Fact of the day: From La Paz to Corico is a trail known as the North Yugas, or as it is labled by the Inter-American Development index, the worlds most dangerous road. Although 69km in length most of the road is no wider than 3.5 meters, has dropoffs of 600m and since 1980 more than 120 people have died navigating the road on bike, car and bus. At long last in 2006 they finished a new road for commercial traffic and now the road is mostly used by mountain biking enthusiasts and deathwish burdened thrillseekers. Three guesses what my plans are for next weekend.....
This weekend consisted of some ups and downs, great highs big big lows and my first day in oncology has suggested that this may be a ongoing thing.
On thursday, we hit the peña known as Marka Tambo, a traditional dance and music venue, that while the performances were incredible and the restaurant was classy, there were not many people there leaving the ambiance a little to be desired. This was also one of our last nights with Lisita Bonita, who would head back on Saturday morning.
I havent spoken much about the hospital yet, mostly because it is difficult to find humor in the respiratory distress in infants, a five year old with heart failure, or tuberculosis meningitis. But my last day in Infectious Disease was a fun one with the other medical students from Bolivia. But late in the afternoon, after many cute kids who never hesistated to give 'un beso por el doctor' to every white coat in the room, a women in a government vest walked in with a beautiful baby girl. The other students gave me the lowdown, and brace yourself for a tearjerker. Luisa was four days old, and had been abandoned by her mother in the hospital the day after she was born. While they suspected schizophrenia in addition to other mental illness, they did know that her mother was HIV positive and as no measures had been taken, Luisa now has a one in four chance of being HIV positive aswell. It was hard to believe as she looked like an incredibly healthy baby girl, she had gained weight after birth and her skin was flushed. I hope I can tell you the rest of the story as I learn how Luisa fares in the social system here in La Paz. But as sometimes happens when faced with humbling story like this, I felt the need to head out an sieze life in La Paz like never before.
One of the ways that this weekend fluctuated, was in the size our little crew of LaPazian expats We were connected with some other do-gooders, public health students from california affectionately named the beach boys, who would also be in La Paz for the next few weeks on a training rotation. After grabbing dinner and some drinks, most were ready to head home to get ready for our trip to visit the Tiwanaku ruins the next day, but myself and a few other decided to see how the other half, where bolivians of La Paz celebrated life and drank their sorrows, as your week may have gone.
Cada d'agua was the type of place I had expected of a peña, a packed crowd in an old basement, where you ordered your beer for the table and they gave you a bowl of coca leaves to chew to keep you awake for hours of music. Although the dancing to philosophical discussion ratio was alarming, we had an incredible time and I can't thank our 'local' Yeri for suggesting it.
Unfortuntly the coca could not keep me awake long enough and I missed the bus to Tiwanaku, and I blame my inner archeologist for the severity of the hangover that followed that day, as I expect it was some form of punishment for missing one of the pre-emminent historical sites of an early civilization. I shall remember his wrath the next time I choose between a visit to the past and another Paceña (local brew). Spending the next day or so in recovery, I also mourned the loss of my guide, roommate and friend by watching every romantic comedy in Mercedes collection, including the spanish ones.
Apparently that was not enough language practice for the weekend as I spent today straining my ears and had to remind myself not to tune out the foriegn language. I was rotated to oncology as my scheduled doctor was out of town and it took me by surprise how different it made me feel from Infectious disease. Infections can be just as fatal as any cancer, but our treatments for cancers can be as hard on the body as the disease. I also saw more infants and when they have tumors bigger than their own heads, it becomes pretty hard to maintain a mask of professionism, and the prognosis is pretty grim.
Tomorrow, I head back to by scheduled pulmonology and shall see whether the week takes an upswing or a down. I guess thats the thing about rollercoasters, the uphill has all the anticipation, but the easy part wasn't why you got on the ride in the first place.
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