New Fast Fact - Food

Ah the all important food!  The Filipino people are known for their food and hospitality, from what I have been told, you will frequently be offered food and have up to 5 meals a day plus snacks.  Fiesta are frequent, with an open house policy.  The town gets together with an open door policy. As you a celebrate down the street you just pop into your neighbours house which will have a vast spread of goodies on the table and eat with them, then move onto the next house until you get home!  See the fast facts for info on what specialties there may be.

Aussie Training Week Completed

I have just finished a full week of training in preparation for the project.  It was just awesome! A very professional, informative, motivating and full on week.   All volunteers on this intake were present. There are over 140 volunteers sent out each intake (4 intakes per year).  The buzz in the room was just awesome; just imagine over 140 young people (18-30) in one room all charged to volunteer overseas; the noise from all the conversations was constant and loud, the enthusiasm and energy contagious.

Information sessions went from 8.30-5.30 every day, tiring, but very informative and all useful info.  It was interesting to learn about the who's, what's and why's of aid programs.  Did you know that Australia spends only $3/person/week on aid?! That works out to be only a coffee a week! (approx $3 billion/year - 0.025% of GDP) The mission is to double this by 2015 and both sides of politics have promised to do so.

So I got to meet the other 6 participants going to the Philippines, they are awesome and also very excited about their projects.  There is a mix of people doing education, environment and business projects, I am the only one in the Philippines completing a health project.  There was lots of information about development, what it is and what is the best method for greatest impact etc.  There was great debates and discussions around these topics.  I found these most interesting and came to the realisation that this world of development is where I want to be.  So fascinating and inspirational.  This is a biased comment at the moment, because all the presenters of the program were very good and passionate about their topics, so much so, that I was nearly inspired to sign up for a Masters program on the spot!  We broke into country groups to discuss communication, cultural customs, concerns and general information.  We were lucky enough to have our country support person present, and he is awesome! Lots of concerns laid to rest.  We also broke into theme groups so I got to net work with all the health people.  About 4 OT's are going to be placed in this intake, all in very varied projects. The networking was greatly appreciated.

We had comprehensive briefings about medical, security, and counseling services; we have 24/7 support around the world looking after our security, mental and physical health.  The support is so awesome and extremely professional and well organised.

A information session at the Philippine Embassy was enlightening.  It appears that I will be eating a lot as the people are very sharing and everything is based around food.  The embassy staff were just beautiful and so keen for us to experience their beloved country.  From the information presented, the countryside looks just amazing and the people so caring.  I managed to have a great chat with the assistant ambassador who was particularly interested in Australian health and how this could be used in the Philippines.

I finished the week, extremely motivated and reassured that this is what I want to do, I just want to get there now.  So I have, 8 more working days (thanks to the Easter looong weekend - there is still so much to do!) one more round of vaccinations, lots of farewell dinners and parties and a house to pack all before the 22nd of April (departure day)

Contact with the Host Organisation

I finally made contact with the host organisation.  My manager will be Andrew, a Physical Therapist, and he appears to be very organised, eager and enthusiastic person.  So a few more deatils about the project:
* The project will be to design Occupational Therapy training packages for the Physical Therapists and community therapists (the equivalent of allied health assistants or technical officers in Australia) to implement with their client group.
* Simon (the NGO) has an early intervention program and a community rehab program attached to the hospital where I will be based.  There is also a community that Simon built that is for families with children with disability that I hope to become involved in.
* The client base will be mainly children with Cerebral Palsy.  Andrew would also like me to look into therapy modules for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as this is being identified more.
* The definition of Disability at Simon also includes Stoke, Arthritis and they are not limited with age.  * Accommodation is still unknown as yet, but Andrew is working on it.

Initially, I found the idea that I was not going to be training OT's a little confronting.  Professional pride took over; OT skills are unique to OT and should only be implemented by OT's, what am I doing, am I doing a dis-service to my profession by participating in this project?!  On reflection,  I thought, what do you do when there are no OT's and the organisation wants and see's the benefits of OT, you have to start somewhere.  There is a lot of discussion about trans-disciplinary skills in disability and just maybe it is my job to support this interest in OT and show them how beneficial OT really is, this could be the start of an OT department, Bring it on!

I have a weeks training coming up, so will let you know how that goes...

New Fast Fact - History

Two new fast facts have been posted on the side gadget, one based on the History of the Philippines and the other around the naming of the Philippines.

Medical and Pathology

So, I booked into the travel doctor as my GP is over 3 hours away and I have not seen him or another Doc for over 6 years (Yes I know, bad! But I have been keeping up to date with my dentist appointments mum, I am the pin up boy at the dentist) So, he takes me into the office and starts reading the letters sent to me out loud, nil eye contact, at all.  Originally I thought he was doing this to assist me with understanding what was going on, nice one I thought. However when I posed a question ("so Doc which tests will I need to have?") he came out of his concentration trance and looked at me blankly, and said 'yes'.  I was not in the room at all, oh here we go...

Now the fun began, got to wee into a cup, stand on one leg and do a squat (I think he was having a lend of me - this was tricky), abdo squash and a cough :) Quickest medical exam in history.  The documents said that only certain pathology tests were required if family or personal history indicated that it was required, but I was sent off to have ALL the pathology tests done as well as an ECG.  I thought it was all ok in the end... may as well get a full workup to see how the body is ticking really.

Went out to the pathology room and they turned me away as I had not fasted, as one of the tests required.  Oh well, back there again the follow day, no food in tummy.

Short wait, then ushered into a little dark room, by Drill Sargent Major ("sit down!" - "no not there, there!"). Again nil eye contact, or comforting smiles, greeting etc; focus purely on the referral sheet and the process.  She put the elastic band on my arm and started prodding,  got a little nervous, she was prodding for a long time and did not appear to be happy with what she was not feeling.  After a bit she found a vein that she was happy with and reapplied the band.  Needle straight in (nice one doc!); got 3 test tubes of blood out relatively easy..well with a little shaking of the tube on the last one to help keep the stream up...oh feeling a little woozy.  With no warming up or personality showing, I tried a little of the Bevitt charm and wit... Nil reaction...rejected :)

Off to the ECG in another little dark room, "take off your shoes and shirt". My reaction time was milliseconds due to the commanding nature of the Drill Sargent Major.  She places 8 stick on electrodes over my arms, chest and legs; attached the wires and then tapes them down hard...these are going to be fun coming off!  Again nil communication or instructions on what was gong on or what I was required to do.  I shortly found out that I was required to do nothing! "don't move!" she directs as I was trying to turn my head toward the machine to see what it was doing; I could not help myself, I am fascinated by all these medical things.  Ok, now that all bleeps and pings were recorded, Sargent Major came over and started to remove the electrodes.  I flinch as she rips the first of the tapes and electrodes off, providing a mini wax treatment to my chest.  She grins and says "oh sorry" with a little chuckle to herself.  At last a bit of personality! Slightly masochistic but some personality :)

Already I am learning so much; preparation, discussion, and a little bit of human pleasantry and personality goes so far in an unusual or new situation!  Results to be sent to the medical people and then I will know what vaccines I require and another visit to the GP.

New Gaget and Language Course

To assist me with my preparations and keep enthusiasm peeking, my mate has been posing me a question about the Philippines each week for me to research.  I have placed the first two sections in the Fast Facts section of the blog.  I hope to add a new fact each week until I head out.

Also, bit of a bummer but the language course I enrolled in was canceled.  So the plan is to see if the teacher will do private lessons or for me to start looking at internet based courses.

Off to the medical and pathology tests this week...Will be interesting to see what it is like to be on the other side of the medical profession, it has been about 6 years since I last saw a doctor...

The start of the begining...

I got the email! I was successful in gaining a voluntary position as an Occupational Therapy Trainer for a Development program. I have been employed to develop an occupational therapy department within an existing community health program. My employer will be a non-government organisation called Simon of Cyrene Children's Rehabilitation and Development Foundation. The 8 month project is located in Legazpi City, approx 245 km south west of Manila. I have attached a link to the organisation to the blog. At this point, the project outlines and general information are broad and will become more refined over the next few weeks and when I arrive in the Philippines.

So...this blog is going to be forum about the ups and downs, experiences and thoughts as well as a method of communication with family and friends. Before I leave, I hope to use the blog to put a bit of the local history, facts and figures I learn about as well as a few pre-departure thoughts and feelings. Feel free to comment on any entries or send me an email, my email link is at the top of the blog.

Whats next...I have to sit a medical, get my vaccines, attend a full week briefing and training, finish up at work, and pack up my house. I have also enrolled into an 8 week conversational language course (Tagalog) that starts on the 9th of Feb.