Sivakasi, India 2005

Being one to take everything to the extreme, I chose to go to India to gain some valuable (and very expensive) work experience.
I really did not know what I was letting myself in for when I went out there. The only pictures I had really seen of Indian life and culture were off the Taj Mahal, mountain ranges and the amazingly rich culture of Rajasthan.

I thought that India was becoming quite a developed country - I thought wrong. Sivakasi is a small town of little consequence in the middle of the state Tamil Nadu. It is basically a dust hole which relies upon its firework industry. Its far from a tourist hot spot but its a long way off a shanty town.

My work experience was amazing! I was taught a few of the nurses jobs and I got to shadow the doctors who even taught me how to examine the patients - Some examinations however were not that pleasant, namely a rectal exam of some old geezer.

One of the major culture shocks - after the indigestable food, was the state of public health care. I feel privileged that we have such the NHS as it seems far from disfunctional in comparison to the Government Hospitals. I saw nurse use the same needle up to 5 times and none of the surgical kit is specially sterilised.

Of course none of that stopped me from having a truly awesome time. I met some incredible people, made some great friends and got to have some once in a life time experiences.
I was able to observe an amputation and a caesarean and assisted in delivering a baby, which has got to be my all time greatest achievement in life so far.

Of course it wasn't all about the medicine. We took days off to visit Madurai