So, I’ve described servicio de adolescents to everyone in excruciating detail, probably because it has been my favorite rotation so far, but I did other things that week besides medicine, I promise. We had no Spanish classes this week to I had the chance to go out and explore La Paz.
On Monday, I took a long nap after almuerzo and then went to Cecilia’s office for our meeting on malnutrition. It’s a big problem in Bolivia, and all pediatricians make sure to check for it at each checkup. Apparently, it wasn’t until recently that South America made its own growth chart for kids. Before, they had been using the one made by the United States and had a huge amount of kids who were malnourished and below the normal growth curve. Some smart people finally spoke up and said, hey, Bolivians in general are smaller than Americans so maybe we should make our own standards instead of using someone elses. So now they have their own standard growth curves which reduced the amount of malnourished children just by reducing misclassification, but the numbers are unfortunately still high. In Bolivia, most of the malnutrition comes from lack of enough calories, more so than lack of protein, and the reason for that comes mainly from poverty. Like most things in Bolivia, the poverty is not as obvious as you might imagine (or at least its not to me) but once in a while, you’ll see a patient that comes in and says that all they eat everyday is bread and water or a patient who comes to you in sandals with her feet wrapped in toilet paper because she doesn’t have shoes for the winter. At those points, poverty stands right in front of you and you can’t help but pay attention.
At times like these, I feel medicine can only do so much. This is when international public health workers, engineers, architects, and social workers can do more good internationally than a doctor can. Medicine can only fix so much and much too often, it only ends up being a temporary cure.
Tuesday, Sophie, Annie and I spent the afternoon working on our lovely “Lactancia” poster for Wed’s health fair. When Sophie came over, she said our flat looked “very posh” – apparently its more spacious and warmer than hers. I definitely lucked out with my host family here. For dinner, we met Jolene and Jenna for anticucho, beef heart that is grilled to tenderness and served with potatoes and a spicy aji sauce. Even though I’m not a fan of meat (except for ground beef of course), I thought it was quite delicious.
Wednesday, Sophie, Annie, and I decided to go visit the National Museum of Art. It was located east of El Prado in the financial district of La Paz (or so it seemed to me) and it was interesting to see a different side of La Paz for once. It was a well organized museum and spanned early colonial art to contemporary abstract art. I think prehistoric art has its own museum which I have yet to see. It was very cool to see the art because the themes (religion, portraits, landscapes) were the same as for European art of the same period, but the technique was distinctly different. In one sala, they portrayed religious figures with actual wings, and there was a few paintings where there were 3 jesuses, which apparently is called El Gran Poder (the Great Power) here. Obviously, indigenous faiths got incorporated into Catholicism and created a distinct Bolivian Christianity. All in all, a pretty cool museum. Afterwards, we had a meeting with Gonzalo and we had to make it across the city in 15 minutes. We tried to take a micro there but got stuck in paralyzing traffic and ended up walking the rest of the way. After the meeting where we got money for taxis to take to the airport (not me – I’m staying 2 more weeks!), we went to our empanada place for dinner. Lauren and Siobhan, two girls from the program who went to this place for dinner everyday, wanted a picture with the owner Fernando. At first, he seemed embarrassed by the request but then he went to the back, put on his jacket, and asked for a picture with his camera as well. Afterwards, he requested a picture of just him and Lauren and then just a picture of Lauren by herself. The next day, he befriended her on facebook. It was pretty hilarious and at that point, we were all cracking up uncontrollably. I’m not sure I’ll be able to go back to that empanada place for the remainder of my time in La Paz and keep a straight face. Thanks Lauren.
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