Carolan and "Aerie Backcountry Medicine" Training in Costa Rica

Below are some photos from Aerie Backcountry Medicine and their semester-long training program in wilderness emergency medicine. This month Carolan and her colleagues are training at Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica. Mastatal is not really near anything. The closest town, Puriscal, is a pretty good jeep ride away. As I understand it, Mastatal is in the tropical rain forest, between San Jose, the capital, and the Pacific beaches. The distance in miles is not great, but I'm thinking it takes 2-3 hours on gravel roads to get from San Jose to Rancho Mastatal, and probably another hour or two to get to the Pacific beaches.

I found the following pictures on the great blog the program has at this address: http://semesterwildermed.blogspot.com/
I hope they don't mind me reproducing the pictures here.

Top photo shows the jungle-like landscape of Rancho Mastatal. Middle photo shows Carolan's colleagues in the program. Carolan is in the middle row, left, seated. Bottom photo shows Carolan checking the airway of a colleague who is playing a role (I think!). Either that or she's doing some emergency dental work! I told her--don't do any surgery until the program is over!!

New Poem for My Daughter Carolan

The Trip to the Airport

I awake at 3:45 in the morning,

Call to you in the dark, this

Crystal clear late January stars and cold--

We drive the 73 miles to the Akron-Canton airport

Shadows dashing in front of the car as we speed along,

Some sort of animal or a phantom of my sleepiness and fears.

An hour and a half later we enter the airport,

And after a final inventory—passport, tickets, driver’s license, colónes —

You go through the astonishing security procedures . . .

            And then you are gone from my view

And my ability to protect you.

I pray to every saint who will listen:

            Christopher, Francis of Assisi, Patrick, Bridget,

And to your grandparents, gone to the other side:

            “Keep her Lord like the apple of your eye,

            Shelter her under the shadow of your wings.”

I imagine the frantic stopover in Atlanta,

The scrambling to a new plane,

The hope that the checked backpack makes it

And think of you six miles above the Caribbean

Seeing only the vast blueness and at times specks and streaks of ships

Making their way

As you are making your way to Costa Rica, Rancho Mastatal,

Adventure, learning, new companions, new challenges--

You,

Like your Mom and me,

A bit on edge as you wonder what’s to come.