Cleaning speculums by hand

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  Cochabamba, Bolivia
Thursday, November 20, 2008

I went on a pap smear campaign. I know that sounds really exciting for all of you that arent medically minded. I was quite pleased at the invitation to go along with two gynocologists and a microbiologist to a part of the city that is maybe more rural than city for a day of pap smears. An education meeting had been given at this community center for the local women on the importance of having regular checkups, the risks of cancer etc. and with information, the women responded and came back to the community center for the test. A beautiful testament to the simplicity of giving people information followed by the option to make better health choices. We did over 50 smears this morning, and it was a really good experience for me. I was responsible for doing the mini gyn interview part, which was great practice for my spanish and quite embaressing at the same time. Try repeating menstration several times and receiving a blank face in return. From the interviews I can tell you that most of the women have more than 6 children. And most of them had lost at least one child. I wish I had more time and space to ask why the kids are dying. One mother had given birth to 12 children and only 6 are still living. It was quite grave. I did get to do one of the pap smears which wasnt nearly as complicated or exciting as one might think, and I am certain I wont go to school and pursue a career in this particular field. We were offered lunch by this community center and of course accepted. I always want to be culturally appropriate of course so I ate it all, even though i didnt really know what the meat was and swallowed the large parts of fat whole, as the taste of that makes me vomit. The food didnt sit well and I am not sure if it was that meal or my carelessness this past week in eating the peeling of varios fruits and not boiling the water like you are suppose to. I wasnt obviously thinking very much, but the few thoughts I had revolved around wanting to build my immunity therefore introducing more risk. Now that my stomach hurts I spent some time reading, I understand better that amoebas arent really something to play around with. For all that are interested there is a great website called "understanding diarrhea in travelers" from a group in nepal that I found quite informative. of course, I will let you know how this goes....

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