From Fireflies to Tamil lessons

Hello again. This weekend unfortunately there was no electricity in the town. Thankfully the hospital and a few other places have generators so were safe from the black out. On the plus side I saw my first fireflies while walking back from town in the darkness, really beautiful. There is a lot of really great wildlife here and on my next trip to Ooty I have sort of promised myself that I will drop in to the book shop and buy a guide to the birds of India. One of the doctors here has already pointed out a few gems to me including a hornbill.

I just wish that I was not so much of a sore thumb in terms of appearance. I look so out of place here with my milky bar white complexion and mop of straw coloured hair. Walking to town and back I get mobbed by little children wanting to practice their primary school English. Although I always said how embarrassing it was to see British gap year types dressed up in Indian fashions I must admit I have gone into town and had two outfits made. Look I know what you are thinking, I can almost picture the raised eyebrows! But you try being the only woman in town dressed in western clothes, I feel more daft dressed like this than I would in Indian clothes (I think).

Work in the Hospital here is fascinating, the variety is just brilliant. It changes by the minute so that even if at the moment I am mostly just an observer I never get bored. From surgical bits and pieces like debriding diabetic foot ulcers or skin grafting, to medical emergencies like acute viral myocarditis or cerebellar stroke.

The obs and gynae teaching is great here, and there are experiences that you just don’t get anywhere else. For example assisting in tubectomy under local anaesthesia and helping out delivering these tiny babies who never fail to surprise me, they are just so hardy, they really fight for survival!!

Today a whole class full of school children from the tribal school came to have their general health check up, so that was a crash course in paediatrics for me! Also a chance for me to practice my Tamil, I had my second lesson today and I am starting to enjoy the bits that I can say, even if they are limited. My pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired, apparently the way in which I say Ear in Tamil sounds exactly like the Tamil word for forest. So in the future there may be some rather confused villagers with otitis media presenting with ear pain who wonder why I am asking to examine their forest.

Hope this update is satisfactory. I am of course missing you all. Love as always,

Ax