Panama - Jesuit Medical Collaborative 2012

This summer I participated in a global health project called the Jesuit Medical Collaborative. It was actually a brand new project started this year through Loyola's School of Medicine in Chicago. The goal was to work with all of the Jesuit medical schools in the Midwest area on a common global health project. We were able to get 2 students from here at SLU, 3 students from Creighton, and 5 students and 3 physicians from Loyola as well as the global health director Ginny from Loyola. The project was set up through Global Medical Brigades who recently started work in Panama and it was split up into public health and medical portions. We spent the first 3 days building latrines (basically an outhouse) for 3 of the families in one of the Latin communities. We then took 2 days in between to do some hiking in the rain forest and visiting with various indigenous communities in the area. The last 4 days we set up clinics first in the church of an indigenous community and then in a school for a Latin community. Overall the trip was 10 days long which was great for me because this was the first global health trip I had ever done and I wasn't sure how I would like it. Needless to say it was one of the best experiences of my life.