I can’t believe that its already been about 1 ½ weeks since I’ve been in La Paz! It seriously seems like I’ve been here forever because I have so much to write and tell. I really wish that I had more time to blog in-detail about what I’ve been up to but I’ve been extremely busy with school, interning, and traveling. Well, with no further ado, let me write about my time here thus far:
Internship: Currently, I’m interning at Hospital del Niño. Hospital del Niño is one of the oldest government run hospitals in Bolivia dedicated to pediatric care, especially pediatric oncology, gastroenterology, infectious disease, neurosurgery, emergency, and outpatient care.
On the first day, the other students and I arrived at the hospital at 9 am dressed sharply in business attire, ironed white lab coats, and stethoscopes around our necks ready to do work. As soon as we walked into the hospital, we were greeted by the stares of many Bolivian parents and children that were sitting in the large lobby. As we walked passed the parents and kids, their eyes and heads followed us. We made our way up to the 3rd floor to wait for Dr. Velasco (the main doctor at the hospital) so he could take each group of students to the doctor that they would be working with.
For this week, two other interns and I are working with Dr. Bocangle. Dr. Bocangle does general pediatrics and also specializes in nephrology (aka the kidneys). On the first day, I noticed several things. The first thing that I noticed was the lack of privacy given to patients in comparison to that of the US. The patient beds are in two neat rows with about five or six in each row and are closely spaced apart. There are no curtains or other dividers that create privacy. Furthermore, there is about 5 doctors plus a couple of medical students that attend to one patient during each round. In addition, dictation is done on the spot; it is quite interesting the way it works here. One doctor will dictate and another doctor will type on an old-school typewriter what the other doctor(s) is saying. In the US, dictation doesn’t happen in the presence of the patient and a doctor dictates into some type of recorder. A medical transcriptionist then transcribes the doctor’s dictation.
So far this week I have seen many interesting things. In the next couple of days, I will post one or two case studies of patients that I’ve seen here.
In and About La Paz: La Paz is a city that has so much to offer. Last week Friday, some other students and I went to the Museo Nacional de Arte. The museum was very cool and the artwork was incredible. There is a variety of artwork in the museum that highlights Bolivian artwork from different periods. The Flemish, Italians, and Indians influenced Bolivian artwork. I found the artwork displayed at the museum to be quite interesting and it covered a wide variety of topics from religion, historical figures, and modern artwork. If you ever come to La Paz, I highly recommend you check it out.
I also hiked in La Paz with some friends to a viewpoint known as “Killi Killi.” The viewpoint is awesome b/c it allows one to literally look down into La Paz. Let me tell you, the name given to this viewpoint was justly given b/c it was a ‘killer’ workout to hike up the hill. Nevertheless, the viewpoint provided a gorgeous view of La Paz.
In addition to those, I visited Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) on Sunday. This place is located about 20-30 min out of La Paz and is basically a beautiful valley. I was amazed by the houses that had been built into and around the valley.
On Sunday, my friends and I also checked out a local soccer game between two local teams: Bolivar vs. San Jose. I must say that the game was quite interesting. When we first got to the game, we had no idea which team was which. One team was wearing white and the other black. We assumed that the white team was Bolivar (the team we wanted to cheer for) b/c they had blue on their jerseys which was similar to the official colors of the Bolivar hats that we bought. Well, come to find out during the second half of the game, we had been cheering for the wrong team AND we were sitting in the San Jose section. The whole situation was absolutely hilarious. Another highlight of the game was that during the second half, one of the San Jose players almost beat up the ref b/c he didn’t like the call that the ref had made. Nevertheless, Bolivar won with the score being 5 to 1. It was interesting to see at the end that the refs literally had to be escorted off the field by a riot police squad.
La Paz wouldn’t be somewhat of a vacation if I didn’t go shopping. So far, I’ve visited a couple of the markets. The markets are what I pictured them to be. I must say that going to Nigeria in the past and learning to bargain at Nigerian markets has served me well here. I’ve bought a couple things that I’ve had to bargain for and I must say that I’m proud of myself. I’ll probably be making a couple more trips to the market in the next few days.
Currently, I’m at an internet café and have to head home for lunch. But in the next couple days, I’ll post a blog about some case studies. Chao!
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