The Finale

Yes, 2 years have sped by. I ponder and think, where did all this time go? What did I really do these 2 years. My life has been sped by and another chapter comes to a close. Have I learnt anything in this second adventure as a student. Well, that is a big question that has to be answered. Yes, I have. Having grown up and always been associated with people older or more mature than myself, I had no idea how to relate to anyone who was younger to me. Is that a bad thing. Well, of course. Today I have 24 young and vibrant individuals that I shared 2 years of my life with, as well as a handfull of visiting students from across the globe. 2 years that I spent learning them as much as they did learning about me. Its a journey and one that has to be walked with others. Life is all about those we interact with. In the last 2 years, I have met all sorts of people. Deep to the shallow. And yet, my outlook about what my purpose in life has not changed. While most of my class still have very little idea as to what to do with their life, I started my course with a sense of purpose. One that I thought I know for sure. I however, have ended the course with a sense of understanding that nothing we plan seldom remains as plans and even less chances that we execute them the way we planned.

Today I stand and write this blog as a social worker who is now searching where to go next. This traveller has many more exciting adventures and the 2 years of a masters course was just the begining. I feel life is to be lived, and we live it the way we choose to. So live it so that it is fulfilling. I should be able to look back in 60 years and say, wow, I did live a life and made a mark on whatever it is that I wanted to do.

As I await my next adventure, I sit still to listen to the still voice that is from Above.

A Theatre experience....

Hello Everyone, 

A few days back, I had the rare privilege to enter an operating theatre. This in itself is rare as I am no medical personnel. As I write about my experience, I would like to ensure that none of you would misuse the information that I am giving here. Its for your eyes only and not for sharing. There will be sensitive information and I don't want any of that to be publicised. Please honour these wishes.

Many at times, i've been disgusted by the sight of blood. I have a phobia of sorts. It's not something that I cherish but I am sure many of you would have had the feeling where you have to look at blood and get grossed out. That funny feeling in one's stomach that will make you feel dizzy and make you faint. Well, that's me. I cannot stand blood unless its my own blood. How I endured this time in the theatre is beyond me. Only because of the prayer and mental preparation that I undertook, i guess. But above all, the support from church and family is what pushed me through in the end.

Early in the morning I got a call and dashed out of the house to go for an organ harvesting. The hospital I work with is the leading organ donation hospital in the country as far as I know and so we were rushing to get an organ (Not specifying for confidentiality reasons) for the patient. The donor, was no philanthropist. He was an accident case where the family had agreed to donate a few organs. This is what is termed a harvest. I know, it sounds very crude but that is the terminology. I work as a Social Worker for this hospital and am training under a transplant co-ordinator. This allowed me to enter the Operating Theatre (OT). This was quite a lovely idea at first but then I started to second guess myself. Am I going to faint? Don't I have to face my fear of blood. Mind you, my supervisor (Co-ordinator) already told me that it's a bloody affair; especially in the case of a harvest. I kept wondering, how bad will it be? Am I going to really be able to stand. 

The first sign that the operation had started was the smell. Yes, I did say smell. It was the smell of a cutting device that helps the skin not to bleed when the cutting takes place. They don't use the traditional scapula anymore. Things have got “high-tech”. So it smells like burnt skin because that is pretty much what it does to the skin. Cut and burn it sealed from broken veins, capillaries and arteries. Once open, I simply stood there in shock or amazement at the thickness of the skin. Our skin is not that thin as we may assume. It's really Thick. A good inch in thickness. Once open, I could see the cavities in our bodies. The lungs expanding and contracting; the chest and other body parts shaking in rhythm as the heart pounded away like there was nothing wrong. Then they sawed open the chest cavity. Suddenly, the heart starts to become erratic. In a few short minutes, its back to being normal again. All the parts needed for transplants are checked and biopsy's are conducted so that they can harvest. The lungs are slightly damaged so they hand massage to see if it will fill up. When people say the lungs fill up like a balloon, that is exactly what it does. I just could not believe the similarity. Yet, it has no resemblance to a balloon. It just blows up and then deflates... I looked on and wondered how amazing all these parts and the functions of these parts were. God really knew what he was doing when he made us. Every part delicately woven together. Many times we say that the parts are not durable and not strong but when infections and damage occur, its able to overcome most of the issues. How is that even possible. I wondered if our striving for perfection is the problem. Any nut or bolt that is out of place means the machine does not work. Yet, for a body, a slight change and the body simply adapts. How amazing!!! This was new and definitely a life changing experience. Did you know that the liver can almost regenerate from 30% to 90% in just 60 days. That is crazy. What an organ! As this case was a road accident, there was a lot of internal damage to the organs. Therefore the organ that we needed was not taken because it was too damaged to use. We left it untouched.

My day had just begun but I felt that there was so much more in store. Life is not what we really think it is. Its got so many things to it. We need to live life and feel fulfilled in doing so. Money and fame and all those other things are nothing. There is so much more in life. Why can't we as humans see it. Are we so blinded by work and duty to see these wonders of God before our eyes. I feel pity for those that run after carnal things; temporary satisfactions of life. Things that this world offers in its current system brings no peace to us. It just makes us crave for more like an addiction. One that we cannot run out of. One that pulls us again and again into it, more and more, deeper and deeper it takes us into the chasm of death. 

I hope that I have not bored anyone in this long write up but I thought I should share a few thoughts. We are all made to excel. If we do or not is completely up to us. I realise this.

With a heavy and burdened heart to share God's glory I write;

A friend / a loved one / a family member

Apologies... with a new life on the blog...

I know I have not been writing anything but as a Social Worker in training and living the experience as it comes, I felt just restraining to exploring australia was a bit lame. I needed to change my blog address.

So from now on, I will be writing to you all on travellingsocialworker.blogspot.com.

I have a few experiences that I will pen down as time allows of course, but more importantly, these are going to be my thoughts. What goes on in my head to be exact.

Hope you will all enjoy it.

Cheers;

The Traveller

Sunshine in the pot... (Brisbane Day 3)

I wonder if any photograph can express some of the wonderful scenes that I have seen across the North of Brisbane. We've trekked our way up to the sunshine coast today and i've had a wonderful day but let me not get ahead of myself. I'll be happy to give everyone a step by step walk through my seriously packed day around northern Brisbane.

We started the day with the drive up past Australia Zoo; this is the zoo set up by Steve Irwing, the Crocodile Man. However, we were not going to do a zoo today. My amazing hosts wanted to give me yet another surprise. Yes, If only you could guess; they brought Africa back in front of me.

We went to this wonderful restaurant called the Key's restaurant. The chef a Ghanian lady who has a story of her own. You can find details of this place online. The taste was phenomenal. I have to say with the limited spices and other limitations of being in another country, I was sent back to my lunch breaks in high school back in Botswana. I think, this is where I should make each one of you salivate with the pictures that I have to show you.

Now that your salivating; i'm going to tell you that this was as authentic as you can get to African cuisine.

The view from the restaurant was not as breath taking however, we did move to another place that made the view from any other place insignificant. To top it off, there was a painter sitting and painting the lovely scene and doing a darn good job at it too.

Imagine this picture in vivid oil colours in the hands of a skilled painter. That was what I saw. I should have taken a picture of that but I did not do that. :( I'm sad I did not. I think that was probably the picture that I never took that i'll regret on this trip. Nevertheless, right behind this scene was a natural tropical forest that we took a friendly trek into. 

Yes they are...

Enable GPS Systems...

A true MCCian at heart

What befell me in the forest was a sight that I could not have imagined. From the very dry and semi arid place that Australia looked to be like, I was astounded to see a tropical rainforest with all the fauna and flora right there in the midst of all this chaos. It was unbelievable.

As true to our heritage, we had to be MCCians and enjoy nature as much as muck about as much as possible and enjoy ourselves too. This mixed with the laid back Aussie nature is something to reckon with.

The nature lover that I am, I decided to walk on and continue to observe the undergrowth and after a moment of silence, you see the beautiful animals come to life and go about their daily business. These tiny birds even dared to come close to us as we walked the forest path that was laid out. I caught out on camera though as I peaked into the undergrowth of the dense bush. 

We left the forest reserve and went off to take a look out at the lookout.

This was the sight that befell us. From there, it was a quick drive to the Beach. Just to see what Australian beaches were all about but not to really get on the beach. That was for the next day. 

At the beach, I just fell in love with the amazing artwork made out of coloured tiles that was made. What it was is still something of a mystery to me but I was awestruck at it.

I could not really get my head around it.

After about another hour of driving from the beach, I was taken to a spectacular sight. This was Noosa, a secluded area where all the money comes to for any kind of holiday this side of the country. Even more amazing was the scenery. In the evening sun, it was picturesque and All I could do was look in amazement as to probably why the settlers first came here and made the place so secluded. We walked into a reserve where they have protected the environment and this made some of the places a little difficult to reach but still, i was good. Just take a look.

Looking out into the ocean with the sky decorated with clouds

The Heber Boys Boiling Pot (No pun intended)

The Man

The fantastic duo

Boiling Pot 1

Boiling Pot 2 (overflow)

We waited for the day to come to an end and we were rewarded with this awesome image of the evening sun setting over the main land across the bay. These are the colours that I call, beautiful. Gold. Wonder what HE was thinking when he made all this.

Sunset over Noosa

The Parade on a Prado (Brisbane Day 2)

Overnight, I really could not sleep and what the reason was, baffled me completely. I had no clue whatsoever. This made me wake up completely tired and very dull. Breakfast served, it was time to get out of the house and travel around.

Our mode of travel today was a beast. Unusually one that I've never really had a chance to get a ride on for all these year. It was waiting for this particular moment to show itself to me, I guess.

Prado all the way

I was going to enjoy this trip. I did not care what was to come in my way. I was determined to enjoy. The heat was picking up and touching 33 degrees Celsius. Yes, the dry air was not very pleasing either, still, with the car on the move and the a/c on full, who would know the difference between 33 and 20. Really. It made no difference whatsoever. This monster pulled away and simply rolled off into the country. This was tropical whether. Dry and Hot. I expected a little more umph! from the climate and I did not have to wait too long. It started to rain.

Bush walking was what was planned for the day today. I wished it would not rain but this was the first set of rains in the area. I was not going to complain about it. My rainforest treks would come to good use. After all, this was just water. Nothing more right? And on the forest floor, what else would be better; the canopy protects the ground below anyway. This was great.

Our first destination was Binna Burra.



Here, we planned to go for the caves circuit walk but was sadly unable because of the rain. We did stop at the lodge that was there and decided to have a lovely lunch.

 I thought i'd share some of the pictures that I took of the lodge itself. From the entrance, this is what one sees.

Beautiful trees that surround the lodge bring out the beauty of the landscape with the contrasting views.

This beautiful restaurant gave us a sense of hanging over the edge of the mountain. In a sense; I was astounded by the similarity that the place had with Nandi hills (minus the people of course). Even the way it was made was absolutely amazing. with the wooden buildings and old rustic feel.

The clouds rolled over the hills as one could see rain falling in the distance as well. We decided after lunch that it was time to make a move. One has only so much patience and we wanted to go and see other sites.

On our way, it was as though we ended up in a place just like in the Lord of the Rings. One has to see it to believe it. Was really awestruck to see the sight. I have to say that the picture looks better than the real thing because I could zoom in.



We worked our way down the hills again and ended up near a dam. Circumventing the dam, we arrived at a place called the natural bridge. This was truly exciting. here was a bridge that was formed which was natural in every way you could think of. There was even a hole in the roof of the cave that I had seen. The place supposedly even had glow worms. Yeah... Glow worms. Did not see a single one though. :(

This was really good jungle. Set deep in Queensland country. But I was told, this is really not the only way in which Queensland appears. There are various avatars too.

After all the journey, we ended up in a nice cute little township on top of a hill I cannot remember the name of and had a small cup of Roiboos tea. Yes, South African Bush tea in the middle of Australia. What an amalgamation of culture this really is.

By the end of the day, I was truly tired. I just wanted to see the bed. We came home calculated, how much we traveled the whole trip. Yes, we did 350 kilometres. Now that is a lot of distance to do in a day with all the sight seeing which was hindered completely with the rain.

Tomorrow is a new day, and i'm looking forward to a sunny and bright day. At least that is what the whether forecast says. We'll see what happens.

Ferry him in; said he...(Brisbane Day 1)

I woke up this morning at 7am, thinking, oh no, i'm going to be late. This is not what I need. I should have been ready by this time. I was really excited to get going but my body was tired. The late night of packing and getting ready really did not ensure I was off the line faster this morning.

Finally waking up and getting ready, Kaye kindly dropped me off at the airport and I ensured that I got onto the right flight. My friend, with whom I was staying told me to make sure that I don't get onto the wrong flight and end up in Indonesia or something. How can you get it wrong. Impossible. But you never know in this automated world we live in what just might happen. This man, an MCCian in every way, decided to get me going. I needed to meet a few people and I tried my best to do so. It really did not work out. So, we got on with the existing plans that he had made.

Like raw materials in the hands of a skilled worker, I have been given no impression as to what is to happen here in Brisbane. All I know is that I am in good hands. What more do I need to know. We pick up a pass and start off walking to the riverside along which this lovely city has been made.

The Work Place

En route, we stopped to take photos of the various highlights of the city. The CBD (Central Business District) as it is affectionately called.





We ended up at a ferry stop. And a catamaran styled boat called the city cat pulled up as we entered for an amazing and beautiful ride up stream. This has got to be something to recon with.

Ferry Ride "City Cat"

As we travelled upstream, the sights that befell my eyes were true to what I could never see anywhere else. I could see the various inputs of the world right in front of my very eyes. Singapore, Hong Kong, it all looked similar, even bits and pieces of San Francisco. Amazed and awed, It was one heck of a trip. Almost 2 hours later, we rocked up back to the place we started. To top off everything, we had some of the best whether Brisbane has had in quite a while is what I was told.

Typical Queensland House

Singapore Style...

Hong Kong Style buildings

We finally started on the 25-55 minute travel home. The time varies depending on the traffic. We got stuck in peak hour traffic. Just the sight of traffic and the sheer number of people I saw in the main central mall was a sight for sore eyes to me. I was dreading going back to the mayhem of chennai.


How I will appreciate the tranquility of MCC campus vs the chaos of Chennai city. This is a shock even for those who live in Adelaide and come to places like this. One cannot really understand the difficulties of it at times. Its just weird. I even got the a notion that Adelaide is just a lovely village/country city. Nothing more. No hustling and bustling of anything or any sort. I wish the world was such an uneventful life. I guess going via Brisbane before touching Sydney is good because I don't want to have an unnatural shock.

By the waterside

Under a tree. LOL

This was just half day. We finally reached home. And what a splendid place it was. Chechi made some authentic Indian cuisine and I am tasting Indian food for just the second time after getting to Australia. I indulged into the food. I cannot wait to see what Day 2 here has to offer. It is going to be a treat. I just know it.

In all this, I sit back and recall the mercy and favour of God in all that I am experiencing. I truly do. Six years I have waited to see this country and HE is making it a treat for me to see. I'm really tired and really want to sleep now. I look forward to waking up in the morning.

To the Ranges and back (Day 1)

This post is quite late but I simply did not have the time to do any sort of typing; I really had to finish all the work. At least now,  I'm back and I can type and have the time to update my blog. 

Day 1: To the Pound and Back...

My out back experience started with us going to the Wilpena pound, up north from Wilmington. We started our journey up to the lovely town of Quorn (pronounced like Corn). We were heading up North from there too, up towards Hawker before finally reaching the Ranges. This range of hills is part of what is known as the Flinders Ranges. We did not want to do the really big walks as we were in danger of getting really late, however, we did want to go up to the old hilltop house where the original farmers of the land had put up a house to live in. The journey up to the park took us about 2 hours. From there, we started trekking up along existing trails. I'd have much more liked it if it was just a half hazard walk in the bush, but no chance out there. It would really be quite far. Since Michael and Anne have been to this area before, I thought it best if I took up the chance to simply enjoy the lovely scenery. Smith had the camera and I knew he'll take every pic he could think of. I was just happy to enjoy the scenery. Walking along the creek bed, we could see where the flooding caused havoc to where there was lush greenery because of the little amount of water that has collected. These were some of the wonderful scenery that we met with along this beautiful journey.

Our first stop was an extremely old farm station that still has building standing from the early 19th century. This was a sheep farm with places for the shearers to live as well as the family homestead. This whole place was made from the very soil on which we walked and it was easy to tell because of the colour of the walls. It resembled in every way, the surrounding soil. This was amazing. walking into the ruins was like taking a walk down history more than 100 years back. Who knew, I might just have walked up to the bank of the creek that ran along the homestead just like its first inhabitants; or looked back out from the creek to the plains that extended to the region. This was an area plagued with drought and good rainfall with the passing of seasons. This was the out backs of Australia. This was the legacy that the white settlers from Europe made here in Australia.

Our next stop would be a lovely lunch break under a tree with a sitting area just to have lunch. This place offered a wonderful view of the area around us with the hills standing up against the horizon and then another set of hills further than the first. Our trip started to show us more and more of the wild Kangaroo. This was the edge of what we later came to know as the entrance to Wilpenna Pound. 

[to be cont...]