Day 4

Man oh man! We had to get up at 6 this morning! It was pretty rough... but not so bad. Breakfast was the same as it was the previous day and I tried to make some coffee again. To be honest, the coffee is just really really bad. I even put milk and hot chocolate mix in for the faux mocha action, but it just does not work for me; I'll probably pass tomorrow. This morning was a lot busier in the breakfast nook, probably because it was earlier than the day before and so people were up and eating before they headed to work. Juan took us to the University of Chile today instead of the Catholic University which was definitely a huge contrast. The University of Chile is a public university and so there is not as much funding. As we were walking through the halls today we could feel the chill of the cool and cloudy day and the facilities of the hospital were in kind of poor condition. It looked a bit like a rural hospital or something you would see in a movie with a hospital from a developing nation. The hall ways were a bit run down with tile floors that were chipped and paint was peeling from the ceiling. As we walked through the hospital every one was looking at us, probably wondering what we were doing there. We were told, however, that a new hospital was being built and should be done by year 2009 or 2010, and every one was very excited about it. We met for our first presentation in one of the classrooms that was in the hospital. Today was focused on mental health and the first presentation was given by a college of Jaime's, Dr. Toro. Dr. Toro's presentation talked about psychiatric reform, the levels of establishment and general psychiatric care. Next we went to a different wing of the hospital to a small women's day to day treatment center for patients recovering from substance abuse and have minor mental disorders; Olga Devia gave us a tour around the facility. During the tour we also went to the wing of the hospital where people are admitted for treatment and we even got to see some patients. After the tour we went back to the classroom we had been in before for a second presentation by Caroline Leighton who talked about depression. Solana met up with us at the end of the presentation and took us to a strip of restaurants so that we could have lunch. Emily, Kelly and I had brought PB&Js again so we ate those while Cameron and Brandon ordered food at a restaurant we chose at random. The restaurant was awesome because they were playing this one television channel that played random 30 second blurps of some really great American pop songs that are great to dance to. We were suppose to meet up with the group on the corner of a street after we ate at 2:15, but when we got there no one was there and so we had thought that everyone had left us. Fortunately, they hadn't and Jaime, Solana and Carrie showed up a few minutes after 2:15. Juan picked us up on the corner and drove us about an hour outside of Santiago to Puente Alto where we visited a Family Health Center. Thomas Leisewitz met up with us there and gave a presentation on family health centers, but we couldn't see the power point because the projector wasn't working for some reason. After the presentation we split in to two groups for a tour of the center; Thomas was my group leader. He showed us the different wings of the facility and we even got to see in side the minor operating room, and we were let into the room when a dentist was cleaning the teeth of a patient. I think she was a bit embarrassed but it was kind of cool to see what the room look like; it was very similar to a dentist office that you would see in the states. After the tour we headed back on the bus to go back to Santiago. When we got off the bus Kelly, Emily, Brandon, Cameron and I went to the store again in the "Paris" mall to pick up some more food. For dinner us girls made burritos. We had some rice, black refried beans, cheese, tortillas, chips and salsa. It was all very delicious, and we also made some drinks. The boys (Brandon and Cameron) came over and we watched more of The Office, and that was about all for the night.

We did have some excellent quotes today :)

"I definitely want to get some chicks."
-Emily... she meant chips. She wanted to buy some at the store.
"Those are cheap here too."
-Brandon's response to Emily

During Caroline's presentation Jaime asks if electric shock therapy works and when she said yes Jaime's response was "Oh, I'll have to try that."

When walking throug the Family Center, Thomas showed us the minor surgery room and Kelly asks "What qualifies as a minor surgery?"
Jaime says "It's like cutting off one finger instead of five... it's like taking the pinky instead of the thumb."

Good day.