Civil Hospital Patients!

Our favorite visitors from Madhya Pradesh came this week. Sonu, the clubbed foot case, and Preeti, the spina bifida case, both came to get admitted, since the doctors said there were vacations going on before, so to come back in 10-15 days to get admitted. Of course they came this week, and the doctors said they still have vacations going on, so no elective surgeries will be done. These surgeries need to be done, but there is no urgency in doing them. Thus, we were out of luck. The Indian system is very frustrating that way - if they would have said things will be like this until July, we wouldn't have wasted a trip up here! So they all went back empty handed.

Basanti, our favorite terror, was brought as well, to get her eye looked at. She has intermittent ptosis, which basically means her right eye lid droops sometimes. It's something she has had since birth. The eye doctor tried to get her to open and shut her eye, open her mouth (the muscles are connected so moving the mouth affects the eye), but of course she was uncooperative. So the doctor said have her eat something in front of me after I get out of my surgery. So we waited, kept her hungry until 1pm, and then showed the doctor. Of course the rugrat refused to eat in front of the doctor. I asked the doctor if we could video tape her eating, but the doctor proceeded to get upset with me because she thought I didn't want to wait, and thought I was asking for special treatment. I tried to tell her it's just because Basanti is a stubborn child and will do the exact opposite of what you ask her to do, but she didn't listen and just got mad at me. So I sent the other volunteer with her after the lunch break to show the doctor. They were doing a bunch of tests, and then in the middle, the doctors all left, so we were out of luck! She'll come back next time to get the tests completed, though it looks like they are not recommending surgery - but they think there may be some other problem with her vision. She has come up with mechanisms to clear her field of vision due to the drooping that are compensating just fine.

And of course while Basanti was being stubborn, everyone else was waiting in the heat for her to finish! We rented them a car that took them back to MP, since it was too much to have them all go in a general class train. I had the driver come over and look at a map on googlemaps to look at, since they didn't know how to go and were planning on just winging it. I really want to buy them a roadmap...I don't know how drivers function here without maps!!

Anyways, the families are going to come get admitted in July, and Rahul and a few others will come next week just for OPD follow-up visits, which still are running during this physician holiday season!

Nauchandi

There was a nauchandi at the mandir right outside of our house this week. They have one every year on the date that the mandir was started. My Masi and cousin sat in the pooja all day - it was too hot for me! It was amazing to see all of the people come together, take time off of work etc just to be there for this celebration. In India, religion and faith tie people together. Pictures are here.

Mount Abu Trip!

Two of my dear friends, Pooja and Nishma, and I took a trip to Ambaji and Mount Abu for the weekend. It was a good break away from the craziness! We left early Saturday morning, of course the driver slept in, so we were up earlier than necessary, but that should be expected in India! We went to Ambaji first - boy was it hot even at 10am! Then we went to Mount Abu - the roads are crazy driving up! Then we ate, took a nap, which ended up being a few hours long, but worth it...then we went to sunset point, and hung around the lake, did some shopping...the next day we walked up to Guru Shikhar, and went to the Om Shanti garden. We were exhausted by the end, probably just because our sleep was so all over the place, but it was a good get-away! There are pictures here if you guys want to see the fun :)