El fin de semana: La Playa, Fútbol y Ciclodia

SO, the weekend is almost done.  Sitting here on a bright and warm Sunday afternoon with a cool breeze coming in through the open windows of my room collecting my thoughts....

Overcast Beach - southern Lima

 It's fall in Lima, and the weather has been amazing.  75 degrees during the day, 65 degrees at night, sunny...like california ;-)  However, that doesn't mean the beaches are like California at this time of year.  Sunny in Lima = foggy & overcast in the southern beaches.  The beaches to the South of Lima are supposed to be the best in Peru and it was definitely nice but it was the cast of characters that made the trip.  To protect the innocent I will refer to my new found friends and companions as el español , el profesor, el gordo, y los limeños (two brothers).  These guys are hilarious! We went to Playa El Silencio (Beach of the silence) and it was divided up among vendors who were like jackals at a carcass trying to aggressively direct you sit in their section of the beach.  They bring food, beer, water and whatever else you need to your beach chairs, there was a live band playing and some beach-side clubs were starting to open up around 5pm.  We relaxed in our chairs, watched the surfers, ate some local peruvian dishes on the beach, drank some beers, conversed with the vendors on the beach selling everything from books, to gum, to ice cream, to chicken sandwiches and had a great time eventhough it was overcast and a little cold with no sunshine.  Guess I'll just have to come back during beach season in Jan/Feb ;-)   
 

E.T. selling ice cream in Perú

Then we went to get lúcuma ice cream -  lúcuma is a fruit unique to Perú and they make it into a yummy ice cream with a distinct flavor....it's sweet, kind of like a light nutty sweet potato flavor and the ice cream here was light orange in color.  It's yummy.  They like to mix it with pecans and it makes it even yummier ;) The really interesting thing is that it's in a location similar to Roswell New Mexico or Area 51 that has a ton of UFO sitings or OVNIs.  SO, they have E.T. peddling lúcuma ice cream and some people believe that lúcuma fruit was actually given to the Peruvian people by extraterrestiral species.  I bet you thought E.T. just wanted to phone home - I know I did. 

The Gordo then  took off to see his favorite Fútbol team and we went to play volleyball & Fútbol with some of the limeños friends. We had an international team of a spaniard, two  limeños, an ecuadorian and the token mexican-american from the U.S. - after getting thoroughly stomped in volleyball we had to make-up  for it in Fútbol aka soccer.  3 on 3 soccer, on a small concrete court, fist team to score 2 goals wins.  We had 4 teams total and, of course, I get the two last picks since I'm the new guy from the U.S. but we had teamwork. GO Teamwork!!! 
 We ended up winning and you can see one of our last goals in the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1974617487639&saved#!/video/video.php?v=1974617487639&comments

After experiencing some of the nightlife in Lima in the District of Miraflores, which is an upscale area of lima known for it's night life, shopping, gardens, flower-filled parks and beaches, I decided to stretch out the legs this morning on Ave Arequipa.  Every Sunday the 52 blocks of Ave Arequipa are closed for Ciclodia to support exercise and healthy activities in Lima.  I took a tour of all 52 blocks and saw parks filled with people participating in free Zumba classes, cardio kickboxing classes, spin classes going on, free water stations with water and powerade as well as streets full of cyclists, runners, roller bladers and families walking together.  I thought it was the perfect way to end my first weekend in Lima with sunshine, exercise, and enjoying the unique culture of the city. 

More info on ciclodia -
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-14265-lima-lima-cyclists-skaters-take-over-av-arequipa-first-ciclodia
http://www.munlima.gob.pe/Publicacion/Publica.aspx?nid=2181&t=El-domingo-27-de-febrero-se-inicia-el-programa-Ciclodia-Recreativo

El Metropolitano

Riding El Metropolitano to work

 Public transportation is not one of Lima's strong points, which is why I was excited to hear that a high speed public transportation system was up and running.  The Mayor of Lima who made it all happen - Luis Castañeda Lossio - is also running for president in a tight race with the daughter of a former president and current congresswoman as well as a leftist endorsed by Hugo Chavez.  Should be interesting, just like their high speed bus system.


El Metropolitano covers a good portion of the city but not all of it....and it gets a little dicey when the city has no power and the station doors don't open.  Your kind of stuck like chuck and have to figure out a way to get creative - like the guy who jumped off the bus and forced open the doors so people could get off the bus and onto the station stop ;)  Eventually, they figured it out and at least they weren't stuck underground in the subway.  All in all it's still the fastest, safest, most comfortable (for the most part) and least expensive way to get around the city - one trip is about $1.50 nuevo soles or about .50 cents U.S. - not too shabby.  It's kind of fun too. 
I highly recommend it on your next trip to Lima.

Wikipedia for more info:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistema_Metropolitano_de_Transporte 

El Metropolitano is AWESOME when the doors to the station work :(

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!

Lima - Day#1

Overnight flight into Lima from JFK, breakfast chicharrones w/local peruvian cab driver, AWESOME guest house in the middle of Lima, GREAT reception at UPCH, add in a Peruvian Cell phone with some grocery shopping with Rosa who runs the guest house and cooks some great Peruvian food that = ;-) Whoop!!!

Tomorrow....the hospital and meetings with ethics committees....should be fun!