July 29^th

I have been looking forward to my elective since my first year of medical school and I’m finding it hard to get my head around the fact that it has begun! I suppose it hasn’t properly started yet, but even so – this is my first blog entry! I have never written a blog before and although I am excited to, I’m not exactly sure how to go about it, but will do my very best!

I’m not sure who will end up reading this – I plan on using it as a way of updating my pals back home and those also on elective in other places on my life over the next 8 weeks, but in case anyone who doesn’t know me well reads this- I guess I should introduce myself! My name is Maissa and I am a medical student from King’s College London. I have recently begun my 10-week long medical elective, which I hope will be a great adventure. I am not quite sure what to expect although that sort of makes it all the more exciting!

IRAN

So. Although I left the UK on the 21^st July – just over a week ago, I spent a week in Iran with my family where we stayed with my grandparents on their fruit farm. It was an eventful week – with my dad being chased by two axe wielding drug addicts on a motorbike who mugged him. We think it was because he looked like one of the workers from Afghanistan because of the way that he was dressed. It really opened my eyes to the problem of drug addiction in Iran, which is a massive problem and additionally the problem of the mugging of the people from Afghanistan who reside in Iran. Basically there are several families from Afghanistan who enter Iran illegally and many live in the area where my family are from as there are lots of farms and they work for cash-in-hand picking fruit etc. However, as they are in Iran illegally, they are unable to report crime to the police for fear of being sent back to Afghanistan. It’s a difficult situation and it means that they are targeted. My grandma told me a story of a young boy of 14 who works for her cleaning the house and running errands. He saved up for ages to go to the bazaar in Tehran to buy some new clothes. When he had saved enough, my auntie took him and he bought a t-shirt, jeans and she gave him some extra to buy a pair of new trainers. So proud of his purchases he came to show my grandma – but on the way home he was mugged at gunpoint by a man on a motorbike and he was forced to hand over all his new clothes, even his trainers and had to walk home barefoot in his boxers! I was almost in tears when I heard this story and it is not an uncommon thing to happen. I realised that whenever I go to Iran, I spend most of my time in a little bubble of happiness and ignorance I suppose- so it was a weird feeling to have that changed.

However, despite this, I had a wonderful time, it was lovely to spend time with my extended family. Although my dad was shocked he did recover quickly and reported the incident to the police. Whether or not anything will come of it is doubtful – but it may help the problem to an extent, even if they just pass by the villages on patrol more often. I left Iran late Thursday night, after my cousin’s wedding, which was spectacular although it was cut short by the arrival of the police! Kind of ironic as days earlier we had complaining they were never around the area and the one night we wanted them to stay far away they turned up! In Iran- obviously women have to be covered up completely and wear a headscarf, gatherings such as weddings should be with men and women separated and alcohol is illegal in Iran. The only way to get it is by buying it off those who have illegally smuggled it into the country. So at my cousins wedding, (which took place on a nearby farm complete with a swimming pool, fairy lights in the trees and a huge concrete area specifically for the purpose of clandestine parties and gatherings) not only was there mixing of the sexes, the majority of the female guests, myself included, were in revealing dresses, without headscarves, and the (alcoholic) drinks were flowing. So quite a commotion was caused by the arrival of the police…I spent half an hour hiding with a number of other female guests who were likewise unprepared and had nothing to cover up with! The police were bribed and they went but the whole feeling of the wedding changed and many guests left for fear of the police returning, which was a real shame. However up until then it had been lovely and I was very happy to be there for the wedding.

I was slightly scared whilst hiding that I wouldn’t make my flight on time as it was the time I needed to leave for my flight to Mumbai and I still needed to get home, change and pack! It was fine though; I quickly had some wedding cake (sponge cake with fresh cream and banana filling- far superior to fruit cake with icing!), said my goodbyes and went home to quickly shove all my things into a bag and leave! This method of packing was very unsuccessful and resulted in my forgetting several essential items which I did not realise until I arrived in Mumbai!