Week 11

Ending my Week 11 a bit early but I wanted to share my last days with MEDLIFE before I begin my awesome excursion this week with Yampu Tours for my last full week in Peru!!!

With my last few days with MEDLIFE I spent the whole week in the field working with the volunteers and leading post clinic presentations and daily reflection activities. I had such a blast and was abel to connect with the group. I met such awesome people from all over the US and many other countries. It was great to see why everyone wanted to be a MEDLIFE volunteer and what their future plans are. 

During my last day in the field I was helping to lead a clinic in which I stayed at my favorite station, the teeth brushing station. The teeth brushing station is for all the children of the community to teach them how to brush their teeth. This station is my favorite because it is a preventative type of health care that will help the children later on in their lives. The hard part about this station is that many times its already too late. Many of the children come in with cavities in all of their teeth so bad that they probably have already affected their adult teeth. This just shows the importance of more mobile clinics and more education not online during mobile clinics but in in schools and in the communities.

I met so many amazing and happy kids that day! I made tons of glove balloons for the kids who were scared to brush their teeth and I was able to speak so much Spanish. It was a great last day in the field. 

At the end of the day we inaugurated two staircases and a house that MEDLIFE had completed during that week. It was a great time and we had a celebration at the end with the community and the volunteers dancing together. 

This summer has been absolutely amazing. I have learned and experienced so much and its crazy to go back to my first weekly video or my first weekly summary and to see how much I’ve done with MEDLIFE. I am so happy to have been able to be part of MEDLIFE and so happy to have been sponsored by Yampu Tours. 

So excited for my last week as I will be going on a food and bike tour and then traveling to Puno, Peru to explore Lake Titicaca!!

-Ian

About Ian
Hometown: Hamilton, NJ
School: University of Vermont
Major: Biology
Minor: Community & International Development

Ian is a mentor for two awesome mentees Keshon and Kiki, a volunteer at the University of Vermont Medical Center on the pediatric floor, the president of MEDVIDA, his local chapter of MEDLIFE, and a member of the UVM Triathlon club. He loves being outdoors hiking, snowboarding, and camping.

Ian first got involved with MEDLIFE at the University of Vermont by joining his local chapter during Freshman year. He went on his first brigade that summer to Cusco, Peru and it changed his life. During his Sophomore year he became Vice President and Brigades Officer for his chapter. That summer he went on my second brigade to Esmeraldas, Ecuador where he first learned about his current internship in Lima, Peru. In his Junior year he became the President of his chapter at UVM and he is now a MEDLIFE Volunteer Affairs Intern.

His goal for this internship is to connect his Biology major and Community and International Development minor through helping with the planning and implementation of sustainable community development projects that help bring medical access to vulnerable communities.

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