Pre-Departure Preparations and Excitement

It's hard to believe, but on FRIDAY of this week I will be on a plane with seven other med students, heading down to Mexico as part of Proyecto Puentes de Salud ("Project Health Bridges"). Proyecto Puentes de Salud, or PPS, is an organization through UNC that tries to address the health needs of underserved Hispanic communities in NC and in Guanajuato, Mexico - a region where many of the immigrants in NC are from originally. PPS sent its first group to Guanajuato in 2006, so I am incredibly honored to be a part of this great program and to help work towards its goals. For five weeks I will be living in San Miguel de Allende ("SMA")with three of my fantastic classmates, going out to different communities in the area and putting on health fairs, giving educational talks on a variety of health topics, and performing various health screenings. Although some of the details are still a little fuzzy - the specific pueblos we will be visiting each day, for example, and the exact content of our health talks - the flexibility of our trip and our different projects is very exciting.

While I am very excited, I am also very surprised that it is also almost time to go, even though I have known that I will be a part of the trip since October. I guess I've been busy, or something (first year of medical school can do that to a person, you know), but even though our group has been working together over the past months getting our projects prepared, applying for grants, and procuring supplies, somehow the June 1st departure date has snuck up on me. Somehow it is already time to start packing my suitcase with scrubs and sunscreen, while leaving room for various diabetic testing strips and non-latex gloves. The one thing I feel like I'm not running behind on is "getting excited" for the trip - I've got that down pretty well so far.

Here's a short list of things that I'm excited about in this immediate present of pre-departure preparations:

1. The scrubs - specifically, one of the pairs of scrubs that actually belonged to my grandfather (or at least came from the hospital where he used to work) that say, "Arizona Service Corps Hospital". I needed to scrounge up a few pairs to take along for the trip, and my mom found these up in the attic in the "costume box" - they've been up there for who knows how long. Considering that my grandfather, Bompa, is one of my role models - and one of the main reasons I decided I wanted to become a doctor - being able to wear his old scrubs is a thrill, to say the least.
2. It may or may not be widely known that I am not the most outdoorsy of creatures - for which I blame my subpar Girl Scout training, in part - but I finally have the occasion to go buy rugged, all terrain sandals for the first time in my life. While trying on a pair of Chacos, the guy at REI said to me, "I can tell you've never tried on these before." So, in addition to being excited about exploring lots of rural Mexican communities, I am also excited about being able to put those sorts of judgments to rest.
3. And finally, I'm only excited about EVERYTHING else to do with going to Mexico, working alongside my classmates and some amazing doctors, practicing and improving my Spanish, experiencing the culture and the people of the Guanajuato region, and using my still-limited but ever-growing medical knowledge to help others. So stay tuned to hear more about our exciting summer adventures in SMA!