Thu Jul 7
2 days of enterotoxigenic E. coli Yep it finally happened. After bosting about my good health to mum on the phone,
the very next morning I had to rapidly leave the ward round to be in the
vicinity of a toilet. And a bucket. Close vicinity. For the next 24 hours.
For those of you who are non-medical, that’s traveller’s diarrhoea- a couple of
days of tummy cramps, fever, and liquid out both ends (for medics go to
http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-1939144699).
Recovered well now and back to almost full energy today. Apparently i’ll acquire
a natural resistance after a few episodes. I’d rater not have any more.My last emails were far too long so I’ll try to keep this one short. The weekend
in Cochin was great- I was glad to have picked phil up considering his hotel
taxi didn’t and he had no idea where to go. On sunday we spent 8 hours cruising
around the backwaters of Kerala on a wooden leaf-roofed houseboat with an
outboard motor in the morning and in a stiched-together wooden boat punted by
two local village men who also climbed coconut trees to get us fresh coconut
milk and brought us to villages to see women spinning fibre from coconut husks-
imported from tamil nadu, soaked in water for a few months, shredded in the coop
shredder and than spun using a bicycle wheel. 8 hours work made about 30 rupees
(40p). Net profit? Probably very little. The scenery was beautiful- lush
jungle, beautiful flowers e.g. hibiscus growing at the sides of the canals,
kingfishers perched on palm treas… peaceful. Fisherman catching fish, men
scraping sand (illegally) from the bottom of the water to sell for
house-building, boys diving with baskets to pick it up (staying up to 2 minutes
under water).In Trichur now with phil, learning lots about medicine and a little about the
local town. There have been riots in other cities in Kerela (”antigovernment
protests” by union workers) and lorry-loads of police with bambo shields and
bamboo sticks who stood smilingly at the side of the road in Trichur…. but no
bombs. Just heard about what happened in London in a text message from Prisca.
Hope you are all ok. Why is the worls so full of fear and hatred? Love is free
if you let it happen. Fear and hatred always have a high price.
Can’t think any more so I won’t write any more. Would love to hear that you’re
ok.

Love, peace, respect
Simon

---

Sun Jul 10
Waterfalls, coconuts, rubber, bananas and thievesWarning: this is a long rant. Ranting-for-the-sake-of-ranting rants are marked
with ====Sunday in Thrissur. My first lie in all week. Last night phil and I treated
ourselves to a delicious meal in a baltically cold airconditioned restaurant at
Lucya Palace hotel (total cost GBP1.60 each for the meal) followed by a drink in
the bar- from their extensive menu- however only the beer listed as “Foasters”
was available- it looked and tasted remarkably like Fosters. I met Nandan
Pillai (http://www.orgpeople.com/) a well-known local artist in an anebriated state
and we got back at 10:01 to find the gates of our accomodation locked (ON
SATURDAY NIGHT!! HOW DO MEDICS HERE HAVE A LIFE??!!). So we climbed up the
balconies to the second floor where the wire caging stopped and got into our
accomodation block.Today we took a tuk-tuk (autorickshaw, see photo gallery*) to a nearby village,
Maiotichal, which a student had recommended for a day out. The tuk-tuk driver
thought we were mad as there was a bus coming in about half an hour and it was
20km at 8 rupees/km. But we couldn’t be bothered waiting and trying to work out
which bus to get- the happy man earn’t a week’s wages in an hour- at a cost of
GBP3 to us.

=====
I have become extremely fond of these machines, struggling up the mildest of
inclines and bouncing into pot-holes. Indian driving is still one of my
favourite things, though its more of a calm enjoyment now- watching people
disobey every simgle of the traffic regulations posted in big signs in the
middle of high-ways: “DO NOT ZIG-ZAG”, “OBSERVE THE LANES DISCIPLINE”, “DRIVE
AND LET DRIVE”, “KEEP LEFT” (roundabouts), not to mention drive down the wrong
side of the road such that traffic direction on a wide road without a concrete
divider in the middle seems to be completely random. Traffic police stand
calmly in the middle of the chaos seemingly oblivious to their potential effect
on the situation should they decide to do something such as direct traffic the
right way round the roundabout or force traffic to stop at the pedestrian
crossings. Every kind of horn imaginable exists, and I keep coming across new
musical ones every day. As well as beeping every time someone else does
something stupid, when something is driving towards you or in your way or when
you are about to do something dangerous, all lorries, taxis and tuk-tuks have
“Sound Horn Please” written on the back in ornate red lettering. So you don’t
just beep your horn constantly, but merely most of the time. Understanding this
is essential preparation for the next part of my travels, if this is to be by
bike…
======

Anyway, eventually we came to a village surrounded by banana plantations,
coconut groves and rubber tree plantations and took a small path up the hill to
a beautiful waterfall where children swam in the cool waters. We spent a couple
of hours there jumping into the plunge pools and lying around trying not to be
sucked into the undercurrent which brought you under the pounding waterfall.
When we felt relaxed and energised we decided to go. However, I discovered to
my dismay that the cheerful local kids had raided my bag and taken my wallet
containing cash, cards, keys and all. I hopelessly searched the jungle nearby
in every direction but it was nowhere to be found. Eventually I sighed, let go,
smiled and decided to leave it up to fate- imagining that I would come across it
lying obviously in front of my eyes if I was meant to find it, and if I wasn’t
meant to, I wouldn’t. About a minute later it was lying open in front of me on
the boulder which I happened to climb up on my way to crossing the waterfall at
the top- only the cash was missing. Thank god.

We went home by the hang-out-the-door kind of bus with loud music which sounded
very much like Deep Forest. A great day out.

I will spend another week in general medicine and evenings in Casualty- I am
still learning lots every day.

====
Not about management particularly- mainly about picking up on physical signs-
but we do see some acute management in casualty, e.g. a lady who’d been in a
road traffic accident and came in unconscious with an intracranial bleed,
unconscious with fixed, dilated pupils and intermittant respiration.
Unfortunately she arrived with a scruffy note saying the CT scan had been done
but was not with her. So all that could be done was a mannitol drip and oxygen,
and wait. When we went to find her the next day, she had died overnight. Vital
time had been lost.I don’t know why the CT was not with her.
====

On a more personal level i’ve recovered from the shits and found the theft today
reassuring- as soon as I believed it could turn out ok, it did. It was also a
useful warning without any dire consequences, and made some children very rich
and very happy!!! I’m feeling more and more able to muddle myself through all
situations as I show myself that I can.

====
I also found a bookshop selling lots of inspiring books. I’ve read “the
celestine prophecy” again, and “the alchemist”. Feeling inspired but still
wondering how to realise these things on a higher level in my life… bit by
bit I guess. Also raised lots of difficult questions… to what degree we do or
should create or control our destiny (if we have one), new ways to enhance
interactions with those around us, etc. etc.
=====

Lots about love and hugs
Saimonji