This has been a huge week of adjusting more to classes, mastering the subte (the subway) and continuing to practice my Spanish. Our school week ended with a trip to Florencio Varela, a province of Buenos Aires. Since I have so much report on from Florencio Varela and photos to share, this post will focus mostly on our excursion.
So, if I am being perfectly honest, I don't love my classes here. They are interesting, but we have such long days that we are all exhausted by the end. Also, they do not differ for the most part from what I could be studying at Kenyon. However, instead of classes, on Thursday and Friday, we went to Florencio Varela to observe the Argentine health model (more on this in a moment). Bam! It suddenly clicked! This is why I flew thousands of miles. To be able to go on these excursions, to talk to real Argentines and to get out of the classroom.
So, I loved it, but you may be asking yourself what did we do? What does observing a health model mean exactly? Here comes the simplest explanation of the Argentine health system and how it applies to Florencio Varela. Within Argentina, there are three levels, or tiers, of hospitals. The bottom level is the most basic care possible. As you work your way up the levels to the highest nivel, or level, you encounter the most advanced care, such as neuroradiology and surgeries. Within the city of Buenos Aires, it is hard to observe these three levels in motion. In order to better understand them, we went to Florencio, a much smaller semi-rural province of Buenos Aires. Over the course of two days, we visited three hospitals, one at each level, and a community health center. We experienced the difference between general care and specific, advanced care. In addition, we discussed the complications between the public and private sector of healthcare in Argentina. All the facilities we visited were public meaning anyone who lives in Argentina can go for free. However, there are also private facilities. This raises a lot of questions about equity and quality of care that we will continue to explore during the semester. Anyway, that was my brief summary!
Now, why did I love Florencio? Well, like I said,
because we got to interact with Argentines. At one point, I was in a maternal support group in the middle of
Argentina, thousands of miles away from home, chanting spanish chants, sitting
on the garbage strewn ground, drinking mate with some old Argentine ladies and
hearing about their lives and hopes and dreams and I could not have been
happier. All the things I love in one. Women's issues, Spanish,
health and community. Also, the food. If you know me, you know I love food. At
every place we went, they grilled meat for us. Yummmmmy. We also were presented
with lots of varieties of fruit. My host family isn't really into fruit all
that much so it was nice to get to have so much great fruit.
Anyway, enough of my ranting. Here are some pictures from some of the
clinics we visited as well as our lunch with some of the medical students!
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