II.III.V – Reconnected

II.III.V RECONNECTED read on the doe The long-awaited third day was finally upon us. The day we’d get to see the Lost City. I couldn’t believe we were almost there. All battered, bruised and blistered I had persevered. It would still be a long way to go and really, we had only covered half the trek so far. But I […]

II.III.IIII – Tairona

II.III.IIII TAIRONA Somehow, against all odds, I woke up feeling better than ever. We got up, shook off our boots in case of spiders and scorpions (because apparently these things happen), and headed out before dawn in order to get a head start on what was to be the most challenging of days. We trekked along the riverside of the […]

II.III.III – Wild

II.III.III WILD read on the doe My journey through Colombia led Pedro and I to Santa Marta, a city renowned for the natural park of Tayrona – a wildlife sanctuary that is practically heaven on earth. Yet, it wasn’t for this that I had travelled there.  It was the Ciudad Perdida – the lost city of Teyuna, an ancient settlement located in […]

II.III.II – Land of Passion

II.III.II LAND OF PASSION And hello Colombia; the promised land! But trust me when I say it really didn’t feel like it when I arrived in Bogotá, the capital. After four hundred million hours of travelling I felt disgusting and exhausted; kinda like a professional athlete at the end of a triathlon, only all I did was sit down on […]

II.III.I – Departure

II.III.I DEPARTURE Colombia… Half the world away it stood. And I was going there. The furthest I had ever been from home was Manchester; three hours away from Malta by plane. And now I was going to friggin Colombia – some 10,000 kilometres away.  “It’s okay, it’s okay – he’ll be there with me!” I told myself as I was […]

II.II.VI – Out

II.II.VI OUT Over the next two weeks of my summer general rotation, my passion for medicine would only intensify. I saw all kinds of surgeries – some of which I’d be lucky to encounter again throughout my life. It was all I expected to see and then some. Patients that would forever remain immortalised in my memory.  Especially the one […]

II.II.V – In

II.II.V IN My third year in medicine war right around the corner. Third year – one of the most challenging years in the course if not the most. But it’s also the year I had been most looking forward to. Third year meant finally starting our clinical rotations! The previous summer, before the whole Manchester saga, I had spent two […]

II.II.IV – Inheritance

II.II.IV INHERITANCE read on the doe It wasn’t only grief that changed me after my father’s death. For the first time in my life, I had enough money to do whatever the hell I wanted. I’m not talking millions here—in fact, I was by no account even close to being rich. I had just enough to live comfortably and splurge […]

II.II.III – Alone

II.II.III ALONE I had never lost anyone before then. This was all terra incognita to me. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. I had friends, and now, I also had someone by my side who made it a little more bearable. Only now, this someone too was about to leave me. It was around the same time that Pedro’s job opportunity fell […]

II.II.II – Anger

II.II.II ANGER I stood tall and put on a brave face. Remember I’m too proud a person to admit weakness and vulnerability. I wasn’t the one in need of consoling. I was the one doing the consoling.  My mother, my brother, my aunts and uncles… They were all a mess, as if their entire life had just collapsed in front […]