Chicken bus diaries

My friend Amit rolled into town last Friday, and with the suggestion of my roommate Josh, we decided to take the week off and travel. My original plan was that this week, I would spend volunteering at a daycare and then traveling next week, but since Josh was heading out this week, and Amit just came into town, I figured why not travel this week and enjoy it?

When I told my host mom Trinise about this, she sounded a little disappointed with the news. I think people have a misconception about what first year medical students can do. When most people hear about medical students volunteering, they believe that we're basically miniature doctors, when in fact, we're still more like medical scientists with little clinical training. I don't really blame people for holding such a notion because I think that in the first year of medical school, we should at least be taught the basic clincal skills, so that we can at least hold our own in a clinic instead of just sitting around twiddling our thumbs (the Guatemalans have an expression for that hear, but it is quite vulgar). I did feel a little guilty since now she feels I came down here as a regular tourist, but I can't deny that this year.

Last year, my main purpose for going to Ecuador was to volunteer. This year, it was to learn Spanish, travel, and volunteer, in that order. I've learned my Spanish, and I'm traveling now, and I won't be able to volunteer, but so be it. As cynical as this may sound, one week of volunteering wouldn't have really amounted to much of a contribution.

So now, I'm on the road with Amit. We went to Lago Atitlan over the weekend where we jumped off some cliffs into the water, yesterday we went to the Mayan ruins at Tikal, and the rest of the week should turn out something like this - today at Finca Ixobel, tomorrow at Fray Bartolomey de Las Calas, Friday get to the Coban area, Saturday at Semuc Champey, and Sunday ride back to Xela. Round up my stay in Xela and get to Antigua before my flight back on Thursday. It'll be good to be back home.