”) and I have to respond as if I were the on-call doctor and would have to triage them myself. I have already had my first call and it was funny because she only gave me the information she received which was not much and did not make sense. This patient I decided that they should stay home and not come in and she agreed and had already told the patient the same thing. Did I mention that I love it here?

Metlakatla

I arrived in Metlakatla (Met). Well, perhaps I should describe how I did this. I flew, via jet, in to Ketchikan’s airport on an island across the channel from the main city. After taking a ferry across I walked down a few blocks towards Taquan Airways, all-the-while float planes were buzzing around like mosquitoes, bald eagles were perched everywhere watching vigilantly, and whales had been spotted coming down the channel. I reached Taquan and clambered into a small four-seated beaver (that's a type of float-plane for those non-Alaskans) loaded down with US post. We taxied out on to the water and waited for the “traffic” to clear before the roaring engine took us into the air. Soaring high over the channel I saw the whales and before I knew it we were touching down in Met. Met is a small community with just over a thousand residents and it shows. As I walked towards the clinic everyone passing in their cars gave me a friendly smile and a wave. I reached the clinic and was immediately thrown into mix. In fact, a nurse came over gave me an oral report, handed me the patient’s chart, and walked away. I chased after her and explained how it was my first day and I would love to treat the patient with someone in the room with me. She smiled and assigned me to one of the health care providers and I followed Michele for the rest of the day. Michele is a PA and she was AWESOME! She explained her thought process as we proceeded and answered every one of my questions. It was a fun experience.

The next day I shadowed Dr. Crosby, an elderly gentleman from S. Carolina with an accent to prove it. He is the type of physician I strive to be. His patients love him, his co-workers admire him, and he is insanely smart. There is another 4^th year medical student here, Spencer, from Harvard and he is teaching me a TON! We go in together to see each patient and I get to do the interview and any questions I forget, he asks. Then we do the physical exam and present to the physician. It is the perfect set up. But today I only saw 2 patients before we had an emergency. An elderly gentleman came in with symptoms of a stroke. I almost got to put in an IV and everyone was running around like crazy. It turned out to be a game of “hurry up and wait” because the patient had to be transported to Ketchikan via boat and the boat was not ready. After 40mins of waiting we wrapped up the patient and took the 30min ride to Ketchikan and handed him over to their staff. The rest of the day we wondered around town and waited for them to fuel up and get some other business out of the way. I am hoping that someone will take me fishing while I am in Met because the weather is unbelievable. Stay tuned for more and photos!!

Oh Canada..

So I arrived in Canada a few days ago and I am slowly falling in love with this city (Vancouver). I am staying with Lidia at her host family's house and they as super nice. They are a Philipino family and they are falling head of heels to cook me traditional food (I may have mentioned that I love lumpia, shanghi, and more). Our first day out Lidia and I explored downtown Vancouver. This town is built for pedestrians. We walked for hours ducking into the various retail stores because they are all having mega sales 70% or more off of many items. I took advantage and bought a few things but then later found out that there is a 12% tax here!!! Damn. We are eating like kings and just having the time of our lives. The International Jazz festival is going on while I am here so we've been chasing jazz venues for the past couple of days. I am helping Lidia with her English and she is excited to start classes next Monday. Our first day ended with us having front row seats to a jazz concert splitting a bottle a decent wine. Jazz, wine, and good company does life get any better?

Day two we set out towards the waterfront, Gastown, and Granville Island. The waterfront was nothing too spectacular although Lidia enjoyed seeing all of the float planes and ships in the harbor. We walked through Gastown and saw the giant steam-powered clock. I love Gastown and hope that we return there at night. It is a cute little street with fashionable stores, pubs, and more. There was another jazz concert there that we sat and watched for a while before heading off to the island. So far my favorite place in Vancouver is Granville Island. It reminds me of the market in Boston Fanull Hall (sp?). There are all sorts of foods, artisans, and more there. We just had a ball walking around and sampling some of everything. We took the aquabus to get there and I think we may return tomorrow. After Granville Island we left for Vanier Park where we thought there was a Shakespeare festival but it turned out to be just a theater. We relaxed in the park before our long trek back to her host family's house (across town, 30min subway trip, 15min bus trip). Rain or shine we have been walking machines and it is a good thing too because Lidia's host mom constantly bombards us with food. 'You too thin. Eat! Eat!'. 'That is not enough make it a dozen or better a baker's dozen'!

And.. We're back

Sooo sorry that I have been out of the loop for the past few days but I have had an incredible time. A brief continuation from my last blog, I was sitting at the bar in my hostel all alone as Brent and Lori had abandoned me for greener pastures when who of all people should walk in but the girl (Chan pronounced 'Jan') I met on the bus up to Chiang Mai! She was excited to run into me when I got back and wanted to know if I wanted to go dancing with her and some of her friends. I had nothing better to do so I got dressed and went. It was a blast! Her friends were other foreigners from NGOs French, English, Australian, and of course Cambodians. We all partied and danced and swapped traveling/working stories and I didn't get home till 4am. I was up and running for surgery 4 hours later. I knew that it was going to be a slow day because we had 4 WWAMI students, 5 Hong Kong students, 2 UK students, and now 6 French surgeons. While everyone sat in frustration in the OR fighting for space I went out and visited with my "patients". My Kamer has really gotten impressive and I can hold and very brief conversation and tell a joke or two. The mood has completely changed for me with regards to the clinic. Dr. Jim is back and he alone has transformed the clinic into a dreadful experience. He barks at everyone, pushes people around, and is a general **shole. Plus there is no way to get near the table with all of these people here and the Cambodian docters/nurses feel bad because I have really built great relationships with all of them and there is nothing any of us can do. So I have cut my days in half and spent the afternoons and nights with Chan. She and I drive around on her scooter (I suck at it) and visit all of Phnom Phen as she introduces me to everyone. We eat at GREAT places, drink the best coffee, and our nights are filled with dancing and more people. She seems to know everyone in this city. She helps me with my Kamer and we discuss Cambodian culture as we sample "Apeen" or fried tarantula. She works for the a national magazine and through her connections with various businesses we continue to eat and drink some of the best Cambodia has to offer. Everyone at the clinic was very sad to see me go on my last day and I hope to come back for a 4th rotation here because this experience has been so incredible.

Saturday Chan and one of her close friends took me out to a rural village were some of her friend's relatives lived. It was Peace Corps all over again. They lived in an extremely poor area but were still SUPER kind and I had an opportunity to sit and chat with two very nice translators. We all laughed and I sampled every home-made...thing that was offered to me. I even got to use the first-aid kit in the car to clean some wounds from a worker who had cut himself out in the field. We all laughed at my attempts to speak Kamer and they all wished me safe travels when I left. I really like the two handed bow here. It is a simple gesture that provokes deep respect. The whole experience was surreal. Tonight was my last night, Chan took me out to get Kabobs and take care of some last minute shopping. We managed to get me to the airport with ALL of my luggage on her scooter which I have to say, she is a CRAZY driver and I am thanking my lucky stars that I will leave Cambodia in tacked. There was a tearful good-bye and I know Chan will be a friend of mine for years to come. So here I sit in the Cambodian International Airport waiting to take my 48 hour trip back to the US. What a BLAST! I have to keep asking myself; can life get any better? I can't wait to see you all and share more of my experiences with you. See you soon!

Return to Phnom Phen

Well I can say beyond a doubt that our trip back, via plane, was much less eventful/stressful. The total time it took us to get back was less than one of our delays via train/bus. Brent and Lori were happy. I must say that I miss my travel buddies, Ben and Matt because they would find the joy and adventure in the process rather than the inconvenience. But we weren't totally without incident. On our way back we arrived in PP and took a tuk tuk to the hostel. It was rush hour and never in my life have I witnessed such chaos. Stop lights here are merely suggestions and right of way in an estranged concept. Anyways, we were going up this hill and our tuk tuk didn't look like it was going to make it. We were laughing about our weight when the torque of the motor scooter acted against it and flipped the driver up into the roof of the front of the tuk tuk and we started a free fall backwards down the hill into on coming traffic. Lori and Brent jumped out and tried to slow the run-away tuk tuk while the driver and I were stuck inside. Luckily we careened into a wall and no one was hurt but we could not stop laughing. This and while we were watching a movie in Chiang Mai the projector wasn't switched over in the middle so the screen went black and we could here the tap-tap-tap of the film in free spin for 5 minutes. It were at those moments when we were reminded to that this is no-where close to the US. Now I am all alone at the hostel. Brent and Lori can afford to stay somewhere nice and so we said good bye and here I am... Stay tuned!

Night Bazaars Jungle Canopies

Last night I went out and came across a HUGE market. Supposedly it was the famous Chiang Mai Weekend night bazaar, there were at least two miles of booths/stands selling all sorts of unique items. There was a stand for eatable bugs, paintings, nicknack's, and much more. I am REALLY low on funds so I only bought one thing all night; it was a hand drawn self portrait. I liked it quiet a bit and it was ridiculously cheap. I had so much fun weaving in and around hordes of people haggling loudly in the street. The air seemed electric with excitement over all of the new and wondrous things from all over the country. I walked for 5 hours and still did not see all of the bazaar.

This morning was a rough wake up. My legs ached a bit from walking all night. We were picked up at our place and driven to the Flight of the Jungle site. It was a very long, and very windy road which had we gone much further I would have lost my breakfast. The canopy course was incredible. I hope the videos come out. The course had 34 platforms 22 ziplines, and 4 drops. The longest zip was 300m and nearly 150m high. It was a thrill. They scariest part was the 40m straight down drop they let us free fall for most of it. It was awesome. Great day!

Elephants and Whitewater rafting

COMMENT SECTION WORKS!!

Well, today was just another amazing day. I awoke from my food coma as the result of last night's amazing feast that we prepared. I made red curry with curry paste that I crushed myself, coconut soup, chicken Pad Thai, and fried banana spring rolls dipped in sweetened condensed milk. It was a blast cooking. Our teacher had the most hilarious laugh. He sounded like and evil cartoon character. Thanks to my mom's cooking genes I did very well and was especially proud of the rose that I made from a tomato as a garnish.

Anyways back to today, I woke up and went to my favorite little spot near our hostel for some Thai tea and more Pad Thai (I am either addicted to it or they spike it with MSG). I love the mornings here because they are quiet and provide excellent time to ponder life and its wonders. Again, I find myself smiling as I reflect back on my life, which has been (so far) and incredible adventure. I had We had to split up today because Lori didn't want to go rafting being pregnant and all, which is understandable so she left to train elephants. Brent and I, on the other hand, REALLY wanted to go rafting. The tour picked us up and two hours later we were riding elephants through the jungle towards our rafts. I was taught how to operate an elephant and led our little train through the jungle. Before, I thought that riding a horse was an ultimate power trip but a 1.5 ton elephant trumps that any day. I sat on his neck and controlled him using my feet on his ears. So cool! Next we reached our rafts and went through the brief instructions. Our boat was the "American" boat with Brent, Brian (a lawyer from Philly), myself, and the guide. We ripped through rapids, careened over waterfalls, dove in and swam through some of the rapids and down the river; all the while splashing and dunking the other boats' patrons. By the end of the trip we were soaked, muddy, exhausted, and grinning ear to ear. Life. Is. Good.

And a very special shout out to my dad! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Thank you for always pushing me to be/do my best. Thank you for all of those wet and freezing nights cheering me on along the sidelines of my soccer games, thanks for sitting through the sweltering heat timing at my swim meets, thanks for all those late nights helping me with my homework and most of all thanks for always being there. I love you very much and hope you have a great Father's Day!