The Real World: Bolivia

If you're wondering what exactly the living situation is like down here, I'll give you a run down on the many interesting people who live here. When we got here the following people were living here: Sharon- Canadian social worker, worked here a few years ago (and at that time fell off a horse and needed pelvic orthopedic surgery); but currently only here on vacation b/c she loves the people and wanted to be here for her godson's baptism (Jose Eduardo). She bonded with Freddy's family (the grandfather of Jose Eduardo) when she was here a few years back, they named a baby after her and made her the godmother of Jose Eduardo.
Yuna- Northwestern medical student taking a year off to travel around South America and work at the clinic. She did a project looking at herbal/nontraditional remedies used by the bolivians who live in the campo (the rural countryside). She left our first week here.
Dr. John Clarke- Northwestern Infectious Disease specialist, and his wife Betty, a former nurse.
Those 4 have all since left, and were replaced by these fabulous people:
Dr. Janice Duke- OB/GYN from Wright State, Adrian Perfilio- OB/GYN resident at Wright State and former Loyola student, Sumi Mishra- Internist currently doing a Women's Health fellowship at UC Davis, Becca- premed just graduated from UC Santa Cruz undergrad, here for 5 months to do some long-term outreach projects, Matt- 4th year student at UCSF going into either family med or gen surg, Amanda- 4th year student at Wright State going into family med.
I came down here with Matt Siegel- 4th year at Loyola going into neurology, Erin Lowery- 4th year med/peds resident doing a pulmonary/critical care fellowship next year at loyola, David Rosenthal- 4th year student at Northwestern taking a year off to work in San Francisco with Google Health to creat an electronic medical record type website.
Rachel Trotta is the clinic coordinator for the next year. She organizes all the clinical care and makes sure that the patients who need follow-up tests, hospitalization, or any tertiary care get it. It's amazingly efficient and inefficient at the same time. More to come on that...
There are also 5 Bolivian women that live in the house permanently. Nico cooks and cleans and raises her daughter, Yohanna. Yohanna is an adorable little girl who loves computer games and is probably very confused by all of the people coming and going! Zuela and Ybanna are sisters, and Zuela is currently in medical school in santa Cruz. Veronica is studying biochemistry and dating Mike Molitch-Hou, the son of Dr. Hou and Dr. Molitch (the founders of the clinic). Zuela and Veronica are from Palacios, the home of the clinic, and they were invited to attend school in Santa Cruz and live in the house while they're in school. I think that the founders hope that eventually the girls will go back to their town and continue the clinic's mission.
All in all, there's about 19 people living in the house right now! Hence 'the real world: bolivia.' Not that we have too much drama right now, but in the past this house has fostered some interesting relationships and one that just led to an engagement (between a former volunteer and a bolivian man. his first time in the states will be their wedding this summer!) but don't worry- I won't be coming home hitched.

Now here's the story on Dr. Hou and her husband Dr. Molitch. They started this clinic about 10? years ago with Douglas Villareal, a Bolivian endocrinologist. They had this big dream that they would treat rural patients who didn't have access to the health care in Santa Cruz, and then the dream materialized when they received a land donation in the name of a young man who died. They started a foundation in the name of Dr. Hou's father, hence the Daniels Hammant Foundation, and opened the Clinico Medico Humberto Parra in Palacios. They have a few Bolivian doctors that contribute their time regularly, including a gynecologist named Tatiana who comes weekly and with whom I worked on Friday. A majority of the medical care comes from doctors and med students who come down from the states, many of whom return annually so that there is actually some continuity of care.
The people here are amazing, and in large part they're the reason that this experience is so complete. We have a great time together, and when we're at the house there's a lot of time to get to know each other, hang out in the hammock, play cards, have mini-lectures from the attendings, watch telenovelas (and the superbowl), etc. It's great to be acquainted with these fascinating people with big hearts and huge goals.