Greetings from India!
Well we made it! An 8h flight and a short (but chaotic) car journey later we arrived at the hospital that will be home for the next 6 weeks.
Delhi is a hard place to describe. One of the first things that strikes you is the noise, which is an unrelenting soundtrack of car horns, all honking at different pitches. At times it sounds almost tuneful! When you experience the driving, you begin to understand the reasons behind this cacophony! There appear to be very few rules on the roads, or if there are no-one pays any attention to them! There are the usual cars and buses, but there are also tuk-tuk's (or auto-rickshaws) - these three wheeled green and yellow vehicles which nip in and out of spaces on the road. There are also the standard rickshaws and then cow drawn carts, and people drawn carts piled high with bundles of things, as well as people on or pushing bikes (also piled high) and the people just wondering down or across the roads. Chaos!
We were informed today by the Director of the Hospital when we met him, that Delhi has a population of 21 million people, making it the third largest city on Earth. It is certainly very busy and bustling, almost overwhelmingly so. The other aspect of the city, which makes it quite overwhelming, is the constant attention we attract. We are still getting used to being stared at everywhere we go!
We have been working in the hospital for the last two days - Emma in the Paediatric department and Michaela in general Medicine. The hospital is pretty well equipped, but the patients have to pay for everything that is done. Hence, a lot of the medicine is based on clinical judgement rather than the investigations that we would order in the UK. Despite it's problems, it makes you realise how lucky we are to have the NHS.
We have met two lovely Zimbabwean Dentistry students here, and they have been showing us around a bit. We have experienced the metro (all very reminiscent of the London Underground!) and today an auto-rickshaw journey, which was pretty hairy! The metro journey took us to Connaught Place - a place jam packed with shops, markets, street sellers and a lot of people (all trying to make you buy things!). We brushed up on our bartering skills and managed to resist spending ALL our money on the first day! Everything sparkles and glitters and there are some really beautiful handmade things around.
It was all in very stark contrast to the striking poverty that you encounter everywhere you go.
We could go on for ages, but you have probably all ready got bored! We will tell you about everything else in bits over the blog posts to spread it out more! Apologies for the lack of photos - we will post some up soon (It's a complicated business getting them from the camera to the very old hospital computers and involves several steps!)
Thanks for reading!
Well we made it! An 8h flight and a short (but chaotic) car journey later we arrived at the hospital that will be home for the next 6 weeks.
Delhi is a hard place to describe. One of the first things that strikes you is the noise, which is an unrelenting soundtrack of car horns, all honking at different pitches. At times it sounds almost tuneful! When you experience the driving, you begin to understand the reasons behind this cacophony! There appear to be very few rules on the roads, or if there are no-one pays any attention to them! There are the usual cars and buses, but there are also tuk-tuk's (or auto-rickshaws) - these three wheeled green and yellow vehicles which nip in and out of spaces on the road. There are also the standard rickshaws and then cow drawn carts, and people drawn carts piled high with bundles of things, as well as people on or pushing bikes (also piled high) and the people just wondering down or across the roads. Chaos!
We were informed today by the Director of the Hospital when we met him, that Delhi has a population of 21 million people, making it the third largest city on Earth. It is certainly very busy and bustling, almost overwhelmingly so. The other aspect of the city, which makes it quite overwhelming, is the constant attention we attract. We are still getting used to being stared at everywhere we go!
We have been working in the hospital for the last two days - Emma in the Paediatric department and Michaela in general Medicine. The hospital is pretty well equipped, but the patients have to pay for everything that is done. Hence, a lot of the medicine is based on clinical judgement rather than the investigations that we would order in the UK. Despite it's problems, it makes you realise how lucky we are to have the NHS.
We have met two lovely Zimbabwean Dentistry students here, and they have been showing us around a bit. We have experienced the metro (all very reminiscent of the London Underground!) and today an auto-rickshaw journey, which was pretty hairy! The metro journey took us to Connaught Place - a place jam packed with shops, markets, street sellers and a lot of people (all trying to make you buy things!). We brushed up on our bartering skills and managed to resist spending ALL our money on the first day! Everything sparkles and glitters and there are some really beautiful handmade things around.
It was all in very stark contrast to the striking poverty that you encounter everywhere you go.
We could go on for ages, but you have probably all ready got bored! We will tell you about everything else in bits over the blog posts to spread it out more! Apologies for the lack of photos - we will post some up soon (It's a complicated business getting them from the camera to the very old hospital computers and involves several steps!)
Thanks for reading!
Welcome to India. Anyway be careful of pickpockets while you go out in crowd for shopping- ganesh
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