Update from Lima

I've been keeping pretty busy lately, working at three different hospitals here in Lima. I have been shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, where I get to see him perform operations and make rounds with the patients. He is trying to get me set up with being able to perform an amputation sometime soon too! As some of my relatives can attest to, I've always been interested in amputations ever since I was really young and always tried to sneak a peek at my grandpa's fake leg. I'm really excited to get a chance to actually perform one!

I've also been shadowing different people in a lab at another hospital, where they are working with tuberculosis, Chagas disease, HIV/AIDS, as well as other diseases which are more prevalent down here. More than anything, this is a great chance for me to practice my Spanish, as very few workers in the lab speak English. My Spanish still needs plenty of work, but I got excited when a taxi driver recently asked if I was from Canada, because he didn't believe that an American would be able to speak Spanish as well as I did!

The third hospital that I've been working at is where I will be spending a majority of my time during the next two months. I am taking over a project of someone who is heading back to the states to continue medical school. The project that I will be doing involves using a device that measures the concentration of nitric oxide in a patient's breath. This device is currently being used for asthma treatment to determine the amount of inflamation in the lungs, and our goal is to determine if it can be used to monitor treatment of tuberculosis as well. My job will be to travel around Lima with a nurse to make house-calls to these patients to get their data.

I am also trying to contact a company from Japan that has developed a new drug to treat Chagas disease. If we can get our hands on this drug, it would be likely that I would be working with monitoring the cardiac pathology of guinea pigs being treated with this drug. We still haven't gotten a hold of the company, so I'm not totally sure if I'm going to be working on that.

Many of the people that I have met down here are leaving/already left. I came down at a time when most people are finishing up their projects and returning to the US, which means there have been lots of despedidas to go to lately! For Leora's despedida we went to the 4D (which for those of you who have been to Lima know as the best place to get ice cream down here) and got one scoop of every flavor. Below are a couple of pictures of the plates of ice cream and a few of the people from the despedida.

Plate #1 - 11 scoops of ice cream

Leora (in the white) and some other friends at her despedida

The other plate with more ice cream!

Miranda, the girl I've been living with for the past month, is also leaving for the US this Tuesday, so we had her despedida this weekend. We somehow managed to rack up a bill of over 1000 soles (~$350) between all of us, which is by far the largest bill I have seen down here. 

The largest bill ever

After dinner, we went out to a discoteca to watch a couple of bands and have a few beers. The first band was possibly the worst band I've ever heard in my life, and that's not only because they were singing in a different language. It was an all-girl rock band that started doing those weird screaming noises that my friend Grant always listens to. Grant - I don't even think you would like this... it was just weird. The second band was pretty good. It was a rock band that kept a party-like atmosphere going the whole time so that was pretty fun. Unfortunately as Miranda was leaving, her purse was stolen right from her arm. Kind of a sour note on an otherwise great despedida

The second band of the night

Meredith and Rachel (who have been living with me for the past week and will stay until they leave for the states on Friday) and Dan Smith at Sargento's. Dan is the one who started the tuberculosis project that I will be taking over.

In other news - I found a new apartment to move into starting July 1. It is on the 13th floor overlooking the Pacific Ocean right in Miraflores, which is the area of Lima with a lot going on and should be a great time! It's going to be nice to finally live in an apartment with internet... for the past two weeks I've had to come the 4D to use their internet (and hang out with the cute waitresses, eat really good ice cream, etc...). Here is a map of where my new apartment is... it's actually two blocks to the west at the intersection with Colon, but I couldn't get Google Maps to point there.

My friend Rob Pletscher is the first person to finally book a flight to come visit me! He is going to be coming from July 21 until August 18 and we are going to Arequipa to hike in the world's largest canyon as well as to Iquitos to check out the rain forest and hunt for anacondas. My dad (feliz día del padre!) is going to be coming sometime in August or September and we are going to hike the Inca Trail together. If  you want to come visit at any time, let me know and I can help you plan it out!