The Opening (Week 4)

Yet again we have had a very busy week, even though it was only 4 days(Thank you Women's Day) ,it was jam packed with incredible activities (each of which I could walk away with having learnt something new).

On Tuesday afternoon we had a group session with the Hermanus girls on the different Food Service Management(FSM) themes. The topics varied from hygiene and safety to nutrient content of foods. This made us students think of the problems that our communities face and what we can do as Dietitians to help or what we would like to see change but have no control over(at least we can identify the problems and even if we can't find a permanent solution we could make the problem just a little bit better). I have no idea how, but my theme is on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and organic food and how it plays a role in the community. Needless to say plants and vegetable gardens are a huge passion of mine. Not only because I love gardening, the feeling it gives you when you are outside, the opportunity you have to bond with someone or the results you see from what you planted-whether it be a tree that grows to provide shade, a beautiful flower blossoming , this next one has a big impact on why I love gardening, because when you plant a vegetable it can be eaten, it can provide nutrients to someone and it is also beautiful). So as you can see it is  a passion of mine because of the above but also because I believe it can make such a difference in the our communities. 

Briefly:

ü  It gives individuals a cheaper way to get good nutrients, this in itself would prevent or decrease the severity of many diseases in our country that we try and "fight" with medication every day.

ü  It gives unemployed people something to do, a sense of achievement to their day. Possibly even allowing them to start a small business.

ü  And if one were to get children involved in the gardens around the community or in the households it would keep the children off the streets, teach them the importance of looking after their environments and more.

I think my whole reflection could be on vegetable gardens, but then I would be doing my task. So I shall leave the rest for my task discussion.

The second activity we did that afternoon was receiving "random" words, we then had to write a bit of information about each(we got 3 each) and then we had to fit all the words(as a group) together. The words all had a way of combining or contributing to each other. I really appreciated this activity as it enabled us to see how everything works together and how important each aspect is in the bigger picture. It helped/enabled us to view problems with wider open eyes so that we can see ALL the steps to treating/managing a patient, not just the obvious ones ,as we often do. It allowed us to begin the combination of all 3 of our subjects, to see each situation holistically.

On Wednesday we went to NID (the National Institute for the Deaf) and thankfully that had its own reflection otherwise I would have had even more difficulty in deciding on what to reflect on. There are some pictures I have included of our time at NID.

Thursday. Thursday was a very interesting, special day. Going to a rehab centre opened my heart and my mind. I say this because initially I was quite nervous and unsure of what was going to happen as I'd never spoken/counselled anyone like my patients.

I say it opened my heart and mind because the people that work there truly have thee biggest hearts and know so much, so much about how to work with people in those situations. They have so much to share with us fellow health professionals and with the patients.

It opened my mind in the sense that I always thought majority of the people who were alcoholics/drug abusers were "scary" people (I'm sure there are still a few like that, after all we are just people. I'm also sure that this is what they teach us at school to "scare" us away from doing these things),I also think I thought I'd feel uncomfortable and maybe even threatened, but all the patients we were fortunate enough to speak to were nice people. Unfortunately I do think that a few truths are slightly twisted, as often they know what you want to hear. But most people are like that anyway , so it is not an abnormal trait to have.

I had the privilege of consulting 2 patients. One a bergie consuming up to 5 litres of wine per day for basically the past 3 years and the second an individual with a drug addiction. Both types of people I had never had the opportunity to consult with before, so I am very grateful for the opportunity I got and I hope that I was able to help/add to their lives in some way.

When I saw my patient was a bergie I was quite nervous, because I mean how do you council someone who has so little money and then spends most of that money on alcohol(as it is their priority). But it turns out there was no need to be nervous as the patient actually knew quite a lot (the patient has only been on the streets for 3 years and use to work so he is not uneducated). The patient said they bought fruit basically every morning with the change they had, I was very impressed with this. I think the patient listened to what I had to say more than they would normally have as the doctor had spoken to the patient recently about the fact that their kidneys were inflamed due to over consumption and continuous alcohol consumption and they had all just watched a movie about the abuse of drugs and the effect on your mental state. I think all of this made the patient realise that they needed to change their habits and the way they live. Although to me the patient sounded quite happy to be living on the street as there are no worries other then "my shoes being stolen off my feet". They get free food from the churches/hospices at least twice a week, they get odd jobs if they like and there is just so much information I wasn't aware of before that I was able to gain from this experience. It really opened my eyes to the life of a street person.

This week was about opening my eyes a little wider, thinking of solutions a little more differently and opening my heart to my country and its needs a little more.

Thank you Worcester.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"

Nelson Mandela