On My 3rd Week Raw Food Choices I Gnaw!

All photos by Meady's Musings Production, Copyright 2006-2008

As I head into my 3rd week raw I'm in a much different place than I envisioned myself being...I thought I'd be just waiting to cross the finish line of the 3rd week and probably planning to have something like a big chocolate cake or pizza waiting for me at the end! But instead here I am 2nd week raw and I'm actually thinking I could be like this for much longer? Also I don't always feel hungry...can fruits which I mostly eat all day be this filling? But certainly I'd want to eat cooked foods again and carbs but maybe not as much? Or maybe I can not make it a rule and so live raw but when I really wanted to eat something or there is this event or family gathering I can have some cooked things? Cause I hate having to turn down people when they've cooked for me. Like my mum is itching to feed me dhalpuris!

Hmm...so many choices that are about to open up soon after I complete my 3rd week raw...hmm...I know for sure I'd want to have chocolates...although to be honest I don't care for the sugar in them so much although I can't eat more than 60% dark too cause then it gets too bitter so I must want some sweetness in them. A self proclaimed chocolate connoisseur myself I've found that the European chocs are the fine ones and the American ones are the really sugar crazed ones...I once had this box of French Chocolate Truffles and it tasted almost like cocoa...in fact the truffles were each garnished with a touch of cocoa a top each...mmmm...mmmm...So anyway I think cocoa can be the way to go perhaps in the future...perhaps cocoa instead of coffee...although this would not be new for me cause I've often had a cup of Cadbury's cocoa at night. I make it sinfully delicious if I do say so myself by using lots of heaped teaspoons of cocoa and Nestle's sweetened condensed milk. So it's sweet but maybe better than chocolates? But seriously could I ever live with out those decadent treats? I'm so crazy bout chocolates I even love that game on Yahoo! games called Chocolatier and I wanted to eat the chocs I created in the game so badly! I also loved that it represented a time when cocoa was still exported from my homeland of Trinidad...cool game! But back to the food choices...

I can see myself perhaps giving up coffee but to all my group members on the Hong Wing Coffee group on Facebook don't worry I've not left you and whenever I do have coffee I assure you it will be Hong Wing or at least I'll still think it's made in TT and the best! But I think I'm missing my tea...the herbal tea experience was cool and at least now I know I can do it...but I'm a tea lover...I love tea especially with all the seasonings that is now called chai in the west although it really just means tea in hindi...but yep the last thing I had that was to be not on my raw list was Twinings Voyage Indian Chai (tea)...I had that just minutes before I became raw and I soooo long for it. I also love Dilmah tea. Maybe I can try going to green tea to start with though but we will see...And maybe I'll toss my Splenda and start using sugar again but just minimize my use of it. I know some friends will hug me for that!

So let's see...let's see...I've learned that I can actually live without cheese and so many things taste so much better even without it. But I do miss my milk. I've learned that one big plate of vegetables can be enough to fill me for dinner. I've learned...I've learned...I've learned so much! So here we go one more week until my rawism is complete but then the question will remain what should Babita Dubay really eat? Veges for sure and fruits galore, less cheese and pasta and no more Splenda...

YAY! I've Made It Through My First Week Raw!

Photo by Meady's Musings Production

The reason I put up the above pic to commemorate my first week raw is cause it's gone by just like that like a little snail crawling! And no it's not cause I've been eating raw snails as some may have thought!

I've not really been hungry this first week raw by 70% or semi-raw or whatever I might be labeled...kinda raw even? Neither do I think I've lost any significant weight so far. However it has made me realize how little we really need to eat and how much we eat just to fill up space. I had always known bout the filling up space part but I never realized how much so...like how much more what we eat can be reduced if we are more conscious of it. How really little we need to eat to survive! I've always been the one to get the eight glasses of water in per day but this raw experience so far has made me realize just how much water our body needs. I think our bodies must need way more water than food! I think it goes with being raw though perhaps as I saw Elspeth's advice to me to get enough water perhaps 3 litres a day! I dont know if I've been drinking 3 litres but I've been trying to keep hydrated as much as possible. Sometimes I get tired to chew another apple but I never can have enough water!

Being raw isn't half bad though. Although there are times I sure wish I could eat a big, full, fancy meal like earlier this evening...I was sure missing food! And it didn't help that my mother has been consistently making dhalpuris ...next big session since I've gone raw! But then by the time I got to eating my two small bowls of yellow dhal today and some left over water melon and paw paw from the fridge and a few nuts I snacked on in between I was quite filled!Makes you realize how much the need to have this big dreamed up meal in my head was not a real need of my body but perhaps more a projection of my mind's idea of what my body needed...maya...it's all illusion!

I don't know if I lost any weight but I'm not doing this to lose weight although I need to lose some. But this experiment is not about weight loss. I feel much lighter and my breathing is very much like how it gets when I'm exercising regularly...I've not been exercising this week and don't plan to until the end of the three weeks only cause I'm not sure if I know what I'm doing well enough in terms of the raw stuff cause I figure even with the nuts I'm not getting more than 1000 calories a day but then I'd have lost weight although I don't weigh myself so I don't know for sure. Anyway it might not be the best for me, not exercising but in terms of the experiment this way I have only one variable. Cause I've not been exercising for a while now as I was involved in several additional activities outside of work for the past two months prior to this that made my available time for exercise much less than normal and I decided to just catch up when those things were done. So to exercise and become raw would have been two changes so two variables would have entered into the experiment. So I plan to restart exercise post raw.

But back to the health effects of my rawism. Yep I feel much lighter in a way if only in spirit and there is so much less weighing down on my digestive system I guess. I really do feel like how a car's engine must react to being given unleaded gas finally when it was built for that and was being filled up with leaded gas instead! All my fuel injectors are now unclogged of lead! So breathing is that much easier! I'm also decaffeinated now and I think this must be the reason or just the foods I'm eating as a whole but I also feel so much more at peace and restful and also able to sit and meditate even more now. I feel more still is what it is and more centered so I can just sit still in silence for much longer more easily I find.

And yes folks my not so pearly whites that were the ones who guided me to be raw...well they are feeling so much better! Poor things aren't being corroded anymore and they are so at peace with themselves now :)

So it may not be easy being raw but it's good being raw so far! Two more snailing forward weeks to go!

On The Eve of My First Wk Raw(70%)

All pics are copyright of Meady's Musings Production


Tomorrow will mark my first week of being about 70% raw. Those of you following my blog will know what I mean when I say raw. If not you can catch up on my past postings to see what I mean.

I will give a full breakdown of all the details of my first week on the journey tomorrow but for tonight on the eve of the first week's end I thought I'd share with you two of the meals I've had instead of dhals or soups for dinner. Basically they are slightly cooked salads. So they fell into my 30% cooked category but really were semi-raw I'd say. I can tell you I've not been following all the 'rawist rules' and I can tell you I find those rawists remind me of what happens with religion. You are on a search like the Buddha... a nice thing someone trying to find his path... his way in the world and what's right for him and not so he can see the light. Then Bam! and Boom! somebody decided religion...rules...a rawist can do this but not that...So maybe just like with religion here I have to say maybe I'm not even a food rawist or raw or 70% raw even. Maybe I'm just a girl trying to explore different ways to eat in the world. Maybe I'm just experimenting for three weeks about what to eat or what not to eat. This is my main goal here not... to be or not to be... a rawist that is...I'm more an experimenter. I'm using these 3 wks to experience the best eating habits for me and how it improves how my body feels and reacts to food. Then I plan to incorporate this in the future in the best way I can when I'm no longer in this closed and guarded experimental mode...so I'm learning how to live life that is by looking at it more closely in these 3 weeks at least the eating aspect of life that is. Perhaps it is like putting one's own self into a rehab of sorts while still living in the world and doing your normal things! It might be interesting to do it with other aspects of our lives too...perhaps experiment this way with all the seven deadly sins of the Bible :)- lust, greed, sloth ...to be honest I don't know all seven! But you get the point. So here is my kinda semi-raw dinners I had the first one on Sunday night (14 Sept 08) and the 2nd one was tonight. Both basically are light sautes of veges in Extra Virgin Olive Oil or as my niece tells me EVOO as Rachel Ray calls it!

Sunday's Dinner
serves one
1 tin bean sprouts (sorry true rawists I just grabbed a tin no time to sprout my own)
1/8 medium red cabagge
1 cup broccoli
1/4 large red onion
A handful of mixed nuts (I didn't realize the tub of nuts I bought on planning this was salted and slightly roasted so...and like true rawist would I have not soaked my nuts in advance...I know I'm such a disappointment to Elspeth!)
1 tsp of EVOO
few dashes of chilli pepper seeds

All of this sauteed in a hot iron pot (or other suitable) for about a minute using a tsp of EVOO and adding a few dashes of chilli pepper seeds. And below was my result...absolutely delish and a cousin passing by me eating this on my porch thought I had noodles in there and I said no! It's the bean sprouts!

Tonight's Dinner
Serves 4 and I'm happy to say my mum and niece ate it and loved it and one serving was left over which my mum plans to eat for lunch with rice tomorrow.

5 medium fresh mushrooms
1 small green pepper
2 cups broccoli
1/4 medium red cabbage
1/4 large red onion
1 small cauliflower
1 tin channa (chick peas) was from a tin in brine (I normally rinse out the brine)
1 tin of corn (sorry I used from tin again!)
3 dashes of chilli pepper seeds
3 dashes of black pepper
3 dashes of italian seasoning (a mix of spices in a bottle)
2 handful of mixed nuts (same from first recipe)
1 tbsp of EVOO

Same cooking method as first recipe and below is how it looked! Also tasted lovely! And this time my mum and niece loved it too. My niece of course had to go sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top of it. Said niece is in withdrawal as I've not cooked pasta or used cheese for the week and so she has not been able to eat any of those offerings from me all week! She is most distressed!


For those of you eager to know health effects which I will share more of tomorrow what I can say is imagine a car using unleaded gas and one using leaded gas! That's how I feel raw versus not! More tomorrow!

My First Day Raw (70%)

I don't think I was fully prepared for the journey as a number of things that was suppose to be put in place before re food supply was not done...but there were seven apples in the fridge...medium size and I ate two prunes (not sure if considered raw but then I'm 70%)on my way to grabbing out five of them. I ate two apples while driving to work (I know what I'm doing I eat in spots when there are stops etc.) Then when I get to work I eat another one leaving two for lunch time.

But my office tends to be very cold for me (about 18 deg C) and because it is a shared unit with a few other offices there is always conflict as to how to control the temperature so I just wear a sweater if I need to which is usually often. Normally the sweater is left in the office but for all of this week and last I keep forgetting to bring back any sweaters since I took them home to wash. Anyway so I quickly eat two apples for lunch and I drank lots of water through out the morning but I was going crazy at lunch time...cause I was cold and bored...what do you do while others are out eating the cooked! You see right there I was experiencing major cultural, societal and habitual shifts.

I walked across the base to the other building to keep warm and meet with some of my colleagues but wait none of them back from lunch yet! So I'm cold...especially since it rained a bit today. So I decided I'm not missing coffee as for a long time the Nescafe thing I try to mix up in work was irritating me anyway cause I tend to get the proportions wrong often...but on the whole for sometime now I've not been able to stand the bitterness of coffee (this is why I like Hong Wing the best as it is not as bitter although strong) and I often find myself swabbing coffee off my tongue surface to get rid of the after taste and thinking...ugh yuck! But normally in rainy weather especially I love having tea. I have so many different boxes of tea in my office accumulated over the years. I know I'm only 70% but I don't want to introduce Splenda, caffeine and evaporated milk into that 30% not raw. So what to do?

...I recall having one box of herbal tea in the office that remained from many years ago when a colleague used to often visit my office to work with me but only drank Camomile tea...I use to look at him with some reservations back then but hmmm...so I look up on the web if herbal tea is permissible in rawism and it is..it seems...esp since you can't kill nutrients in herbal tea anyway! It was interesting in checking this I realized I made the right choice in keeping some warm food on my menu cause others were saying the same bout needing soups especially in winter months. Of course I'm in the tropics but I also feel chills especially in my office so...I'm one of those who need some warming dishes winter or not. So who would have thought I had camomile tea with nothing added just plain tea...and guess what I loved it! Now I know I didn't have enough raw foods with me and I contemplated on several occasions if I could have one of the Ferrero Rocher's that I have in a gift box given to me last week or so. But I didn't want to do it just out of temptation. Cause I don't want it to spoil and I'm raw for a few more weeks I might eat one a day to finish off the last seven or so in the box. I don't think one is enough to tumble me off the raw feel etc...like not enough refinded sugar to impact much etc.

Anyway but for today I had my camomile tea and to be honest I didn't feel very hungry although cause of the coldness in between I craved huge bowls of steaming pasta with heaps of tomato sauce...but it was more associated with the need to feel warmth...

So I come home and for dinner have about 1.5 cups of yellow dhal prepared in Trinidadian styling- geera, garlic, bits of pepper, salt, oil and very thin in constituency so a very light soup. I spot some almonds in a container so eat about ten in the course of the evening and two prunes. And now I'm off to bed. I think I've eaten too few calories today but not sure...think will need to eat more fruits tomorrow and later on see if I can get more organized to have some smoothies etc prepared too. But I really do feel like a bird! Very light and sprightly! It's interesting being raw...and I'm looking forward to experiment with it in the next 20 days! And I'm sure to keep letting you know how it goes! I'm sorry for not having a picture today but was too tired to take photos for any part of this story but will try to do so for my next posting. Good Night and God Bless!

I'm Going Raw...at Least 70% That Is!

Photo by Tyron Waterman 2006

There comes a point in life when all the signs line up. I've often wondered bout some of the things I eat...and over the years have changed what I eat. It's not a consistent process and I think really for me I don't want it to be. I think if we reach to a place of listening to our bodies it knows what it wants and this changes from time to time. Of course given the demands of society and all its pressures we don't always listen to our bodies. Either cause we can't hear its call cause we have so shut it out or we hear it but simply don't have the resources-time, money, and availability of the correct foods at the correct time, to carry it out. Or we want to make the change but don't cause of what others will think or about their feelings when we can no longer partake in the same meals as them. It may sound trivial but really societal pressures are a very big part of this dynamic. And it is also economic...what we can afford and what others want us to buy so they can make profits. So most of us cave in and don't always eat what our bodies really want to eat.

Sometimes we move so far away from our bodies calling, the worse happens and the body manifests its neglect in the form of serious illness. I’m not making light of people's ill health and diseases and saying that people who are sick deserve it or anything like that. And for sure I empathize with the diseased as we all suffer from some disease to some extent at least at some point in our lives so I'm hardly in a place to point fingers at anyone. This is about my own journey of self-discovery. I believe we all come on earth to learn lessons through exploration and one of those marvelous expeditions we can have here on earth lies in the exploration of gastronomy. So the world of food and drink is spread before us on the table of life. It's up to us to choose!

I made choices early on or you can say they were made for me as I was born into a family that practices your typical Indo Hindu style of vegetarianism where we ate dairy products but no eggs or fish. I know there is a label for that but I couldn’t be bothered to state it here.But later on I think I embraced it cause I really am repulsed by meat products and the idea of eating dead animals sounds like a horror film to me so on this trip to earth it's not an avenue I can see myself traveling thus far.

But here it is my path has been taking a very slow and gradual turn..for years and years I've known that carbonated drinks irritate my teeth and are obviously corroding (pardon my engineering term as I know it must not be the proper medical one) my not so pearly white enamels! Poor teeth! And really I don't know why I've not decided to stop drinking Diet Coke a long time ago! Cause I've recently realized I don't even like it anymore...it can be nice if in a can and cold, but on ice and from a glass, to me it tastes bad and somehow just exacerbates the corrosion to me! And on many occasions I've felt while eating apples that it would be nice to just eat that all the time and especially nice I felt it would be too if I could just drink something that was just the taste of the water that was left on the apple's skin mixed with the subtle taste of the apple. Hmmm....I guess the closest thing must be those flavoured waters these days but really it must just be my longing to only drink water. So I've always had these feelings...I've also always felt the idea of eating flower petals like some people do a tasty sounding idea but always too radical for me to try. So I've always had these yearnings...

Then I start following Elspeth Duncan's blog on http://nowiswowtoo.blogspot.com and she becomes raw (you know what I mean of course) and I thought how lovely but I could never do that! Then I'm reading a series of books on reincarnation and I start to read about how the writer became raw (you know what I mean) to support his son's effort to become raw as part of a health vow that a healer gave him. So there I'm thinking all these raw things coming up again and my teeth killing me and I feeling like I could be good raw. So I said yea the time has come as I said in my beginning line all the signs seemed to have lined up.So yep the time has come and I'm going raw...well at least 70% that is!

I've researched that you are considered to be a food rawist (there I used the correct term instead of saying people are becoming raw! hehe) if you eat at least 70% only raw foods. So I decided I'll start with the minimum setting...I don't think I'll ever get to 100% or do it long term but you never know. But I can't say it is even my intent currently since I feel that kinda eating is for the birds man! Also based on my fairly busy lifestyle and the availability of options where I work I was concerned about getting enough protein and I don't want to become a bird and harm my body more in the long run. Also I think I'd miss having a warm meal at some point...so I decided on to eat dhals for dinner and vary the dhals as much as possible daily. When I can't vary the dhals I will have some vegetable soup with green peas (from frozen pack) in it.

So here I go in less than an hour's time I become raw!

Launch of My Other Blog-Universal Collective Prayer

Please check it out- http://universalcollectiveprayer.blogspot.com Image is burrowed from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International Library.

Why Im Lighting a Candle and Deeyas for Tibet

I could have researched this topic to blog about it...gotten my facts straight...but I decided instead to write from my heart, my memories and my feelings. Yep I will check out the notes on the web for spelling of places so everyone will be on the same page and perhaps the year so when I reference my memory it will have a time frame. But here's what I remember sometime when I was in high school abouts...(I've referenced the year and it is 1989 so I was about 3 years or so into high school.) Something was etched into my mind that I still do not forget...and for years have off and on recalled it and wondered why or how could we live in a world where things like that happen to others and no one else in the world says anything else. Ive reconciled with: 'People just think bout themselves and also people will do anything for money.' I mean people just 'friending' as Trinis would say with China cause it is economically sensible to do so. Plus as I became older I also cautioned myself against idealism and reminded myself and was often reminded by others to- 'Live in the real world!'. So I thought less and less about 1989 and the Tiananmen Square Massacre after all perhaps it was the world's way of sacrificing a few for the greater good. After all communist China everyone says is doing so well. And really they had to control those kids and idealists in the Square in 1989 else the world would have been even more crazy and even more ruled by one super power! So as I became older other such atrocities across the world bothered me less...be real I said...be real...also it's their battles not yours and all of that...what do you mean it's one world? And even if is one world just look around you everyone is fending for themselves even on the micro scale who cares much bout anyone else barring a few loved ones? Why you think people hoard and fight and compete- in school, on the roads, in the market and on the job...some people even compete for love...or their version of it! SO be real be real Babita be real!

But really deep down I never forgot about the Tiananmen Square thing cause some how as a youth, at the time, it touched me, what happened. It was the natural flow of things for one thing to lead to another at the time that caused the collapse of the Berlin wall (which was bound to happen sooner or later since it was a man made structure blocking people who were connected by spirit) to be followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Interestingly the Tiananmen Square uprising was in Apr to Jun 1989 and the collapse of the Berlin wall was later on closer to the end of that year. So really the East can't say that the West was corrupting its children with its culture of mass unruliness and rebellion or slack morals and indiscipline could they? In fact had the Tiananmen Square uprising been successful well the East would have here taken the lead...But it was not meant to be...but at least the joy of human spirit prevailed with the collapse of the Berlin wall on Novemeber 9th 1989! Oh what joy!- the freeing of human spirit for families to be free to see one another once again...Berlin for Berliners...one Germany...perhaps one day, one world...and one universe...

But what about East...as in China...well I grew older and years passed by and I more and more was reminded to live in the real world. I learned bout more and more sufferring and this and that...and I learned more about my religion given to me by my ancestors-Hinduism and I also embraced other thought out there including the teachings of the Buddha, who some Hindus like to think of as the 9th incarnation of Vishnu, pushing the still to come, Kalki avatar, spoken about in the Gita to number 10 position. I fully agreed with many others that the Buddha in his time never wanted a religion around him but more for people to learn to be more like him as in that he became enlightened so for people not to worship him but to learn from him like a guru so they too could become more enlightened but of course no man's path is another's so there was only so much he could teach. In terms of my religious journey I'm now somewhere at the stage of being a Shiv Bhakt or Shiv devotee, but in the sense of again (as with Buddha) I worship or focus and meditate on Shiv so that I can learn to become more Shiv like. I also have come upon the talks of the hip and famous swami of the 70s called OSHO and I find them to make sense. So I am currently pulled between whether becoming more Shiv like is ideal for this time...after all according to Hinduism we do live in Kal Yug-the age of darkness (as in heavy materialism less spirituality blah blah) or perhaps given the age, OSHO's claim of the ideal, which is to strive to be like Zorba the Buddha is best. OSHO believing that Zorba the Buddha is a mix between Zorba the Greek and Buddha ...a mix of materialistic pleasure balanced with ascetic's search for englightenment. I don't know but I like to think bout Shiv in meditation so I'm there...Shiv Bhakt is me these days. And Shiv for me represents so much but I'd have to write a separate blog on that!

So back to China...I rarely watch TV or read the newspapers but sometime in spring 2008 I happen to be flipping channels and I cant believe my eyes....monks?!...Buddhist monks?!...bleeding and being beaten?! I couldn't bare to watch...time passed...and I no longer follow sports much either or their events...but realised wait the Olympics is on! And what in China!? How can the Olympics be in China?! I wondered how come none of my friends or colleagues were the least bothered. I even put up my status on Facebook to read about how appauled I was...then I realised when I got into the news again that OK people did bother too just like me...and there was support all over. But then I said was I worrying meaninglessly about something not too important? Is it true what others were saying that we were all a bunch ah hippies who didnt know what we were talking about?! But then I rememebered bout Tibet... the monks and freedom and what the Olympic spirit is...But Im not against the Chinese? Or people of Chinese origin?! I'm not jealous that China is doing well financially or industrially or whatever although it doesn't augur well for the environment that the developing world plans to become just like the so called developed! And for sure the whole world is to be blamed for that scenario not just the developing world in which I live. But again another blog! But yea I find China is cool in terms of many things but why do they feel this need to control and what do they have with Tibet?! So forward to June 2008 and I meet a man at a technology workshop who is from China originally but lives in the UK and I ask him how he feels bout this whole protest on China for the Olympics...and like most Chinamen you ask he is on about how Tibet was really China's and well you had to have control in T Square cause if they didn't everything would have gone out of control and China is large and a lot of poverty so you need controls and how we just get the western point of view and things are getting so much better in China and on and on. Well thing is I agreed I can only have the western media view and so I was happy to talk to him. But then he lives in the UK and why? I give him that too it is about his person...I mean again he is looking out for himself and family...escaping poverty and all and good for him! But really I don't know who owned Tibet(and does anyone own anywhere?) first but if the people want to be able to pray a certain way, live a certain way ...why won't the Chinese let them!? Isn't that common sense! I'm sorry I don't understand China and it doesn't mean I'm antiChinese people or antiChina otherwise. I love lots of things about Chinese culture...their food, clothes, their work ethic (which helps to produce many things most of us own) and yes their discipline. And I can even tell you I was born in the Chinese year of the Tiger! But well don't the Tibetan people deserve their freedom and rights too?! Oh come on now China?! Plus my understanding is the Dalai Lama is not even asking for independence just freedom of expression for their way or life, religion, culture etc.

So on Thus 7 Aug 2008 I will be lighting candles and deeyas for Tibet (and I'm thankful to David Califa and candle4tibet for coming up with this lovely idea)...for freedom...freedom from a mindset...and I will remember my local crises too and ask the people on my island to reflect on the situation we have here with crime because you can't be truly free in a nation where you are afraid to be kidnapped, murdered or for that matter killed on the roadways. So as Trinis we need to free our minds and reflect within as to why we have to act in such a manner to one another in such a small island when we have so much physical freedom unlike the people in Tibet. And one of the ways to do this is to show empathy for the people in Tibet that are not as physically free or allowed to express themselves. Maybe as we show empathy and compassion for them in their cause it might bring about the change in us that is needed to heal our own land. But lands aside it is one earth...one world and really we should all be free!

And on this day, July 27th which marks the 18th anniversary of a freakish (as very abnormal for this island nation) and thankfully unsuccessful coup d'etat by the Imam (who imagine himself runs free!) we Trinis should be thankful for our freedom and use it wisely and hope it remains this way forever.

May God Bless Us All!

Candle4Tibet public lighting in Trinidad is being organised by www.meadysmusings.com and is to be held at the field in front of Couva South MP Office (Opp the Couva Medical Facility) Main Rd, Couva.