Andre’s in Peru!

Felt like I lucked out on Friday! Rochester published student schedules for 4th year and I got the schedule I was hoping for. Right after I found that out, Emily called telling me she’d seen an apartment that turned out to be a great fit for us, and now we’re super excited to move into a cool new place in one of our favorite neighborhoods. On top of that, Em’s 4th year schedule aligns great with mine so that we both have blocks of electives at the same, which means we could do a good amount of camping this fall! So lots of good news for when I go back to Rochester :) Meanwhile in Lima things are cooling down, which Jeff and I are thankful for. It may seem blasphemous, but hurray for the return of cloudy mornings! We’re continuing to split our time between the two hospitals we’ve developed the closest ties with. This week Jeff was in the infectious disease ward at Dos de Mayo, following up with patients in the HIV study we’re helping with there, and looking to recruit new participant...

It's Sunday, and I'm sitting in Parque Roosevelt with Jeff, laying on a couple blankets in the cool, breezy shade. We thought there would be a yoga class but apparently they’re not meeting this week, so instead we’re admiring the birds and watching kids play, talking about adulthood. At one point two little ones hurried past us with sticks pointing at a tree and jumping up and down while shouting “un ardilla!” Because squirrels are so rare here, a sighting generates much excitement. Meanwhile,  a pair of tiny dogs walked by with hats on, one of them with a dazzling, glittery NY Yankees symbol - I guess they need sun protection too :p Between the yoga classes and the foofy pups, you can probably get sense that this park is located in an upper-class neighborhood. Afterwards we wandered around unsuccessfully looking for a low-key place to eat, and decided to head home, feeling somewhat defeated. Luckily we spotted a new-to-us ceviche stand in our neighborhood, which by itself mad...

For the week of Valentine's Day, Hansel took Jeff and I to the Amazon jungle to the town where he performed his year of rural service after graduating from medical school. We were able to take care of patients directly for the first time since we arrived in Peru, which brought up some discomfort about my rusty medical abilities, but it was a good challenge that I'd been hoping for when I came here. In brief, it was a thought-provoking and inspiring experience, and my respect for Hansel grew as I imagined myself in his shoes, freshly graduated, trying to learn on the fly how to be a primary care provider in a tropical setting. The time in Santa Clotilde (the jungle town) helped me gain confidence in interacting with doctors and patients in the Lima hospitals. While attending rounds in the infectious disease department, I've found myself following the discussion more than I have in the past, and I sometimes am able to contribute something I've gleaned from the patient...

It’s been such a long time since I posted any kind of update! With so much to catch up on, I think I’ll focus on some of the golden moments of the last month or so :) I got to meet and chat uninterrupted for a surprisingly long time with a founder of Partners in Health, Dr. Farmer, who visited Lima for the inauguration of a new TB screening program. I say surprising because it seemed all of Lima wanted to get his attention, and yet he found it important enough to sit and talk with a group of us volunteers on a long bus ride from the outskirts of the city back to the center. In this case I didn’t mind the traffic! An opportunity to work as research staff fo an HIV-related project opened up for Jeff and I from our chance encounter with a seasoned Johns Hopkins doctor. We’re still getting things organized to start, but we’re excited to potentially have more hands-on time with patients. Meanwhile we’re also still working on our independent research project on TB adherence. We didn’t...

For my birthday, I had a nice, relaxed dinner with Hansel and his parents, my Peruvian family. I’d been wanting to cook for them and show Paty and Alex the apartment. It was fun to improvise the meal (was thinking Indian, then decided Italian, and it ended up mostly French), and I was happy to show off my cooking skillz a bit - made a wine-y pork-y onion and garlic and herbs stew that was pretty good! Like any self-respecting French cook,  I consumed a good amount of wine as I waited for them to show up -  we didn’t end up eating till after 930 - and I spontaneously got the urge to cruise around my neighborhood on my new used skateboard that I’d bought earlier that day. It turns out that skateboarding is just as difficult as I remember from my previous failed attempts as a kid. I played it cool for the passersby when the board didn’t cooperate, got stuck in a crack in the sidewalk, or completely whizzed out from under me. I’d been inspired the day before when Jeff and I stumbl...

Mom called it. After the excitement of being in a new place and making friends, I miss home. I miss the effortless enjoyment of Emily's company. I miss my friends, the fall leaves, Olive. I miss my weekly talks with Mom and Pierre That has been hitting me pretty hard lately, although I don't mean to suggest there haven't been plenty of bright spots, too. I'm still finding my way at work, and trying to find/create a community of friends here that I can do things like climb with. Sometimes it seems like a lot of the Peruvians I meet want to go to malls and clubs, which isn't really my scene :/ So I'm going to keep looking around for friend prospects. This may sound confusing because I have my best friend Jeff with me, but we realized a while ago that we needed our own space for various reasons, including being able to speak more Spanish. We are still working at Hipolito, although this week we were asked to help out with a quality control project involving anothe...