friends

My first night in Ecuador was very lonely.  I am used to living with two housemates and a dog, and the change to a relatively large, empty apartment by myself after a week with my family was rather abrupt.  That has changed dramatically thanks to the Ecuadorian residents and interns that have shared call, stories, evenings out for dinner, laughter, meanings of vocabulary words, eating hospital-prepared food, and cooking with me.

There are three Ecuadorian residents, most of whom are in family medicine doing their post-grad (residency) but some of whom are licensed physicians who have finished medical school but haven't decided to do residency in a specialty yet.  My first group of residents had two family med post-grads, a second and third year, and one general practitioner.  Then there are three interns, who are sort of equivalent to fourth year medical students since they aren't physicians yet but who have finished more than two years of rotations and function more on an intern level.  They are comfortable doing much that I don't generally do, including drawing blood, starting IVs, giving neb treatments, etc.  On the other hand, I'm comfortable managing things they don't see as much of like COPD or CHF.

This is Marita, Anita, and Marito on a trip to Puyo for volquetero, an Ecuadorian typical snack/meal.  Anita is a GP equivalent, and Mario and Marita are interns. 

One of my favorite evenings hanging out with the residents occurred this past week when we decided to make burritos together.  They also requested apple pie.  I obliged with an easier (since we didn't have a pie pan) apple crisp.  We went shopping together, and I discovered parts of Shell I didn't know existed.  We made the meal together, and I found out the Ecuadorian way to make burritos (no separate tomatoes or cabbage, my family's usual, but tomatoes cooked with ground beef and onions).  During the meal preparation, they took turns helping and sitting in front of the TV karaoke machine, unself-consciously singing along with the microphone to various folk songs.  It was great fun to sit down together, all eight of us (with an American college student visiting for the week thrown in), and talk and laugh and enjoy a break.  Even the call team was able to be there for the evening as they had a slow night.  Here are some of the pictures.

 

Estefania, Marito, and Marita, our three interns, helping to shred/crumble the cheese.  I am thankful they will continue with me another week as the residents change rotations this weekend and will go back to Quito.

 

Our American college student shadowing for the week, Courtney, and la Gaby, an Ecuadorian second year family practice resident who has the unenviable task of balancing a 2-year-old with her and her physician husband's schedules (he works at a children's hospital ICU in Quito).

 

Anita, our GP, and I.  She plans to go into internal medicine and possibly palliative care.  We have shared call while I'm too cowardly to take call on my own as the sole resident, and she's been great to work with, a patient fount of vocab words, jokes, songs, explanations, and support.

 

Pablito, our third year family medicine resident, provided most of the meal production entertainment.

 

Most of the crew, although Pablito took the picture and Marita had gotten called away to the emergencia to see a patient.

I am so thankful for the quick welcome and easy friendship of these other young adults.  It has been a humbling pleasure to be so easily included in their activities, and it makes me wonder how often I do as good a job at making others feel welcome.  Their medical knowledge is impressive, and their social circle is unquestionably a huge part of why I am enjoying my time here.