General Impression
Overall Rating: / 10
Overall I had an amazing experience. I enjoyed every day of my experience and would absolutely come back again some day.Country
Oaxaca is an amazing country. The food, history and culture are so special and set Oaxaca apart from other places. My family and friends are already planning a trip to Oaxaca because they saw how amazing it was in my pictures!
Project & Staff
The program coordinator, Martha, is wonderful. She was really flexible and quick to respond to me if I ever had questions or issues come up. Dr. Megaly was really nice and also flexible with my site placements on a weekly basis. She made sure that I was doing what most interested me and did her best to provide an enriching experience. Gaby my host was amazing. She made wonderful breakfasts every single day and went out of her way to include me things she was doing. We went to the mercado together, out to dinner together and she even took me to a late night show. I really appreciated and enjoyed all the people that I worked with on this project.
My only qualm with the entire project is that I wasn't able to do much of anything with patients. At the end of the three weeks I was starting to be able to do a little more but since the site changed so often it was hard to be able to build rapport with the doctors and patients. This definitely required flexibility because part of that had to do with the fact that one of the clinics closed suddenly. So in part, it wasn't anyones fault, that is just how the project played out and they told me from the start that I wouldn't be able to touch patients. I did get to talk to them and ask questions though. The OR's were interesting but since I wasn't able to scrub in I was just standing and watching. Luckily what I did was entirely up to me so if there was a day that I didn't want to be in the OR I had the ability to ask to do something else.
My only qualm with the entire project is that I wasn't able to do much of anything with patients. At the end of the three weeks I was starting to be able to do a little more but since the site changed so often it was hard to be able to build rapport with the doctors and patients. This definitely required flexibility because part of that had to do with the fact that one of the clinics closed suddenly. So in part, it wasn't anyones fault, that is just how the project played out and they told me from the start that I wouldn't be able to touch patients. I did get to talk to them and ask questions though. The OR's were interesting but since I wasn't able to scrub in I was just standing and watching. Luckily what I did was entirely up to me so if there was a day that I didn't want to be in the OR I had the ability to ask to do something else.
Tips
I would say be flexible and don't be afraid to ask questions or ask to be placed in a clinic/site that interests you.