The hunt for a good coffee shop in New Orleans continues. I have learned, however, when the clock strikes to 3 o’clock the night before an exam and you still need to learn the difference between Idarucizimab and Etaracizumab any coffee suffices. This month I finished with the cardiovascular and renal units, joined an intramural basketball team, got to see Ellis Marsalis play piano, and volunteered with my peers at Habitat for Humanity.

The work done with Habitat for Humanity paralleled some of my projects from when I lived in the Dominican Republic. I think building homes is a very common form of service. After all, everyone needs a floor. While working in Las Canas, I helped pour cement floors in a few houses around the small impoverished town where I stayed. When individuals in an underdeveloped community get sick a dirt floor is a likely culprit. You can’t clean a dirt floor. Thus, any fecal matter that gets tracked in on shoes tends to stay in the floor. The floor being where most people with a dirt floor tend to sleep and eat.

Here in New Orleans, I helped lay laminate flooring for a new house. The work was a lot harder than I expected it to be. The hammers were rusted, the boards were flimsy and the knives, dull. The lack of appropriate tools and the southern heat added extra hurdles to an already long work day. But when we were done it seemed no one cared for the heat. The only thing of importance was that the house was beautiful; it had a Kelly green exterior and cherry wood floors. These two things were a big upgrade from what we saw when we first arrived at the site. I’m always surprised by how big a change a small group of charismatic people can have.

Next month I hope to be more involved with Habitat for Humanity. Additionally, I want to begin interning at the Louisiana Department of Health, working with a group dedicated to bettering health outcomes to communities with little access to sufficient healthcare. Inside the classroom, I will continue working hard on both the Tulane curriculum and MCAT prep.