Hola amigos y familia,

I finally have a little time to sit down and write another blog. Last week I started a new clinical rotation with a private practice pediatrician named Dr. Hector Tenorio. The private clinic is very different from the public Centro de Salud where I was at the previous week. The people who go to the private clinic are clearly from a higher socioeconomic class and the facility itself is much nicer. However the private doctor lets me do less than the public doctor did. Mostly I just observe him treating the kids. A lot of kids come in with gastrointestinal infections and pulmonary infections. Many kids also come in for vaccinations, such as for the flu or for hepatitis A. Tomorrow is my last day with him beacause we are going to Mexico City late thursday night and next week I will be with a different doctor.

I am very excited for my Mexico City trip. 16 kids from my program are going. We are taking an all night bus on thursday and returning on an all night bus on sunday. We bought tickets for a concert by a big Mexican pop star named Juanes. We also have tickets for the America vs. Chivas futbol game which is one of the biggest games of the year in Mexico. We are staying in a hostel in the main square (Zocalo) of Mexico City. We are also planning on going to see the pyramids at Teotihuacan. I will write all about my trip when I come back.

Everything in Oaxaca is going well. Last week I took a cooking class where I made mole (a mexican sauce), tamales and fresh salsa. It was lots of fun and everything turned out really well. We made the salsa with a mortar and pistil (I think that is what they are called).

On the weekends my group and I usually go out dancing. The dance clubs are really fun here. We do salsa dancing and koombia too. We have met a lot of locals as well as travelers from other programs. People are really nice here. The drink of choice here is called mezcal which is an unrefined form of tequilla and it tastes really bad.

Anyway I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for reading and commenting on my blog and I will try to send you guys an email soon!

Love,
Max