Our Final Week

Our last week in Panama was an unforgettable one for many reasons. On Sunday we went to the Embera Village which was quite an experience. Some of us took the chance to swim in the waterfall which was amazing and when we reached the village several members of the tribe welcomed us with music. Most of us got “tribal tattoos” but not everyone got the memo that these tattoos could last up to two weeks. Monday we went to a dinner to celebrate USF Health officially becoming part of the City of Knowledge. We were surprised to see the amount of important people from USF there that night. On Tuesday we went to dinner with Dean Burns and Dr. Cadena at the Miraflores Locks. This week we also visited the a mental health hospital which was a far cry from the facilities that many of us spent our psych clinical, a private hospital which seemed similar to hospitals you would see in the states, we saw a couple of babies being born, most of the group got to go the nursery to hold and feed the newborns, we saw a NICU with incubators as far as you could see, and we also visited the Nursing Association of Panama. Friday we presented maternal, mental health, and Pediatric information that we had learned along the way to some nursing students and faculty at the Universidad de Panama. That night we went out one last time to celebrate Melissa and Jessica’s birthdays. Finally, Saturday came. We left the hostel around 10:30 and spent the rest of the day in airports and planes. When we got to the airport we found out that probably about half of us did not have connecting flights to Tampa (this was eventually figured out). Getting through customs in Miami was a bit of a nightmare and took forever. On a better note, I met up and catch up with an old friend for the rest of the layover. It was a stressful day but we were all just glad to be going home. I have had the most amazing experiences and have made some amazing friends on this trip and would not change it for anything (except for maybe the part where my wallet was stolen on Thursday). Now I am in the process of fixing all the problems that arose when my wallet was stolen, but happy to be sleeping in my own bed again!