2/9/04
Hello everyone. It is once again time for me to send out my
mass-email to all those who know me and let you know what is going on with me
down here in Grenada.
I especially welcome the new people to the list, who either 1. expressed
interest in hearing from me, 2. have a new email that actually works this time
around, or 3. I thought would like an update and something other than junk mail
delivered to their Inbox. As always, if you’d like to be removed from this list
just let me know and it shall be done, but don’t expect a Christmas card next
year! : - ) (not that I send them out to
begin with)
I was fortunate enough to see a lot of friends while I was
home for the winter break, although the 4 short weeks didn’t leave me enough
time to see everyone. I will have a 6 week summer, so hopefully I can find a
place for the ones I missed, although I will be desperately looking for a job.
(Apparently med school isn’t free.)
To bring everyone up to speed on where I am and what I’m
doing here…. I am in medical school at St. George’s
University on the island
of Grenada, at the southern tip of
the Caribbean in the West Indies.
I spend 3 semesters on the island and then one semester on the island
of St. Vincent, where there is a
hospital better suited for teaching. For the last 2 years I am back in the good
old US of A doing clinicals at the hospitals affiliated with SGU. My hope is to be in Detroit
because those are the closest hospitals to Indiana,
however most of the class ends up in New York
and New Jersey (coincidently most
of the class is from NY/NJ). We also
have the opportunity to do rotations in the UK
as well as unaffiliated hospitals. My class size is about 300 and a new group
of 1st term students start every August and January. In addition to
the medical school, SGU has a veterinary school (90% female) as well as an
undergrad program (mostly Caribbean students).
Many of you asked me about the size of Grenada
while I was home, but somehow they left
out that information in our first term classes. So I did a little research and
the island is 21 miles long by 12 miles wide, or about twice the size of D.C. It
has 73 miles of coastline (including many beaches from what I hear) and, the
population is approaching 100,000. Grenada
happens to lie on the edge of the hurricane belt, but they haven’t had one get
close for about 50 years. Luckily the
hurricane season ended in November.
Due to the number of students who fly here each semester, we
have staggered start times. I began classes on Jan. 12 along with the med
school class a semester ahead of us, and then a week later the vet school,
undergrad school, and the 1st term med students started. I was lucky enough to tag along on the
orientation tours/trips offered to the 1st term students during that
week and thoroughly enjoyed it. We went on hikes and a tour of the capital. I
took some really cool photos that you can check out on my website,
http://www.geocities.com/firecrafter93/files/sgupics I’ll be adding more as the
term goes on as well as putting some highlights from last year on there, so be
sure to check back often.
As for where I’m living down here, I arrived to find that
our apartment building was not finished being built. So my 2 roommates stayed
in the landlord’s house for two weeks while I stayed in a single in the same
complex, graciously given up by a vet student who lived with a buddy while they
finished our place. We finally moved in 2 weeks ago but its now over 4 weeks
into the term and they’re still not completely finished with the outside. This
is what we call “Life in Grenada.”
It seems its hard to find good workers on this island, willing to put in a full
day’s worth of work and do a good job.
Some days the workers don’t show up at all, or although they show up
late, they still want a full hour for lunch and to leave early. Did I mention
there are no skyscrapers in grenada?
All of this info is from what the landlord tells me. (But she’s a woman so I
guess that means she’s the landlady.) So there’s talk that we might finally get
hot water tomorrow (waiting to get the solar heaters installed.) Lets just say
I’ve had my fill of cold showers. I’m definitely gonna try to get a place on
campus next year (on campus housing is only guaranteed for 1st term
students and women.)
A bit more about grenada…
The apartment sits in a good location, being at the confluence of 3 school bus
routes. (yes, I’m in medical school and I still ride the school bus to school.
And yes, its of the “short” variety.) The public transport system…. Wait I mean
“public transport system” of grenada
consists of red minivans that will drive you all over the island for about
50cents. They honk at everyone on the street, asking if you want a ride. They
drive so fast I think some of the drivers are practicing for the Indy 500. I
have 3 grocery stores within walking distance (ranging from across the street
to ¾ mile away) and if you buy generic stuff the prices aren’t too bad. Somehow,
marshmellows still haven’t found their way to the island yet. Oh, here’s a cool
thing. The police “cars” consist of pickup trucks with “POLICE” stenciled in on
the sides. They have a couple of motorcycles too.
To give you some medical background, the island has no CT
nor MRI scanners. For that you have to fly to Trinidad.
They are in constant need of blood and the school hosts blood drives from time
to time, although most students have just been immunized from HepB and thus are
ineligible. The hospital here is only a few years old and I hear is relatively
modern. The ER, OR, and OB ward have air conditioning
and the private ward (a.k.a. you pay for it yourself) is getting it soon. All
the other wards are of the old “large room with lots of beds” type setup and
have to keep the windows open for ventilation. Needless to say, if I need an operation I’m
catching the first plane back to the land of the “stars and stripes.” Diabetes,
high blood pressure, and sickle cell are common ailments seen here. You also
get your run of the mill dengue (as I kill another mosquito… bzzzzzz *smack* .)
The classes I’m taking right now are neurology, immunology,
and physiology. They will end and then I will take genetics and parasitology
(bring it on, Ascaris!). Once they
are finished we start a short term when we take non-science classes like
jurisprudence, biostats, epidemiology, and medical ethics. Finally I will get
to go home on June 27th, after being down here for 6 months this
time around. The profs aren’t too bad. We have a bunch of germans teaching
neuro (we’re still trying to get one of them to say “its not a tumor” in
Schwartzeneger form.) One of the physio profs is still a practicing
physician. One day in class he told us
about a case he had in the ICU the previous night. I thought that was pretty
cool to have someone with active clinical knowledge. I heard a story today
about one of the anatomy profs who still practices (and happens to be german
too). He’s an ENT (otolaryngologist) and a student came up to him one night
with his upper lip cut and bleeding. He just sewed up the kid right then and
there. I hope he used an anesthetic. Oh, our immuno prof is French-canadian… nuff
said.
So you might be wondering how does SGU compare to US med
schools? I did a little research while I was home and found it to be atleast
comparable if not better. My other classmates found the same phenomenon. One
big difference was the inclusion of clinical cases into anatomy, as well as
using board exam type questions on our exams. That being said, I still would
much rather be closer to home, even if it means subzero temps in winter. So I
will be applying to transfer to Indiana
university this year and keeping my fingers crossed. Although my grades are
nothing worthy of neurosurgery, we’ll see.
When I’m not studying I’m usually sleeping. When I’m not
doing either of those 2 things, I’m doing a cardio kickboxing class twice a
week in our gym (open aired space in the student center with old equipment) or
playing with some kids from an orphanage on the beach on Saturday mornings.
It’s a good excuse to go the beach and have fun, as well as it gets me up and
moving in the morning. They’re not orphans due to their parents dieing of AIDS.
Usually its that the parents don’t make enough money to support them.
You see things down here that you don’t normally see in the US.
On of the orphan girls is about 7 years old and has bilateral club feet. One of
the 1st term students was working on talking to a orthopedic surgeon
to see if they could correct that. Rheumatic fever is also seen here. One lady
already had 2 valves replaced. Luckily I haven’t heard anything about malaria.
I even heard a story of a girl who was transfused with sickle cell blood! I’m still baffled at that one.
Well I hope I haven’t bored any of you to death. I don’t
think the rest of these emails will be quite as long. Feel free to email me and
let me what’s going on with you. When I was home I heard these emails were
being circulated around work and friends from school, so feel free to “spread
the love.” And if you’re wondering, the
current temperature is 84F with 56% humidity and clear blue skies and lots of
sun. Sorry to rub it in. Try to thaw out before I return.
Nick Peters