Pre departure info

Hello and welcome!

I wanted to give everyone some information about my trip before I leave. Please feel free to post comments at the bottom of this blog, ask questions, etc. I will most likely be posting daily, and will try and reply to your comments as they appear. 

Trip Purpose:

Because I am a premed student, it is important that I gain some experience in the medical field so that I feel more confident that medicine is the field I would like to go into. Because I already have experience in veterinary medicine, it is important that I also gain experience with the less furry mammalian species prior to applying. A trip to India last year over the new year was one of the most exciting times in my life! I fell in love with the sights, sounds, and even smells of India and enjoyed surrounding myself with the extremely kind and welcoming people of Pune. That being said, when I began looking for an internship overseas I was excited to see that a group called Child and Family Health International (CFHI) had a program in Pune. I am excited to be going back to a place that I have been before. The last time I was in Pune I truly enjoyed it and felt safe to explore. It will be quite the adventure to spend 42 days in one spot really getting to know the city. 

Trip Details:

Depart 3:40pm June 2nd from Denver, CO

Arrive 1:00am June 4th in Mumbai, India

Once I arrive in Mumbai I will take a taxi to Pune which is roughly a 3 hour drive east (see map). That puts me in Pune at  4:30-5:00am depending on the time spent in the airport. Yuck!

I will be staying in an apartment with 5 other girls, and will most likely crash there for a few hours before getting up to enjoy my first day. 

During the month I will rotate to different clinical sites mainly focusing on public health, communicable disease, slum medicine, and surgery. My free time will be comprised of an independent research project on water quality in slum communities. I will be collecting samples of drinking water and analyzing it for bacteria as well as administering a survey on water quality.

If that doesn't keep me busy enough I hope to spend a few days at the ashram and maybe participate in some yoga! Also, shopping! There are great markets and the clothes are all mainly custom made and cheap. Hopefully I will get cooking and language lessons too.

Then in the first week in July Michael is flying into a different area of India and we are going to spend about a week together hopefully working in a polio campaign.

We return July 13th to Denver, CO together.

So I will post again soon.