PIP: The Ruralito program at the medical school of the University del Valle in Colombia is a voluntary activity in which midcycle medical students spend part of their vacation living in a rural community observing its sociocultural and economic conditions and health care system. Through daily encounters with the local population and meetings with other students, as well as participation in the work of the primary health care facility, students gain a deeper understanding of the practical problems of health care in a disadvantaged socioeconomic context. The experience is reinforced in seminars and by other means in later phases of the medical training. 7 zones with different characteristics in the Department del Valle were selected for study by the 7 participants. 3 were isolated communities of difficult access populated by small farmers and 4 were in areas of larger scale agriculture with landless workers who lacked security because of the insufficient wage work available. The primary health care program was found to have been converted into an extension of geographic coverage of the existing health system with emphasis on curative rather than preventive services instead of a true primary health care program. Health promoters, physicians, and other health workers were not trained to participate in diagnosis, management, and resolution of health problems.