The first four things that we noticed when we stepped out from the plane were the heat, the sheer amount of people, the very unique smell and the incredible state of the roads. We were told by our caretaker, Yogesh, upon arrival that ‘there is no need for seatbelts in Mumbai’. He further stated that ‘if you are able to drive in Mumbai you can drive anywhere in the world’. Drivers are prepared for the unpredictable, however we were not. There are no lanes, blinkers are used but not noticed, there is a constant use of the horn and there is little spare road that is not in use. In contrast in Australia where the horn is used rarely and only in anger or frustration, in India the horn is used to say ‘hey just to let you know that I am driving centimeters besides/behind or just cutting you off in a close manner.’
The curious eyes in array of the coloured, sequenced and beaded saris stare upon our strange white skin, blue eyes, light hair and unusual way of being. Although we are sore thumbs in streams of beautifully dressed locals we have had positive interactions with all the people we have meet from the people we have been working with to the local tailor.
Of a Morning in our guesthouse our treasured caretaker Jyoti is making a rice dish for breakfast, a western style pasta dish with minimal spice, in Indian terms, for lunch. We are served Chai (tea in Hindi) a favorite of the Antipodean’s, which is not like any tea we have tasted in Australia. With the aroma of Jyoti’s cooking we start our day.
Laura (Speech Pathologist Student), Lizzy (Speech Pathologist Student) and I (Rachel- Occupational Therapy Student) have spent this week working and observing the staff at New Horizons Child Development Centre in Mumbai (NHCDC). NHCDC is a multidisciplinary center for children with disabilities, it was founded by Dr. Samir Dalwai, a Developmental Pediatrician, and provides therapeutic services of Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Remedial Education, Psychology and Parental Counseling.
In a country that is still at a nascent stage with respect to awareness and acceptance of developmental issues in children, the centre strives to provide coordinated and consistent therapy by intervention in order to help the child achieve his or her best potentials. Rachel, Laura and Lizzy with the doctors and therapists at NHCDC
We have greatly enjoyed forming relationships with the therapists, doctors and other staff members as well as the clients of the center. Throughout the week we have been taken aback at the differing styles of therapeutic interventions and assessments compared to what we know from our training at the University Of Sydney. We were given the opportunity to discuss these differences and share our knowledge and gain insight from the local professionals. We have been overcome with the way the Indians flow from there heavily accented English to Hindi, Marathi, other Indian languages and back to English in the same sentence. Seeing therapy in an unknown language in a different cultural has opened our eyes to the diversity of therapy within the world. However at times this has been frustrating and meant that we have had to naively sit and smile. At one point a client burst out laughing that the Occupational Therapist Student was silly for not knowing Hindi. Laura, Rachel and Lizzy with the Pediatricians at Sion Hospital.
A highlight of our time at NHCHD includes our trip to the Sion Hospital to see a presentation about a supplement that is being used to treat severe acute malnourishment along with an onsite demonstration into how the supplement is made with a trip from the Minister of State for Health of Maharashtra and an introduction to the Pediatricians from the hospital.
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