Lima - Day#2 = OVERWHELMING

Hospedaje Estudiantes Estranjeros = Great Living!

 On my second day in Lima and I feel like I've been here for....forever.  The house provided by UPCH is awesome! Like many things in Lima it has an interesting story - condensed version --> it belonged to a priest, who inherited it from his mom, she wanted to sell it in order to have an inheritance to give her kids but they could not agree on a selling price or when to sell it, so when she passed away it went to the priest...the priest then ended up donating it to the University - Cayetano Heredia - who then turned it into housing for foreign students - you'll have to talk to Rosa for the full story :)

I'm digressing, so back to this feeling of overwhelming emotions.  I had my first visit to the hospital today to introduce myself to the doctor who will be supporting my research there as well as see what it's like.  It gave me a new appreciation for the facilities and standard of care that can be practiced in the U.S. today.  It made me feel very luck to be training at Yale.  Add to that my meeting at the national institute of health in Peru, meeting with my mentors at USAID Peru as well as the amazing support and positive comments I have been receiving.....overwhelmed.  That is not usually a word I associate with after having spent 7 years in the active duty military.  It's a good feeling of being overhwelmed. 
Everyone I spoke with today expressed the sincerest thanks that a student clinician from the U.S. with a shared cutlture and interest has taken up an active pursuit in Peruvian healthcare and everyone has said that they are invested in helping me succeed.  The expectations are high and I'm up for the challenge.  However, I'm blown away by the positive responses from everyone involved.  I also enjoy trying to explain to them what exactly a Physcian Associate in the U.S. can do and I'm happy to show them how PAs, even Student PAs, can postitively impact healthcare.  Right now, everyone still calls me "Doctor" even after I correct them that I'm a student and that I'm actually a Physician Assistant student which is like a doctor but a bit different - that we bring a patient oriented, health-care team perspective to patient-care because we're trained that way.  My favorite part is explaining the flexibility and mobility of the PA profession - we are not tied down to any one particular speciality  because we are required to establish such a unique and close working relationship with Physicians who have received that specialized training, so we can jump from specialty to specialty relying on the strength of our generalized training as well as the support from our supervising physicians as we learn additional skills. 

A few other thoughts, I've had lots of interesting interactions with local Peruvians about their upcoming General Elections and about Lima/Peru, in particular.  I've had some great conversations with my Spanish housemate who is studying bio-informatics at UPCH and working on keeping up his German language skills so he can get a job once he graduates.  I love the Metropolitano Bus System! Interesting latin-american form of public transportation - no subways or high speed rail for Lima, let's have a high speed bus system! - love it.

more to follow on those thoughts as they develop.....

See Above - Whoop!

 I'm excited to start my work at the hospital and soaking up Lima before I head off to the Andes.
This weekend....beach time ;) Maybe some rock-climbing...we'll see. Whoop!