Reflection

It was really nice to be home, have lots of fruit and a HUGE salad, just as I had been plotting for the past 5 weeks haha. What was even better was taking a looonnggg hot shower and seeing the black water run off.

I put on some clean clothes and did some laundry. My sister came over to my parents and we talked until I started feeling very sick and began vomiting. Not sure if that's related to the pound of fruit I had just eaten or not, but it's my guess.

After that I passed out on the couch for the majority of the afternoon. Unfortunately when I woke up, I think I was back on Indian time because I was wide awake. Until about 5:30 am when I forced myself to get into bed. Part of me really was not tired, but a part of me was also too sad to lay in bed. It felt strange to sleep in a room by myself. In a different bed. And it was so quiet. No honking cars, or dogs barking, or loud music. No exciting plans for the morning.

So I sat up and worked on my research paper a bit and listened to Hindi music for a while.
It's strange that I'm finally home, and yet I'm feeling homesick. I am not happy to be back to my regular boring schedule of school work and my job. Back to driving and paying bills.

It will be hard to make my time here as exciting as working in a hospital, hiking an hour and a half to a waterfall, dodging cows and wild dogs in the streets, and meeting new people everyday.
I am attempting to convince myself that it will take time to get back into the routine, as I'm sure most people experience coming back from another country.

I just hope it goes quickly.
I'm very thankful to have had this experience and I have every intention of working hard to get back to it. I met people that changed my life and I did things that have made me grow as a person in so many ways.

It was much more than I had ever anticipated.



The End.

for now.

Our last week

Our last week in Manali was a bit hectic so it was difficult to find the time to write about it.
We had this week to focus on our own personal research which, in my case, was nutrition in the school systems. I was able to set up interviews with the principals at both a government funded public school and a tuition based private school on tuesday. Wednesday I visited a children's home and had an interview with the dietician at Lady Willingdon. She invited me to sit with her in the Antenatal clinic so I was able to watch her write meal plans for the pregnant women which was really exciting and made me want to do dietetics even more.

In the evenings we attempted to use our last bit of time wisely by spending time with the staff at the hospital, going to dinner, watching movies together, and such.

I believe it was wednesday night that Sunny invited us to a family party. It was AMAZING! What an experience. We sat on the floor in rows facing one another and were served several dishes on banana leaves. The food was delicious but we had to eat with our hands. Took some getting used to but I think it's all part of the experience.

Afterward we had desserts and danced for hours. The girls all really enjoyed themselves.

Thursday, we held a party for the hospital staff at our hotel. Sunny arranged everything. We had a buffet style meal with sooo many good foods and a dance floor with a DJ! It took a little while for people to get into the dancing but it was a wonderful time. Makes me sad looking back on it now actually. But I'm glad so many of them came, it meant a lot.

Friday we presented our research projects to the staff and students which was really interesting. Everyone picked very different topics from one another and they all did an excellent job! They were all topics that we had experienced at least once if not more on the trip so it was really neat to learn more about each of them. And I think, for the most part, everyone really enjoyed learning about their own topic as well.

The next two days were filled with long walks, shopping, wonderful food, and saying goodbyes. Nishant at Drifters, hosted a going away party for us. There was music, some bollywood dancing, and too many pictures. Going to miss that place and it's epic karaoke..

It turned out that our short flight from Kullu to Delhi had been cancelled due to weather so we found out saturday that we would actually be leaving late that night and taking a 12 hour drive to Delhi to taxis.

Saturday night is hard to think back on because I wasn't ready to leave at all and I was extremely sad to say goodbye. I walked Reena and Kirti back to their room after dinner but none of us wanted to say bye so we continued walking for a while. Dr. Parvesh joined and they walked me back to MY room haha. Then we actually did have to say bye, since I had yet to pack :/
It was really hard. Saying goodbye for me normally, is knowing that I can see them again shortly. But this was my first time knowing that goodbye may mean for a very very long time.

The ride home wasn't all that bad. We had a good time. Slept for most of it, but talked and sang while we were awake.
We stopped at Milli's parents's house, who were nice to enough to host us and give us yummy foods. They were all so nice and welcoming and it was wonderful to sit down and relax with them.

Back on the road, finally made it to Delhi airport, boarded, and slept for the 13 hour plane ride to Newark. Then 40 minutes to Baltimore where my heart was racing because I knew in less than an hour my dad would be waiting for me.

Saying goodbye to all my friends wasn't too hard because I know I'll be seeing them frequently. They're all so close and I can call them anytime :)
But I do miss living with them very much. 

P.S. Hijacked

Totally forgot to add this little part of the Jibhi experience..
On our second day to the Health Mela, everyone wanted to ride with the same driver, cause he was a really cool guy. Well funny thing that we all squished into the car to be with him.

We got half way down the road when we hit a small traffic jam. The car in front of us began to back up and we began to drift a little forward..
Car accident.

A small crack in their taillight. The guys get out of the car. About 5 of them gather around the driver side window. One sticks his hand thru the window, turns off the car, and grabs the keys! They refuse to give them back until we pay them a ridiculous amount to fix the light.

The doctor and social workers get out of the car and there seems to be some negotiation going on. Until they decide to call the police.
We sat for almost an hour. 6 white people packed into a van with Indian hospital staff surrounding the car arguing with these random psychos.

The cop gets the keys back and makes them settle for even less than what we were offering to fix the light haha.

It was a crazy experience. We were an hour and a half late to the Mela. And of course our car happened to have all the workers in it :/

But well worth the story I think

Snake Charmers

Saturday morning we woke up with nothing to do sadly so we decided to do a 5 hour trek to a hot spring and a HUGE waterfall.
The hot spring was in the middle of a really cute town. The spring was inside of a temple. We walked into the "girl's spring" which was so hot I could hardly put my feet in it. But there were lots of women swimming naked in it... I have come to realize that Indian bodies handle extreme temperatures much better than ours.

It was a really intense climb to the waterfall. Killed my knees but it was worth it once we made it to the top. There were a lot of falling rocks so we went back a different way which was awesome because it was flat and a really nice walk.
With an exception to the terrifying bridges we had to cross..

When we got back we passed out and took naps. It always feels so great to trek all day and come back to sleep hard.
We woke up, had dinner, and headed out to Drifters for karaoke. It was SO much fun! I thought everyone was going to bail because they were tired and not feeling so great to their stomachs but they humored me and came out anyway. I'm so glad my love for singing has caught on to all of them so well.
We can't go anywhere without having an Aladdin sing along now. This I am going to miss so much!!
Mili and her boyfriend, Aniruddh, came too! We got Mili to do some singing as well :)


Sunday morning we woke up to breakfast and a snake charmer. I was the first girl to go and the guy placed a cobra on my head and a python around my neck. I wasn't that nervous surprisingly but I definitely was not about to kiss that thing. I got some great pictures of all the kids with the snakes. Everyone's reactions were hilarious

Afterward, Sunny took us to some temples in old Manali. That was interesting to see. All the statues and then we got little marks on our heads. Quite the experience but my knees hated it.

We got back to the hotel, changed and then went to dinner!! We went out to Bella Vista. Everyone came which was awesome and we grabbed Reena, Kirti, Rinya, and Dr. Parvesh. Lis's friends from her trip to India joined as well... Dr. Sanjay and his wife and son. They were really great. Kirti, Reena, Rinya, and I split 2 pizzas and we took a million pictures. It was a lot of fun. After that we walked around Old Manali. I called my dad for father's day. They were going to a movie. Wish I could have been there.. 

We all came back to the hotel and some went to sleep, some of us hung out in the boys room and listened to music and talked. 


I MAY have convinced Reena and Kirti to do their doctorates at UMD... haha if they don't, guess I'll have to come back to India. 


Which is fine by me.

JIBHI

Woww, I made it a whole 8 days without an entry. I was in Jibhi Monday thru Friday with no internet. But I was so preoccupied there that there's a good chance I wouldn't have blogged anyway.
I was SO sad to leave Manali on Monday morning but I sucked up. 3 hour drive packed into the car. It was hot and squished but I love our group so of course a fun time.

The first day in Jibhi we were a little car-lagged so we ate lunch, helped to make flags and signs for the Health Mela, and took naps.

When we woke up we hiked to a waterfall and I cannot even begin to explain this. It looked like a scene out of Bridge to Terabithia. There were little streams and tall plants and flowers everywhere with a little stone path and bridges made from branches.
The waterfall was gorgeous.. so gorgeous that we went back the next day and took showers in it.

Our group really lucked out because this week happened to be the week of the Health Mela hosted by LWH. AND Reena and Kirti were staying there as part of their internship. These are social worker girls who are my age and I absolutely love them :) The third day there was the first day of the Mela and we hiked up an insane mountain for over an hour in the hottest heat in traditional Indian clothes. We sweated so much it looked like we had jumped in the water by the top we reached the top.

So the Health Mela is an amazing concept. These children live so far up on the mountain that their health is often neglected. We had to take an hour long car ride from the Jibhi clinic to the bottom of a mountain and then hike an hour, just to give you an idea of how far it would be for them to reach the clinic. So basically, they bring the clinic TO the village. We had one doctor, one dentist, and 115 children. They put on a funny skit to teach the kids about nutrition. Even though we couldn't understand what they were saying... still quite hilarious to watch. The girls took some pulses and helped to entertain the kids. Then when we realized we couldn't do much else to help, we laid out on the roof which felt amazing.

After hours and hours of being dehydrated and sweaty, we hiked back down and went back to the clinic. Jibhi is so remote there was basically one street with about 4 small shops on it. It's extremely quiet and has the best air I have ever breathed.
That night we watched a bollywood movie with Dr. Parvesh. It was about a blonde haired girl who moves to India :)

Then I got to share my travel pictures since none of them have ever been out of the country. So they saw Las Vegas, and NY, and Italy, the Bahamas, Baltimore... it was neat.

The second day of the Mela we were able to drive to our destination. Even more kids this day but WOW I got some of the best pictures I have ever taken. The kids were so awesome. We again took pulses, played with the kids, and wrote up some forms for the clinic.

I got a chance to just sit down, enjoy the breeze, and talk with Reena and Kirti. We talked about marriage and divorce, past relationships and what not. These are topics that vary quite a bit between our 2 cultures.

When we got back to the clinic, we had the most amazing time! Reena, Kirti, and Dr. Parvesh have never swam before and they wanted to learn. So we all jumped into the river to teach them haha. Unfortunately there was a current... and rocks. Reena slipped and busted her lip/tooth on a rock! She's fine now but it was pretty swollen. And pretty hilarious. The girls did SO well! They were all really scared. We realized later that learning to swim in freezing water... in the rain... with a current and large rocks would really be terrifying. So I'm very proud of them.
They all kicked and screamed and splashed but oh my goodness it was hilarious! Then Rinya, our beautiful friend who works and lives at the Jibhi clinic, jumped in. She's a pretty good swimmer so no worries. The water was SO cold that it gave me a panic attack and I couldn't catch my breath. We got out and the boys got me a shirt and towel. Then we walked to the waterfall again to show the girls and Dr. Parvesh. They're NUTS
They all just jumped right in and start lathering shampoo and soap all over hahaha. It was great to watch but I couldn't stand the cold water anymore. When we took showers the 2nd day, we were screaming because the water was so cold it hurt. And they're just standing in it!

They taught us some bollywood dances... or at least they tried to teach us. And then we headed back to take showers and eat dinner. That night we all hung out upstairs, played cards, and gave American and Indian dance lessons. It was such a wonderful farewell to Jibhi.

OH and during the days we got to play with the cutest little boy!! He made me miss my little brother :( He spoke english so well. Oh my goodness he was adorable.

Friday we had class in the clinic, ate lunch, and said our goodbyes. Unfortunately we had to be back to the hotel in Manali by class time so we couldn't go to the 3rd day of the Mela :(
I cried when we had to leave.. I MISS JIBHI and it's quiet beautiful atmosphere!

Today we went white water rafting.
It was insane and everyone loved it. We were all soaking wet, 6 girls in one taxi, 5 boys in another to get there and back. The drive was like a crazy car chase out of a movie. It took over an hour one way for about 45 minutes of rafting but it was worth it.
Dealt out my doxycycline, so fingers crossed no one gets sick from the mass amounts of water being splashed into our faces.

Last night was so fantastic! Everyone had a wonderful time at karaoke and it didn't take as long as I had thought to get everyone involved. The owner was really pleased. Apparently he called Heather this morning asking if it would be appropriate to offer me a job there.
When we first showed up it was dead but by the end of the night SO many people had shown up and everyone was singing together.
A lot of Beatles songs.
I broke the ice and sang first. Tracy Chapman, give me one reason. I'll post some pictures as well.
I can't wait to go back. Especially since I never got the chance to do my Garth :)

Vegan? ... Last day at the hospital :(

I am ashamed to say that after almost a year of a strict diet, I have given in here in India. This was not by choice at first, but with the language barrier and not being able to cook meals for myself, it has become a daily issue. The cooks at the hotel prepare 3 meals a day for us which, unbeknownst to myself, have contained milk and butter.

We also caused some concern in the community when we didn't accept the drinks and food that were offered, therefore, I have given up on my principles. If the option is there to eat vegan, I will take it. BUT I will accept chai when offered.

Yesterday was our last day at the hospital unfortunately. I will probably spend some more time there independently in our last week, once we're back from Jibhi. We did rounds in the morning and then we sat in with the doctors in OPD. The others left for lunch at 1 but I decided to stay until class. 

I saw a baby that had almost blonde hair which was quite fascinating and even more so when I discovered that was a sign of malnutrition. Sooo I did a little research.

http://www.keratin.com/as/as011.shtml

I also learned how to look at an x-ray and which way to hold it. It only took about 10 x-rays before I finally remembered what the parts were called. Americans...

Around 2, Dr. Parvesh took me into what I thought was going to be a delivery. She was only dilated 6 inches, so she had a little while to go. Going back to my recognizing people entry, I had seen the woman several times before in the hospital. That was really neat. 

Well then I learned how to put on sterile gloves, which is apparently much harder than I had originally thought. I had also thought he was joking when he asked if I would like to give a pelvic exam...

Apparently that wasn't a joke because I did! And it was an amazing experience. 

Perhaps I will get my chance to see a baby born in real life versus the hundreds of videos I have had to watch for classes.
During this, the others in my group were in surgery. This one was on a young boy and I had no interest in getting upset. If I wasn't sure before, I am definitely sure now that I could never be a surgeon. His dad kept crying which was the hardest part to watch. As Allison and I frequently say, those father-child relationships hit home a little too hard. 

Speaking of, FINALLY got my phone working so now I can make/receive phone calls. I called my dad which was really nice :)

Well then I headed back to the hotel for class, had dinner, and then we all went back out to Johnson's. There was a private Israeli dance going on there but apparently it was okay for us to join, so we did. It was really fun but I got tired very quickly. I came back to the hotel and fell right to sleep.

This morning our trek with Dr. Tashi fell through so instead we all hung around, took a scenic path up to Old Manali, lounged around at Dylan's. When I decided to walk back, I was stopped about 6 times by people asking for a picture with me. I usually just say no now, which I guess one guy didn't like since he first told me I was sweet and then told me I was "strange looking"...

I suppose being strange looking is better than looking like everyone else, as I do in America.

Now I'm back at the hotel. Bored. Wanting to do something productive other than reading up on anatomy and pre-med requirements. Is that productive?

Tonight I am "hosting" karaoke at Drifters in Old Manali haha I think that means I will be the only one singing. This should be very interesting. When we went in last week, the owner told me if I agreed, he would advertise. And that he did. We saw posters hanging up at Dylan's and a few shops during the walk. 

I'm not ready to leave.
Perhaps someone will put me up for an extra month...