Car accidents, butterflies, and rounds

So Vacation Bolivia continues, but clinic is going to start up tomorrow. I'll be glad to get back to work, as that is the main reason for coming down here. Over the weekend, we continued to explore and enjoy Santa Cruz. On Sunday we walked around the plaza in downtown Santa Cruz. There was a nice artist's market and cafe that we spent most of the day. The departing physician, a doctor from northwestern, and his wife made us dinner and gave us a lecture on chest x-rays. The following morning, we woke early and traveled to the Butterfly Sanctuary. 2 students from Loyola and I caught a taxi at the end of the block. Traffic was very congested and everyone drives crazy here. Not as crazy as in Ghana, but enough to make your heart skip a beat! So, all of the sudden, our driver cut across 2 lanes and caused a guy behind us to rear-end our taxi. Both drivers get out and start yelling at each other and using all sorts of hand gestures. Then, they get back in the cars and drive away. Our driver's only explanation, "the other guy was drunk!". The rest of the ride was somewhat uneventful, except that everytime we were around traffic, we drove crazy and fast, but every time we weren't in traffic, we drove about 10 MPH. The butterfly sanctuary was beautiful. It was a bit more remote, reminescent of tropical jungle. They had a large caged in area for the butterflies, but also had a lot of other animals there too. At the end, there were pools people could swim. It was kind of like a cross between nature preserve and resort. We sat by the pool for awhile (don't worry, i wore SPF 30) and enjoyed some cervezas. Afterwards, we went back to Santa Cruz for dinner, ice cream, and some rounds of euchre. Tough trip, huh.

Today, we went to the public university hospital for rounds. It was interesting. I've worked at a hospital in Ghana and felt that this hospital was much better. It was similar to the hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. There were residents and students and we were on their teaching rounds. The wards were crowded with patients. Nobody washes their hands or talks to the patients. There's no such thing as HIPPA or hand sanitizer. If a test or medication is ordered, the patient or their family has to go across the street to get it done. The patients themselves were very interesting. Saw a lot of brain lesions, HIV, stoke, PCP pneumonia. I also saw a lot of management I didn't necessarily agree with, but I didn't really catch everything that was going on either. Maybe I'll catch more next week. I did notice that the male physicians there would talk only to the male students with me, and not to me or the other female student! Tomorrow we head to the rural clinic until Saturday. It should be an adventure, as the main road to the clinic is impassable!