The Global Health Academic Concentration
Follow UC San Diego School of Medicine's GHAC students around the world.
When I joined the GHAC program, I knew that I wanted to travel to Sub-Saharan Africa. I was eager to understand more about the region, and to have an opportunity to learn from physicians, fellow students, and patients there. Fortunately, I found a project working with American physicians Dr. Sierra Washington and Christy Zachek, and … Continue reading Mapping maputo
In Amman the buildings are dense, piled on top of each other, no spaces in between - evidence of a city that grew out of necessity. During the day the sight can be overwhelming, but at sunset the repetitive architecture reflects back a pink light that captures the city and you can feel a collective … Continue reading learning & Surveying compassion in Jordan
Brief recap of what I did this summer. 16 June: MS1 ended (whoo) 17 June – 21 June: kicked it in Santa Barbara, LA, and Big Bear, where I climbed Sugarloaf Mountain to train for Mt. Kilimanjaro 22 June: flew from LAX à Amsterdam à Kilimanjaro 23 June – July 3: climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with … Continue reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: A Peripatetic Mzungu On the Hunt for Drugs in Uganda
Part 1: La Selva Amazonica I last signed off before taking a trip to La Selva Amazonica (Amazonian Jungle) with my Child Family Health International (CFHI) friends. One of our two guides is a Spanish teacher for the CFHI program and invited me to join the group on this journey to the Amazonian jungle. We … Continue reading Las Aventuras al Aire Libre (I promise I am here to do research too…)
With four weeks down and four to go, I can confidently say I love this country. After a 33 hour trip, I landed in Uganda for the first time. While Kampala is one of the most crowded and busy cities I’ve ever seen and there seems to be a frightening lack of enforced traffic laws, … Continue reading Uganda, the first of hopefully many visits.
I came to Barranco on a Sunday morning to solve my ceviche problem. The problem had been that in Peru, ceviche is only eaten in the first half of the day, to minimize the hours between catch and consumption, and my workplace in Lima was not near enough any well-reviewed ceviche restaurant for me get … Continue reading Pescado, Pinturas, and Post-Colonial Decay in Distrito Barranco
After climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, I boarded a plane headed for Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where I would spend a week doing a historical and cultural tour of the country. I would visit Addis Ababa (the current capital of Ethiopia), Axum (the capital of the Axumite empire), Lalibela (the capital of the Zagwe empire), … Continue reading Ethiopia
First impressions, gut instincts, and intuition are interesting things. We are taught, whether blatantly or subconsciously, to trust these feelings—It’s necessary. They help make rapid decision-making possible. The ER doctor in the middle of running a code, the police officer responding to a call, the solo female traveler walking down an unknown street, they all … Continue reading First Impressions
I was beyond excited to find out that I would be spending the summer of 2017 in Uganda conducting field research on malaria. I was originally inspired to pursue medicine by the example and ideas of Dr. Paul Farmer, who has spent his career working in low-resource settings and advocating for a preferential option for … Continue reading Mt. Kilimanjaro: You are doing good, you are doing great
I have officially been in Ecuador for 1 week and 1 day! It has been quite the adventure thus far. I arrived after midnight and thus stayed in a hotel in Quito my first night. I met my coworkers and host family the next day. I could not be any luckier; my host family is … Continue reading Las primeras Aventuras en Ecuador de Li-Li