Page 7 - RADC 2017

GENERAL INTEREST
DC Deepcut and Pirbright Team Bonding Day
Maj Sohayla Esmaili, RADC
After being chained to our surgeries for
too long it was decided that Deepcut and Pirbright Dental Centres would be allowed to go see the outside world and partake in a team bonding afternoon. By chance the British weather was behaving and we saw that magical entity called the sun make
a very welcome appearance. First stop was refuelling after a morning of patients and we found a sunny garden locally and we were all delightfully pleased when Col (Retd) Richard Colquhoun and his wife
Maj (Retd) Susan Colquhoun joined us for our adventure. Whilst waiting for those to finish their desserts,
Dr Verma and myself
decided to teach Lt
Col Valler the card
game Cheat. Lo and
behold the Col was
in his element, after a
little help from SSgt
Leon, he duped both
of us and went on to take the win! After our gracious loss, Dr Verma and I decided to have a game of Jenga on a questionably uneven surface chosen by Dr Verma. Of course, the RADC retained the Jenga crown for another year after an extremely tense but evenly fought battle. When the excitement of lunch concluded it was time for the epic voyage along Basingstoke canal on the John Pinkerton II canal boat.
Once all aboard, and the necessary briefs regarding safety and history of the canal, we set sail. Sometime down the canal we came to an abrupt halt. We managed to
run aground! After some careful arduous movements back and forth by the helmsman we were on the move again. After a short while we reached our destination, Odiham Castle or, as the locals call, it King John’s castle. One had to use their imagination when picturing the castle as it is now more
a ruin than a castle but it does date from the 13th Century so it has done extremely well
to survive this long. We all thought Dr Verma was trying to work out how he could use his recent studies to make the castle a little more aesthetically pleasing, although we broke it to him that no amount of composite would
help. A quick photo shoot ensued, not to forget the appearance of a small frog causing mass panic amongst several members
of the team who
ran away instead of stopping and kissing
a potential Prince Charming, before we were on the boat again. The next traumatic event of the afternoon manifested itself in that the on board service had run out of tea! A few members of staff required calming down after this travesty but we made it back to our original location in one piece. Well, not before Lt Col (Retd) Bamber was told off
for disembarking the boat in the incorrect manner, although prior to this Lt Col Valler had managed to escape in a similar fashion without being scolded. An eventful and certainly fun afternoon had by all.
Lo and behold the Col was in his element...
RADC BULLETIN 2017 5
The most precious piece of our equipment was the sacred steriliser and I have now experienced how capricious the Little Sister 3 can be and how unlucky some of us were!
I was allocated to HOC 1 with Cpl Sugden and most of our locations were North East of Lab (E), and we had the pleasure of the rocky roads and a temperamental steriliser. We were out in the field for just shy of 3 weeks working in hot, dusty environments, which was certainly testing for all but this was compensated by the Kenyan people and their appreciation to the services we provided. Even the dental teams gained some recognition from our fellow medical colleagues who thought we were pretty amazing for not only taking out teeth but taking them out in such austere conditions. Although no one was keen to smell the tooth pot for some strange reason?
Five locations later we were skilled in
the art of putting up tents, setting up the equipment, and finding a suitable place
to erect our mosquito domes and cot
beds to call home for the next few days. However, regardless of how much one tried to waterproof kit and put a poncho up in a suitable position to deflect the rain, when the rain fell no one was safe. I recall at
one point during the day all the locals had suddenly dispersed, little did we know their knowledge of the weather was impeccable and the heavens then opened minutes later and everything got soaked.
It was an amazing experience overall and I would recommend everyone to try and get on this exercise as it not only tests ones field skills but the ability to adapt to a very different clinical environment as well as overcoming the language barrier.