Saturday, May 21, 2011

Gujarat Red Cross Society - May 20th

Friday was all in all a pretty relaxing day. I observed more laboratory procedures and the girls and I went over the modified PEAS (Performance Evaluation and Assessment Scheme) document for newborn screening. We wanted to establish a baseline score so that we could see find a starting point. We still hadn't had our sit down meeting with Dr. Italia to discuss what exactly I will be doing so it was hard to start anything without getting his input and ultimately approval. So we basically decided to come up with ideas and small projects that we thought would be helpful and necessary so that we could give Dr. Italia the list to get his suggestions.

Dr. Italia runs two other pathology labs in nearby cities so he is always running around and very hard to track down. He is the director of the blood bank and all the programs within the blood bank but he is not paid for his position. He has been part of the blood bank for over the past 20 years and all his work is voluntary. All the girls say that he works 24/7 and is very dedicated to all of the projects he takes on. On top of all of this he is currently planning his daughter's 3-day wedding reception happening the first week of June.

    For example, today the Indian Red Cross society (Gujarat chapter) was celebrating their 50 year anniversary and there was a small program at the blood bank. Dr. Italia is one of the head members of the Gujarat chapter so he was leading the program. Somehow, I have no idea how it happened I ended up at the head table with all the other speakers and guests. One minute I am in the lab learning the different protocols and the next minute Dr. Italia has me coming up to the front of the room to introduce me and have me sit with him and all the other speakers. I had to sit for about an hour pretending to listen since everyone was speaking in Gujarati or Hindi. I only paid attention when I heard my name mentioned and even then it was a glance up and then back to people watching. The program was geared towards college students that were being "inducted" into the youth red cross society to help with blood donation camps throughout the state. Needless to say I was very glad when the program was over so that I could go back to the lab.

     Once the day ended it was time to come back and chill. It's been nice. We do something after work every other day so that way I'm not exhausted everyday because we finish work at 6 and then to go out after that everyday gets really tiring. Star movies is my best friend since that's the only english channel. Not even a single tamil channel so i've been watching a lot of movies. Some good, some I would rather have not wasted my time with but it's all good :-P


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