First Week in Macedonia

Blog Entry #1:

The first few days of being in Macedonia have been amazing. The flight was exhausting but very easy. I landed and was welcomed by the team manager Katerina and the Medical Advisor Dako who are on my team. I was then taken to my very cute apartment and was given a few hours to settle in. It was Dako's birthday so that night I joined the entire team for a big dinner celebration. It was a lot of fun. The atmosphere here is amazing. Everyone is extremely welcoming and the team acts like a big family. They eat every meal together, work together, hang out after work...etc. I am very excited to be apart of the team.

Skopja is incredible. It is a beautiful city and everything is very close together. My apartment is 3 blocks from the office, 2 blocks from Katerina's house, and about a 10 minute walk from downtown. The downtown is under a lot of new construction but what has been done so far is amazing. Marble bridges with statues and fountains everywhere. It really is beautiful. The food here is also really good. Basically every meal consists of meat, cheese (and I mean a lot of cheese), and bread. There are also some tomato, cucumber and onion salads that are delicious. Everything here is made in the country so it is all very fresh and organic.

So far I have met with the Pediatric Director at the University Clinic in Macedonia. She is an incredible doctor and has traveled all over the world performing different procedures for pediatrics. Katerina, Vlako and I met with her to talk about the Medical Resupply Program and about having other USA Pediatric doctors come next week to observe how the clinic is run and to work with them in getting anything they need to advance their level of care. ProjectHOPE, the Director, and the Ministry of Health is working to get equipment from USA hospitals that is either outdated for the USA or is not needed. The skill base of knowledge from MD's is very good here, however, the equipment needed to use those skills are not available. Getting those pieces of equipments is what I will be helping ProjectHOPE with.

Next week I will be assisting a USA Pediatric Doctor who is arriving on Sunday by sitting in on meetings with different departments in the Hospital and by talking to staff members about what is needed for Neonatal Surgery, Pediatric Care, and Emergency Pediatric Care. I am really excited to be involved in this part of the program as it will expose me to how the health care system works here, as well as, what is needed here to advance the level of care.

Two nights ago I went to a soccer game with the team which was a blast! It was a friendly game - Macedonia vs Bulgaria. The atmosphere is so much more exciting than it is in the States! Everyone is cheering and drinking. We won by 2 points which made the stadium even more energetic! This weekend I will be going to a Basketball Game on Saturday night which is supposed to be really fun. Basketball seems to be the biggest sport here as the team is doing the best in the league. Sunday I have the opportunity to shadow a Neurosurgeon who is working on the Program with us and he has invited me to come and see how things are done in the Neurosurgery department and in the ED. I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

Well that is it for the first week. Everything is really fun here and I love the people I am working with! The city is a great place to be and I am really happy to be here!!