Day 4- Medical

This morning we did yoga on the rooftop of our building. It was beautiful. Our internet has been out for a while but honestly, it’s been perfect. It is so nice to feel disconnected from the world and lost in the work over here. Our group has become really close too. Instead of updating our blogs and facebooks we’ve had a few dance parties and pole hugging contests. I’ve never laughed so much in my life. This group is hilarious.

 Today we went to a colony to do medical work. I was really impressed with the system. The program visits each colony once or twice a week. Rising Star has a van full of medical supplies and fold-up tables/chairs. Before you know it, there is a little clinic set up in the middle of nowhere in a colony. Each patient has a chart and they “check in”, then receive their medications for leprosy (and healthcare in general).  Then there is an assembly line where the volunteers remove their bandages, wash their feet, and massage the wounds with an oily ointment. I was on debridement where we removed the dead, necrotic tissues on the patient’s sores.

            The nurse I was paired with did most of the cutting and I reapplied the bandages. I don’t know which was more unnerving- watching the patient cringe in pain or hardly noticing his numb skin being cut off. It was a really heart wrenching experience. I have shadowed wound care in the US for clinicals and it really tore at my heart comparing the difference. In the US, the procedure is all about sterility and pain reduction. There are all these gadgets engineered to aid the process. Here in India, we were in a dirty room, in the open air, and using the most basic of medicine. My emotions were torn between being thrilled that these beautiful people were receiving health care or being heartbroken that we couldn’t do more. Most of the patients were missing multiple fingers and toes, and had wounds so deep you could see the muscle. It was tough to see them walking around with their simple bandages in the dirty streets, but it was amazing watching the interactions of their little community. Each person supported the next. If one patient had wounds on his hands, he would be helping the other patient walk that had wounds on their feet. As I was applying bandages, the men would linger by and correct me if I needed to do something different for their friend’s specific sore. They were all each other’s advocates and formed this beautiful little family. I'm really looking forward to the next medical rotation and all the experiences to come. It is so bizarre because technically I've been here for only four days, but it feels like it's been weeks- in a good way :) 

Day 3- Construction

Loving me some India. We woke up early today and played volleyball as a group. While the rules are the same, there are a few variations from American volleyball. For example, when the ball flies into the brush, you worry less about points and more about the cobras and scorpions you just upset. I’m developing a new set of skills here in India… This is a picture of our “toilet” and our “shower”. 

There is a delicate system to using this bathroom. First, bring a flashlight- you never know when the power will shut off. Second, walk in slowly and check for frogs and lizards- you don’t want to be spooked and loose balance mid-squat and you can’t run out mid-shower. You may also want to bring toilet paper when you are out and about in India- most restrooms have just a hose sitting next to the toilet, but we haven’t quite figured that one out. Also, don’t bother taking a bucket shower in the morning because it will be a matter of minutes before you are drenched in sweat again. Instead, you shower at night, after the nightly monsoon has “cooled” the temperature. Before you leave the house you must envelope yourself in a lovely selection of aerosol aromas including, but not limited to, sunscreen, bug spray, and lice repellant. Then you pop your malaria pill and you are good to go. I’m going to have this art perfected by the time I leave. 

Today my group was on “construction” and went to a leprosy colony to clean up trash (there isn’t really a garbage system in the colonies so most of the garbage is in the streets). The volunteers this summer have built some 24 septic tanks and bathrooms through out some leprosy colonies. Amazing. I guess they were so good at building that they finished all the work by the time my session got here. These pictures are from the colony we worked at today. (This is one of the nicer colonies so it isn't a very good representation of colonies in general). 

At first I was bummed that I wouldn’t be building… but then I witnessed the Indian heat at its finest and no longer minded the lighter load. The weather is different than anything else I’ve experienced. Of course it’s hot… but you don’t mind the heat as much as you wonder, “How did I get so wet from the inside-out?” Sweat and all, it was an amazing experience. As we walked through the colony picking up the garbage you see all the people afflicted with leprosy and they are so grateful that people care (in India, people with leprosy are seen as having a curse, so they are ostracized to these colonies and denied jobs/education/etc.). We learned to say "vodacom” (hello) in Tamil while bowing to your elders. My high of the day was interacting with the people and seeing their sweet faces light up when you looked them in the eye and said hi. My low of the day… I picked up this bag that was a little heavier so I assumed it was full of street water. Naturally, I tipped it over… Wrong. It was full of shrimp heads that had been sitting in the hot, humid street for who knows how long. These are culturally acceptable moments to shower. 

Day 2- Education

Today I was in the education group. We went to the school campus and tutored the children who are struggling with English and math. The program is great because not only do they know exactly which child is struggling with what, but each child gets one-on-one attention from a volunteer. The child would never get this in a government school. We would work with each child for 20 minutes and then switch. This was fun for me too because it is rare that you get the chance to be with a kid alone (usually a bunch of kids are fighting for your attention). These little kids are tough nuggets. Most of the children learn from memorization what a word means so when it comes to reading comprehension, they sometimes have a gap in their understanding. For example, they see the word “house” and they say “home” or they see the word “purr” and they say “meow”. So we encourage them to sound out the word instead of just memorizing the appearance… All is going well UNTIL the poor little fellow says “nee-igg-he-bor”, then they just think you are crazy when you tell them it is pronounced neighbor. My favorite part of the day was when you could actually see a difference. For example, when a child would struggle with a word over and over… you would help them each time, then later in the book they easily read the word and don’t even realize that 5 minutes ago it was tough business. That is the best!!! Even though it is one word at a time, it is so exciting to see them learn!  

Day 1

We have arrived! It has been quite the journey. I went to the SLC airport on Saturday morning, then 1 book, 2 movies, 3 flights, and 4 new friends later we arrived in Chennai, India airport. Somewhere in the mix of all that was a Sunday, but we have no recollection of it. We did a really good job at keeping the American stereotype as they searched our suitcases half full of food. There were four of us girls- all happen to be blonde- and everyone found that rather unique so most people just stared at us.  It was 1:30 am and we needed to get from the airport to our hotel (which was about 7 miles away). This was easily the scariest chapter of the journey.... Just a dark, dirty, big city... all on our own. All the security personnel at the airport carried these machine guns and asked us lots of questions (which were apparently in English, but you wouldn't have known). The whole taxi ride I was wishing my dad was Liam Neeson just in case the driver decided to take us somewhere besides the hotel. We drove around some cows and threw some red lights then arrived at the hotel. Safe at last. A few hours of sleep and a breakfast later we were able to meet up with everyone who is in our session. The group is great! (more on this later) We drove south for a few hours and, finally, arrived at our ultimate destination, the Rising Star Outreach Campus. This place is amazing.

On campus there is a fairly large school for the children of those afflicted with leprosy. (In India, if your parent has leprosy, then you are denied an education). The children live here 10-11 months out of the year and receive a high quality education. They learn english, computer skills, all the main classes (math, science, writing) and therefore have a huge advantage when they graduate. The children have a separate building they sleep and live in. They are arranged in "families" which consist of about 20 kids assigned a house mother who is a traditional Indian woman. Each "house" is three rooms and the children just sleep in snuggled up on the floor. There is another building called the "Elephant House" where all the volunteers live. 

Today we mostly settled in and played with the children. They are so sweet and funny. They call us "Auntie!" and make you feel a lot cooler than you are. My favorite part of the day was putting some of the girls to sleep. This sweet little 3 year old wanted me to sing her some "baby songs". So I went through the list of songs my mom would sing to me and she would get so excited when she knew them and would sing along. But she still kept asking me to sing her the, "baby song".... little did I know... the child actual had some Bieber Fever and was requesting the apparently popular, "Baby, baby, baby, oh" by Justing Bieber. This is the part in the night where I become significantly less cool because I only knew the chorus. It seems I have some homework to do.