Pre-departure post!!!

Hello friends!
I am happy to announce that in a few days I am heading off to Arica, Chile on a Public Health and Spanish immersion trip for 3.5 months! I am going to be living in Arica, a beach town in the very north of Chile. Arica is basically in Peru and Bolivia which makes it a very great place to learn about cross-border health care initiatives.

el mapa de Chile 

On this study abroad program I will learn about the health care system of Chile and traditional chilean medical practices including those of the Mapuche and Aymara indigenous people. I will be living with a homestay family in Arica for the first 2 months and will then head off on an independent research project for the last month. For my research project I hope to compare maternal and fetal health care practices (such as cleanliness of delivery rooms, ante-partum maternal education, fetal outcomes, APGAR scores, etc) between modern hospitals (maybe in Santiago?) and indigenous community hospitals.

Before I meet with up with my study abroad program, I will be heading to Torres del Paine in Patagonia to hike the W-circuit (~ 40 miles) with 7 other people from my program. As they say, what better way to get to know people than hiking with them for 5 days in Patagonia?!?!

This is the W-loop we will be hiking. We will be staying in refugios and camping along the way! 

I guess posting this shows that I have made up my mind to blog while in Chile, but I must warn you to not expect much.

reasons to not expect much of my blog:

1. I am more of a doer than a thinker and reflector
2. My writing leads some to wonder if english really is my first language
3. I tend to give myself minimal down-time (in which writing could occur) 

But all that aside, I am going to try my hardest to blog regularly so that my friends/fans know what I am up, so my parents don't think I have died, and so that I have a record of all my experiences. 

Soo..in T-6 days I am off! To the place in this book (hope you can read backwards). I will miss you all terribly and can't wait to be reunited!

Besos y abrazos,
Carrie