Placement went well yesterday. It was a very quiet day in the PT department due to the rain (a lot of the kids don’t show up when its raining) so we were only able to do one tardieu scale assessment in the morning. In the afternoon Priyanka and I each had one patient. I’m happy to say that my treatment session went much better than Monday’s – my patient was happy and cooperative, most of my activities went really well and generally I felt pretty confident about the treatment I did. I have to say, doing the treatments has been pretty hard. We’re still not getting much guidance or feedback about our treatment sessions, so although we’re doing our best, we’re never really sure if what we’re doing is right/helpful. Internship expectations are just SO different here when compared to Canada. Reframing this internship in the context of a selective internship does make it less stressful though – I mean, most people won’t have nearly as cool a selective internship as this! And when all is said and done, I am having a fantastic time experiencing India and being exposed to international health. Despite not getting quite the academic experience we were hoping for, I can say for sure that it has been a worthwhile experience so far.
After work I went back to Airtel again, to sort out our phone once and for all. Finally, it seems that we have all of the necessary/required documents in place, and we’re hoping that our phone service won’t get discontinued again!
Yesterday was the start of Karthigai Deevam, a Hindu festival of light, which is similar to Diwali, but only celebrated in South India. For three days, people line the windows and balconies of their houses with candles, and set off firecrackers and fireworks in the street. We were really excited to see the houses all lit up, so Priya offered to take us out with her to the temple that evening, so we could not only see the candles, but the festivities at the temple as well. We got all dressed up (well… I got as dressed up as my meager supply of traditional Indian clothing would allow), complete with Indian costume jewelry (which Priya lent us) and bangles. We even stopped on our way to the temple to buy flowers to hang in our hair. It made me feel really special J
The energy of the night was incredible. There were people everywhere, and you could just feel the excitement in the air. Unfortunately not many of the houses had candles out because it was still raining, but we did see a few candles here and there. The first temple that we went to, which is about 1500 years old, was breathtakingly beautiful. Outside there are these amazing, brightly coloured murals painted on the ceiling depicting all of the Hindu Gods, and the inside was full of ornately carved stone. I took part in a few of the Hindu rituals, and found it to be a really wonderful and spiritual experience.
We made another quick stop at a second temple where we lit incense in an offering to the Gods – I think the premise is that you offer them something fragrant in the hopes of them making your life fragrant. It was pretty neat.
After we finished at the temples, the three of us hopped on an auto rickshaw and headed to Sanjeevanam, one of Priya’s favourite restaurants. The food was amazing! I think it was probably the best food we’ve had since we arrived. The restaurant prides itself on being a “health restaurant” and is based on naturopathic and ayurvedic principals. We weren’t able to get the full ayurvedic meal (which is apparently huge and really tasty, but only available for lunch), but we got some of their takes on traditional South Indian food, including the best Iddly I’ve ever had, Uttapam, a rice dish, and a huge paper dosa. We finished off the meal with a bit of honey as a digestive aid. I can’t wait to go back!
We arrived back at SPASTN at about 9:30, happy and tired after the full evening of activities. It was so nice of Priya to take us out with her – we both really appreciated it. Priya is so nice, and has done so much to make us feel welcome here. I think it took some time for her to get used to us, but I am really enjoying getting to know her.
We spent the rest of the evening working on a presentation on the tardieu scale and finishing our clinical evaluations. By the time we finished up with our work at about midnight, we were both pretty wiped out, and happy to cozy up under our mosquito nets for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment