Musings from Mark

Well I decided it was my turn to write something in the blog, so here goes… San has very aptly described a number of our adventures thus far. What I am struck by is how often I am trying to make comparisons to what is known and familiar to me. We arrived in country and almost everyone was complaining (and apologizing) about the wet summer they are having. So I comment how the weather is so similar to our NW weather back home. But soon we discover that the weather changes much more rapidly here plus there is more humidity.

Also, though the hills look like they are very dry, similar to eastern WA, they are covered so often in clouds that they have year round grasses growing. We see wonderful gardens and I am trying to find plants that I recognize and know like dahlias, petunias, marigolds, and trees like cedar and oak. But then we see odd and beautiful low plants with leafless stems and purple saucer-like flowers that are almost like a desert plant. Or wonderful trees with greatly interweaving trunks and branches unlike any of ours. Hiking (or trekking) in the foothills yesterday we saw a very familiar broom plant like our scotch broom. But beside it is an equally invasive shrub with incredible thorns lining all the branches with bright yellow flowers just like the scotch broom (gorse, perhaps?).

Then there is the medical system. I went thru an orientation to their medical system and their EMR (electronic medical record) and thought it not so very different from our EMR. But then I learn, at least in this practice, that the doctor brings every patient from the waiting room, does the vital signs, and then talks with and examines the patient all in one office with no nurse involved. Unless I need a chaperone for the exam or the patient needs a pelvic exam in which case the nurse does it.

I am really enjoying our time thus far--more reflections to come.