Peru

I first heard about the Gorgas Tropical Medicine course in Peru during my med/peds residency days at UAB when I rotated through the infectious disease department. I thought it sounded fascinating and actually added it to my list of what ended up being thirteen things I wanted to do after residency! A friend of mine that completed the course as part of his infectious disease fellowship and then ended up working at another mission hospital in Kenya described the Gorgas course as "the best educational experience of his life since kindergarten". Well, as God continued to confirm that long term medical missions in a tropical location (sub-Saharan Africa) was His calling, I revisited the idea of the Gorgas course and applied last year. God provided the finances through my locum tenems job in Birmingham and now I'm off to Peru on Friday.

Formal intense tropical medicine training will prove very beneficial both in caring for patients in Burundi and in teaching medical students there. This course, which is a partnership between the infectious disease department of University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lima, is unique among tropical medicine courses in that it is one of the few actually located in the tropics. We'll round on patients in Lima, Cuzco, and Iquitos during the course and hopefully seeing actual patients will help me remember the various diseases. My studying brain is a little foggy from disuse these days. This course is also known for being quite intense - condensing information taught in as much as three years at other courses down to two months. I'm looking forward to learning a lot!

One of the aspects of the course that really interests me is my classmates. The roster shows 34 students from 12 different countries and 5 different continents. From those I've interacted with on email, most seem to have traveled extensively and practiced medicine in various settings in developing countries, primarily through non governmental organizations. I look forward to getting to know them all and hearing their stories.

I recently heard a good quote, "Am I approaching people with curiosity or with certainty?" I like this as all too often, I make quick judgments of people rather that being curious about who they are and what their back story is. Pray my curiosity will remain intact as I meet my new classmates, professors, patients, and neighbors in Peru. Also, pray for my Spanish! I used to speak conversational Spanish, but Swahili seems to have occupied the front foreign language spot in my brain for the last couple years, and I'm guessing that's not going to help in Peru! The course is thankfully taught in English, though.

OK, next blog post location: LIMA!