Out of My Depth as a Newly Qualified Massage Therapist

I studied part time while I worked full time to qualify as a massage therapist. Well it was a bit more than that, I qualified as a Polarity, Relaxation and Tuina therapist, I never do things easily it was a hectic three years. I’m an all or nothing kind of person, so the study was grueling while being inspiring, and fun.

Just what I needed at the time.

An Invite to The Seychelles as a Massage Therapist

My Tuina and Polarity teacher D invited the whole class to The Seychelles for the experience, I was the only one to accept the challenge. He had been working with their Olympic team for years and this was an opportunity of a lifetime. This was a volunteer gig and a chance to learn through doing, in an amazing setting.

I didn’t even know where the Seychelles was at the time but I was up for an adventure and it didn’t disappoint.

Excited But Nervous on The Flight There

I was meeting D in Singapore so the first part of the trip I was alone. We met at the last minute at the gate for Air Seychelles and D curled up comfortably in his seat and slept the whole flight while I ran scenarios in my mind, I didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived at 3am and hit our first obstacle. It took an hour to clear customs. D didnt have the address of the place where we were staying, and it took that long to allow us in after convincing them we were there as guests of the Seychelles Olympic Committee.

We were staying at the home of an expat Ukrainian doctor, and by the time we arrived I simply passed out on my bed with exhaustion.

Not Functioning After a Couple of Hours Sleep

I am sure I was rolled out of bed against my will in the morning , or a couple of hours later. D told me we had to meet with the minister of sport so I dived through the shower, into some clothes and wandered out to the car where G was waiting a Ghanian doctor who worked with the ministry of sport and who was driving us.

The car was tiny, his two kids and wife were also squeezed inside so we wiggled in and set off down the mountain (or a really big hill) to drop everyone off on the way to the national stadium.

We dropped his love off at the international school, she was a teacher of French, the kids at the local primary school, then we made a stop at a local hospital, this one jolted me awake. G rushed inside, he had a couple of patients to check on.

I looked around through the car window, curious about what looked like horse stalls not far to the right of where we were parked. D had been there many times before. He explained that they were rooms for folks with mental struggles, often coupled with HIV. He told me that almost 50% of the local population were HIV positive, a huge crisis that their resources struggled to cope with.

The National Arena

I was struggling to keep my eyes open when we arrived at our destination, we went to a room under the stadium to wait on the minister. There was a lonely massage table in the middle of the room and it beckoned me to lie down, I couldn’t resist. D left me there while he went to the meeting and I blissfully dozed off on the table.

I woke to the sound of a number of voices just above me, no idea how long I had been out, but when I opened my eyes, there were four dark faces peering inquisitively down at me, smiles creeping across their faces as they saw me open my eyes.

They stepped back from the massage table to allow me to sit up and introduced themselves to me as athletes that trained in the sparse facilities. They were so nice and friendly and that French accent was dreamy. I had thought for a moment I had woken up in heaven.

This was the start of the most amazing three weeks of my stay on the beautiful island of Victoria.

PEace oUt