London ... Almost home

Namaste!!!

So right now I'm sitting in my hotel in London now and am just relaxing, waiting for my flight. I thought I would be able to post something longer and more interesting but I am on my iPod touch and it's tough to type on it.

Anyways, I'll be home tonight and can't wait for my own bed!!! I will post my summary of my trip ideal india when I get back to a real keyboard!

Wish me luck in my travels!

Namaste

Henna!!!

Namaste!!!

Today is my last day in Dehradun and am just waiting for my train at 11:30pm tonight so I can head to Delhi and then to London and then back to Boston and HOME!!!! (I'll be back Monday night) So I had a ton of time to kill today because I am the last student in Dehradun so I went and got henna this morning!!!! If you don't know what that is, its a semi permanent body art, which means it last for about 10 days and is very traditional of India for women to get before ceremonies like weddings. As for me, getting it is a celebration of my journey home, which I can't wait to be! (I have included a picture of it, not mind however)

The place I got henna at, the family was extremely nice and we mainly talked about the differences between the US and India while my Henna dried (it was raining... go figure... monsoon). The whole family was into the gold jewelry business and was to be taken over by the two sons I met who were 17 and 19 years old. Although they were both in school for other things besides what their family business entailed, the father wanted them to get an education, which pleasantly surprised me. After and exchange of e-mails, facebook, and addresses I said goodbye and was in for a very boring afternoon while I kept the henna plastered to my skin.... now it looks AWESOME!!!

Hopefully while I'm in London or the airport I will be able to post another blog entry, there are just somethings I feel need to be summarized about India that people should know about my journey through this country.

Until then...

Namaste

Mussoorie, Queen of the Hills

Namaste!

Well last week we were in Mussoorie, which is also known as queen of the hills, which I wish I could say I really got to see hills, but due to the MONSOON season, I didn't get any good views except of clouds, which we were in mostly.

Anyways, my group was pretty burnt out from clinicals this week so we didn't exactly involve ourselves like we did in the past three weeks. I think this is partly due to the trip recovery to Agra and getting homesick, oh and maybe just a little too much of India.

Katie and I did however on the first day in Mussoorie mention that we hadn't seen a birth yet and we really wanted to and the doctor we were with said, "Oh well there is a woman about to give birth in about 45 minutes if you would like to watch." We were pumped!!!!!!!!! She had been in labor since 6 pm the night before and it was about 11am when we started watching. She was in a lot of pain and nothing seemed to be happening and then the nurses were all of a sudden scrambling around and we moved to prime birth watching positions and saw that she was crowning!!!! Very exciting, and they had to tell her not to push in order to get ready to CATCH! The baby popped out like it was nothing and we watched the whole process of cleaning him up. (it was a boy so good thing, I didn't want to have to think about her throwing it into the river). We were so pleased with checking this off the list of things to see that we stopped clincals for the day and went into town where we... shopped, ate, and of course got ice cream... which we did for the next 3 days :) Goodness I miss home.

The next day at clinicals Katie and I shadowed the ultrasound doctor, Dr. Samuals, who told us that there were no surgeries for the day and that there weren't going to be anymore patients. So what did Katie and I do? We showed up for surgery :) And guess what we watched three!!!! (performed by Dr.Samuals... wonderful) The scrubs were much different from back home, well the men wore practically the same thing at home that surgery buffs do, but as for the girls... we wore skirt scrubs and dress scrubs over it... We looked ridiculous! I don't think wearing a skirt and a dress in an OR in the US would ever ever fly... but we did it in India! The great thing about the OR rooms in Landour Community Hospital was that there were huge windows that over looked the awesome view... if I could have seen it! The three surgeries we observed were a partial abortion, tubectomy, and an ovary biopsy. The crazy thing about the tubectomy was that they walked the patient right into the room, scared and all, and had her lay down on the betadine soaked table that the last patient had been on, with some blood and betadine splattered in places over the floor!!!!! I guess I was just glad to see the surgeons change gloves.

Besides buying tons of Kashmir goods and eating out a lot and ending with ice cream every night, not much else happened in Mussoorie. Did I mention we stayed in the hospital itself and in the "premium wing" which means we got a flat screen tv! whooo!!! But it was still a little creepy...

Ideal India

Namaste

I Survived the Sleeper Bus to Agra and Back!

Namaste!

Again, I am trying to get caught up on my blog... and am writing about our little trip to Agra last weekend (July 23-25).

After our little taxi ride to Dharamsala (aka massive hours) Katie and I decided to try a different form of transportation, and the sleeper bus was recommended by some and totally discouraged by others with people telling us that we would get robbed or drugged, fantastic. But the other group members decided the taxi was okay and it could only fit six people, Katie and I would be the seventh and eighth members to this trip thus it was not economical for us to jump on in another taxi because it would have cost everyone wayyyyyy too much. This left us with some options, take our own taxi and have it cost over $200 (20,000 Rps.) per person to go to Agra and back, or we could take the sleeper bus (with AC) and have it cost about 1000 Rps. which is more like $20 in the US. Well guess what we picked... the sleeper bus.

On Friday morning we reserved our spots on the sleeper bus and arrived at I.S.B.T. (the bus station) at around 7:30 pm to swoop onto the sleeper. When we received our spots we were so pumped, Katie and I had our own double bed! And there was AC! This ride down to Agra was great, we weren't bothered by anyone (we had the curtain closed so no one could see us) plus we were at the very front of the bus so we could really see where we were going (and who was coming on and off the bus... this is key). By the time we got to Agra we had slept for about 6 hours and the total trip was about 12 and half, and we had to pee like none other!

Once we got off the bus we found the GROSSEST bathroom in India. Katie told me after that out of all the bathrooms in India she had been in this was the worst (I had no idea on the other hand because I tend to wait until we get home and not take my chances at public bathrooms... probably not the best idea). This bathroom was just a "hole" in the ground and the door had cracks between the boards so you could totally see in and out, plus the "locking" mechanism was a chain that you put over a nail. Oh how I miss you New England out houses! Anyways when we were finished a woman in the bath room was squatting in the corner and asking us for money for food (this was all with hand gestures) but Katie and I both agreed after we gave her about 5 Rps (10 cents in the US) that she did not need it at all because she looked very well nourished... This was only the beginning of the chain of scams of the trip.

The next order of business was to find a place to eat breakfast close to the Taj Mahal because the rest of the group in the taxi had not arrived in Agra yet. So we jumped on a rickshaw (in Agra they called them took tooks) where we were taken to a place close to the Taj Mahal, but we wanted to go to a cafe... this is when our driver told us to hop on this bicycle carriage and this other bicycle driver would take us to a cafe. Once on, Katie and I realized this was possibly our biggest mistake of the morning because it was slow going and Agra is HOT! Plus not even 5 minutes into the ride Katie got whipped in the face by a dirty cow tail... yes... they are everywhere! Because the situation was already out of control Katie didn't think much of this cow flick... oh we were in for it.

Once we got back onto the main road the guy asked us again where we wanted to go and we said to a cafe to eat breakfast that had AC... he told us that he knew a very good place and it was close by. Well this place was called Only Restaurant. Once we pulled into the parking lot I immediately noticed there were no cars in the parking lot and the fountain was broken and it looked closed. We asked the driver if it was open he said yes so we went in. To our surprise it was open but we were the only people there! The only man working there turned on the AC for us and took our order. I put my contacts in at another empty table... there were many... oh and the hadn't really turned the lights on... or maybe that was just the atmosphere they were trying to create.... anyways we had our own personal restaurant... ridiculous!

The food wasn't great, but we ate because we were starved! Once we were finished we found our driver of the bicycle thingy and we asked him to take us to the hotel that the rest of the group in the taxi was staying at which we thought was called Ashish Alice Hotel. Once on the road (not even two minutes) he pulled over to ask for directions. Then five minutes later he asked again. Another five minutes he asked again... oh and it was getting hotter and hotter out and we were moving very slow... just peachy. This went on for about an hour until he was pointed in somewhat of the right direction and at one point Katie and I got fed up with it and jumped out of the carriage thing and said we would find a rickshaw to take us. At this point we were going in circles (literally we took 3 left turns in a big loop) but he told us to get back in and we were only 2 minutes away. Well we got back in but we didn't get to the hotel for another 10 or 15 minutes. Once we pulled up we found that the hotel was called Ashish PALACE Hotel.... lost in translation of a cell phone call Palace had turned to Alice and we had been unnecessarily lost for over an hour and a half on this stupid bicycle thing! The best part was when we got out we asked how much and he said 200 Rps. so Katie handed him that amount and then he said "No for both". This just sent me over the edge and I had a little bit of a hissy fit and said that this whole thing was ridiculous and just threw the money at him... what a scam...

Once in the hotel things settled down a little, we took showers, a nap for me, a run for Katie, and then we were off to get some lunch at our favorite cafe... Cafe Coffee Day. Post lunch we went with a friend in the group to the Taj Mahal.

The Taj was everything I expected it to be, huge, symmetrical, and a land mark of India. The funny thing about the Taj is that for Indians it only costs 20 Rps. when for foreigners it costs 750 Rps. (over $15 in the US), the difference is just astounding, but hey they get our money... We did get a guide but he was useless because none of us were listening, he did come in handy for taking group pics of us however. We stayed at the Taj for about and hour and a half and while there we had our picture taken by almost every Indian person there... well it felt like it. People would even try to take our picture secretly... they weren't very good at it. I was also very surprised the lack of Westerners at the Taj, I thought there would be a ton, but it ended up being only a few and a ton of Indian tourists! We then went to the Red Fort. This was another wonderful Agra landmark and you could see the Taj from a far, which is almost more impressive than actually standing in front of it. When coming out of the Fort we got accosted by "sales men" trying to sell us peacock feather fans, post cards, and other excessive touristy things. (This also happened coming out of the Taj with a group of little boys that were selling snow globe key chains of the Taj Mahal... We felt bad for them because we knew they were working for someone else and they chased our rickshaw down the road for a good while!).

Katie and I had also been trying to get a bus home, but we were getting a lot of mixed answers from people saying that we had to stay and there was no room and that you couldn't book it in advance... this was extremely frustrating! The driver that we had to the Taj said it was not possible to go back to Dehradun for a few days, but this is because (we found out later) that he wanted us to go to a marble store (of which he would get commission if he brought people there and they spend money). What a dream! Scams galore! Instead we decided to stay with our friends at the hotel and went to a roof top restaurant and had a pretty good meal of chow mien (yes I miss noodles and am sick of rice).

That night Katie and I got our own room, which was the best 1000 Rps I've spent in India because I got such a good night's sleep and we watched Friends (the tv show in English) and ordered room service in the morning.

We had time to spare so we decided to waste our afternoon at the Internet cafe near the hotel where we spent about two hours (where I updated my blog) and then we went into shop mode because attached to the Internet cafe there was an awesome (touristy) store where we bought clothes and presents for peeps back home (oh and myself). This shopping experience was the best I'd had in India... low stress, the man was very good at customer service and helped us with everything, plus he had a great selection of things (anything you could think of). This place was called Amin Art Gallery and is featured in the Lonely Planet... I would def. recommend it!

After this Katie and I HAD to eat before going to I.S.B.T. to get on another 12 hour bus back to Dehradun so we ate at Pizza Hut... again I really am sick of rice and miss home.

Once we got to I.S.B.T. we got our tickets for the bus... however we did not get beds this time, so we were going to be below the beds in seats (and in the back of the bus) but we were still thrilled to get seats and get the heck out of Agra. This is where my confidence in the sleeper bus falters because of the horrific ride we had back to Dehradun...

First, the bus had horrible shocks in the back and we bounced around and at time were sent flying into the air. Second, our driver hit a railing about 10 minutes into the drive. Third, we got a flat tire around 3 in the morning. The worst I haven't even told you about...

At about 10pm two very creepy guys got on the bus, they were def. drunk by the way they were acting and walking. They sat right in front of Katie and me. For the next hour Katie and I were on edge because these men kept looking back at us (and we were only feet away). We could tell they were only waiting for us to fall asleep so they could rob us because every few minutes one of the men would light up his cell phone and the other would look back to see if we were awake or not. Well we stayed awake the whole time. We were so on edge that I got out my handy dandy rape whistle that Bates gave me at the start of my freshman year and I was ready to blow that thing if these men tried anything, I was prepared to wake that whole bus up! Katie and I had also borrowed our friend Sarah's mace for the ride... Katie was manning that, armed and ready, fight or flight... I had way too much adrenaline running through me during this hour. The staring finally go to Katie and she tried to sarcastically and meanly say "hi"... more like go away hi... but it didn't come off that way so I growled at them through clenched teeth saying "Stop, Turn Around" which helped for a few minutes because they stopped looking back at us. Eventually they got off the bus around 11pm and I collapsed, started crying, but recovered quickly because we still had many hours left on that bus.

The next great thing to happen that night was after the bus got the flat a man came back and sat right behind us in the last seat (we really were at the back of the bus and the darkest part). Katie and I got the creeps from him (we were already on edge) but when he started creeping over our seats Katie whipped around and gave him the death stare, after which he moved to the other side of the back seat and then I glared at him and he went back to the front of the bus. I watched where he went and saw him put a button up shirt on at the very front... then I realized he was the conductor of the bus, AND HE TRIED TO ROB US TOO!!!!!! No one else on the bus was bothered or even got a second glance by any of these 3 guys even though their luggage was all over the isle and could have EASILY been stolen. We had definitely been targeted because of our white skin and being female... just great... this is when our new term came in handy... Ideal India... which is what Katie and I have been using for the past week to write off all the ridiculous things that happen here.

But we survived the sleeper bus to Agra and back!

We got back to Dehradun around 9 am and were so happy to see Dehradun... and then we were off to Mussoorie, the Queen of the Hills city for the next few days to stay at Landour Community Hospital and finish our rotations.

Ideal India

Namaste

The Buddhist Temple in Dehradun

Namaste!

On Friday the 23rd, (right before going to Agra) Katie, Lauren, and I went to the Buddhist temple in DehraDun, and it was simply wonderful! It was quiet, away from all the honking, although we did get accosted as always being asked to take pictures with strangers. I even had to shake this man's hand while the picture was being taken... I felt like some kind of representative.

Well in all pictures we get asked to be in, I feel like it is some kind of cultural connection, like they want to share our world/experiences and be friends (from a distance). I don't even know how many strangers' pictures I'm in, and what they will do with them... show their friends? "oh look, we saw these westerners" or put it on their desktop to their computer? frame it? who knows!!!!???

Anyways, at the Buddhist temple we got to go into the bottom of it, where the walls were covered in paintings and there was a wonderful Buddhist statue. It was so peaceful under there because you had to take your shoes off, so your feet were cool, plus they asked for silence in the temple. While outside the temple there was some kind of ceremony going on with the Monks, they were preparing to enter the temple and receive their vows (we learned this from speaking to one of the monks, he was very nice). There were also many many signs around the temple that were inspirational to mankind and your actions around the world... plus ones like "Do not eat peanuts" and "Do not show public display of affection" and many more (I did take pictures of them.

We also went over to the HUGE standing Buddha, covered in gold?! Around the outside of this big Buddha there were gardens and prayer wheels, it was a very wonderful place. I felt calm and relaxed, but Katie and I were gearing up for our weekend trip to Agra... we had no idea how great that Buddhist temple experience would be before the... dun dun dun... sleeper bus...

Namaste

MacDonalds

Namaste!

So yes, we did try the MacDonalds in Dehradun last week, because... well... why not?! We needed to see what it was like in India! Immediately when we walked in there was a sign saying: "We do not sell pork or beef" and thus all they had was veggie everything and chicken. I was a little hesitant getting the chicken nuggets, because durring the first week of the rotation we at Kumar foods and I got sick from the chicken. We later found out that eating chicken in the monsoon season is not that great of an idea... unless you want things coming out of both ends!... Wonderful I know...

But I faired okay with chicken nuggets and the fries were exactly the same as in the US... I was pleased to know that McyDs has somewhat of a standard for what their chicken should be when served in other countries. I also felt a little at home becuase the food looked familar, even though I basically never eat at McyDs at home, only under dire situations...

This experience was also somewhat strang because beleive it or not... McyDs was Western central... aka all the white people in Dehradun we saw here, and we never see them anywhere else! Its kinda funny actually, when we do see other Westerners we get excited, almost as much as Indians because we are such a rarity here! At McyDs all the Westerners we saw were also dressed in traditional Indian attire, which we though was funny because all of us (Sarah, Katie, Alan, and myself) have not gone to that step yet... plus you look a little out of place, like an oxymoron or something...

Namaste

Dehradun Clinicals - week 2

Namaste!

So I am still getting caught up on my blogging, sorry to be so far behind, but finding reliable Internet here is a tricky business...

Anyways, last week in Dehradun Katie and I shadowed Dr. Gandhi again because our clinical doc for the week was out of town for some kind of emergency?! so we were back at City Heart Center with Dr. Gandhi Monday through Wednesday. Again this rotation was a lot of cardiology and so we listened to a ton of hearts and lungs, but we did get to see an emergency where an old woman with Parkinson's disease was in ventricular tachycardia where her ventricles in her heart were beating super fast and thus there was no relaxation in her heart, which is needed. This is because the heart fills upon relaxation, so the heart was not getting the blood supply needed and thus not getting the oxygen it needed. Dr.Gandhi told us "This is classic V Tach., you see it, you shock it..." At one point I saw her heart rate at 230! Dr. Gandhi defibrillated her once and the jump looked PAINFUL! She immediately went back into V Tach. and Dr. Gandhi had to defibrillate her again, and again, looked super painful... she did recover after this procedure but the next day Dr.Gandhi told us that she went back into V Tach. overnight and they could not defibrillate her out of it... which lead to an MI (heart attack), and after that there was nothing they could do... :(

On Thursday and Friday morning Katie and I did get to shadow Dr.Joshi at Doon Hospital which is a government hospital and is as crazy as a train station at rush hour... The way on receives medical treatment here is almost beyond explaining in words. Dr. Joshi is another cardiologist so we saw a lot of patients with hypertension, recent, old, and acute MIs (heart attacks), mummers, prosthetic valves, and many children with VSD (ventricular septal defect) (these were clinically cool because you could feel it on the chest if you put your hand over the heart). I did pin point a systolic murmur on one patient and Dr.Joshi called me a budding cardiologist, well I have no idea what I'm budding into! We looked at a ton of EKGs, which Katie and I could only guess how to read because Dr. Joshi is a very busy man and didn't have too much time to explain things. When he did have time to explain things, he was an extremely good teacher and went into a lot of detail, he also would ask us questions and test us some, this was difficult sometimes because of the noise and the accent, plus some medical terms are different here in India, when they meant he same thing. The crazy thing about Dr. Joshi's office was that patients line up and crowd his office, people wait "patiently" for his medical attention, and many people shove to get next on the stool, plus everyone is looking over his shoulder while he treats his patients, oh and did I mention, there is almost no patient privacy?! It was quite the experience.

In the evenings Katie and I would go to our next clinical rotation at an OB/GYN. Dr. Nesha Gera did not get many patients in the evenings because the monsoon came in the evenings last week, and people just don't venture out when it rains that hard (wading through small rivers on the roads is not very pleasant plus you get soaked from the down pour). Dr.Gera is very nice and would serve us tea every night with cookies and raisins. We did get to see some interesting cases, and oh yes... a lot of pregnant women! Katie and I were pumped to see ultrasounds when we could see the fetal heart beat, spine, eyes, and movement. We were allowed to listen to the fetal heart and on one woman we got to feel the position of the baby's head! We also got to see a uterus biopsy. We did have one very interesting case where a woman's cervix was "falling out" of her vagina. This is called a prolapsed uterus and Nesha told us to fix it you had to have a hysterectomy (removal of woman's reproductive organs). Every time this woman would stand up the cervix would "fall out" and it looked painful and very uncomfortable. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any births at this rotation, but Katie and I were hopeful for one in Mussoorie (hint hint we saw one today!). We also found out about abortions, they are very legal here in India and can be done up to 20 weeks... Dr. Gera does not perform them unless totally necessary, like if there is a problem with the fetus or it will harm the mother or there is any kind of foreseen complication like eclampsia. Also when performing an ultrasound in India it is illegal to tell the sex of the baby because most families will abort if it is not a boy, another sad fact I found about the sex of the baby is that often once a woman gives birth to a girl they will sometimes "through it away" like into a river... very sad.

Well that's it for clinical stuff from week 2 of Dehradun and week 3 of the program. I hope to post more about the fun things I did in Dehradun last week tomorrow!

Until then...

Namaste