Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There's a ton of things that I am thankful for, one of which is this experience. Since medical school I have wanted to participate in a medical mission trip. I came close last year. I had a trip to Guatemala planned but then fellowship interviews got in the way. The main roadblock has been the cost. I am grateful for the Issa Trust and Couple's Resort for organizing such a wonderful program.
Yesterday I rounded on the Pediatric ward with the team. I had it wrong before when I thought the 3 young docs there were residents. They do not have residency programs. Medical school is longer (6 yrs instead of our 4yrs) but they are not required to do a 3 yr residency.
Rounds are similar to ours. A younger (and I use this word as experience not necessarily age) doctor presents their patients to the Attending doctor (aka the Boss). A plan is pretty much set ahead of time but fine tuned after some discussion.
After rounds blood is drawn for the labs ordered. Then LUNCH.
I rode home with Candi again. The hospital system is down a car (its in the shop) so any time she offers I accept. On the ride home we stopped at this jerk shop. I had heard from all of the drivers that it has the best jerk (chicken and pork). It was good but Doug cooks pork so well that I'm pretty spoiled (dry pork just doesn't cut it anymore).
Today I watched the Macys parade and I'm going to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving at 8pm. I got to talk to my family after they had dinner. Hopefully next year I can sit down with them at the table (last year Doug's grandma died so we were at his family's, 2 yrs ago I was on call, 3 yrs ago I think we were also at Doug's, so it must have been 4 yrs ago at my family).

FUN Jamaican stuff:
some schools have 2 shifts: 7-12 and 12-5. So if it seems like there are always kids walking around town, you're right.
The biggest shopping day of the year here is Christmas Eve.
Some of the rural houses just have the living area and bedrooms inside. The bathroom and kitchen are outside.
Speaking of bathrooms there is something called a pit latrine. During rounds we talked about this and I thought they said piG latrine and asked if I knew what it was. I thought pig trough and said 'where they eat.' Oh no. It is an 8 ft hole in the ground with a seat at the top of it to do your business.
Coconuts are not brown while they are on the tree. They have an outer shell that is yellow/green. The sweeter the jelly (juice) inside means the older it is. Milk is NOT the liquid inside but made by grinding up the white meat.

Pandora, Hulu, and Netflix do not work outside of the US.