First Day at CRP

We have had a great first day. Everyone has been so welcoming and we're finding it really interesting.

We rushed in at five past 8 thinking we were late and then sat around for an hour with nothing to do! Debbie, the outpatient OT who showed us around the other day, answered questions that we had and showed us some of the assessments that they use. We haven't seen one been carried out yet. We met some of the other intern OTs who were all friendly and tried hard to communicate with us in English.

The hand therapist OT had seen us on last night's trip to the tailors. Neil was getting a longy fitted and a huge crowd gathered to watch. Becca and I have also ordered some new clothes, including posh saris.

After we had chatted to the occupational therapists for a while, Ripon (the head OT) introduced us to an intern OT from each area. Today we all went to paediatrics, tomorrow to the spinal injury unit, and the Thursday we will go to hand therapy. Wednesday is a national holiday for New Year. It will be the year 1417!

The paediatric inpatient department is where mothers and their children who have Cerebral Palsy (that might not have been properly diagnosed as Neil found out! From Neils perspective "it seemed a young child had suffered a seizure which would more likely result in traumatic brain injury than cerebral palsy as all tactile touch senses has been lost and communication had deteriorated"). The children and family, usually the mother and child, stay at the hospital for two weeks of intense therapy and education about how to care for their child.

We observed the feeding group in Bangla and the OT sitting next to us translated. The group was run by an OT and speech and language therapist. It included how to sit when feeding your child, how to communicate when feeding, massage that you can do to stimulate the muscles, how to move from solid to liquid foods (or vice-versa), and that it is best to use plastic spoons and cups with two handles. We saw a lot of the mothers feed their children before the group began and thought that the group might have been better if it started a bit earlier and the children were fed half way through so that the mothers could practice the techniques. Everyone in the therapy room sits on the floor and has bare feet. This is interesting culturally because you shouldn't sit with the soles of your feet facing anyone, and should never wear shoes inside.

After the group we had tea from the trolley which was ready made in a flask and was extremely sweet, very strong, and milky. It was ok. Neil didn't like his at all. It cost us 10p for 2 teas and 2 biscuits.

We then observed some individual therapy sessions which was interesting. A lot of the children were doing Lois Addy impressions! I'll be revising reflexes before I start. They do a lot of sensory work, massage, and facilitating movement. They were also doing coordination interventions like throwing balls and had a balance board. Some of the kids were so cute! I was throwing a ball to one girl that was laughing loads.

While me and Becca were only being allowed to observe the sessions, Neil was being asked to diagnose conditions! Neil also experienced techniques of developing hand grips and changing between uni-lateral and bi-lateral integration and got a chance to use the sensory room while attempting to diagnose a new client's condition.

Then we went back to the guest house for lunch. Shamoli and Tarmina (the housekeepers) cooked three curries for us, one vegetable, one dhal, and one chicken. They were really nice. We ate with Helen, a qualified physio volunteer, and Moira, a speech therapist volunteer. It was nice to catch up about each others days.

After lunch we watched some more therapy and then went to Bangla lessons. Some of it is starting to sink in but I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation yet! It was very informal. No structure, we just asked Mizan for the words and phrases we wanted to know. It was great because we could ask about phrases that we will find most useful when we are working.

When the lesson was finished we went to the OT department and watched a presentation in English and Bangla by an intern OT about subluxed shoulder joints which was quite interesting.

We were talking about how great it would be to make a charity to disinfect all of the thrown away equipment from the NHS and send it over here. They make pencil grips out of toilet roll and surprisingly strong seats out of paper, known as paper technology! It was explained to Neil when working alone with a child developing the pincer grip that how resourceful OT's are here. They use mud and bamboo to recreate such equipment seen in the hospital and practice cooking techniques such and needing doe when making bread. The resourcefulness will shortly make us become more creative.

Its prayer time at the mosque next door now, we have to be quiet for the next half an hour! Its not really working so hopefully we don't disturb them.

Lots of funny things have been happening. Yesterday we went to the market and someone fell over because they were staring at me and I'm so much taller than them!

Neil and I have been trying local delicacies. Becca is stuck on bread and jam until her stomach settles down. An upset stomach is known as a case of the Chitta s***tas, which unfortunately both Becca and Neil have experienced.

This is for Nicky: the food is so cheap! None you your £6 Norway peppers! Actually, I haven't seen any bell peppers! We have just bought half kilo of tomatoes and cucumber, deep fried pastry mixed with egg, chilli, onion and seasoning, and a Bangladesh style samosa for both me and Neil's. It cost 40p and we still have 12 tomatoes and 2 cucumbers left!!!!

Write to you soon

Entry from Kathryn.