Too cute!

DThe first group of volunteers are here and have been for three days. They are an amazing bunch of young people.  Initially tired from the trip but all have blossomed even over the last few days.  Just being around them made me realise that I was no longer really a young person I'm an adult!! It was beautiful talking to them and    expeiencing all thier different personalities!!! I saw myself in quite a few of them, a couple are really confident and outgoing and I thought good for you! And some others were quite reserved and shy and on the peripheries.  As a youngster I would have wanted to hang out with the loud lot but I found myself drawn to the quiet guys, it is envietable that they will come out of thier shells at the end of 10 weeks and become amazingly life experienced human beings but until then they do need support and I can't wait too see the quiet ones start leading!!!

The are all like sponges from a million different backgrounds. I really enjoyed getting to know them during the one on one medical interviews. It was pleasing to see that many of them had completed degrees and wanted life experience and some of the others had just finished sixth form and were on gap years. Seriously I can't emphasis how soul cleansing it is too be around young people who want to better themselves by joking raliegh. They all had to raise £2000 each to be here and organise thier kits, jabs and get here. It is impressive that an 18 year old would have the foresight to organise all of that.  It is also nice to stick two fingers up at the red top with thier "feckless youth" titles. Don't get me wrong some people in the group are well off and organising the money may not have involved raising money and daddy may have contributed but a lot of the young people come from ordinary backgrounds and did a fund raising activities over the last year. 

I have a presentation yesterday on health and hygiene.  I bloody really love being a doctor.  I love give presentations and thoroughly enjoy teaching. I think the group were captivated?? I bribed them with Oreo busicuits when they answered questions right. I got to talk about the tropical diseases I had I the last and show lots of gross pictures.  

During the evening I was really pleased that some of the group came up to me and were like they had been using the hand washing technique I had taught them as they were afraid of getting the "Shites" as I emphasized would happen if they were not fastidious about thier hand hygiene.

That night as one of the group - a sweet black girl called Simone braided my hair (bloody hurt and I took it out this morning) but I found myself surrounded by at least 15 girls and we went round and discussed our fears and what we were excited about. Some fears where not making friends, some were about cultural differences and one one was about not knowing how to use a long drop lol. Girls are soconsciencious the hour we spent together was lovely. I hope that I have a positive influence on some of the girls. 

Speaking of girls my tent mate is support and admin for raliegh. She is a fierce strong Indian girl. She get things done and is a no funny business girl. Last night we were disscussing the difficulties that can occur because of our no nonsense personalities. She has definitely had more drama to contend with than me.  Being a female in an Indian culture surrounded by men had made her very strong and she is utterly determined. Fortunately our INDIAN CEO (born in India, studied in the uk, married a white women and now they both live in India) is very pro women, he really wants to recruit as many women as he can, my tent mate is responsible for recruitment also and really try to get women to become volunteers.  It is difficult because she comes from a liberal background and has a boyfriend - her parents seem very forward thinking.  However many young girls who join raliegh need permission from thier parents especially thier father which can be difficult. Also young Asian girls aren't as confident as young British girls so there is slot of apprehension in regards to leaving their family and coming to Mysore.  However, those that so come blossom into amazingness after 10 weeks.  I can't wait to see how the Indian girls here evolve.

Erm what else...oh yeah we also discussed how amazing (my tent mate and I) that two of the country leaders here are female and are amazing.  They have got utter control of the organisation here and command control.  They don't take non sense from the Indian men and shite gets done.  This is a brilliant picture for the Indian people to experience as they can see that women can have roles if authority and can do it well.  My tent mate said she looked up too the two English country leaders, I think she will be going far if I'm honest.  She is being taken to Thailand by the Indian CEO to consider setting up a raliegh in Thailand!!

(I AM SO GONNA BE THE MEDIC THERE)

Tomo I go to Bangalore with four others to meet the second batch of English volunteers who are landing on Saturday. 

Yay, can't wait too see thier lovely faces. 

It's around 36 degrees here now.  Lovely and hot in the direct sun. So glad I packed sun block otherwise I'd be a wrinkly rasin.

Oh I forgot to add that I'm in charge of the tuck shop. Bloody love it. We sell cigarettes though and it has been decided that I won't sell them and someone else will have too as it's not really ethical. anyhow loving shop duty.

Roll up!!

Great fun

Today was great fun and finally my work begins!

The first group of volunteers are here, the English ones fresh from England and the Indian ones from all over India. These volunteers age from 18-25 and have raised £2000 each to be here. They are to be divided into groups of 12 and lead by a pair of team leaders. One team leader is English and the other is Indian.  The team leaders have been here for three weeks recieving training on thier roles. They have learnt soft skills and practical skills, visited the villages in which they will live for 10 weeks, completing sustainable development projects and promoting healthy living, culture exchange etc. it is all highly planned. Myself and brigit are responsible for the whole workforce and will be responsible for Golding well being days in the villages where we promote good health ranging from subject like anemia tooth brush club, kitchen gardens, hand washing, food prep etc etc. 

Today we had to take medical histories and emphasise our presence on a one on one basis to each of the volunteers.  Kinda like a Gp consultation. We checked thier personal first aid kits and went through the purpose of the medics.

I really enjoyed this part of the day.  Meeting young people, having chats, reassuring them and relieving apprehension and deleting any previous negative experiences that they have had accessing health care. Bridge is very mumsy and so is definitely a good balance to myself.  I'm more matter of fact and together the team works. 

I must have taken 40 or so histories over 2 and and bit hours. I know a lot about the volunteers and with Bridget this helps us to be as effective as possible if the volunteer needed medical assistance from ourselves or in country services.

My look etc defo works well with this cohort of people who was quite amused that I was thier doctor and most definitely put a lot of the volunteers at ease - which is what we want.  It is a fact that may of the volunteers won't disclose some things, last year the groups had a lot of eating disorders pop up. Some were known about some were.  My role is to be supportive but safe. I am not really trained to deal with such issues and raliegh actually recommend that we are supportive but donot give definitive care. A lot if the time the eating issues are to do with adaptation to the Indian diet relates to d&v or maybe present and undeclared. Myself and briget are bound by confidentially in the western world but in India out contract allows us to discuss any behaviour that puts the volunteer or volunteers team at risk to be discussed with the seniors and head office. The volunteers know this but also know that we want to try and support them through anything and not send them home so we ask for complete honesty to ensure that everybody is supported.  I know that some volunteers may not gave disclosed things but I hope that seeing how non judgemental and willing to listen bridge and I are that they will come to us if need be - only time will tell.

Speaking of advice, bless him an Indian came to me yesterday asking how he could stop his legs from being dry and cracked and his to make them soft like mine.  I don't think he had ever exfoliated or moisturised his legs in his life. I tried to explain the process with no success and so whislt out in an errand trip yesterday I bought him a sponge and baby oil. Literally cost nothing! The sponge 50p Johnson's baby oil 85p nothing, showed on how to use it ( you need to be very explicit and demonstrative because the Indian way is to say that you do understand even when you do not). This morning he came runnnnnning up to me "dr ronke dr ronke look look smooth"

Lads legs were SHINNNNNY! He was made up. 

And that's kinda the other end of spectrum of my purpose here. A lot of my advice has been hygiene and health advice. From flossing, to brushing ones tongue to foot care. The very basics. Bit this I enjoy actually. Health promotion is my fave.

Speaking of health promotion one of my toes is a gammy mess. I managed to get a bluster which isn't infected but dorsnt look pretty!!! Is it sad that I am excited about its evolution?

Tomo I get to give a talk on health and hygiene / expedition basics. 

As I can talk I've been given an HOUR wooooooop!! 

I'm busy and busy is good.  I look forward to meeting the next batch of volunteers, myself and a team of three will be collecting them from Bangalore on Friday!! I haven't seen Bangalore in the day! - exciting.

So everyone else is greeting post here, feeling a bit left out. If anyone fancies giving me a England up date that would be grand!!!!

anyway thanks for reading 

Dry skin

Lost a whole blog :(

I had such a long but lovely day yesterday and wrote a really long blog about it which I bloody deleted :(

Right now I am chilling on the porch, it's warm but dark. Dinner is ready at 8 but I am full up from lunch which was rice, roti, chick pea curry and a separate lentil curry. I had both and seconds! Unfortunately my stomach can't handle spice and so it's a bit of a toilet affair these days! 

Eat.... Drink.... Stomach twinge... The shites.  I think this is how it may be for the next few months!! But I really don't mind as it means I can eat what I want yaaaahoo.

Today was a chilled one. I again was sorting medical equitement.  Didn't take long.  Then I sunbathed. Then had a walk to the nearby village which is about 1k away. I went alone for some me time and to get some sweety treats for the team leaders who had been in soft skill training all day. So walking to a remote Indian village alone in the sun along a busy crazy Indian road need a film crew. Every mode of transport honked at me, my presence nearly caused an RTC, I do not think these people have ever seen a black person before. It was slightly unnerving and with the recent spate of rapes in India I was a little concerned but again my androgyny saves the day. It is automatically assumed that I am a boy.

At one of the smal shag shops a couple of lads asked if I were Turkish? Then kept repeating Nelson Mandela. All one can do is smile. Smile and shake hands and smile and avoid the cows. The cows are literally out to get me, the chickens and the cows have conspired to kill me.

Anyhow I've burst that cherry and feel confident to walk to town again. I gues my only issue which is really more of a self esteem thing as oppose to anything else is my feeling of gender limbo. 

I feel kinda rejected by Indian women as I don't fit the Indian female beauty mould and I don't feel totally accepted buy Indian men. The Indian team leaders who I work with definitely have warmed to me, thanks to the bonding session we had yesterday in the car to the most remote village ever. We also had dinner together - a group of boys and myself. Was nice and I definitely feel accepted by them now. Ultimately they respect me cos I'm a doctor but on a personal friend level there is some work to be done but I'm sure after a few weeks itl be less awkward. Although it isn't that awkward but I feel that I am definetly held at an arms length.

So yesterday, I fell in love. I fell in love with the Indian countryside.  The CEO wanted to be sure that one of the nun hospitals was suitable as an intermidate transfer hospital if a volunteer was to become well.  So I was taken at the crack of dawn to a really remote village out of Mysore in a place called Coorg (I think) this is one of the villages where a group of volunteers are going to be placed and to complete a sustainable development project. The pictures - my latest ones with the children is the village. 

It took almost two hours drive to get there and the seanery the wildlife noises were divine.  The air was just so clean. These people love in absolute poverty thou. They are farmers with one crops. When the crop is harvested they travel to another farm and work there. These people live very very basic lives. This particular village had no running water and no electricity, no showers (these are some of the projects the teams will be working on).

The closest hospital is about 12k away.

I was driven to the hospital and met by a very don't-mess-with-me nun.  Who again was very dismissive of me, and talked to the CEO and NGO representative rather than me despite the fact that I was asking the questions.dont get me wrong I get that essentially people are suspicious of strangers, and I know that my ethnicity, and outward appearance is challenging and I find this challenging but I have insight and I am determined to reset a lot of peoples thinking and challenge societies norms. It is easy to have the attitude that "this is me so accept it" and easy for others to associate such musings as having a self esteem problem but really it's about using what you have to make the world a better place (cheesy). So I'm not cross with the nun at all but I think we should have discussings about social interactions.

The hospital was very very clean. The garden outside was very well kept. The wards were clean. Fortunately for me I have seen rural hospitals in Kenya and so was not surprised re the simplicity and old school equitement. I mean it all worked. I checked the oxygen, ECG machine, pulse ox, they had a chest drain kit, sutures and kits. Beds were clean. Sterile water. Fully stocked pharmacy. X-ray machine. Ultrasound machine. Fully operating theatre. 24/7 electricity. Two on call doctors. I had a list of things that I had to check as per raliegh standards. And this hospital ticked most. So we decided amongst ourselves that this hospital would serve as a interim transfer hospital if need be.

We spent the rest of the day visiting another village and checking out the casualty evacuation route, one village is in the middle of an elephant camp. The villagers have a system for notifying the village if an elephant Is approaching they shout to each other but one of the projects is to have a alarm system put in place. 

I'm a bit gutted that yesterday's blog deleted as it was comprehensive and I'm hate that I have to write it again, so I'm not gonna.  Sorry .

So next week is busy week!! The volunteers (young people) come. Shizzle my work will be cut out for me!!