Day 52: 15/09/12

Nine.

Shower, breakfast. The sky is blue and the weather especially hot. This calls for another day at Unawatuna. I hope to see Sebastian again before he flies home. My local phone has stopped working so I can’t message him. The buses here are reliably frequent, reliably cheap, and reliably hot, uncomfortable and crowded. Two buses later and I walk along the beach but cannot find anyone I know. I set up camp at The Yellow end of the beach which is where we usually go. I order a drink, lay down on a sunbed and the clouds form… rain. Great…

Everyone around hastily grabs their belongings and rushes under the shelter of The Yellow’s little restaurant-bar area as the rain hammers down, stronger and fiercer by the minute. I manage to grab the remaining table but there are a few others hoping to hide in here too. A French couple join me and tell me they are on their honeymoon. They only arrived two days ago and we talk about their travel plans. The rain subsides after a while and we wait for the sun to dry the sunbeds.

“Michael!” a voice calls.

To my left is Philippa and Rachel who have just arrived having spent the night in Hikkaduwa with Sam and Ethan, which is about an hour north of Galle. They tell me they are going to grab some sunbeds further up at Taratuga after a quick shower and I say I will join them at the sunbeds soon. Just as they are about to leave, one of the local hassler-sellers comes along carrying a boa snake round his neck with a little monkey walking by him with a string leash. They charge for you to pet them or take photos and sadly Rachel didn’t do a good job of hiding her interest in the monkey. The man strolls over and lets go of the monkey’s leash. The monkey then jumped on Rachel and climbed up her. She screamed and the monkey started pulling her hair before springing from her and onto Philippa doing the same. I must admit, from the safety of my seat inside The Yellow, it was pretty funny to watch, but if I was them I’m sure I would have hated it. The guy moved further down the beach, and Philippa and Rachel leave as well.

I read some more of Mockingjay and as the sky clears and everyone is going back to their sunbeds, I get a sunbed next to Philippa and Rachel at Taratuga. We laze in the sun for a while and get a drink each. The monkey/snake guy comes back to see us later but is sure to keep the monkey by him. Philippa and I ignore him really in the hope that he will go away, but Rachel chats to him. Upon learning that he is carrying a bag that contains a cobra, that’s enough really, she doesn’t want to know anymore and I certainly want him to go away. He goes off and leaves us in peace.

We enjoy the Sri Lankan sun and even get a glimpse of a turtle swimming along the shore right in front of us. Dave and Jared appear along with a house officer from the paediatric ward, who tell us they were further down the beach but sadly we didn’t see each other. They head back to Galle Fort and I go along the beach but cannot find Sebastian. I might return tomorrow if the weather is good, otherwise I will have to send a goodbye on Facebook, which isn’t really the same. The three of us catch a tuktuk back to Karapitiya for 350 rupees and I walk back to the apartment. As I wait for dinner, at last I finish Mockingjay and in doing so conclude the trilogy. These books come so highly recommended from me. Honestly, read it! I was talking to Philippa about them on the beach as she had only heard the violent bits in the first book, but didn’t know there is a love story, political struggle and all sorts of complicated friendships and relationships. As the end was drawing closer, I became frightened as to what it was going to be. Obviously, I won’t spoil it, but what I thought was going to happen didn’t happen (thank goodness, I didn’t want it to!). The ending was perfect, I can’t wait to see the next couple of films!

Day 43: 06/09/12

To the ward where once again I am the first to arrive. I wonder if I will be the only one today. The round is with one of the more senior consultants and it is difficult to understand him with his strong accent.

Somebody to my right whispers, “Morning” beside my ear. It’s Lara. Lisa is to my left, with David appearing about ten minutes later. We keep going round the ward. It turns out that Dave took the day off due to the sunny weather and thought that as there were three of us, it wouldn’t look like a big deal. The German girls are embarrassed to hear this, as they thought the same thing. I don’t mind though, I was expecting to do my elective alone anyway. As the round ends we hear that the grey haired consultant is to do the class today. No thank you. Instead, we follow Dave to meet a ten year old boy on a stretcher by his bed, soon to be transferred. His eyes flutter, a cloth strung over his waist, and a cannula in his left hand. He has a neck brace on, and we are told by his mother that he fell from a height two weeks ago and has recently been transferred here from paediatric intensive care. Dave checks his pupils which are normal, and wonders about his communication ability. One student claims he has no understanding or communication ability but Dave argues that perhaps the boy simply can’t express that he can understand. When one of the doctors comes, whilst he is paraplegic and has lost control of most of his cranial nerves, in fact when asked to blink to indicate his understanding a command, it is clear that he is making a good effort trying to shut his eyes tightly, albeit the response is quite delayed. It shows that he can still hear and understand something, which is remarkable considering the brain stem haemorrhage he has suffered.

We move on to examine a nine year old girl with a shaved head and pink tape across her skull where a ventricular-peritoneal shunt has been placed. She has a build up of fluid in a part of her brain along with an interesting heart problem. I listen to her heart. Burrrrr-burrrr-burrrr. It is pansystolic and… on the wrong side. She has dextracardia, meaning that her heart is positioned in the mirror image of where it should be. She smiles sweetly the whole way through and the four of us leave the ward with the beach on the cards.

I go home, eat lunch, pack my bag and head to Unawatuna. When I am on the second bus, I see the sign for the beach access road and hit the button to get off. Instead the bus driver just carries on like he has heard nothing. I press the buzzer again, he looks back at me, smiles, and carries on. Now I am hitting the buzzer again and again, with a few passengers hitting the sides of the bus to make him stop. What the hell is he doing? Does he think this is funny? The bus stops about 1km from where I wanted to get off. The conductor indicates that I can have the fare for free. I get off and walk to the beach. As my feet hit the sand… rain. I can’t believe this! How bad can my luck get! It was clear skies when I left. I walk along the beach trying to find a bar I can sit in until the rain subsides.

“Hi, want to join us?” a voice says. It is Rebecca and Jasmine, the two English girls from Southampton. I join them in the bar and order a beer. We chat for a while before in the distance someone is waving at me. It is Dave, with his friend Jared, a medical student from Australia in the surgical departments, and Natasha, the American intern whose lecture I went to whilst I was in general medicine. They join us, order food and drink. We talk and drink and chill out. Then a Sri Lankan guy joins us, who goes to the same local gym as Jared and Dave. They invite me to try the gym, so I figure I may as well go. I tell them not to expect very much from me, especially considering that I haven’t been to the gym in quite a while, but they laugh it off and say it doesn’t matter.

The skies are blue and we sun bathe for a bit. A bit after 5pm, the sun is starting to set so Natasha and I say goodbye and catch a bus and a tuktuk back to Karapitiya. I have a dinner of soup, curry, and chopped fruit. The day has worn me out which I am grateful for considering it has been harder to sleep lately. Last night I had a great night’s sleep, the best since the monkey incident. I don’t know if the bad sleeping pattern is because of them or just because it’s so hot. I should sleep soundly tonight.

Day 36: 30/08/12 – Part 2

On my way in, I bump into Felix who invites me to a barbecue tonight at Unawatuna. Tomorrow is a full moon holiday, so no placement. I think I will go and tell him I will see him there. I reach the ward feeling like it’s the end of the day. There are no elective students here yet and no ward round from what I can see. After a few minutes wait, Lisa and Lara arrive. We latch ourselves to a group examining a three month old baby which looks like a newborn. She has a ventricular septal defect and some dysmorphic features around her eyes and ears.

We then move to a different bay and the consultant invites me to examine a young girl, perhaps one year old. From a distance she has an obvious spotty, red rash on her feet. She is very anxious and the moment I approach her she bursts into tears. The local students are very helpful and try to distract her with some toys they are carrying. I find that there are more vesicular lesions across her hands and also two on her abdomen. The chart indicates she is febrile, but I find nothing else to note. The consultant asks me what I think it might be. I think about chickenpox and molluscum contageosum. It is in fact, hand foot and mouth disease, and had I looked inside her mouth I would have seen some more lesions. I was hesitant to do that because she was crying, and that tends to be the thing that sets children off the most in these examinations. The consultant teaches us about the condition before the session finishes.

I take Lisa and Lara to see the young girl with osteogenesis imperfecta who sings them a song. When we enter the classroom for teaching, I see Dave and the shy German girl, and we sit next to them. I tell them about my run in with the monkeys last night and they fall about laughing and are shocked. The consultant walks through the door, the one with grey hair and glasses from the other day, and the room falls silent. They clearly don’t like him either. He looks angry, yells something and everyone quickly marches out. We follow, to hear that he is unhappy with the cases they are to present saying that they are not interesting enough. We consider making a run for it since we have no real commitment to that class, but we stay and sit through his rambling until lunch time. I pass on the barbecue invitation to the others and hope to see them later.

When I get back, there is a powercut that lasts most of the day, which is strange considering the five days of rain we have had which should be plenty for their hydropower. When the rain settles and as the sun starts to set, I pack my bag and two buses later, I am in Unawatuna. I spot Sam sat with a big group of people and make my way over. I am introduced to everyone, who are new elective students in the hospital and two live with Ethan and Sam now. I order a beer and get chatting with James, a final year student from Melbourne who arrived about a week ago.

Felix tells us the barbecue is ready and we pile up our plates. The food sadly wasn’t as nice as I was hoping. It had been cooked for way too long, so was really dry and definitely wasn’t worth the unexpected expensive price. Dave and the German girls never show and as the night draws on, I am thinking they made the right choice. I am not having as good a time as I hoped to, as the students I am closest to are elsewhere. Anne booked me a reputable tuktuk and I catch that home at about 11pm. The night was a bit of a let down really and I feel like I’ve wasted my money. No sign of the monkeys, I get into bed and drift off, with a three day weekend in sight.

Day 32: 26/08/12

All four of us struggled through the night. The fans have almost no impact on the heat, with one of them unable to rotate. The night is largely sleepless for us all and come morning we all feel thirsty and feel ill. We suspect the hot dogs from last night might not have been cooked fully but after some medicine we feel alright. We enjoy some tea and toast in the hostel and come 1115 we saying our goodbyes to Neil whose three weeks on ward 11 have quickly drawn to an end. He has planned a week of travelling around Sri Lanka before heading home next week. We wish him well as he goes off to travel to Kandy. The three of us pack our things and go to the supermarket to buy some water.

We walk down the road and find a bus stop. The train should be easier today as there are less stations before ours but we would rather catch a bus today as it should be a little quicker. A few buses pass and we wonder if we are standing in the right place when suddenly a minibus marked ’02 COLOMBO – GALLE’ pulls over with most of its seats filled. We hop in. It has air conditioning. Wow. We head to the back where we get three seats next to each other. The seats are comfortable and we have plenty of space. The fare is 275 rupees (about £1.30) for the two hour journey and we feel like finally we are having a bit of luck. During the journey many people hop on and off, and there are times when the minibus becomes packed full of people. We still feel a little tender after feeling ill this morning, plus the bumpy ride sat over the wheels makes us feel a bit travel sick.

Eventually we see a few familiar sights and we pull into Galle bus station. We jump off and are immediately hassled by local tuktuk drivers blocking our way to get some lunch. We decline their offers and enter the South Ceylon Restaurant to get some lunch. The portions are huge and very cheap. We had no idea how hungry we were but our appetites seem fine as we clear our plates. Having had enough of buses and trains, we opt for a tuktuk and get in once the driver agrees to 200 rupees to Karapitiya. He drops us off at the hospital and then demands 250 rupees. I hate it when they do this! They take advantage of us and start making demands, it really annoys me. We tell him we are not paying any extra but when he starts making a fuss, Sam gives him 50 rupees to shut him up. It’s only an extra 25p to us after all, but it’s the way they try to trick foreigners that really gets to us.

I say goodbye to Ethan and Sam and hope to see them again soon. We are going to be on different wards now, with me going to paediatrics tomorrow. I get back to Anne’s Maisonette to find that the Internet situation has gotten worse with it spending more time disappearing than connecting to their router. The mosquitoes are hungry but I spray them away. Catching Fire is getting more and more dramatic as the chapters roll, in a good way. I didn’t expect it to have such a hold on me as the first book did. The cliffhangers make the next chapter so tempting but I must save a little. I organise my things for tomorrow morning, where I will begin my first day in paediatrics.

(Internet even worse today 27/08, unsure when I can next post, we are hoping it will improve soon.)

Day 16: 10/08/12

Flashes of lightning and roaring thunder have been on and off in the small hours. Overcast and a little cooler, I have a late breakfast, shower and look up the weather forecast. Several forecasts conflict, though at first it appears that I will be stuck inside all day. I read the news and clean the apartment as the sun peaks out. Perhaps it will be okay after all…? It’s noon and I pack my bag to go to a tea plantation two buses and a tuktuk away from here, around an hour’s journey.

Off I go, Karapitiya to Galle and then hopping onto the next bus which is going to Matara. I need to get off at Kathaluwa and find a tuktuk for 100 rupees, as instructed by the owner of the tea plantation when I called him earlier. I pay my bus fare (15p) and ask the conductor if he could let me know when we are near, to which he says he will. They have always been helpful in the past in similar situations. Then the sky gets darker and streaks of rain start hitting the windows. Within a few seconds the clouds erupt and release their strong monsoon rain. I am pleased to see the driver slowing as usually they seem to take any risk to get ahead. Driving wildly in the monsoon rain seems like one risk too many. The rain continues for a while and I rummage through my bag… no umbrella. Thankfully, the rain eases after about fifteen minutes and the further we drive, the sunnier it becomes.

We pass Unawatuna, Thalpe and Koggala. I know we are close now, yet I am not getting any signal. I look out of the window, wondering where we are. I get a tap on the shoulder from another passenger. He is a Sri Lankan man that speaks some English and clearly overheard what I asked the bus conductor.

“This is it,” he says. “You want to get off now.”
“This is Kathaluwa?” I ask.
“Yes, this is end of Kathaluwa, quick!”

I thank him, grab my bag and quickly get off the bus, finding a couple of tuktuk drivers nearby. I ask them to take me to the tea plantation for 100 rupees, to which I hear it will cost me 1200 rupees!! Absolutely not! I tell them I know the price from the owner and after he refuses to lower it, I walk off. One of the tuktuk drivers runs after me and tells me he will take me there and back for 400 rupees.

“300,” I say.
“…350.”
“… alright, 350.” Only 25p difference to me, so who cares!

I climb into a little red tuktuk and the driver, Jamal, takes me through a windy track with potholes peppering the road. Finally, we are here. The owner greets me and I am surprised to find that Jamal joins us for the tour. I don’t mind, it’s free after all. The owner takes me around the plantation site, picking pieces off of the trees for me. He also shows me a “touch me not” plant, a small leafed plant sprouting from the soil. He pats his hand on the leaves and they immediately coil in and hide! I can’t believe it! I touch some others and they curl up and hide! He leads me around the plantation and shows me the trees that grow rubber and also where they grow cinnamon and lemon tea. I am lead through the factory that sorts and dries the tea. The tour is okay, though surprisingly short and to be honest, not as interesting as I would have hoped.

Jamal and I are taken to what is described as the highlight of the day in my guidebook, tea tasting. My guidebook sells this place by telling me that visitors try 24 types of tea accompanied by a selection of cakes, overlooking the plantation site in a relaxing atmosphere… well, they must have been very lucky then. I do indeed try 24 types of tea, though they are all in room temperature water, no milk, and almost all of them taste really awful. This is done standing with the owner watching my reaction every time, not relaxing, and there was most definitely no cake in sight. I am then shepherded to their shop and am watched closely, encouraged to buy as much as possible. The owner does admit that his tea is, “quite expensive,” and that is no lie. There are two teas that I did really enjoy and that aren’t too pricey. The cinammon tea which I imagine would be relaxing with boiled water, and suicide tea, a black tea with whisky invented by the estate’s founder over 50 years ago.

I am taken back to the bus stop by Jamal and hop on a bus to Galle, and another to Karapitiya. Finally, I am back. That was all a bit of a disappointment, really. My other trips have been really great so far and the guidebook really sold that to me. I have a couple of souvenirs out of it, but not ones that I was desperate for. The photos were the only true positive I can gleam from it and I don’t feel that’s me being particularly negative.

I spend the evening editing photos, writing my blog and watching the Olympics. I forgot to tell you my surprise at yesterday’s dinner. A soup, as usual, which was nice as always. Then, rice with curried squid! That was new! I have only tasted squid a few times and find that it’s actually pretty nice. My dessert was the best I have had so far, deep fried bananas and vanilla ice cream in a caramel sauce. I usually receive some fruit as it comes for a dessert but this was really great. I am going to watch some more of the Olympics (come on Tom!), eat my dinner and read The Hunger Games, which is honestly one of the most gripping and addictive books I have ever read. It is so addictive I am having to limit my reading it or else the trilogy will finish well before I leave.