Day 20

Day 20

April 30, 9:41 pm, Vellore
I can't believe that my time in Vellore is so quickly coming to an end. Tomorrow is my last day of the rotation and then we'll be heading out of town on a train at about 11 pm. Crazy how fast the past few weeks have flown by!

Today was a good day, though nothing too exciting. I started off the day with an egg dosa at Aavana. It's not on the menu but they said they could make it for me. I think the egg dosa is my favorite indian breakfast food. It was good. Went to clinic today and Aurora and I worked with Anisha again. It was outpatient day again and we saw some interesting things once again. Let's see, a middle-aged man with chicken pox, tinea versicolor, eruptive xanthoma, and some more leprosy. Some fascinating things to see. Anisha was very nice again and did a lot of teaching and explaining for us. She also pimped me some on things that she had taught me on Tuesday. Some stuff I remembered, some I didn't. It was a pretty fun morning though. We took our break mid-morning and went and got some lime juice (kind of like lemonade). It was refreshing and we shot the breeze for a few minutes and then went back to work. Found out that Anisha is about our same age and she is a PG registrar, which is sort of the equivalent to a resident in our system.

We took lunch at about 1 pm and Aavana was super crowded so it took a long time. It's funny, when it gets crowded they just make you share your table. So Aurora and I had to sit and eat lunch with this two random guys sitting across from us. Strange... that would never fly back home. But lunch was great. We got our beloved baked tandori chicken. Oh man, it's so good. Plus we got our paneer butter masala again and some potato dish that was pretty good too. We always order too much food, but we enjoy stuffing ourselves. haha.

After lunch we went to check on our tickets to Ooty. They had our ticket from here to Coimbatore, which is pretty close to Ooty, and then they had to book our ticket from there to Metupalaiyam separate. We were waiting and waiting for the guy to bring that one and finally he brought it but I had to make a run for the bathroom, so I left Aurora to get it. Hopefully it was what we needed. By then it was so late in the afternoon that I didn't go back to the clinic. I just went and hid from the sweltering heat (I think the heat index was like 107 or something today) in my room. I slept some and read for a while and then ventured back over here to the computer lab once the sun had gone into hiding.

I've been trying to plan out the rest of my trip. I think this is how it might shake out: 3 days in Ooty, then spend a day taking a bus to Kodai (probably Tuesday the 5th), another town up in the moutains (can you tell I'm running from the heat?) where I will stay for another 3 days, then try to get a train to Goa on Friday night / Saturday the 9th. I should be able to spend 2-3 days in Goa (relaxing on the beaches) and then fly up to Delhi on Tuesday the 12th, probably in the afternoon or evening. On Wednesday the 13th I think I'll just pay for a day tour out to Agra and the Taj Mahal. It's a bit pricey, but I think it will be a lot easier than trying to book a train and stuff on my own. It's a VERY popular trip. I guess people really want to see one of the seven wonders of the world and all that. :) As do I. Anyway, then that will just leave me Thursday the 14th to bum around Delhi for a day and get myself to the airport by around 10 pm for my flight home, which is early Friday morning (just after midnight). How's that for a plan? I think it will be much more relaxing and enjoyable than trying to work in Mumbai, Udaipur and Jaipur. It's just too much and the trains are just too full and a hassle to try and book. Flying and the day tour to Agra will cost me a bit, but it should only be a couple hundred between the two I think. That's okay. I guess I'll have to come back someday to see the rest of the sites!

Okay it's getting late and I'm tired of this HOT computer lab. Goodnight!

Day 19

Day 19

April 29, 10:04 pm, Vellore
Yeah, you can probably tell that I fell asleep again last night while I was writing. I was so exhausted. I erased the last line of jibbrish that I had typed in my sleep. It always cracks me up to read the stuff I write as I'm dozing off to sleep. I think I had said something about seeing a lot of potential and then something about a room and I don't know... didn't make any sense.

I don't feel much like writing tonight, so I think this will be somewhat brief. I'm tired. Things have been going pretty well though. Dermatology is good. It's been pretty interesting and they are pretty friendly and helpful about explaining things and teaching us. I really like Anisha, she's nice and helpful. Maam (as they call the female attending) is also great. She is very kind and also makes sure to include us in her instruction. We've already seen a lot of crazy cases! It seems that people don't come to the doctor for a long time here, so when they finally present, they have rather severe cases. I saw a case of leprosy yesterday and we've seen a number of bad cases of pemphigus. I've also seen some psoriasis, lots of tinea, moluscum contagiosum, melasma, HSV-1, cutaneous amyloidosis, tinea versicolor, candida, scleroderma... just lots and lots of interesting things. Dermatology is a good rotation to do here because even if you can't understand what they are talking about with the patient, you can always see what is going on with the skin. It makes outpatient clinic a lot more interesting than some of the other things we've rotated through.

Yesterday I watched Anisha do a couple of biopsies, one of them on the bad pemphigus patient that was admitted yesterday. Today we had rounds and then procedures in the morning and into the afternoon. Anisha let me do cryotherapy on one of the warts on a patient's foot. We also injected a keloid scar. I watched a removal of a mole on the face of a young lady and then later we watched a hair transplant. That was very interesting. This young man had viteligo, which caused a white patch of skin and hair just above his forehead. So they took a bunch of plugs of hair from the back of his head and then transplanted them into that patch and apparently the pigment from the hair follicles will get taken up and take care of the white patch. Interesting. It was fun to watch.

Tonight dinner kicked my butt. Seriously. I got the chicken biryani from the canteen here at the hospital and it was so flaming hot I could not stand it. I couldn't even eat half of it, it just hurt too much. I felt like everyone in there was watching me, the poor white boy who couldn't take the heat. Probably they really weren't, but it sure felt like it. I felt bad leaving so much food sitting there, but I really just could not bear it. It was sad, because I thought that I was doing better with the spicy foods. I still think I've improved, but I guess I'm not Indian yet.

Not much else going on. I've been trying to plan out my trip after the rotation ends this week. I guess I'm going to be traveling on my own for a while, and I'm still trying to figure out what that means. I don't know if I should change my itinerary because I'm going to be alone or what. I wasn't really that worried about it, but certain family members (probably all of them, I just haven't talked to them all yet) think that I'm going to die if I travel by myself. Hmmmm.

Okay, I'm tired of thinking about it so I'm going home to read Eldest and forget about it for now.

day 19 photos

Day 18

Day 18

April 28, 10:32 pm, Vellore
My goodness I am tired. It was a pretty good day today. We made it
back to Vellore by train, arriving at about 4:45 am. I actually slept
pretty well, though I don't know how. Every time I woke up I felt
miserable, hot and sweaty. But the trip went by pretty quickly. I had
to sit separate from the rest of the gang, but it turned out okay. I
talked to a really nice guy for a little while before he got off the
train. His name was Zach. Very friendly. The only complication we went
though was when Jerry realized that he had left his bag on the train.
Of course, it had already left the station. I'm not sure what ever
happened to them. We left them in lime at the counter.

After coming home and sleeping / bathing (which actually felt
awesome), I headed to dermatology. It was an outpatient day. I worked
with Dr. Anisha, who was very nice.

Day 17

Day 17

April 27, 8:17 am, Kerala backwater

Well I feel bad, I actually missed a day. I was going to write last
night but ended up falling asleep early. I guess 1 day out of 35 is
not bad, but still I wish I hadn't missed a day.

Yesterday and the day before were pretty much just spent humming
around Fort Cochin. It was nice. We ate good food, worked the shops,
just relaxed a lot. We ate a couple of times a the tea pot, which I
thought was fairly good. Not as good as kashi cafe though. We did get
the death by chocolate, and I really enjoyed that. It was basically
just a warm chocolate cake but it was good.

On Saturday night we went to a performance of Kathkali. It's a
traditional form of play / dance storytelling that comes from the
area. They paint there faces quite intricately. It is actually pretty
strange. They don't talk, so everything is acted out with these
overdone facial expressions and then also hand gestures, almost like
sign language. But they do these really crazy faces... it's quite
amusing but a little creepy too. It's only guys, so the guys play the
girls. And then there are a couple of people playing drums and one guy
singing and banging these little cymbals the whole time. At one point
I thought I was going to go crazy because they were so loud and
repetitive.

I almost made a big purchase and bought a nice patchwork bed cover,
but after three visits to the guy, he wouldn't come down to the price
I wanted to pay and so I walked out. He was being a punk. He was upset
because I was in there dealing with him and Amy and Aurora were there
too and they were trying to talk him lower and I was listening to
them. He didn't like that. I think he knew I wanted it and so he felt
like he could rip me off a little, but then I started listening to
them and so he got upset and wouldn't go any lower. The guy wanted
over a hundred dollars. Maybe it was worth that much, but I don't
know. I'll keep looking while I'm in India, maybe I'll find something
somewhere else.

Yesterday morning we took a couple of taxis down to Allepey where we
had arranged to rent a houseboat overnight. There are all of these
waterways here and lots and lots of houseboats that navigate them.
It's pretty neat. The people live out on these narrow stretches of
land and use the water to get around. Most of them have little canoes.
They also use the rivers to bathe and to do laundry.

It's very pretty out here, very relaxing. Our houseboat has 3 bedrooms
and a common area out in the front. It's nice. So we basically just
cruised around. They fed us lunch (fish) and dinner and then we parked
for the evening and now we are heading back to Allepey.

It was really nice watching the sun go down last night. It was finally
cool and we could really enjoy it. Then as dusk fell bats started
flying all around and that was fun to watch too. But then as night set
in, the bugs came out. Oh my. It was insane. They were swarming
everywhere. We tried to eat dinner, but eventually just gave up as the
number of mosquitoes we could count on our plates started reaching
double digits. It was actually quite comical watching everyone
smacking themselves in the face and picking bugs out of their food and
spitting them out when they would fly into their mouths. Ah, good
times. We accepted defeat and surrendered our food to them.

Then they decided to bring out the bug light, which they hung out on
the front of the boat. It basically just attracted most of the bugs to
it so they would leave us alone. But by then it was kind of too late.
We retired to our rooms. I read for a little bit and then fell asleep.
I didn't sleep that well though because I had no sheet, and it got
cold with the AC. I thought about stealing Aurora's or Katherine's,
but couldn't bring myself to do it. I tried to cover myself with some
pillows instead. Haha.

Okay I guess the trip is over. We just docked, so I better go.

day 17 photos

Day 16

day 16 photos

Day 15

Day 15

April 25, 7:34 am, Fort Kochi
Sorry again, I fell asleep again last night while I was trying to
write. I kept banging my head on the wall when I would nod off. Haha.
So I just gave it up. I guess I was pretty tired from the night on the
train. But I feel great now. I slept like a baby last night.

So anyway, we made our way over here to Fort Kochi from the train
station in Ernakulam. The area of Kochi is made up of some islands and
peninsulas. Some are connected by ferries, some bridges. Ernakulam is
the main busy city area but Fort Kochi is the place to be. It is so
laid back and quiet compared to the mainland. After looking around a
little, we found this great place to stay. It's perfect. The rooms are
nice, nice bathrooms, AC, and there is even a nice new computer in the
little lobby area with Internet. And they have wifi. Imagine that!
Yeah, so the place is great. The guy who works here, Babish is awesome
too. He's super friendly and gave us really good info on where to go
and what to do an stuff. He's cool. Unfortunately the Internet hasn't
been working since last night... I guess just a little reminder that
we are still in India after all.

Fort Kochi and this area was were the Portuguese and Dutch and Chinese
all did a lot of business back in the day. I think Kerala is kind of
the spice capital and tea capital. Vasco de Gama lived here and
actually died and was buried here. They later moved his remains back
to Lisbon, but we went and saw the church and you can still see the
tombstone where he was buried. Anyway, so the area has a nice feel to
it. The architecture has sort of a Portuguese feel I guess.

Another interesting thing about Kerala (the state that Kochi is in),
is that it is India's only socialist / communist state. That is who
has been elected since like the 50's and you still see the hammer and
sickle symbol all over. Suprisingly, though, it has been very good for
the state. My book was explaining that it has a much higher literacy
rate than the rest of India, a much higher life expectancy, and
excelled in some other statistics too. Kind of interesting.

The people here are known for being more friendly and I think I agree.
People do seem to be generally more happy and friendly towards us,
like Babish. It all just makes this a nice place to be. We even played
a little cricket with some guys down the street at the park. It was
funny.

We went to breakfast yesterday at this Kashi cafe and it was amazing.
I got French toast and a bunch of fresh fruit. The French toast was
honestly some of the best I've ever had. It was so good.

After breakfast we walked around and saw some of the old churhes. One
is supposed to be the first European church built in India. We also
hit up some shops and vendors. I bought a couple of these leaf
painting things. One of Shiva and one of Ganesh on these leaves.
They're kinda cool. We bargained a pretty good deal when we bought
four of them. I think I'll frame mine and maybe put them in my office
in my new house. We also saw the old Chinese fishing nets out by the
water. I guess they are a remnant of the influence of Chinese traders
here. I also bought a shirt. He started at 300 and I said 200 and he
said 250 and I said 225. Not bad. I'm finding that in the tourist
areas, at least, you should go really low because I think their prices
are way high. Plus it is off season here, so people are willing to
give us better deals.

Anyway, later we took the ferry to ernskulam. It was busy and crazy
and we really just walked around for a while. We hit some stores and
some people bought clothes and then we wandered back to the ferry and
back to the quiet of Fort Kochi. For dinner we went to this Seagull
Hotel restaurant. The service was a joke. The guy got our drinks but
then I think he didn't realize we were going to eat so we found
ourselves waiting forever. And I was starving. Finally he got the idea
that we all wanted to order. Most of us got the most expensive thing,
tiger prawns. Mine came out as something different than what I
ordered, but I ended up really enjoying it. They were basically the
size of normal shrimp back home, I guess jumbo shrimp. But I don't
know about tiger prawns. I think they were supposed to be bigger. But
anyway, mine was masala and it was pretty spicy but I really liked it.
I ate it with paratha (sp?), this flaky delicious type of bread and it
really just hit the spot. I ate like 10 or 11 prawns because I ate
some other people's after finishing mine. Mmm. Holy cholesterol. I was
so full and so satisfied. Everything was right in the world. Haha.

After that we just came back to the hotel. We caught American idol on
tv, saw Noop dog get sent home, and Lil Rounds. Today I think we're
getting Ayurvedic massages! I can't wait. Kerala is where Ayurveda was
born. They have places all over here. So it wouldn't be right not to
try it while we're here, right? Tomorrow we're going to rent a house
boat, I think for a full 24 hrs before we head back on Monday night.
I'll keep you posted though, of course.

Oh yeah, one funny thing before I go. Mullet. The guy who snagged us
and brought us over to this hotel to check it out is this auto driver
with a killer mullet. He was nice, but kind of annoying at the same
time. He really wanted to take us on a tour in his rickshaw and so he
kept following us around. He would like pop up out of nowhere. Like
after we ate breakfast he came zooming up. We're like, oh no, mullet
is back. We half expected him to be sitting at our hotel waiting for
us when we got home last night.

day 15 photos

Day 14

Day 14

April 24, 1:57 am, train between Vellore and Kerala

What is it about trains? I just love them. I'm not sure why.
Especially here, because it's not like there is really that much to
love about it. But there is just something magical to me about riding
trains.

We're currently on an overnight train, heading towards Kochi in
Kerala, over on the southwest side of India. We left Vellore at about
10:00 pm and will arrive sometime early in the morning... maybe six or
seven? I can't remember exactly how long it is.

I told myself I would be surprised if everything went smoothly on our
first train ride here. But I have to say I am, so far, surprised. We
figured out the little sign that told us where our coach would be,
down at number 14, and when it arrived it was only a little ways off.
We found our coach, S1, without any problem and came straight to our
seats. There are a number of different classes and we are travelling
sleeper class. It is non AC, and each little section has six beds that
face into the middle (stacked 3 high) and then another 3 that are
across the aisle. It's kind of confusing until you actually see it.
But the middle bed on each side folds up and down so that you can
either have people sitting in a row or else bring up the bed and
everyone can lay down. It's not the lap of luxury by any means, but
it's not bad. It's pretty roomy, except for head room when all the
beds are out. It's probably about 2 ft height wise. The windows are
just open an have bars on them, so you get the breeze and also the
view, though you can't see too much at night. We all agree though that
this is the way to travel in India. It is much much better than a bus
or even an AC taxi. Really, I'm quite impressed by their rail system.
I'd probably be even more impressed if I was in an AC coach. Haha.
It's fun though, watching the nighttime landscape of India roll by
with the stars overhead. It feels like this is some sort of dream and
I'm not really here.

So yeah, about yesterday and today, just to finish up... the golden
temple was sweet. It was pretty crazy the amount of security they had
though. We went through three separate checkpoints and each time they
found something it cost more and more to store it. Aurora had managed
to keep her camera on her until the third checkpoint and then it cost
like 20 rupees I think to store it. I had to leave my camera, video
camera, pocket knife, and for some reason my flash light. Go figure.
They didn't want me shining it on Amma I guess. Apparently the light
shines from him. That's what happened when he was like 17 and was on a
bus, a beacon of light went from him up into heaven and that is when
he came to embody Narayani. At least that's what Aurora read in her
book that she bought there. I can't remember, did I mention how the
ground was so hot in some places that it was scorching our feet? Oh
man, so painful. Yet they would not let you take your shoes on the walk.

Like I said, today (well, yesterday now) there was some strike. No
buses were running and apparently the drivers at CHAD were included in
the strike. This meant that there was no one to drive us out to the
villages for doctor run clinic today... so we basically had the day
off. We went to the computer lab, and I should have written my paper
for this rotation but I just couldn't get around to it. I started
getting kind of anxious about our 2 weeks of travel after the rotation
because we hadn't really planned it all out yet and got train tickets
and stuff. But Katherine informed us today that she isn't going to
travel with us. Her dad is going to come and they are going to travel
together. So I guess Aurora and I will just do our own thing, unless
she decides to leave early to go home. Really I wouldn't mind just
travelling by myself if she decided to do that. I actually think it
would be kind of fun.

But I know we are at least going to Ooty together. We went to Angel
travel agent today and asked him to get us tickets on Sunday when
tatkal opens. We'll leave Friday night, May 1, and do another
overnight out there. Ooty is this town up in the mountains that is
supposed to be really nice. And it's supposed to be a lot cooler up
there, temperature wise. That will be nice. Anyway, we're excited for
that. I still need to figure out the rest of the journey though.

Okay, well I'm going to try to get a little shut eye. Later.

4:16 am, still on the train
Every time someone on this train coughs I swear I'm going to get TB.
There is this one guy on the other side of the train from us that
keeps coughing. I'm convinced he's either got TB or cancer. Sadly, I'm
hoping he has cancer for our sakes. Or maybe he just has a cold. Ha,
right.

The non AC is getting to me a little now. It's getting less
comfortable the longer this train ride goes. I just feel so sticky and
my skin sticks to the seat.

10:12 pm, Fort Kochi
Ah, what a day. What a super day. This place is great, even better
than Mamallapuram or Pondicherry. It feels so great to be here and not
in Vellore. We made it off the train at the right stop, and
immediately found ourselves at the mercy of the rickshaw drivers. I
hate not knowing a town because I think they take advantage. Oh well,
we probably didn't get ripped off too bad. We took two rickshaws over
from ernakulam.

day 14 photos

Day 13

Day 13

April 23, 8:30 pm, Vellore
Yeah sorry about that short entry yesterday. I actually fell asleep while I was writing. My bad. Where was I again? Oh yeah, the temple inside the fort. It was pretty sweet. They even worship there and so as I walked by this one area, these guys were doing all this chanting and there was incense going and stuff. Pretty interesting.

After the fort, I headed to CHAD. We were supposed to be doing outpatient again, and it was child and maternal health day (which they do every wednesday). It was crazy how busy it was! There were so many women there with their babies, I couldn't believe it. We were going to go and observe with the pediatricians, but they told us that they were understaffed and so they "would not be able to translate even one single word" for us. But we were welcome to sit and observe if we wanted. haha. No thanks. So we went with Sam. He is the PT/OT guy and he does developmental screenings on the kids under 5 years old before they go in to see the pediatricians and get their immunizations. So we watched him do developmental screening for a while... checking reflexes and that kind of stuff. Nothing too super interesting, but there were a lot of really cute babies and kids, so that was fun. They were pretty efficient and managed to screen like 140 or something in a couple of hours.

After we finished there Aurora and I decided to head out to the golden temple that is nearby. It is this place that was just built a couple of years ago, in 2007. Pretty interesting story. The guy that built it is supposed to be some embodiment of this goddess Narayani. So he had this temple built and he offers puja there every day and people go and watch him pray and he blesses them and stuff. It's interesting. They have this big star shaped path that goes around the temple and you walk along (barefoot) and read all of these signs that have quotes from Amma (the guy that is the goddess) about different spiritual things. And then in the center is this golden temple that is really impressive. It was so intricate and ornate. We got to walk up around the temple and stuff. The grounds there are really nice too. Lots of statues and it is well manicured and stuff. It is supposed to be "a spiritual oasis". At the end, you go through this little building and there all little stations. At the first there is some sort of holy water that people would either drink or put on their heads. We just walked past this one. At the next one, there was this metal helmet looking thing that this lady would put on your head for a second, I guess as some sort of blessing. Then after that there was another lady that marked our foreheads with red. And then after that they gave us a free little bowl of some food. We didn't know what it was but ate it and it was quite tasty.

Okay, darn it. I have to go. I'll have to write more later. Today was a slow day. There was a strike and so we didn't get to work. We just sat around all day pretty much. Now we're leaving for Kerala. Our train leaves in an hour, overnight train. So we are leaving now. Later.

day 13 photos

Day 12

Day 12

April 22, 11:59 pm, Vellore
Wow, it's late. I just finished up doing some laundry (by hand) and
hanging it on my line to dry and then I took a quick bucket shower.
Ah, very refreshing. Today was a pretty good day. I didn't do a whole
lot clinically, but got to see some of the sights here around Vellore.

Today was outpatient maternal and child health day at CHAD and we
didn't have to be there until 10:30 am, so I woke up early and walked
over to Vellore fort. There is a very large, quite impressive looking
fort here in town. It was built back in the 1500's by some local
ruler. Back in the day, this part of India was ruled by kings. It is
made of giant slabs of granite. It switched hands a number of times.
Even the British stationed a garrison there until some revolt in... I
can't remember the year. I took a picture of the informational plaque.
Anyway, it's a big fort and it houses a number of things within it's
walls. A college, a catholic church, an old Hindu temple, a mosque, a
museum... can't remember what else.

When I got over there I didn't know how to get inside, and I chose the
wrong direction, so I ended up walking the entire perimeter of the
fort before going inside. Silly me. Oh did I mention that the whole
fort has a moat around it?

Inside, I went to the temple. It was pretty awesome. There was some
very intricate stonework that I was impressed with. It was cool.

day 12 photos

Day 11

Day 11

April 21, 7:28 pm, Vellore

Okay I'm doing tonight's entry on the computer. I think it would take me too long to write on the iPod and I don't want to be typing all night. I have laundry to do tonight! It has been a really great day though! Really, it was terrific. Definitely the best day I have had here in India thus far. I got to go out on nurses rounds with CHAD today. I guess I should explain about CHAD here.

I learned quite a bit about it today from the doctor that came with us. Yes, even though it was nurse rounds, there is this doctor (Dr. Sharon) that wanted to come along too. She was super super nice, and so was Olive, the nurse. Anyway, so the way CHAD works is that you have levels of health care workers. At the base you have your health aides. These are people that actually live out in the villages. They have some training, but apparently it is only like a year's worth of medical training. They are responsible for a population of about 5,000 people. So they are going out every day, house to house visiting with these people and finding out their problems and needs and whatever they are able to take care of, they take care of. They also keep good records of the people. They then report to a nurse. I hope I am remembering these numbers right. Even if I'm off, though, you get the idea. A nurse oversees the areas of two health aides. I guess that means they cover a population of about 10,000. They told me that a nurse will visit each village about every other week. They also take care of whatever they can and keep their own records. I lot of what is done is prenatal and postnatal care, and then chronic conditions. They seem to do a very good job of making sure that babies are delivered in an appropriate facility and home deliveries are seen as a failure of the system. Next up, you have doctors. I am not sure if there are different levels of doctors, but Dr. Sharon said that she covers the areas of, I believe, five nurses, or a population of 50,000. The doctor will visit each village about once a month and hold a clinic. I will be going out for a doctor run clinic on Thursday, so I'll get to see how that works.

Overall, I think this program covers 80 villages surrounding Vellore. It seems to be a very good program and works well. Dr. Sharon said it is difficult though because you have to find workers that are very motivated to do the work and keep good records and know what needs to be referred. Apparently the Indian government has a similar organization in other areas, but it does not work as well because the workers are not that motivated. They just take the money but don't do the work very well. To me, though, it seems like a very effective way to take care of a large rural population that has very little means. Of course, it takes a lot to get motivated and educated staff, but if you can do that, then this program should work well in other areas of the world as well. And maybe there are similar programs in other places that I just don't know about.

So anyway, I spent the day with Dr. Sharon and Nurse Olive and the two health aides. I wish I could remember their names. They were all so nice, it just made for a really wonderful day. It was nice, too, that I was the only student, so I could really talk with them a lot and learn a lot. We had a vehicle and we basically just went from house to house, visiting the people that the health aides and nurse decided we needed to see. It isn't exactly time-effective, which makes me wonder if it is cost-effective. But you know, these people are important too. And even if it is not cost-effective, they deserve care. That's what is so great about this program.

The people we so very kind to us. They see it as an honor for us to visit their homes and so they treat us very well. They would all give us something to eat or drink. We drank a lot of coconut water and ate a lot of coconut flesh. It was so good. I ate pretty much everything they gave me, even a little of the water. They were just too generous and I didn't feel that I could turn them down. I expect I'll probably get sick again, but at least if I do I'll feel that it was worth it.

We went and had lunch at the home of one of the health aides. Her mom fed us a lot and Olive also had brought quite a bit of food that she shared. They taught me how to eat Indian style, and again I couldn't refuse. They eat with their hands only. Actually, their hand. Only their right hand. Apparently the left hand is used for wiping and so even though they wash their hands and everything before they eat, they still never use their left hand to eat, only the right. I felt like I got the hang of it pretty well after a little bit, and they said that I ate very nice. haha. They told me that none of the students from the U.S. will ever eat with them, eating their food and eating the way they eat. Some of the other students from Europe and such do, but they said that the U.S. students never do, so they were impressed. The food was great though and her mom was also very nice. We actually spent a couple of hours there for lunch and had a good time. They are fun people, very happy and laughed a lot.

All in all, I'm not sure how many people we actually visited in the course of the day. Maybe 10? Maybe 15? We didn't actually visit that many houses, but we would always run into different people along the way that needed something and we would stop and talk to them and see what we could offer. The cases themselves were nothing too unusual. Like I said, prenatal, postnatal care, depression, a guy with some new psychiatric disorder, COPD, evaluation of weight loss. I didn't always know exactly what was going on, but I was more interested in the big picture of the program than the specific details of each case.

The areas we went to today were also very beautiful. Most all of the people were farmers. Rice, eggplant, chili's, fruits, tamarind, etc. And they live out close to the moutains, which are very pretty too. It was just so nice to be out in the country rather than here in the noise and madness of the city. I'll take the rural areas over the city any day.

I talked with Dr. Sharon about so many things! I feel like I could sit here all night and write them all, but I know this post is already getting way too long. We talked about the caste system and what a huge role it still plays in Indian society. Marriages are all arranged, except for rare cases such as Dr. Sharon's. Even for them it was difficult. Her husband was beaten by his father for wanting to marry her... I guess they are not of the same caste... but they persisted until both families (extended families) agreed. She said it was only possible because both families are educated. Otherwise, it would never happen. It amazes me that the caste system is still so integral. Muslims, apparently have no caste system, but even the Christians here follow it, which was a big surprise to me. That just doesn't seem to fit with Christianity. She explained how whenever there are elections, people just vote for whoever is their caste and their religion and speaks their language. Or else among the poor, they vote for whoever comes and picks them up in a bus and takes them to the polling station and pays them Rs 100 to vote for their candidate. She feels like the only time that India was close to being united was with Ghandi, but that didn't last.

There is just so much about this country that remains a mystery to me. It is so complex and amazing and astonishing.

I also learned a bit about CMC. What a great place! Their philosophy is that they don't want their students to have any debt when they finish school, because they don't want them to have to work for money. They want them to be able to serve. For that reason, tuition is insanely cheap, even by Indian standards. CMC actually puts in a lot of money for the training of each student. That's awesome.

Okay I really should stop. This is getting way too long. I'm just grateful I was able to have such a great day with these wonderful people. Their kindness inspires me.
day 11 photos

Day 10

Day 10

April 20, 10:14 pm, Vellore
Today we started our CHAD rotation. My first night alone was fine, by
the way. A little hot, but I was able to sleep fairly well. The bucket
shower was fine, no big deal. Even the little squat toilet thing is
not too bad, to be honest.

But anyway, CHAD. Stands for community health and development. It's
quite the organization. I think I should have a better understanding
of it tomorrow though, after I go out and do home visits with the
nurses.

Today we were just doing outpatient clinic there at CHAD.
Unfortunately, the doctor that I was working with was not super. I
guess it's the same as back home... you work with some doctors that
are awesome and love to teach, and then there are others who make you
feel like you are just a bother. This guy barely said anything to me.
The majority of the patients went by without him ever even telling me
what they had come in for. A few of them he did give me a little bit
of information, but really it was only a little bit. "This man has
diabetes and came for a refill." And "This girl has a clavicle
fracture and you can palpate the callus formation." My favorite was
the negative PPD test that he had me palpate. Sweet. Again, I'm more
excited to go and do home visits tomorrow. And I'll explain more about
CHAD then.

We spent our time after work at the hospital computer lab, trying to
avoid the heat. When I checked, the heat index was 107. Tomorrow it is
supposed to be about 110. Ate dinner at the Hotel Aavana Inn. It was
pretty good, even though my grilled chicken sandwhich had more chicken
bones than actual chicken. Haha. The pineapple lassi was good.

Okay I'm tired. Sorry for the boring entry.

Day 9

Day 9

April 19, 3:07 am, Pondicherry
Just started puking my guts out again. Lovely. I want to go home.

10:44 pm, Vellore
Back in Vellore. Home sweet home. Hardly. Coming back after being away
to Mamallapuram and Pondy, I'm reminded what a crowded, busy town this
is. It's really not the most pleasant town.

We spent the morning and early afternoon seeing some of the sights of
Pondicherry. I didn't feel too sick in the morning. I really think I
just threw up because my bowels aren't moving (as a result of the
immodium I took the other day). I must be backed up. But getting it
all out last night felt sort of good, after it was over.

So this morning we first walked to Le Cafe. It's this nice little cafe
right on the sea wall. Very nice place. I drank lemonade. Then we
wandered over to the main Ashram place. It's where Sri Arubindo and
The Mother are both entombed/enshrined. Their tomb was very
intricately covered with a flower petal design. The whole place had
lots of flowers growing all over. It was pretty. Arubindo and The
Mother are apparently the founders of this Ashram thing. It's some
sort of philosophy that combines yoga and modern science? Anyway, it
was very peaceful. People were meditating and praying near the tomb/
shrine.

After that we walked through this other temple that we sort of
stumbled upon. There was an elephant that blessed you if you gave it
food or money. It was awesome. You give him something and then sort of
bow your head and he touches the top of your head with his trunk. Not
sure what the blessing is for... to get married? To be fertile? I'd
really just like to stop vomiting!

Next we walked to coffee.com. This was a really cool little Internet
cafe. They even had wifi, so I got to just use my iPod touch. My can
of sprite also was nice for the stomach.

After that we walked over to this old catholic church that was quite
pretty and then went to have lunch at this place called satsanga, I
think. Katherine had really been wanting to go there. It was a pretty
good place. Jerry was disaapointed because his shrimp cocktail wasn't
what he expected, but everyone else was pleased with their meal. They
had a lot of French seafood dishes. I ate a small bowl of chicken
soup. Very tasty.

By the time we finished up there we figured it was about time to head
back to Vellore. We ended up just paying for a taxi all the way. Rs
2400 for AC. We were able to fit all 5 of us, 2 in front and 3 in
back. It was an old ambassador model, "Indian Benz", according to our
driver. We had to stop about every hour because the car would be close
to overheating. It was amusing. He would get all this water and just
dump it all over the engine and in whatever holes he could find. But
about 4 hours of bumpy roads later, we made it back.

Tonight I'm staying by myself for the first time. The girls and Neil
and Jerry are over at this new place. Seemed pretty nice, but I wanted
a little space and privacy for a change. This place is not great
though. It's okay, but I might get tired of no AC and no shower head
or sit-down toilet. If I get sick of it, I may just go stay with them
again. We'll see.

I finally did some laundry tonight. Just hand-washed a few things in
the bucket in the bathroom. I've got a headache right now, maybe just
from the heat and the travel all afternoon on bumpy roads. I think
I'll go to sleep before too long. Tomorrow morning we start CHAD.

day 9 photos

Day 8

Day 8

April 18, 9:12 am, Mamallapuram
Sorry about that last one. I was so exhausted that I started writing
jibrish so I decided I better just stop and go to bed. Anyway, this is
a nice little town. It is much smaller and quieter than Vellore, so
it's nice to get away from that. It's also right on the beach, which
is cool. Yesterday we ate lunch at a little place on the beach. All of
us had prawns. It was pretty good. My stomach was still a little off
though, so I didn't eat a ton.

I am feeling much better though, as a side note. Thank goodness that
the food poisoning stuff only lasts for a day or two, because it would
really suck if it was longer! For that day you feel like you will
never want to eat again. It's horrible. But I'm pretty close to 100%
today, so it's all good.

After lunch yesterday we wandered around town. We headed over to the
shore temple but decided to wait and go today since it was going to be
closing soon. That and the five rathas. There is a joint admission
ticket for the two of them. It's Rs 250 for foreigners, Rs 10 for
Indians.

This place has lots of tourists. The hotel we are staying at, sea
breeze, is pretty much all white people. It's expensive too! Paying
more than at the Aavana for a non-AC room. Oh well, at least they have
a beautiful pool and free breakfast. The pool felt great this morning
before breakfast. But back to yesterday... since there are so many
tourists the people here are very good at working you to buy their
stuff. This town is known for it's stone carvers, and they are all
over town. I guess it's been that way for years, because there is all
the ancient stonework here too. It's pretty cool. Okay we're getting
ready to head out. I'll finish later.

10:54 pm, Pondicherry
Okay it's later, but I really don't feel much like writing. I'm
starting to realize that India is very much a love/hate relationship
and I'm currently leaning towards the hate end. Don't get me wrong,
we're in Pondicherry right now and it's really nice. I just can't
fully enjoy it because my stomach is bugging me. My bowels are not
moving now, I guess because of the imodium and pepto I took, and I
just feel sick. I don't want to eat anything and I feel nauseated.
Sucks, especially because Pondicherry has some great places to eat!

The other thing is the heat. It is almost unbearable well you are
feeling fine, but throw in some stomach problems and a little nausea
and it's just downright hellish. Seriously, it is sweltering. Even the
Indians think it's too hot and complain.

That being said, Pondicherry (or Puducherry as it's called now) is
pretty awesome. It's where the French used to be and you definitely
feel the French flair here. Definitely in the architecture, as well as
in the well-shaded, well-paved, wide boulevards. It really doesn't
feel like the rest of India that we've seen.

They have a very nice main boulevard that goes along the sea. It's
very pretty and tonight it was packed with people. It seems the whole
town is out there enjoying the ocean breeze and the relative cool of
sundown.

We spent a couple of hours on the bus today from Mamallapuram. I sat
next to a really nice man, Jalil. He was from Chennai and on his way
to Pondy for a wedding tomorrow. I asked him if it would be a big
party and he said yes, except without strong drink because they are
Muslim. I explained to him that in my religion we don't drink strong
drink either and he was very happy about that. It was nice to be able
to talk to someone here, because I feel that is how you really get to
know a place. I think too many Americans come here, and to other
places, with a sort of attitude that they better than these people, or
that it is them vs. us, you know? Like every Indian you meet it trying
to swindle you or something, and so they are never really friendly
with the people. They come and see their country and their sights and
bargain with them so as not to pay too much for something they want,
but they don't actually take any time to be friendly with the people.

Sorry for the soapbox. Just something I've observed.

So anyway, it was nice to get to know Jalil (maybe Halil?) a little.
He is a truck driver... drives goods from Chennai all the way up to
Agra, which he said usually takes about 5 days. 3 at the very least.
He has a wife and 2 daughters, the older of which is getting married
on May 10th. He taught me a couple of words... nandri is thank you in
Tamil, and I think it was Vanacom that means good morning/afternoon/
evening, which is also accompanied with the little hands together in
front of you bow/head bob thing. At least that's how he did it.

We spent a good chunk of our time today eating at the nice place... I
can't remember the name. Really we were just hanging out there, only
ate a little. But it was a really nice place with AC and TVs (had to
watch cricket). Much nicer than anything we've seen until now.

We're stating at some international guest house. It's not bad. No AC,
but a toilet and shower head. It's an Ashram place. Apparently Ashram
is some blend of like yoga and modern science that started here and a
lot of people come here to practice or study it. So they have these
Ashram guest houses.

The morning in Mamallapuram was pretty nice too. Saw the Shore Temple
and the Five Rathas. Pretty cool stonework from like the 7th century
AD. Yesterday we hired a guy to give us a walking tour of some of the
other sights. It was pretty interesting. Nice guy, very informative.
Hinduism is so complicated. So many different people and stories to
remember! It's hard to keep them all straight, but interesting.

Vishnu is, apparently, a favorite though. He is the protector and I
think there are more temples and more worship of him.

Anyway, I could probably go on all night. I didn't intend to write so
much. I need to put on some more Off before I go to sleep. I think
this place has mosquitoes. Ugh.

day 8 photos

Day 7

Day 7

April 17, 11:10 pm, Mamallapuram
Well it's already been a week since we left! One down, four to go.
This morning we checked out of Aavana Inn. Thank goodness. Slim Shady
1 and 2 will not be missed at all. Did I mention how they charged me
an extra Rs 1000 on my credit card? Dirty rats. I hated that guy. I
managed to get a print out of my account information though, so I
convinced him to take off the thousand from our overall bill. He acted
all surprised and sorry that it had happened. Yeah, sorry because you
got caught and lost your 1000.

I found a new place to stay. It's called Vishnu annex and it is dirt
cheap. It's just a couple blocks down from Aavana. Rs 170 per night!
Of course, that is for non-AC, a squat toilet, and no shower head. I
think I can handle it though. We'll see. It has a good fan and a tv
and I'll have a little space to myself, which will be nice. So anyway,
we left all our luggage there today and took a taxi to mamallapuram.
It was a long hot ride and we even hit a motorcyclist. Got it on
video. Yeah baby.

This is a pretty cool little town. It has all these really old stone
carvings and stuff, from like 1400 years ago. It also has a cool
temple out by the beach. I'll have to put some pics up later. It's
very neat though.

Man, I am falling asleep writing this. Better get to ...

day 7 photos

Day 6

Day 6

April 16, 3:40 pm, Vellore
India struck back today. The honeymoon is over. Not a good day at all.
Last night at dinner I had started feeling a little rumbly and used
the bathroom. I went again when we got back to the hotel and it was a
little softer. When I started to worry, though, is when it woke me up
in the middle of the night and I had to go. Very watery. Sorry if this
is too much detail, this is what we talk about here. How's your stool?
Anyway, I was feeling pretty bad when I got up to get ready this
morning and had another watery one.

I decided maybe I ought to try to knock it out quick since we were
planning on taking the bus out to mamalapuram this afternoon. So I
went and bought 10 tabs of cipro down the street for a mere Rs 40.
However, I kept feeling worse and worse when I was outside in the heat
and everything. Very nauseated. It was aweful. I didn't make it back
to the hotel before it came up. So I sat there and hurled on the side
of the road. It was awesome let me tell you.

I came back, took 500 mg of cipro and 4 mg of loperamide but I think
the cipro was really rough on my stomach. I kept it down for about an
hour then vomited again. Then again and again. I had nothing left but
kept heaving. Oh man I hate throwing up. Getting all sweaty and
feeling like you are going to die. It sucks. I'd rather have diarrhea
any day. As long as I'm by a toilet anyway. Haha.

So anyway, I've been here at the hotel sleeping and watching animal
planet an feeling awful all day. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting
better though, so hopefully... I haven't thrown up for a few hours.

Well that's the news here. Hope things are better in your neck of the
woods, wherever you are, reader.

10:00 pm
Well I'm feeling much better than I was this morning. That's not
saying much, but I'll take what I can get. I slept so much today and
know the girls are asleep and I'm not feeling very tired. I think I
can still fall asleep though.

I didn't throw up anymore today... none since like 11:30 this morning.
My stomach is still feeling somewhat more rumbly tonight though, and I
had some more diarrhea. Here's hoping it finished up quick. I ate
nothing today.

We ended up staying here in Aavana one more night instead of checking
out this afternoon and going to mamalapuram. The plan is to get
checked out of here in the morning and take a taxi out to mamalapuram
for the weekend. Neil and Jerry all ready headed over there this
afternoon, so we'll try to meet up with them there. Okay I'm going to
close for the night.

Day 5

Day 5

April 15, 7:07 am, Vellore
I slept much better with my blanket! I still woke a few times and had
to turn off the AC at one point, but I actually slept until
Katherine's alarm went off. Finally.

11:34 pm
Well I'm exhausted tonight. I went the whole day without a nap, so I
think my clock has finally reset itself to Indian time. But yeah, i'm
tired so I won't write too much tonight. It was a pretty good day
though.

We were with pediatrics again today. I really like them a lot. They
are super nice to us. They are very careful to make sure we are
included and answer all of our questions an stuff. Especially the
doctor that I was working with yesterday. She is great.

I was impressed today by how much they know! I don't feel like there
is any lack of knowledge or skill in the physicians here, only,
perhaps, in their resources / facilities. But I really feel like they
know a lot and provide high quality of care to their patients.

First thing this morning they had one of the MD candidates present a
case. Sort of a morning report type meeting. I guess I should explain.
My doctor explained to me that after medical school here you have
something called an mbbs or something like that. It is a bachelor's
degree in medicine and surgery. Then you do a year internship, where
you rotate through specialties, and then finally you take an entrance
exam and depending on how well you do you have a choice of what
specialty program you get into. This would be the equivalent of our
residency, except that they get they're MD at the end of that, instead
of at the end of medical school. Anyway, so he presented a case of
possible systemic JRA, SLE, or maybe even acutle leukemia. It was an
interesting case. But the doctors grilled him pretty good and they
went into tons of detail. It was kind of impressive. I think they
memorize their text books here.

Then later we rounded in the ward. We seemed to see a lot of
encephalopathies. We saw some asthma, a pneumonia with an
parapneumonic effusion, along with some other patients I can't recall.
Oh, a couple of atypical febrile seizures too. Again, they were very
thorough and provided as good or better of teaching as any of my
attendings back home.

Later today we finally managed to get tickets booked to Kerala for
next weekend. Such a hassle, like everything else! I'm excited though.
We'll leave next Thursday evening at like 9 something and do an
overnight non-AC sleeper car and get there at like 6 in the morning.
Should be fun.

Then we went around trying to find a new place to stay for next week.
It was a trek. We walked all over. I'm not sure what we'll end up
doing. I think we want our own rooms, at least I know I do. It's just
to cramped in this tiny little room with 3 people. I have to get out
of there. Plus the people here are so shady! They actually charged my
credit card twice when I checked in and put down some advanced money.
They doubled it!! Can you believe these punks? Anyway, I've had enough
of Aavana in. We looked at stuff over by the college campus, but
everything was either full or didn't have shower and/or toilet. I'm
okay with just a bucket shower and the little squat toilet (really
just a porcelain hole in the ground), but Katherine wants a real
shower and Aurora wants a real toilet, which are understandable I
guess. Haha. Anyway, we'll see hat happens.

We went and had dinner tonight at the hotel darling. Every wed night
all the international students go and eat up in their rooftop
restaurant. It's pretty nice up their, nice breeze and view. We didn't
really get to talk to many people because we got there later... but
maybe next week. The hotel darling special ice cream was tasty though.
Grape, vanilla, pistacchio and mango ice creams with some fruit mixed
in. Mmm. Okay I'm off to bed. Tomorrow after work we're going to head
out of town and go to mamalapuram and Pondicherry for the weekend.
Should be fun!

day 5 photos

Day 4

Day 4

April 14, 10:46 pm, Vellore
I'm pretty tired tonight, so this may be a little on the short side. I
haven't had a really good night sleep in some time. For some reason I
keep waking up at like 5 am and can't get back to sleep. It's
annoying. Besides that I usually wake up a few times in the night too.
I'm excited though because they brought me an actual blanket to use,
as opposed to just the sheet, and I think I may sleep better with
that. At least that's what I'm hoping.

Breakfast was great again this morning. I'm really enjoying the food.
I need to remember to get some pictures of the food. I can never
remember all the names either, but they eat a lot of fried stuff for
breakfast that is delicious.

After breakfast we went to the hospital and did some pediatrics. It
was out-patient clinic day, so we split up and each went with a
different doctor and saw patiets. It impressed me that although the
details are very different, medicine is fundamentally the same
wherever you go. It is a common language between strangers from
different worlds. I would say that I felt more comfortable- or more at
home- today in the hospital, seeing patients, than I have anywhere
else here. It's kind of a neat thing to experience.

Even though the circumstances here are completely different, much of
it is exactly the same. We saw a number of worried parents bringing in
their kids for regular old viral URIs, or fusiness, or "my child just
hasn't been eating well." it was funny to see that parents here worry
about little things that are nothing, just like they do back home. I
guess we're not really all that different are we?

But then we also saw some more interesting things. A little girl with
a wide open anterior fontanel at 1 year old, which made the doctor
suspect vitamin D defficiency. A boy that was being treated for TB
meningitis. A boy with failure to thrive, frequent loose, fatty
stools, and possibly a cyclic neutropenia. That one is still under
evaluation. I think they are actually going to do an ERCP because
there was some common bile duct dilitation. I guess a main difference
is just that you consider different things higher on your differential
than you would in the States.

The doctors were great. The lady that I was with was very friendly. Of
course, they are pediatricians, so I would expect no less. Haha. But
yeah, she as very nice and explained a lot to me. It was good. The
facilities are basic, but I guess they are sufficient for their needs.
They have computer with electronic records, though much of the
charting is done on paper... sort of like at home.

This afternoon we made it over to the computer lab at the hospital.
The wifi worked pretty well. Later we made a trip out to the train
station to try and get some tickets to Kerala for this weekend. Like
everything else here, it took a lot of effort to get anything done. We
went from person to person, getting a little bit more information from
each one until we finally had an idea of how to reserve train tickets.
Much harder than you would think it should be. But again, that seems
par for the course. In the end, the train was full so we got on a wait
list. Not really clear on the details of how we find out if we get on
or not, or how much advanced notice we get, if any. I guess we still
need to figure that out. Hopefully it works out.

There were some monkeys just hanging around the train station. That
was fun to see. The ride back on the auto was death-defying, as usual.
We actually saw a little boy almost get hit on the way over there. The
auto (rickshaw) was only inches from smacking into him as he darted
out into the street. Though he was spared from the auto, he was not
spared from his mother who gave him a good smack for jumping out into
traffic. Then our driver proceeded to hurl some unintelligible (at
least to us) insults to the mother as we rode past.

We went back down Gandhi again today. This time I was a little more
adventurous. I bought a nice shirt for Rs 290 (about $6) and then got
some mangoes and even enjoyed some fresh coconut juice straight from
the (young) coconut. I used to love that stuff in the Philippines, and
it was just as I rmembered it. I'm waiting for the mangoes to ripen a
bit, but I think they'll be good.

At dinner Aurora tried to order a veggie burger but instead got a
cucumber and tomatoe sandwhich. It was pretty funny. They must not
have any concept of a patty. We tried.

Anyway, we're enjoying ourselves, for the most part. It's great being
here. More fun tomorrow!

day 4 photos

Day 3

Day 3

April 13, 10:58 pm, Vellore
Another day down. Today was registration. We found our way over to the
CMC college campus this morning and met Sheela from the principal's
office. She was very nice and friendly, which put me in a good mood. I
love meeting happy people. The campus is a little ways out of town and
it is beautiful, a stark contrast from the madness of the city. It is
very well manicured and well kept. It almost seems out of place in
this town. We filled out some paperwork and got registered, which took
pretty much all morning. We visited the canteen and got some pineapple
juice, which was delicious.

Oh, I almost forgot about breakfast. Katherine and I had dosas here at
the hotel restaurant. Dang. So good. They are kind of like big crispy
crepes. I'm not sure how else to describe it. But then there is stuff
inside it, like potatoe and stuff. Then you have 3 different sauce
things you can dip it in. One of them is like hummus but with more of
a peanut flavor. It was great.

Anyway, we also signed up for Internet access at the campus, but
apparently it takes a couple of days to get the account set up? We'll
give it a shot tomorrow.

We took the bus back from the campus to the hospital. It was stuffed
pretty well but hey, Rs 3 beats the Rs 50 that we paid for an
autorickshaw on the way out. When I was getting off I had to squeeze
through a bunch of people and apparently my CMC ID fell off. I didn't
realize it until the bus was starting to pull off and this guy runs up
and hands it to me and says "excuse me, this belongs to you", and then
he ran and got back on the bus. Can you believe that? I thought that
was awesome that he would do that.

We talked to Beulah (also SUPER sweet... she was so concerned about us
getting some lunch and staying out of the sun and telling us what to
eat and not... very funny. again, made me happy) at the hospital when
we got back and found that there really is no campus housing
available. Apparently it fills up months in advance. So I guess we're
going to stay here at Aavana. First impressions of the CMC hospital?
It's very big, and seems fairly well kept and clean... but it is just
so far from what we would consider a decent hospital in the States. It
was somewhat sobering to think that this is one of the best hospitals
in India. It is an open campus and the buildings and rooms do not have
AC. They just have windows open to the outside. Of course, the quality
of the hospital cannot be judged based on the building. They could
still provide great care. It's just very different than what we're
used to.

We went and strolled down gandhi street this afternoon. Lots of little
shops. The girls bought some Indian clothes. Unfortunatley, the guys
pretty much dress similar to us, so I don't know if I'll buy many
clothes here. It was good to get out into the town a little though.
Well, I think I'm going to wrap this up for now. Until tomorrow...

day 3 photos

Day 2

Day 2

April 12, 1:46 am, Chennai
Okay I'm counting Friday and Saturday together as day 1 since it was
just one big travel marathon. Time zones and days melted together as
we sat on plane after plane. Overall, I think it was about 30 hours of
travel time, or a little under that. But we are here!

The highlight of yesterday was the layover in Brussels. Neuhaus
Belgian chocolates. Need I say more? Those who know, know. It was a
trip down memory lane biting into those sweet morsels filled with soft
fluffy cremes.

The Brussels to Chennai flight was not too bad. A little over 9 hours
but the food was pretty good. I'm already getting excited about the
food. Such flavors! It's exciting to put things into your mouth and
realize that you have never experienced these flavors in your life.
And that was just on the plane. We also had personal tv screens and
choice of movies, which was nice. I only watched one, but Katherine
was able to rack up 4 and a half.

Walking out of Chennai airport was an experience. You're never fully
prepared for that initial shock of... let's see... heat and humidity
that just doesn't seem possible at midnight, then there are tons and
tons of people standing there where you come out, waiting and staring
and make you feel painfully aware that you stick out like a sore
thumb. It does definitely take me back to the Philippines though.
Smells the same, sounds the same. It's such a trip. It honestly felt
great, made me feel very happy.

We were in kind of a bad position because we didn't have anywhere set
up for tonight and didn't really know where to go. So we were at their
mercy. We found a guy that said he would find a place for us to stay
and get a car to take us. We were very wary but didn't really know
what else to do, so we said okay. We waited a while for the car, which
he said would be free. In the end, the only catch seemed to be that he
wanted Rs 100 for arranging it for us. Reasonable enough. The ride was
a little scary. We seem to be in a pretty scary area and the streets
were empty. The cows in the road were about the only forms of life.
Thoughts started to race through my head. I started to think about the
movie "Taken" and how this guy could be taking us anywhere to do
anything with us. It was a little scary.

It was a big relief when we saw the sign for Suvi and knew it was a
real place. Thank goodness. It was even the same price the guy at the
airport told us, so maybe not that shady afterall. We're probably
paying more than we should be, but oh well. We have a king size bed
(for the 3 of us) and AC and a shower, so I guess we can't complain
too much.

In the morning we'll head to the bus station and catch a bus to
Vellore. But for now... try to catch some sleep. It's hard with all
the excitement.

9:41 pm, Vellore
Well it's been a fun day. I'm waiting for a computer at the Internet
cafe right now, so I thought I'd put down some stuff while I'm
waiting. The night was uneventful last night. It actually got pretty
cold in our room with the AC all the way up and be fan all the way up.
I slept pretty well, but woke up kind of early an then couldn't really
fall back to sleep.

The shower was nice and cool, which actually felt pretty good in that
sweltering bathroom (it had a window open to the outside). Again, it
felt like I was back in the Philippines, taking cold showers.

We got out and had them drive us to the bus station in their car. Paid
300 for it... not really sure if that was a good price or not. It
probably wasn't too bad. Once we got there this guy jumped on our
luggage and wanted to help. They are very insistent about helping
because they want you to pay them. He was actually quite helpful
though. This was a pretty huge bus terminal and we would have been
clueless as to where to go. Computer is open... more later.

11:33 pm, Vellore
Anyway, so we managed to get all our stuff on the bus and only got
charged one extra fare for the luggage. The trip was about 3 hours.
It's pretty crazy driving. I had the front row seat, so I was able to
see how many times we almost hit people or cows or other buses. The
roads were actually not too bad as far as quality, but they are
chaotic. There is no observance of lanes or anything like that. Just a
lot of honking. It's funny how the cows just wander around and walk
through the street. Apparently they have the right of way here.

We talked to a nice guy on the bus who told us where we should get
off. He then was waiting for us when we got off and was like "come
with me, I'll show you". He took us over to the rickshaws and talked
to someone and told us how much we should pay. It was really nice of
him. We were talking while we walked and he saw I was from Texas so he
started asking me about WWF wrestlers that are from Texas. Haha. I
didn't know who he was talking about but it was funny.

Amazingly, we fit all of our luggage and the three of us in one of
these little rickshaws, which is basically a motorcycle modified to
have a little cab on the back. It only has 1 little bench, so it was
quite hilarious that everything could fit.

We made it to the Hotel Aavana Inn without trouble and then the
checking-in process began. Oh boy. The price was more than the CMC had
told us it was going to be, but it was printed on their little flyer,
so we couldn't really argue. Well, I mean, we did argue, but we were
unsuccessful. They probably have a separate flyer that they give to
foreigners with higher rates. It's still only costing us like $9 a day
each though, so I don't know how much we can really complain. Anyway,
but then they have this whole deal about registering with police. They
ask for copies of your passport an visa but then they want money to
process stuff with the police. Right. Except that we already knew that
tourists don't have to register with the police. We argued with them
for a long time about this and it was actually quite comical. They
kept trying to tell us that we were students and we told them about 50
times that we are here on TOURIST visas and we don't have to register.
Then they start trying to tell us that if we don't do it then the
police are going to come looking for us and harass us. Sure. An then
they tell us okay, let's just take you over to the police station and
we'll see how much they want you to pay. They said it would be ever
more. Us: we're TOURISTS! We don't have to go to register with the
police! Them: but there have been terrorist attacks recently and blah
blah blah. Us: We read the form when we came into the country that
said tourists do not have to register if they are there less than 6
months! Them: oh but the rules are different here than in Chennai.
Anyway, this carried on for a while until we finally agreed on the
fact that this was just money to keep the police happy and they
basically said as much. We told them that was their problem, but they
insisted we pay them. In the end we gave in and gave them Rs 50 each,
but at least this was less than the 300 they started out asking for.
We couldn't stop laughing about it later, once the annoyance had worn
off.

We had a couple of meals in the restaurant here at the hotel.
Delicious food and super super cheap. We ate lunch for a total of $9
and dinner was like half that. Mmmm. We ate lunch with our hands but
decided to resort to asking for forks at dinner.

I have to say the thing that cracks me up the most is the way they do
their little bobble head thing. I think that it is our version of
nodding in the affirmative, but it looks more like they are shaking
their head no. It cracks me up whenever they do it though.

We found the Internet cafe nextdoor tonight, after our 4 hour naps, so
we got to check email and stuff.

Oh yeah, the room. It's not bad. It has a queen size bed I think and
then we are paying extra for this little pad that they brought us for
a third bed. Pretty funny. They made us sign for it, I guess to make
sure we didn't take off with it when we leave here. ;) The AC works
fine though and there's a tv. The bathroom also is fine, though it has
a number of little bugs... just visitors I guess.

It was interesting to get a view of the area from the bus. Lot's of
people that appear to just be scraping by. It hits you how well most
people are living in the States. It also made me wonder.. what do
these people do? All of these people going from place to place,
sitting, walking, riding... I just couldn't help thinking that I have
no clue what these people do, how they live, how they put food on
their plates. Back home you pretty much know what people do more or
less, but here... I have no idea! It's a completely different life. I
guess there is a fundamental gap there. It's like you could probably
never really comprehend India and it's people unless you spent a lot
of time an were willing to live among them and do the things they do.
But what American would ever do that? We're happy with what we have,
so why bother trying to really understand how this huge bulk of
humanity lives? So we come and we look and we stare and we feel like
our eyes are opened. And they are, a little. But I feel that we are
really only scratching the surface here. And perhaps this is what
keeps us from doing more.

day 2 photos

Day 1

Day 1

April 10-11
12:10 pm
The adventure is underway! After a hectic past week, it's nice to find
myself sitting on an airplane and finally able to relax. I still can't
believe I managed to fly up to Rochester, find a house, settle on a
price, sign a contract, squeeze in an inspection and still have time
to get all of the loan application done all in the past week. Oh, and
squeeze in time to get ready for this trip! So I guess it's
understandable that I only slept for two hours last night.

Did I finish everything on my endless to do list? Not quite, but I
came suprisingly close. I didn't hear back from my realtor about the
furnace inspection, so that's one loose end I left. And then there's
the stack of paperwork from the residency program that remains on my
desk. I briefly flipped through it at about 3 am and decided it was
not going to happen. It'll be waiting for me on my return.

Anyway, so yes, here I am. The dog and fish and plants were all left
at Janet's mercy and here I am on a flight from Dallas to NY JFK. We
left from San Antonio at 9:45 am and flew to Dallas. Now Dallas to
NYC. From there we have a 7 and a half hour flight to Brussels,
followed by a 9 and a half hour flight to Chennai (Madras). We'll
arrive at about 11:00 pm tomorrow night.

As far as what happens from there? Well, that's the fun part isn't it?
I'm not sure where we're staying that night, but Sunday morning we'll
find our way to Vellore.

I'm excited to be heading over. I'm sure it is going to be an
experience I'll never forget. I'm wondering how much it will remind me
of the Philippines, and how well I will readjust to poverty. I lived
in it for 2 years in Cebu but I'm afraid that over the past 8 years
(wow) I've forgotten what it is like. I will be good to be reminded.

As a side note, it's a very strange feeling to be untethered from my
cell phone. Naked, yet free. Haha.

day 1 photos