This month sees the return of the weekly question that we pose to our students overseas. It’s always fantastic to get some advice and feedback from people in-country and we understand that travelling to the other side of the world, particularly to a developing country can be quite a culture shock. This week we decided to ask “How can we better prepare you for this?”
Experience village culture
As usual, Freddy in Arusha came back to us first.
Now at first glance you may think “it’s another language, I don’t get it”, but have another look……. it’s not that hard to pick out words, and with just a little bit of initiative most of us would understand that “Preparar el paciente para la operación” simply means “prepare the patient for the operation”. And you thought you couldn’t speak the language!
Learning how to make Empanadas
Now try another…… “Tiene cancer, que come Usted sabe, es una enfermedad dificil pero se puede tratar”. A bit more tricky, but there are a couple of words that could be guessed……..
Medical student Jacquie felt inspired to write some poetry whilst on placement in Argentina – I think she liked the food!
It has been two months in total since we all met
Those first few days –who could forget?!
Spanish classes, wineries, cooking and tango
A little overwhelming –there was so much to know!
No sooner had we contemplated our fate,
When the terrific trio strolled through the gate!
Nat, Jess and Christian showed no fear
They were pro’s at this that much was clear.
Nat had fought off ogres and bears,
And survived a trip to the UK that could have taken years.
Yet she arrived fresh faced with a spring in her walk,
And I might add –armed with a fork!
For the weekly asados were about to begin
And all that meat awakens her demon within!
Little did she know us Aussies are tough
And we can handle it when things get rough.
Empowered by carne, reggaeton and chocotorta
There isn’t a battle we couldn’t have fought!
We conquered the mountain of dishes every night,
With some interpretive bench-wiping thrown in for the fight
But our battles could have been lost if it weren’t for one thing
Jesi cooks food that is fit for a king!
Our noses go crazy and taste buds explode,
As delicious smells waft down to the road.
We savour every mouthful and watch our waist-lines expand,
For Jesi has sal, cream and queso at hand!
What will we do without all this delicious food?
And no Christian to bolster our mood?!
His jokes and banter never fail to make us smile,
Even if the punch-line does take a while!
There is nothing in the house McGuiver can’t do
When it comes to our Spanish he is helpful there too!
And who could forget the delicious meat?
He is asado master and that is no mean feat!
And so here we are at our final meal,
There are no words to express how we feel.
Mendoza is AMAZING –this is definitely true
But to be honest it would not have been the same without you!
The day is approaching when we must depart,
With tummy’s full of food and memories in our heart,
We are sad to leave, we have to say…
But we know we will return some day!
My job at Work the World is to talk to students about the opportunities available to them for their electives or work experience placements. Having travelled to Africa to visit our partner hospitals there, I was desperate to see Asia and so planned a condensed trip to Sri Lanka and Nepal to witness our programmes in action.
Negombo beach
The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Sri Lanka was the ease at which I passed through the airport! After my travels to Africa, I was expecting a lot of hassle, taxi drivers grabbing my bags and vying for my custom. Colombo was really very civilised in comparison! It was a breeze, with taxi companies allowing me to approach them for quotes into the city. Sri Lanka is 5.5hrs ahead of the UK and most flights arrive into Sri Lanka at 8.30 in the morning. This means that the first day is normally spent trying to get your head round the time difference and trying not to fall asleep as your body thinks it is in fact 3am!
Before you head overseas we really try and stress how important it is to build a really good relationship with your supervisor – this week we asked the students if they had any tips on impressing the people who matter.
Ward Round
Joe, our programme manager in Ghana told us; “Building a good relationship or rapport with not just your supervisor but all the staff in there is the key to having a good placement. This almost everyone in the house knows and agrees to, but when it comes to the issue of how, students gave variety of tips on how to impress the people who matter.”
Ada who has her name all over the obs and gynae department said that although she finds it easy around new people, what seems to be working the miracle is “to smile at everyone and also learn my fante (local language) very well… imagine going to the department the first day and saying “me ma mo akye”(good morning to you). Then they go like hey! Obroni(White person) speaks Fante. Then they all want to ask you stuff in fante only to realise that you only know a little bit. Then they find you interesting to talk to and that is the beginning of building a good rapport with them.” But Ada does not underestimate the element of hard working and showing all the signs of seriousness as one of the most important keys to impress your supervisors and the entire team. This can be shown by ones attitude to work, punctuality and how keen one is to learn. May be as Ada has been doing; taking some night and afternoon shifts to compliment the mornings.
This week the students in India have been celebrating Onam, the harvest festival in Kerala. It falls during the first month of the Malayalam calendar and marks the homecoming of King Mahabali. Lasting for 10 days, the festival embraces the culture and traditions of Kerala.
Our team in Trivandrum tell us that “All the students have participated in the Onam Celebrations at Kannammoola house. They have actively involved in filling flowers in the design drawn by Revathy, our housekeeper. Later, Rashmi wearing the traditional costume of Kerala inaugurated the celebrations by lighting the lamps. Manjusha the yoga teacher and her family was also part of the celebrations.
The feast!
The students in India
As we have approached our peak season, 10th & 11th July marked our busiest weekend in Kerala with 11 new Work the World housemates flying into Trivandrum Airport, plus 7 additional arrivals to join the dental outreach project in Amboori.
I flew in a few days before the big arrivals to work with Jay & John, our Programme Managers in India. Jay was busy confirming and reconfirming the final arrangements for the dental outreach, including checking up on the portable equipments, meetings with Dr Smitha the supervisor for the project, briefing the volunteers and making sure the house is ready in the village. Jay’s meticulous organisation ensured that the project got off to a good start. Back in the city, John and I spent a good couple of days visiting our five key partner hospitals in Trivandrum, both government and privately owned to reconfirm hospital introduction time with supervisors. This is essential as busy doctors sometimes forget!
There are some brilliant supervisors in Kerala, my particular favourites are Dr. Tiny Nair (Cardiologist), Dr. Bobby Moses (General Medicine) and Dr Shylaja (Neurologist) who have always made me feel welcome whenever I visit their clinic. I also met new supervisors such as Dr. Shiju (A&E) and Dr Shreedevi (Paediatrician) who have quickly bonded with students and have been praised highly for their teaching. During this trip, I also found the time to sit down for dinner with students at the Vanchiyoor house, who were kind enough to teach me a few cheeky drinking games, which I will have to try out on my friends! We also went shopping together to ‘Fabindia’, which is indeed fabulous and a great place to pick up local crafts. Once I made sure all the students were picked up, introduced to other students, given a good orientation of Trivandrum and introduced to their hospital placement, it was time for me to nip across the Laccadive Sea to Sri Lanka, where the pilot programme launched at the end of June.
Hi all! I’m Nat, the Programme Manager of one of Work the World’s newest destinations: Argentina.
Over the past weeks I’ve been totally immersed in finding the best hospitals for placements and sorting out the final details of our dream house. While everything went just great with the placements, final arrangements for the house ended up being an unexpectedly long, complicated and demanding process.
Faye and I having lunch at a winery
The first time we saw the house, Faye and I instantly loved it. It was located on a quiet tree-lined street, in one of the nicest places to live in in the City of Mendoza. The house was modern and bathed with sunlight, the communal areas large, the kitchen welcoming and friendly. But what took our breath away was the delicious black grapes hanging from the terrace’s vineyard. It all just looked so perfect that we could easily imagine the students living there, chilling after a day’s work.
The India Work the World students LOVE Vinod’s cooking…. so much so he is always asked to perform impromptu cookery classes. Rishi Patel, one of our WTW India students was keen to learn the secrets of paneer butter masala and wrote to us with the recipe for this tasty vegetarian treat.
A Cookery class with Vinod
Vinod cooking up a storm!
Hello everyone! I’m Kavinda, the programme manager for Work the Worlds newest destination – Kandy in Sri Lanka!
Kavinda and Ali set up in Kandy
I’ve been really busy since I started, working closely with Alison in the UK office to make Kandy as good as all the other programmes.
From day one, the most important thing to me was to find a good health care placement for the students. Kandy General is in the centre of the city and is the second largest hospital in Sri Lanka, with all the departments under one roof. It is also a teaching hospital, which is perfect for students on placements. We had a chance to talk to the Director of the hospital, who agreed to allow Work the World students to take placements. We then met the consultant who will be in charge of our electives. He gave us a tour of all the departments in the hospital and helped us finalise the different areas – there are lots things to specialise in, which Alison was really pleased about.
Finally, the perfect house!