Hi Guys
Here's my update on the Camp at Murbad
Well the reason why I couldn't confirm my participation till the last minute was because of a function I had to attend on Saturday Night and yeah as I was dreading managed to reach home only at 2.30 A.M
. Knew it was going to be a very difficult task managing to get up at 5.00 A.M so had to keep myself surrounded with 4 Alarm Clocks with Alarms at Intervals of 5 minutes each
........Lucky I did that cause managed to get up at 5.20
.
From then on everything was a bit of a rush...........Met up with PG at 7.00 at Dadar
and from there on proceeded to Kalyan where we were supposed to catch up with Tabrez, Sajiv and Simba Before 8.00
.
Managed to reach Kalyan Station at 8.15 or so and the Navi Mumbai Guys were still on the way
. In the meantime me and PG went looking our for the NASEOH folks and the other volunteers.........We were expecting around 20 of them according to what we were told but try as we might couldnt find any sign of a large group.........finally managed to spot them but they were far less than 20........4 of them were from TISS (1 Professor and 3 Students on Project Work) plus Mr. Shetty and Mr.Javed from Naseoh and the physiologist. Finally at around 8.30
the Navi Mumbai gang arrived
(Just Kidding Folks!!
)
In the end it didn't make much of a difference cause the first bus for Murbad started at 8.45
.......Managed to get some decent seats in the bus and had some 'good' discussions
during the Once Hour Journey. Simba tried her best to catch up on some sleep to no avail
.
Journey to Murbad was Great and the scenic surroundings to the backdrop of rainfall and Cool Weather made for some great viewing
.
Managed to reach Murbad at 9.45 or so and by that time most of the patients and their families had already gathered outside.....and believe me it was quite a crowd
.
Our First task was to see to it that all the patients registered themselves..............and our job was to Fill in their Personal Details in the Forms provided by Naseoh.
All the volunteers working in tandem ensured that this leg of the volunteering work went about smoothly and we managed to register all of them in a couple of hours or so. The trouble most of us had was that at first most of us were unfamiliar with Marathi(the Language spoken by most of the patients) so at first all of us struggled along writing in the Correct details. The School thoughfully also provided some Primary school students to assist us by acting as Translators. And Most of them were really really enthusiastic about helping us and ensured that we didn't face much difficulty in our task. In fact after some time they were asking the patients questions before us
(In fact there was a small boy who was really helpful in this regard and was of great assistance to Sajiv and me, I've got a Pic with him...Hope to upload it soon
)
Well all the registrations were done by 12.00 and then started the Patients Check Up by the Doctor and the Physiologist and our Task was to ensure that all the patients turned up in the order of their Registration Numbers. If it sounds Simple
....Believe me it wasn't
.......First of all announcing the Numbers loudly in Marathi proved to be a task beyond most of us
and besides we had to make do with the innumberable requests from patients wanting to get ahead of the queue due to a wide variety of reasons......but with a bit of "Diplomacy"
we managed to handle them.
As there was one doctor who had to do the Check up for all the patients.......the procedure took a lot of time.........We took turns handling the crowd while the rest of us took a break for lunch (Yeah, a Maharashtrian thali
).
At one time when the Nurse who was assisting the doctor had to take a break for lunch.....Simba Volunteered to write down the prescriptions and did a mighty fine job of it
........The Doctor later told us that he actually thought she was a medical student cause she did such a good job
Well the entire process finally got over by 6.30
and then we called it a day but not before Havings some Vada Pavs and Garam Bhajias
Well those were the proceedings of the day as best as I could describe. Sometimes it was a really sad sight to see all the Handicapped Patients walking in especially the Little Children :(.............But I guess it is at times like these when you see such children smiling inspite of their Handicap that you realise how lucky most of us are
That's it folks from me......Will leave the rest to the others to fill in
......Truly a Great Experience for all of us
and inspite of the Travel Hassles and Alarm Clocks
.......I'm sure Most of Us will definetly be Volunteering for future camps
Cheers,
Wayne
PS: We had our moments when we were introduced to the doctors as a group called pagals
.........But the doctor saved the day by stating "Is Duniya mein kuch karne ke liye, Pagal Rehna Zaroori hai
"
PSPS: Pics submitted for Developing....Will try and upload soon enough
Help
.....sounds like the camp was real good...hope to hear more about it...and hoping to be there next sunday
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