What a week it has been! GMI got off to a fast start with a whirlwind of activities. All in a few weeks time I graduated, flew to Houston for boot camp, then flew to Costa Rica to begin my GMI journey. While it has been both exciting and overwhelming, I am settled into my apartment in Costa Rica and am beginning to embrace this new experience, aside from the crowing roosters and howling dogs that wake me up at sunrise every morning. But hey, Pura Vida!

At boot camp, we focused on learning about ourselves and learning how to function as a team. Based on the personality tests we took, I was able to better understand my personality traits and figure out which role I might be most successful in when working on a team. I found it really interesting to discover how similar and how different our personalities are as a group. We also did a few group activities which allowed us to better understand how we all work on a team together, and to exercise our problem solving skills. Since landing in Costa Rica, I have enjoyed getting to know my classmates based on more than their Myers-Briggs personality scores, although these have remained a comical topic of conversation.

Since landing in Costa Rica on Friday, we have:

  • Met with our collaborators at Invenio University
  • Assembled the current DialOasis prototype
  • Met with our collaborators at the Liberia Regional Hospital
  • Observed how peritoneal dialysis is performed
  • Learned about needs finding
  • Broken into teams to focus on one need for the short course next week

It was very eye-opening to visit a local hospital and to talk with the physicians about all of the aspects of peritoneal dialysis. It helped me to better understand the procedure and therefore understand the design considerations for DialOasis. We had spent the earlier part of the day assembling the current DialOasis prototype and brainstorming ideas on how to improve the design, and the hospital visit helped us to better understand the problem, the current solutions, and the desired outcome.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, it has been a very informative and exciting first few days in Costa Rica. Today we went to La Paz waterfalls and got the chance to relax and see some of the natural beauty the country has to offer. I am looking forward to meeting the Costa Rican students at the short course this week and learning more about needs finding and product development.