It's Wednesday, July 6th and all is pretty quiet here in La Paz right now because from about 12-3 most Bolivians return home for a big lunch and the ciesta (city-wide rest). The seasons are reversed south of the equator so we're currently in the beginnings of the winter season -- That plus the fact that La Paz sits at almost 12,000 feet elevation (for a reference, the peak of Mount Mitchell sits at 6,684 feet) makes for some very cold temperatures, particularly at night. Unfortunately my homestay doesn't have heating (many of the residents of the building are afraid of the dangers of gas heating) and so I have to bundle up before I go to bed. During the day, if the sun is out it's warm enough for jeans and a jacket, but at night it can get down to below freezing. My homestay is in a fantastic area of town -- right on a main avenue (avenida Arce). It's a nice cozy apartment that my host mom, her son, a girl from Germany, and myself will be sharing for the next six weeks. On my first day (sunday), some of the CFHI participants from the month before were still in town, and so I walked around and explored the city with them for a bit. La Paz is a very hilly city and thus walking even a block uphill got me extremely winded early on due to the lack of oxygen at this altitude.
The food here has so far been very good. I'm still not quite used to the way that Bolivians (and most Latin Americans) have their meals: big breakfast, even bigger lunch, and then very small dinner. Through the program I'm provided breakfast and lunch at my homestay, and every lunch so far my host mom has piled on the food -- once again, something that I'm not used to. It's really interesting how it works, however, as meals here (particularly lunch) are huge social and family gathering times, even during the normal work week. I also think in practice, having a small dinner helps to keep weight down a lot.
In terms of my clinical rotations, this week I'm at el Hospital del Niño, shadowing Dra. Riveros in the Oncology and Genetics ward. Given that it's a pediatrics hospital, all of the patients in the ward are younger than 15 or so, and some are even new borns who were born with some form of cancer. This particular rotation has been much more observation based as there's not much hands on treatment experience one can participate in in Oncology. One observation that I've noticed is that although this is one of the better pediatric hospitals here in La Paz, the building is pretty run-down and the supplies are few, particularly compared to US standards. I also noticed that hospital visits can definitely be a family affair here, as many of the kids we saw in the hospital had both parents, all siblings and occasionally even grandparents there with them.
That's about all I have for now. This weekend a group of us might head to the beautiful Lake Titicaca, via Copacabana and La Isla del Sol, so I'll be sure to report back on that when I get a chance.
Hasta Luego!
Whitaker
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