Monday, February 28, 2011

Back in the States! Wrap-Up from Elliot

Overall, I had a great experience on my trip to Nicaragua with the Global Health Track and all members agreed. No one knew what to expect going in to this trip, but in the end, it helped us all learn and grow. We are now more prepared for our rotation next year and eventually for our careers incorporating global health.

This was the first year of the trip and there are still many kinks and room for improvement. We learned how crucially important it is to learn as much as possible about the culture and health systems before even thinking about trying to do clinical work in a foreign land. I was surprised to learn that while they obviously lack resources, in my opinion, the health care system set up in Nicaragua is far ahead of ours.

All of us with our posters (from left)
  Juan, Naomi, me, Marianne, Amber and Cristina
The trip also gave us the opportunity to begin directly planning our rotations for next year. Juan and I plan to return to El Tololar and live in the village during our month in Nicaragua. We also have a grand plan to purchase a horse to use during our month for transportation (and donate it upon our departure!)

I want to formally thank Dr. Anna Doubeni for setting up the Global Health Track and all of the details of our trip. We know the amount of stress and responsibility that you felt throughout the process. Thank you.


And to the group, it is amazing how close we became in only 12 short days. I look forward to working closely with Juan, Amber, and Christina over the next 1-2 years. And it was great meeting Naomi and Marianne, and hopefully we can stay in touch.

Thanks for reading and come back next year,

Elliot

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