Yep... it happened.

A lot has happened in the past 24 hours, so here´s the recap!

On Monday we woke up and had a light breakfast at the wonderful Che Legarto Hostel and met the rest of the FIMRC group.  Then we went to el supermercado to pick up some provisions for the 8 hour bus ride to Huancayo.  Now, there are many things that I love about Latin America, the people, the food, the culture... however the bargains that exist down here are like none I´ve ever seen, and I LOVE a good bargain.  At the supermercado I got a 2.5 liter bottle of water, crackers, mate de coca (a tea that helps with altitude sickness) and PANDA COOKIES (Al, like the ones we would go bananas for when we were little in Australia) all for a whopping three dollars and twenty cents.

After that we went back to the hostel and then to the bus station.  After hearing horror stories from Spencer and Callie, two FIMRCers who had traveled around Peru before the program, about the not so great side of bus travel, we were all kind of apprehensive.  BUT FIMRC HOOKED US UP!  We rode in the "VIP" section of the bus, which included comfortable chairs that would recline all the way down, a padded leg rest and wonderful food.  The bus ride started off just great, until the magic mixture of scaling 2 miles in altitude in 8 hours, the hours upon hours of switchbacks, the fact that it was now dark so looking out the window was pointless, and the constant presence of subtitles (reading in a car makes me feel nauseous) combined to make me feel pretty darn crappy.  I tried to sleep it off, when BAM, woke up and didn´t even have the time to get out of my seat before I got to taste that wonderful food for a second time... this time not as tasty.  But fam, don´t worry, I learned from the "Mt. Vesuvius Episode of 1998" and there was no lauch pad involved.  Now, I expected to be humbled in ways I couldn´t imagine on this trip, however, this was one way that I sincerely wanted to avoid.  Here I am with 8 basically strangers and this is my first impression, way to go, Katie, way to go.  Luckily there were only 45 minutes left in the bus ride and when we stopped in Huancayo I was feeling better.  Yet, that moment was fleeting.  Before I knew it I was having an encore performance, but this time I at least made it to the bathroom, the men´s room, but a bathroom nonetheless.  Thankfully, this was my last performance and everyone was super nice about it.

Then we arrived at 275 Brasilia our home for the next month or so, and also the home of Elena Morales.  Sra. Morales is an incredibly kind middle-aged woman who is a ridiculous cook and has been generous enough to have a "dorm-style" guest house on her property that FIMRC uses.  During dinner our staffer, also named Elena, informed us that we were going to jump into the thick of things right away.  That night we had to come up with an hour long educational program about addiction for kids, moms, and teenagers (all separate programs) that would be done on Tuesday (as in the next day) at 10am and then also in the afternoon.  As a group we hit the ground running.  We spent hours brainstorming, making visual aides, coming up with interactive activities and the three of us that knew Spanish were translating our ideas into a script.  By the time it was all said and done it was after midnight and we were exhausted.

But there is no rest for FIMRCers, we were up by 7am ready for breakfast, dressed in our scrubs and ready to go to the hospital for our first day.  We divided up into groups of two or three and got to decide between surgery or internal medicine of our first two week stint.  After being surrounded by surgery for the past 20 years, I opted for internal medicine and I´m so glad I did.  This morning after being oriented, we got to shadow some doctors as they did rounds.  As fascinating as it was, it reaffirmed that the white coat is not necessarily for me (for those of you who don´t know, I´m no longer interested in becoming a doctor, but am interested in the field of public health).  Don´t get me wrong, I loved it, but even internal medicine rounds weren´t as personal as I would want my profession to be. 

After our time in the hospital, we headed to Rosario, which is a community housing/shelter type of thing to do our first educational program.  In the ten minute car ride over, we realized that some of the drugs we included in our script weren´t necessarily used in this area, and that the kids have addiction problems to video games.  So, I had to adlib the symptoms, dangers, and effect of videogame addictions... I´m so happy that all of my Spanish classes over the years have taught me how to BS with the best  of them.  All in all, our program was really good, and Elena loved it!  Currently we´re back at 275 for a siesta and lunch, and then are back to Rosario for the moms and teens program.  This is such an experience and I´m so greatful to be here with 8 other awesome people!

Hasta luego!