Wow, what a week! by blogger of the month David Weltman

Wow, what a week! 

First off, we finished up our CPR course and Hebrew Ulpan this week, each ending with a party and lovely chocolate selection. I don’t think I ate that much chocolate in my life (but it made for a great breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack). We just completed our test today, combining a 1.5 hour written examination with curing dummies of choking and hemorrhages, as well as taking patient history and analyzing ailments. It was a rigorous exam, but somewhat fun, too—we came a long way!

Outside of the classroom, I was privileged to spend my birthday here among my new MSIH friends this past Wednesday. We began the evening with a festive meal, going to Casa do Brasil and enjoying delicious meat (and for three of us who went all out, unlimited meat—prime rib, lamb chops, mallard duck, you name it!), and my friends surprised me by ordering dessert—which came with sparklers, flashing lights, singing, and dancing. After that, those who braved it and those who couldn’t make it to dinner joined me at Manga, a local bar, for some shots and good conversation. The hours flew by—it was awesome!

After a week of medicine and celebration, we now look forward to what our semester will bring. Who knows what we’ll find? But one thing’s for certain—you can look to our next bloggers of the month for more details!!! - David Weltman, blogger of the month

Getting into the swing of things, by David Weltman

Getting into the swing of things

Orientation has really been getting going. Intense study for Ulpan continues, the test at the end of our intro to emergency medicine course begins to cross our minds, and we’re beginning to see the importance and loss of a Sunday as a day off. And yet, this hasn’t stopped us from having a good time!

Mmmm, Cholent.

Every weekend, many of my classmates—myself included—have been taking weekend getaway trips to places like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. While I had also spend some weekends away, my classmate Moshe and I decided to instead take up the offer of one of our teachers to come over for Shabbat dinner, and then host a lunch of our own the following day. It turned out to be such a nice and relaxing Shabbat. The Margolis family were wonderful hosts, and we are thankful to them for their hospitality. Plus, a vegetarian Shabbat dinner was a nice respite from the norm. Lunch was also amazing, thanks to our guests. I whipped up a cholent/chamin/beef stew (or whatever else you want to call it—could’ve used a little more salt), and the rest was basically potluck. The company was great, and we ended our meal and dove into a heated game of Settlers of Catan, which, coupled with my reading of the epic saga The Lord of the Rings, made for quite the adventurous Shabbat.

I also have been able to get into the city a bit, which has been a plus. I saw the conclusion of the Batman trilogy, a great work in my opinion (although others in my class disagree). I met up and went out to lunches and dinners with friends, bought a new bike (which is currently getting repaired), and bought some new items for my future home here in Beersheba. All in all, a really solid start, and I hope to be able to see and do even more in the weeks ahead!!! - blogger of the month David Weltman

A Few Weeks In, by David Weltman

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 Wow, what an awesome first few weeks. It’s been a lot of work as of late, which is funny, as this is supposed to be simply the orientation and we don’t yet have eighty classes to study for. And yet, with ulpan, finding apartments, and our emergency medicine course, along with all the other mind-numbing tasks we’ve had to do thus far, we’ve had our hands full!

Nevertheless, I have used the past few weekends to travel to visit friends. Two weeks ago, I went to Jerusalem with another student on the program to visit my friend Daniel, and we enjoyed getting lost in the Old City, a beautiful Shabbat overlooking the eastern mountains, and a Tisha B’av service overlooking the Old City. This dark day on the Jewish calendar marks the destruction of the ancient Temples of Jerusalem and the sieges and burnings of the city and its inhabitants, “all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, her maidens are afflicted and as for her, it is bitter unto her” (Lamentations 1:4). It was such a cool juxtaposition, listening to those words and looking at the city renewed and prosperous.

the Cardo, a very much intact ancient Roman Road

Herod's Gate (the gate of flowers)

Damascus Gate (gate of Schechem)

Jerusalem to the East.

Beyond that, I signed a lease on my new apartment! It doesn’t open up until September 1^st, so I’ll have to figure out what exactly I’ll be doing in the meanwhile, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there—next week. I can’t wait to report what comes next! - blogger of the month, David Weltman

Wow. by August blogger of the month David Weltman

View from train to Beersheva

Wow. When I landed and took the train in during the early morning down to this city (see above), after having traveled such a long route east, I was in such a daze. I arrived at my apartment and, despite being totally beyond tired, I somehow managed to stumble to the bank, spit out convoluted Hebrew, and open up a student account before going to sleep and messing with my sleep schedule that much further (which, as I am finding as I compose this post tonight at 9:30 P.M., is still the case).

Since we began this Sunday, we have all learned a lot about living in Beer Sheva. From the safety situation to the location of the mall and grocery stores to the not-so-secret elevator on the medical campus and so much more, this is certain to be the beginning of a long learning process on how to live as a student and as a resident, a גר תושב, as it were, in a country not our own. But we are here to do more than that. In the next four (or however many) years it will take for us to get there, this program will cause us to take on new challenges, new experiences, and give us a new set of tools with which we can change the world, one patient and one place at a time. In the meantime, an ulpan a day will do much to keep us future doctors at bay, if not away entirely. But, as the Israelis say—לאט, לאט—one step at a time, and we can get there.

Entrance to Caroline House, where the MSIH
has its administrative offices.

Meanwhile, for me, this week has been anything but clear-cut. My bags got lost in transit, and even as I type, one is now with me, one is at my friend’s place (since they couldn’t get in touch with me for delivery), and one is still lost in transit. I opened a bank account after a lot of backs-and-forths, only to arrive today to pick up my bankcard and checks and discover that they couldn’t find my passcode, so I’d have to wait some more. I also still have no SIM card and my credit card doesn’t work—both the SIM and my new card came in the mail today with sign-for delivery requirements, and I missed both of them.

Smile, its all for the best.

Despite all of this, as I passed a utility box a couple of days ago with a smiley face and the words תנו חיוך, הכל לטובה, “Give a smile, all is for the best,” I could not help but smile. This is the start of a brand new, amazing adventure. And I hope it will truly be for the best.

Hats off to our Israeli liaisons, Daphna, Dana, and Evy, for being such help to us before and during my journey down here, and to the wonderful staff of our program who helped us and continue to do so through our orientation. I can’t wait to see what’s in store next. It has been so awesome getting to know my fellow students over the past few days, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you all so much better as the days go on!  - August blogger of the month, David Weltman

Well, here's my last post, by July blogger of the month Seungjin Kim

Well, here's my last post.

About a year ago, right about this time, I was standing in my apartment in Beersheva, alone, A/C not working, and just wondering what I've gotten myself into. I was excited and senselessly lonely at the same time. As time went by, Beersheva became a new home for me. Now I know what to do when I go back there, along with trying to meet some high standards set by the current third years. I hope I can be as good a second year as my second year friends when I was a first year, but I really have doubts. They were..and are an amazing bunch. When we finished our first year, a third year, soon to leave Beersheva to go stateside for his fourth year, said to be nice to the first years. I really want to, and will try to. If there's any first year reading this, please, please contact me for anything; I'll try to provide help. It's normal to be out of place at this time; it's normal to be frustrated. Don't think about USMLE until the beginning of 2nd semester, because prepping for USMLE should start, in my humble opinion, in 3rd semester (so why at the beginning of 2nd semester? Because at the end of 2nd semester you'll be in zombie mode.. you'll know when you get there).

That said, I still gotta enjoy my break before I go back there. I still need more rest! I lost 5 kg around the last couple months in B7 due to some studying schedule mishaps and I finally gained some weight back. Yeah.. eating and exercising are two really important things for marathon-studying required in med school. For now I don't want to do any work that requires concentration, not just yet ;) I still gotta go places, eat good food... I still haven't gone to a Korean BBQ yet! And still haven't gone to In-and-Out (aghast)! But I do know my place is there in the Negev, so I will gladly head back when time comes. Only when time comes, hehehe.

What's going to be waiting for us second years once we go back?

Well, we started with one classmate who's married, but we'll have one more. We'll have to start studying for USMLE. We're gonna start systems. One hellava rollercoaster ride that'll end with taking the Step I. One last real Christmas break. I'm kinda excited for it though. Now we know how the year flows in Beersheva, so we'll be ready and prepare ourselves better. Some of us will try to use the newly gained knowhow to race against time and academics to create something great this year. As for me I got little projects I'd like to accomplish, med school and church-related. Hey Hebrew, round two! Step I – let's dream for 270, 'cause why the hell not? Let's dream high! … haha I'm probably gonna accomplish 20% of what I have in mind for the year but that's okay. Ugh and then there's the dreaded lit review... sigh.

Oh also, the city will have finished building the water park!!! It'll be nice to stroll around it during nighttime.

That's it from me. Good luck first years!!!! Can't wait to see you guys! - blogger of the month, Seungjin Kim

How I learned what I learned, by blogger of the month Seungjin Kim

During the first year of the MSIH program, I learned quite a lot about International Health. The learning was mostly by frontal lectures by some fascinating lecturers who have or are currently working in their relative health sectors, ranging from local hospitals to the Israeli government agency, even outward to Europe and the WHO. I really learned a lot, and the concept of it doesn't seem too vague anymore.

Frontal lectures have the advantage of speeding up acquirement of near-neutral knowledge, much like as you'd learn Kung-fu by inserting a jack at the back of your head and downloading the software, like how Neo did in the movie Matrix. Then again, it's not THAT interesting. Or fun.

My first direct exposure, or how I first sensed I am being exposed to the fact that this school is situated with a window to show a world other than the United States I was comfortable in, was through the clinical interview sessions, and especially when we started going to the Bedouin villages. Well, not only that. A local PHR group held meetings about the Bedouins and how bad their situation is in Israel.

A straight-shot way to describe what I felt would be that the Bedouin situation was a model in which I learned the concepts to consider when the goal was to increase the health status of a developing country. We listened to the examples in the Bedouin population in nutrition studies in GHM health modules, tribe-based genetic diseases in Genetics, lower status of women, high prevalence of diabetes, and the demolition/re-construction of unrecognized Bedouin villages and reasons why.

On top of that we started going out to the clinics situated in the Bedouin villages, such as Tel Sheva. We saw the patients, usual reasons for hospital visit, and we also tagged along house visits. The house visits really opened my eyes as to what we'll be actually doing if we're to be doctors in developing countries. The nurse that tagged us along was being invited into a family house, counseling on diets that are better for the diabetic father, teaching how to use the insulin injector. The diabetic patients with parts of their lower limbs amputated made me think a lot. It could have been avoided.

My second direct exposure was when I helped out a second year set up a computerized medical records system for a refugee clinic in Tel Aviv. One of our classmate found in her heart to start volunteering every week there, even though that means spending quite a bit of time just in transit. Anyway, before the computerized medical records system, they only had Word documents as a medical records system. With the help of this brilliant second year, the refugee clinic now runs on Ubuntu (I just had to put this down here because it's an open source Linux operating system and it's so awesome standing up to Microsoft and Windows!!!), running OpenMRS – the fully free medical records system that, like any other awesome open-source initiatives, are done by a focused network of like-minded programmers around the world who think they should give to the world something awesome, for free.

The refugee clinic in right inside Tel-Aviv's huge Central Bus Station, or CBS. They are part of a network of refugee clinics, where refugees can come for medical needs. In this one, it's managed by Orel, an Israeli that is around my age, with a passion for cigarettes and the need to help the refugees find justice in Israel. I'm thankful I found an outlet for my need to fix/tinker with computers, that I can help out in the IT part of the refugee clinic, and maybe on the health side of the operation as well, if time permits in the coming year.

Of course, there are other ways to get exposed, such as the PHR. Or teaching English in Umbatim. Or you can just outright create your own window to whatever you want to get exposed. I know I'm not the adventurous type, and even I got two substantial exposures this year – a taste of what's to come in the next two years here, and afterwards as a doctor in underserved communities. – blogger of the month Seungjin Kim

The people I've met, by blogger of the month Seungjin Kim

In this blog post, I will recall and pass on my experience with the people beyond the circles of the students/faculty/administration of MSIH.

Each morning usually started off with going to the classroom 616 in the Old Internal Building in the Soroka Hospital, by 8:10 AM. I usually overestimate the amount of time it'll take for my biking to get to class, so I usually arrive at around 8:00 AM. I meet the cleaning lady there – a lady that looks like she's a Russian descent. I used to just ignore her but as time passed, and as my Hebrew increased relatively, I started to be a bit bold. I started saying 'Bokhel Tov' (Good Morning) to her, and although that's all that communication limits allow (she sometimes fumbled Hebrew too, or so I think with my limited Hebrew), I became less of a stranger.

Amidst the occasional VERY random encounters such as an Israeli almost forcing me to be friends just because I was born in Korea, my usual day-to-day exposure to the locals happened while grocery shopping.

My preparation to go grocery shopping is always a quest. I felt especially like a mage, memorizing spells to use them, hehe. Equipping is essential. I gotta bring a backpack, along with my bike, along with my water bottle. My small pocket notebook (aside: I make PocketMods. Google'it!) has lists of words, spells I might cast to complete the quest of obtaining prized items such as 'chicken' or 'ground beef'... oops, sorry for the game analogy! But really, I repeat phrases and sentences, mumbling past people who look at me strangely. Oh by the way, for me, grocery markets have levels. Beginner's level: small markets, Eden, Tiv Tam. Intermediate: SuperSol, Mega. Hardcore: Shuk.

Beginner's level grocery shopping isn't too hard. They either speak English or don't have a lot of people shopping. SuperSol and the Shuk, on the other hand.. I have to meditate on potential encounters before going in. People would start asking me who's the last in line (i.e. the most important information in SuperSol), or at the loss of communication, but still trying to convey that he knows that North Korea's Kim Jung Il has passed away, a guy at the Shuk would start making crying faces at me, interchanging with a choking sound/facial expression. I might have to start a ground-meat buying transaction with a kid who is running the meat shop, possibly right before closing up shop. All in all, every interaction an interesting one.

Another group of people I got exposed to, with the help of the MSIH first-year clinical interview classes were the Bedouin population around Beersheva. Now for this, as it links to the theme of International health, I'll go into it more in the next blog post.

Now for me, the biggest interaction I had outside MSIH for the past 11.5 months – a consistent, deep relationship, as in becoming part of – centered around the Christian group in Beersheva, with its focal point being the 'Nichalim Yeshua' church. This relationship is the second biggest fruit that I gained by living in Beersheva, first being MSIH. As a Christian, I practically gave up of the prospect of going to church as I moved into Beersheva. However, a third year showed me this church, and I've become part of it.

In it are multiple groups of people. The older people are mostly from Russia/Eastern Europe. Some of the younger groups are Israeli. Some are foreigners that came via mission-related activities or academic /work-related reasons. Some, like me, are MSIH students, a sub-group which apparently lasted for quite a few years already. For me, knowing about all of this was a miracle. I realize I will be blabbering on and on quite a bit about Christianity-related things. I ask with respect and humility that you accept what I will write down, and I am writing with nothing but a humble effort to jot down what I felt and experienced, to add to the overall first-year experience.

I never really expected my being in Beersheva, in Israel, to sing worship songs in Hebrew, to actually say 'Hallelujah' because that's what it says in Hebrew on the projector, to say 'Elohim', to end prayers by 'ba shem shel Yeshua'(in the name of Jesus). It was and still is surreal. Very emotional. To be greeted and hugged by the older people – reflection of my grandparents back in Korea – in Russian, as they don't know Hebrew, but still feeling the love nonetheless, was one of the great stress-relievers after six days of unending school work. To be able to meet English-speaking fellow believers and sharing their accounts, to be sent to a meeting of believers in all parts of Israel and share in the understanding, to pray for another's struggles... it was amazing.  Sure, the sermon is in Hebrew and concentrating to the translation headsets takes a lot of effort, but to see all of the group take joy in worshiping and caring for each other was pretty enriching. Meeting a Korean who grew up in Israel was inspiring. In the same aspect was a MSIH couple's role-model like conduct in things, always making time for bible-study, while still managing marriage, school, and birth of a child. Or another MSIH student's reason to become so good at Hebrew being wanting to read the Bible in Hebrew. The passion of the Negev, for me, is here. The desert can be dry and terse, but I found a source of water that replenishes. I intend to find out further of how this relationship will unravel/deepen in the coming years. I really thank God for this opportunity. - blogger of the month Seungjin Kim