Global Docs Blog

As I sit at the MSP airport, in the oh-so-familiar “E� terminal, eating my healthy D’Amico and Sons salad, watching CNN and listening for boarding calls for flight 9203 to Atlanta, I think of home. Home, because I am returning to Argentina to be with my family, and home, because I just spent a wonderful week at Smiley’s and my home town St. Paul.

At Smiley’s I was busy from minute one working with Nancy and Rossi, interviewing applicants in person (!), meeting with Tim, Joel and Deanne, participating in an all-clinic meeting, eating lunch with Jen, enjoying a lively discussion on global practice, meeting with the Fairview leadership regarding our plans for the teaching service at the U and trying to catch up with everyone I could. Despite the bitter cold outside, I felt the warmth, light, energy and security inside the doors of our clinic. The connection I feel for Smiley’s and all of us who strive to make it the best place to work, learn and care for people was stronger than when I left on my sabbatical.

Pita's presentation on International and Argentinean Health Care at the Dec 4th Smiley's Event.

Home that week was not at my own house, which I visited for 30 minutes to pick up George’s yo-yo and Alex’s books, but with my friends the O’Sheas. It was home because I could plop down my suitcase (with its contents spread out all over the place), kick off my shoes and be embraced as the quirky individual that I am. Family dinners, family shopping at Target (where I saw 4 people I know!)and family walks with dog along the River Road.

I am going home--home to the tiny apartment with piles of Yu-Gi-Oh cards everywhere, Michael on the internet reading the New York Times and my boys trying hard to play together without arguing. Home to my father who spends a third of the year in Buenos Aires, and home to my favorite aunt and many cousins. I am going home, even though I am returning to a country I’ve temporarily adopted, to a language that isn’t fully my own and a people I am just starting to understand.

We at Smiley’s are building a medical home. It isn’t the structure (albeit beautiful), nor our location (next to the Greenway, the light rail and Lake street), the languages we speak (English, Somali, Spanish, Arabic, Oromo, Vietnamese …) but the people we are and our determination to connect with our patients and our colleagues that makes us a medical home.

I am extremely fortunate to have so many homes.

Editorial Note: Dr. Adam will be returning to Smiley's January 1st. Between now and then, she will continue to travel with family and interview applicants via webcam.