Monday, February 25, 2013

Un buen día

25 febrero

Today was a great day.  This morning in clinic, I worked with Javier on some reporting tasks that he was given on Friday.  Some gentlemen from Guatemala City who work for the country's equivalent of the CDC visited and told him that he needs to be doing monthly reporting of the prevalence of various STIs and preventive behaviors.  (Coincidently, they knew of UNC-Chapel Hill because they had worked with the School of Public Health.)  This morning, I told Javier that it was interesting and he confessed that he didn't really understand what they wanted him to do.  We spent the next hour or so running reports from his electronic medical record, which is specially designed to track STIs internationally, and talking about the differences in calculating and interpreting incidence and prevalence.

Back at school, I skyped with Tyler, Owen, and Roy (Owen's duncle).  I donated 5Q to help pay for the school's ex-homeless cat's food.  My maestra and I talked about our weekends and, despite having spoken almost only English all weekend during the hike, my sentences were more coherent, the conversation easier.  It's been happening gradually but today I noticed it more, that my words are more liquid than individual solid states, like I'm starting to approximate the fluid in "fluency."

I walked back here, to school, from yoga feeling happy.  Despite my best efforts, I like the poneytailed teacher.  His classes are varied and I feel stronger but safer, with fewer twinges and asymmetrical aching than I've had in awhile and in spite of hiking to almost 14,000 feet yesterday.  I met a new friend from yoga, another medical student who is from San Francisco and is going into family medicine.  We are going to get dinner tomorrow.  I felt taller when I walked and realized that I actually kind of love the narrow, slippery cobblestoned sidewalks because they force a lot of "buenos días"es and other greetings as people squeeze past telephone poles and nearly run into each other.

Overall, I could appreciate a certain crescendo to my trip today.  I hope it continues!

3 days until Tyler gets here!
xoxo,
Rachel

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