First Post from Costa Rica!

Everyone is here, healthy and happy!  Access to the internet has been spotty and we've been very busy getting settled, so this is our first post.

The program is off to a great start.  After a full morning of practicing patient assessments, we are heading into the field to learn how to make fires in a wet, humid environment.  Instructor Trenton Harper, who works in the summer as a paramedic for Yellowstone National Park, is here teaching fire construction and other survival skills.  After this week, he will head back to Montana and prepare for teaching survival in the snowy mountains.

Although hot by Montana standards, it's a bit cooler here than we are used to seeing.   That has allowed us to ease into our acclimatization, get in some good hiking, and stay healthy.

Aerie instructor Fernando Giaccaglia, pictured below with the water bottle, is leading instruction on knots.  In the first few days, we have reviewed bowline, stoppers and taught-lines.  As the list of outdoor skills grows, so too will the complexity of our medical and rescue scenarios.  Within a few days, students will be navigating through the forest, finding injured patients, stabilizing their injuries,  and evacuating them from the field.

Meals at the ranch have been healthy and filling.  It is a treat eating tropical fruits at a tropical temperature, particularly when most of those fruits have been grown here on the property.  We typically eat dinner around 6:30; after that, most students return to the classroom to study, practice skills, and catch up on reading.

We will do our best to keep the blog active with daily updates.  In fact, if we are able, we'll have another posting later today after class.

An Office Update

Hello, everyone!

The Aerie Office just got word that everyone has arrived in Rancho Mastatal safe and sound!  There will be an official update and check in later this week.

Emergency Contact Information for the Next Week

This coming week, Aerie instructors are headed to Costa Rica to begin setting up our classroom at Rancho Mastatal.  Since instructors and students alike will be traveling over the next 7 days, please use the following system if you run into an emergency and need to contact us for any reason (including, for example, travel delays which could cause you to miss the airport shuttle) or if your family needs to reach you in an emergency but can't because you're en route.

Up through January 26 

1. Call Andrea Stephens on her cell phone at 406-824-8820.  
2. If you are unable to reach Andrea, leave her a message with the exact nature of the problem, the number where you can reached, and then call Dave McEvoy (Aerie Director and Semester instructor) on his cell at 406-240-4624.
3. If you are unable to reach Dave, leave him a message with the exact nature of the problem and the number where you can be reached,  and call the Aerie office in Montana (9 am to 5 pm, MST) at 406-542-9972.
4. If you are unable to reach the Aerie office, leave them a message with the exact nature of the problem and the number where you can be reached.

On or after Friday, January 27

1. Call Andrea Stephens on her cell phone at 406-824-8820.  
2. If you are unable to reach Andrea, leave her a message with the exact nature of the problem, the number where you can reached, and then call instructor Fernando Giaccaglia's cell phone.   Dialing instructions vary depending on if you're still in the US, or if you've already arrived in Costa Rica.  From the US, dial 011-506-8376-6969. If calling from inside Costa Rica, dial 8376-6969.
3. If you are unable to reach Fernando, leave him a message with the exact nature of the problem, the number where you can be reached, and call Rancho Mastatal at 011-506-2-410-6263 (dial 2410-6263 if you've already arrived in Costa Rica).

Please give this contact information to your family/emergency contact people to be used in the event of an emergency only.

December 9th: 1st Meeting!

2012 SWM students, don't forget that Friday, December 9th is our first get-together.  We will meet at the Aerie office, 315 South 4th Street East, Conference Room (second floor), Missoula at 4 PM MST.  Anyone needing to Skype in should contact us if you haven't already done-so.  Parents and other relatives with questions are encouraged to be there as well.

In addition to being attended, in person or electronically, but all new students, the majority of the Semester instructors will be there, as will a number 2011 Semester graduates.

In the meeting, we will ask:

Do you have your passports, plane tickets, and immunizations taken care of? 

What questions do you still have about this?

    Have you completed your online background check yet? Don't forget it needs to be notarized.

    PLEASE turn in your Univ. of Montana registration paperwork

    Do you have any questions about the gear list?

    What address should we send your EMT textbook to?  

    Remember that your first reading assignments and online quizzes from the textbook will begin the second week of January.

    What is your plan for paying your final tuition balance?

    If you arrive early in Costa Rica, here are a few suggestions for places to stay...

Please think about these items beforehand and come to the meeting ready to ask questions and get answers.  The importance of pre-planning cannot be overstated.

We look forward to meeting all of you!

Preparations for 2012 Semester

We are gearing up for the 2012 Semester, interviewing applicants and finalizing schedules.  Our hosts at Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica, where we will spend the first three weeks of February, are ready.  New to this year's program, we will be traveling to the amazing Rafiki Lodge, on the Savegre River, for swiftwater rescue training during the last week of the month.  These two incredible tropical locations will be hard to leave; however the transition will be made easier by our return to the beautiful and, by that time, snowy Rich Ranch in Montana on the Southern end of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Take a look at posts from last year's program to get a sense of day-to-day life during the Semester.  Call our office to get in touch with any of our Semester graduates.  The program requires a tremendous amount of hard work.  Its academic rigor is balanced by endless outdoor scenarios, practical exercises and training.   The Semester offers:

• 15 University credits
• Wilderness EMT certification
• National Registry EMT certification
• State of Montana EMT certification
• Swiftwater Rescue Technician certification
• Level 1 Avalanche certification
• Wilderness survival training
• Wilderness navigation training
• Search and Rescue training
• Clinical experiences on an ambulance and in an emergency room
• Experience offering a free health clinic in Costa Rica

While it takes place in two of the most beautiful places anywhere, it is not a vacation.  If this sounds like fun, we would like to hear from you!

End of Program

We met one last time as a group on Sunday.  Students are now registering for their computerized national EMT exams; Tressa, Emile and Lauren will test here in Missoula tomorrow.

We have said this before:  this is an amazing group.  In addition to their intelligence and motivation, they were phenomenally supportive of each other during two and half challenging and intense months.  We feel very privileged to have had them as students and look forward to hearing great things about each of them in the future.  Jenna, Emile, Emilie, Sam D, Sam V, Tressa, Savannah, Lauren, Liam, Taylor, Miranda and Dylan:  Thank you!  Thank you also to our instructors:  Darcy, Trenton, Andrea, Fernando, Drs. Moore and Johnson, our swifwater instructor Mike Johnston, avalanche instructors Dudley Improta and Tim Laroche, HazMat instructor Dan Corti, cadaver lab instructor Miranda Lewis, the Missoula City Fire Department, Melissa Diebert and the ambulance staff at Missoula Emergency Services, the staff of St. Patrick Hospital Emergency Department, staff at Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica and the Rich Ranch in Seeley Lake and numerous others who donned fake wounds, jumped into icy rivers, buried themselves in snow and otherwise acted hurt or contributed their expertise.

Swiftwater Rescue Technician Training on the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers

It's a theme of the program:  there is no substitute for experience.  This past week, students were wading off of snow-covered river banks into ice-cold water to learn how to be an effective rescuer (and not a patient!) in a fast-moving river.  During this time, they earned their Swiftwater Rescue Technician (SRT) certifications, which are the industry standard for the river-guiding and rescue industry.   Skills acquired included assessment of river hazards, establishing safety during river rescues, swimming in cold, fast-moving water, acting as live-bait (swimming out to rescue an unresponsive or otherwise incapacitated person), setting up and using pulleys and ropes (Z-drag systems) to pull objects like rafts and kayaks out of jams, and using throw-bags to get a safety rope to a conscious swimmer.  This is now our last weekend, with students completing their emergency room observations and ambulance ride-alongs.  The program ends on Saturday, with National and State testing on Sunday.  This is an amazingly skilled and motivated group that we expect will do exceptionally well.