I've created this blog to keep anyone who's interested up-to-date on what's going on in my life. I'm going to keep this first post short, since I have about a dozen things I still need to accomplish today, and I'm finding myself a bit bashful at the moment.
The big deal in my life at the moment is that I'm heading to Guatemala early tomorrow morning.
Why? In a nutshell, 1. to learn Spanish, 2. to work in a medical clinic, and 3. to do research. The desire to do 1 & 2 has been around since the beginning of medical school, but it was easily suppressed in favor of memorizing T-cell markers and pharmacokinetics. That changed in third year, which is spent almost entirely in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices. There I encountered Spanish-speaking only patients all the time (in some rotations, it was one in three patients). Translator phones were usually available, but even the most streamlined interview took at least twice as long as one where the patient and I spoke the same language, and I always felt like I was missing out on the other 50% of an interview, where word choices, pauses, inflections, and subtleties can sometimes tell you more about the patient and their story than what is actually being said. It was highly frustrating.
So I got it in my head to go learn Spanish. I briefly thought about some kind of program in the States, but figured anything that wasn't immersion would end up being unsuccessful. After a bit of research, I found a program in Guatemala that was well-priced, well-developed, and had a strong medical Spanish program as well as an affiliated clinic: Pop Wuj in Quetzaltenango.
I'm going by myself, although a friend or two will be enrolling for a month sometime this Fall. "Class" begins on the 19th. Until then I plan on spending a few days in Antigua getting adjusted to being a gringo.
That's all for now. Feel free to pass this web address along to whomever you think would be interested. I plan on updating this page at least weekly, and will probably reply to comments more quickly than that. Thanks for reading :)
Becky! Can't wait to hear how it goes! I'm a little behind, but hoping to do a couple of months of the same kind of thing, so I'd love to hear an insider's take on how it is in the program (especially as I'm hoping to get the same sort of thing out of a program!)
ReplyDeleteHope it all goes well!