PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

NZ med student in Cali

Hi there-

I posted about a year ago re sorting out a medical elective in Colombia, I managed to do it mainly by contacting random doctors and medical students from websites like couchsurfing.com, this worked out surprisingly well. I thought some people may be interested in hearing my experiences thus far.

I arrived in Cali about 10 days ago after spending a few days in Bogota with local friends (a former exchange student to NZ and her family) getting my bearings, this being my first trip to Latin America. I bussed from Bog to Ibague, stayed the night in Ibague with friends then bussed to Cali, which is a beautiful trip, especially la linea and the descent into la zona cafetera.

I have started a 6 week rotation in the Unidad de Trauma at Hospital Universitario del Valle. I am a final year medical student from New Zealand and I will graduate in December when I return to NZ, so this is my final bit as a med student.

I am currently staying with a first year doctor and her mum in San Fernando in Cali, just off la Quinta by the stadium. I organised this through a random doctor contact from the internet, who happened to know a friend who had a spare room in a flat right by the hospital.

My spanish is coming along, it was conversational in NZ and I understand most things and can communicate mostly what I need. Occasionally when everyone gets speaking fast in the trauma unit I am a bit lost. Especially when the costeño docs are speaking on ward rounds, don´t know what the hell they are saying.

HUV is the biggest public hospital in Colombia I am told and undoubtedly sees a higher volume of trauma patients than anywhere else in Colombia. Coming from NZ this is quite a contrast as you can imagine. We had a patient the other day who had stepped on a land mine. Quite a few gunshot wounds and stabbings everyday, and a whole lot of traffic-moto accidents. In my 6 years of med school in NZ I have never seen gunshot wounds or stab wounds.

The interns (me) work like crazy, with 2 24 hour shifts a week, and start every morning at 5.30 AM and finish work after 5pm everyday. They don´t get paid for this either, as they are still students. In NZ as a final year student i get paid about US$23,000 per year tax free for the work i do in the hospital.

I am taking a sick day today however as I went to Blues Brothers last night for some live salsa and finished a bottle of Aguardiente Blanca with a few mates and not feeling terribly good today. Nasty stuff. I prefer Club Colombiano. Plus I have a 24 hour shift starting tomorrow (saturday) at 7am so I felt like taking some time to chill out and walk around Cali. Might finally make it to Chipichape tonight, although I am a little confused about how the women at Chipe chape could be much more attractive (as commented on this forum ad nauseum) than most you find salsa dancing.

Colombian people in general are super friendly and willing to help out foreigners like me. In the hospital people are patient with me and speak slowly to me. The people I am staying with are really hospitable and have shown me around the place in their free time. It happened to be my birthday 2 days after arriving, and I had mentioned to them that I like mexican food so they took me out to dinner for mexican food, very sweet.

I had a Colombian exchange student friend in high school who told me she found NZers a bit cold and distant compared to Colombians, and now I see what she means. Platonic friends are constantly hugging and kissing and holding eachother. I like this, and find it warm and disarming. But it is not come natural to me.

The other interns have been taking me out for beers etc after work and have all been really friendly and eager to get to know the new mono in their midst. What remains of my hair is blonde I suppose (I would call it brown but here I am very much a mono) and I have blue eyes. I have played soccer (i am a hopeless soccer player but enjoy it) a few times with the Univalle med students and interns, which was good fun.

I enjoy trying out Colombian food and specialties of Cali like pan de bono, chontadura, cholada. Not sure if I quite like chontadura, i prefer it with miel rather than sal, too dry with sal. I hear jugo de chontaduro is tasty though more of a pacific coast thing. Have not tried borojo´ as yet. They say these two are aphrodisiacs. Liked champus. Very keen on the tinto and empanada combo. Loving the aguacates, big smooth and cheap. had an expensive COP17,800 cazuela de mariscos the other day, ok but not worth it, I will wait till I get to the coast. Had an extremely nasty pizza in bogota. And an excellent hamburguesa on la novena i believe after the Juanes concert the other night, which was an impressive concert.

I will be in Cali until 31 Oct, I will bus to Medellin and spend the weekend there, then bus to Monteria in Cordoba and make my way to a pueblito called San Antero on the Carribean coast, where I will spend two weeks with a first year doc who is doing her obligatory rural year. I am not entirely sure how safe the bus trip from Medellin to Monteria is, a while ago they had some paraco-guerilla related problems. I will travel by daylight. San Antero is right on the beach and apparently far away from anything, sounds very nice. A change of pace from the trauma unit in Cali.

I had taken salsa lessons in NZ and have the basic rhythm down but beyond that i am pretty useless, concerning flair and turns etc. I can merengue OK and vallenato is very simple, although I haven´t heard merengue or vallenato in a club once so far in Cali. Would like to learn bachata too. If anyone knows of any academias in the San Fernando area let me know. There is one close by where I live but they only teach rueda, which is cool but I would rather learn salsa tradicional en pareja.

As far as nightclubs I have been to a few places in parque de los perros, I would like to make it out to Juanchito one of these weekends, some have expressed safety concerns but I will be with Colombians and am more or less a savvy traveller and will keep my wits about me. I´ve been to expat hangouts Blues Brotehrs and Martyns. Not been to the Sexta yet. Apparently Tin Tin Deo is an excellent place for old school salsa dura, and it is right by where I live.

I am not sure if my rambling is of any interest to anyone, but I had some free time so I thought I would write down a few of my observations and experiences. If any med students want to contact me about how to sort out an elective here i am damien_archbold at hotmaildotcom, you will see more and learn more about trauma here than just about anywhere besides maybe joburg, south africa or a genuine warzone.

Also, if any Caleños or expats in Cali would like to offer any advice or meet up for a cerveza or a tinto drop me a line, i am comcel 314 362 2324.

Cheers,

Damien

By damienNZ on Sep 28, 2007, 15:30 in Friendly Talkzone.

la campiña says on Sep 28, 2007, 16:41:

Superb post, massive respect to you, hope all goes well, if you need any help or advice let me know, chipichape is not the be all and end all of Cali but yea the girls are very pleasing on the eye, pero Palmetto, cosmo centro, unicentro and jardin plazza are also good eye fodder. You must visit the church at san antonio very close to you and also sebastian belacazar, three crosses and christo rey, all safe if sensible. rok on

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capitan_centella says on Sep 28, 2007, 17:30:

GOOD MAN¡

YOU NAIL IT¡ I really enjoy the part of the busses thing. You just come and watch, and you see it for yourself the true colombia. . . I really respect you.

If you came back to Bogotá drop me a PM. I study in la UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL and I have a few friends In med school. And if you need a couch to sleep, I can offer one. (As long you let me sleep is ok)

See you kiwie.

;-)

"When you open your eyes, you turn around with the world, But it can change, if you only close it, and see a dream to yourself." Me.

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ozgringo says on Sep 28, 2007, 18:42:

Kia ora bro

may a thousand mangy wombats shit in your billabong

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NataliaV says on Sep 29, 2007, 06:32:

Great post. Don't forget Kilometro 18. Very nice to go and have chocolate con queso since it is much cooler up there. I prefer Jardin Plaza over ChipiChape, but still a very nice place. Juanchito is plenty of fun and I did not feel unsafe ever. But I was also with my family in a group of almost 12. My 70 year old grandmother was even out until 6am with us at Juanchito! Lots of fun!

What did you think of Ibague? I took my husband to Colombia in May and he got many more stares in Ibague than he did in Cali (light brown hair/blue eyes/6 ft tall). He stuck out like a sore thumb. Did you feel more out of place there too?

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Desideria (Moderator) says on Sep 29, 2007, 09:28:

Great post, Damien! I used to live a bit further south, in Tequendama, but my husband's fammily has always lived in San Fernando, between the Roosevelt and the Quinta and that's where we always stay when visiting Colombia. Both my children were born at HUV and after my graduation as a early childhood teacher in Cali I did my paractice period at HUV with a group of children who were enrolled in the hospital's therapy program for children with special education needs.

Have a great time in Cali and take care,
Desi

"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."-President George W. Bush

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Man Tequila says on Sep 29, 2007, 14:21:

Man, I wish I had known about Colombia when I was a med student, although I did go to India and Tanzania. I enjoyed your post greatly.

Aunque no me creas/ si me lo propongo/ lograre olvidarte/ porque a fin de cuentas/ no soy tan cobarde./ Y termino todo una de estas tardes/ no sera dificil buscar algún sitio donde refugiarme/ donde nunca mas vuelvas a encontrarme. (Polo Montañez)

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goin_south says on Sep 30, 2007, 00:45:

Yep! Great Post!
(Any comments? GIB?? Darth Vadar??? Maybe you guys like to ad to his business... send some more trauma patients to the ER.... oh! Shit. He's in Cali.... una viajara muy larga de ambulancia!)

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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goin_south says on Sep 30, 2007, 00:46:

Gosh, Damien... can Colombia (Cali!!!) really be that good ;)

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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Desideria (Moderator) says on Sep 30, 2007, 01:23:

There used to be a trauma unit at HUV called "Pabellón Kawasaki", because of so many patients were bike accident victims.

"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."-President George W. Bush

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Man Tequila says on Sep 30, 2007, 15:36:

The number of serious motorized bike accidents seen any ER would surprise you.

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damienNZ says on Sep 30, 2007, 22:22:

cheers for the comments, i am having an amazing time here and learning a lot at HUV. i made it to Tin Tin Deo the other night and had a great time, very traditional salsa place. Also managed to get to Tienda Vieja which is huge and had a fun time.

i woke up a few hours ago, slept all day after a 24 hour shift from saturday 7am to sunday 7am, pretty much the most intense night of my life. i lost track of the number of gunshots, there were at least 15 people with heridas por arma de fuego after midnight, not simple gun shots either, those all stay at smaller hospitals, we get all the complicated, very serious gunshot wounds. i won´t go into details. very harrowing stuff. the motorcycle accidents are gruesome and sad. i am not sure whether a public health campaign in cali encouraging people to not drive drunk would make an impact in the trauma unit. tends to work well in some countries.

i can´t believe how much the interns and doctors work here, the hours are crazy and the workload immense. i think this is partly because there are so many doctors in colombia, and it is difficult for them to export themselves. doctors are in short supply in NZ so the doctors earn relatively well and work conditions are pretty good. there are a whole lot of other factors too of course.

Natalia, i liked ibague and had lechona for dinner. the hills around the city are beautiful. i get lots of funny looks but more in cali and ibague than bogota. however, i am fairly short (167cm) which colombian people rarely fail to comment on, as they find it odd that being a whitey i am not taller.

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