23nd of June - 5th day of treating .....

We had a very lucky start to our stay at Siliguri, most of each day has been a beautiful light rain with the odd monsoonal downpoor. It seems that our run of luck has ended, the rain has stopped and the humidity is through the roof!! Most of the day we spend with perspiration dripping, meanwhile the interpretors consistantly look cool and fresh. They insist that they are hot, but they always look imaculate in their saris, scarves & long pants. Many of the clothes we are wearing now have been purchased here, working on the theory that these clothes are better suited to the climate - but we are not sure that this has helped much ........

Most of the sites are in tin roofed shacks with walls made of reed. Balasan (rock breaking commuity) has a small shack, approx 3 x 5 mtrs and houses up to 6 chiro students, 1 clinician, 2 -3 interpretors, patients & sometimes patient family members at one time. The reed shack has no windows, so you can imagine with all those people, soaring temperatures & humidity it gets a tad hot in there. We are all coping by moving slowly and ensuring that each other stays hydrated. Our room at Jesuit Ashram is on the top floor of the Hospice, has thick stone wall, clean facilities and ceiling fans - a bit of luxury.

Everyone is slowing slightly after the long days runing the clinics out at the communities, then returning to Seva Kendra to more patients. Our evening meals are not provided at Seva Kendra (only breakfast & lunches) so we are having to go out for dinner, this is quite often not happening until 10 - 11pm.

Overall, most of us have been quite healthy so far - just a couple of sniffly noses and the odd bad tummy. Most of us are taking probiotics, enursuring crockery and cutlery is dry before using, and inspecting cleanliness of establishments before eating. We are also really impressed with the effectiveness of charcol & coloital silver!

As a group everyone is working together beautifully! Each day we are swapping locations so each student gets to benefit from the experience of other students. The clinicians are consistantly impressed with the students, they have remarked on the students enthusam to help, prefessionalism & how quickly their skills are progressing. It has been said repeatedly that "all students are fast becoming Doctors".