End of the Road

We have found a place to live. Hopefully, nothing will fall through on the apartment. It is beautiful. It has 5 bedrooms a living area, dining room, kitchen, family room, etc. Each bedroom has its own bath. It is on the 3rd floor and overlooks the kids pool and play areas. We have a beautiful view of Caracas and the Avilla. Fastidious as I am, I measured all of the rooms and then downloaded a free trial of SmartDraw software! I was able to make a plan of the apartment and then measured my furniture and uploaded the dimensions to the program then happily rearranged my furniture to make sure it would all fit and figure out what I needed to buy.

The apartment is lovely, but like life, is not perfect. At this very moment, they are undergoing water rationing. Water is only turned on for three hours daily - once in the morning, once at noon and once in the evening. Our complex must pay for water to be transported in trucks to tanks at the top of the hill on which we live. We have asked for water tanks to be installed in the apartment, at least so we can shower when rationing is going on. That seems a reasonable solution to that problem. The complex has two towers, each with two columns of 11 apartments. All are privately owned and finished differently. If your landlord decides to sell your apartment, you will have one year before you have to move out and find a new apartment. It seems the market is very tight and the "good" apartments turn over quickly. I feel very lucky we were able to find this apartment for our family.

I flew back on Thursday and Chris remained to do some work and attend the Latin America Leadership Team meeting this week. He gave me my first Venezuelan medical consult today, it seems he has developed Chavez' Revenge and

was unsure what medication to take. You don't need prescriptions in Venezuela - but I had to tell him what to get and how to take it.

I have about two more weeks of work left and three more scheduled calls. My patients are very sweet and most of them are wishing me good luck on our adventure. I know a lot of people who don't know me well have a hard time understanding how I could "give up" practicing medicine - but those who know me best have no questions about it. It gets a little exhausting trying to explain to people my life, my children, my husband, my decisions. One of my patent's FOB (not married, but supportive) was in L and D last Monday as I was delivering their second child on Medicaid. He looked me dead in the eye and asked me if I was crazy. I just smiled. He then went on to say that I would be so bored I would start throwing dirt on the floor just to clean it and have something to do. I just kept smiling and kept counting the multiple tattoos running down his arms. People - be nice. You are not going to tell me anything I don't know, or throw out a scenario I have not considered. I know exactly what I am doing. It is simply another chapter in my life. I have many talents and plan to explore them all.