Cohuna> turn left turn right, the middle of no where, in the middle of the night

Rural: Cohuna> left, right, the middle of no where in the middle of the night
Originally uploaded by kerfern.

Missing in action for the past week as i was at a rural placement for my Med course. A week of excitement warrants a LONG post.

I went to Cohuna with 11 other people, of which Kelvin was the other Singaporean and there was one more guy, Mano, who was Lebanese. So... 9 girls to 3 guys, too bad the guys stayed separate from the girls...

We visited 1 hosptial in Kerang, which was a better equiped one than in Cohuna. It was frustrating to hear that the government only gave $600, 000 while the 2000 population came up with $1 million, for the rebuilding of the hospital.

There were no doctors that were constantly stationed in the hospitals due to the lack of rural doctors. When a patient is admitted, then the GPs were called from their private practices to the hospital. There were only visiting specialists that visited about once a week. So any thing serious, the patients have to go to Bendigo Hospital, a larger hospital or catch a helicopter to Melbourne Hospital.

The most interesting part of the trip was my 'home-based' care visit. Others go to explore the services by going to patients houses. But mine was to go to a nature reserve. Yes! i was shocked. There, Esther, a renowned Aboroginal artist, top 10 in Australia, was our guide to the reserve. Her grand niece, Raye Raye was the cutest girl i have ever seen. She taught us how to make foot prints of animals and a baby foot steps. What was disturbing was when she said the best cure for snake bites and poisoning is WHISKEY! Maybe we should have corrected her, she could have saved another life.

Then after, Megan, Rasha, Steph and I played with some kids from an Aborogines family over a BBQ. I learnt a little footy from a guy. Whom i later found out actually was a professional player. He must have been so frustrated everytime i kicked the ball, it went up or totally far away... The kids were extremely fun to play with, they were like less than 5 years. Some were like chasing the ball, accidentally kicking it and so goes the neverending chase.

It was only after they left, that the manager of the Northern District Community Health Service, told us that actually the kids all had some form of abuse or another. The twins were born heroin addicts as their mom was one. The others had family problems. They are in the 'Many Children' program, a support service for drug, alcohol abuse and family abuse.

It's amazing how much service they actually provided. I don't think i see any kind of this kind of service in Singapore. Last but not least, I had the company of 11 other great people. They were all damn fun to hang, though think frequently, Kelvin and I were like: we're a little old for this... lol

The trip ended with a great Dinner with John and the monash meddies at Grand Tofu. Woot! the Curry Yong Tau Hoo damn ZAI!

Happy Birthday Buddy!