Chinese food & jungle gyms

Today is thursday.

Yesterday my group went out into the community and visited 2 schools. The doctors let us check vitals of the kids which was really cool cause I've never done that before, although most of the other students have because they're pre-med. Each school only had 3-4 children when we showed up and they were very quiet and reserved. Several of the children had ringworm. You could see red patches on their cheeks. The doctors also looked at the whites of their eyes and could see that many were also anemic. Apparently many children in India only have 1 to 2 meals a day and usually those meals are provided by the school. I think that probably correlates with how relaxed they are in comparison to American children who eat a lot of carbs and sugar throughout the day. 

You can definitely see a relationship between the environment and the health of the children. The schools we visited on tuesday had children with the worst health of the ones we have seen thus far. On all other visits, the streets and air were clean, there were people out working and greeting us as we walked by. On tuesday the visit consisted of a long walk stepping over cow pies, swatting off bugs, and holding our breath due to the lingering smell.

But today we got to check the kids' pulses, and listened to their hearts and lungs. They were all really calm which made this a pretty simple task. 

It rained a lot which sucked cause there was a lot of walking to get to the schools. 

After the second school though, one of the mothers invited us back for chai and, SO WEIRD, her husband is the guide we had for our trek! He showed up half way through us having chai. We are planning another trek to a hot spring and he said he would take us.

After class we went out to a place on the main strip called Chopsticks. I have to admit, even I am getting sick of the Indian food :/ So we all ordered a crazy amount of chinese. The whole table was covered with bowls of all different foods. It was really exciting! Afterward we went to Dylan's in old Manali to get freshly baked cookies (I just tagged along since I couldn't enjoy one) It poured the whole time. When we got to Dylan's we met a man who was backpacking from Israel. He told us funny stories about his travels and all the people he had met. I love how friendly everyone is. You can just sit down and talk to a stranger for hours. 

Today we saw two different schools. Nothing too exciting. But afterward we went to the orphanage. This place was AMAZING! It was absolutely gorgeous. All of the children were healthy and happy and spoke english so well. They had regular scheduled classes and the kids were all really obedient and polite. We all really loved it there. We were expecting a really depressing experience. I got some great pictures of the kids being silly.

Afterward we worked on some more TB mapping, had class, dinner, and then our first Hindi lesson :) We all needed that pretty badly. The children here speak english really well because they are taught in english at school. The adults are the ones that don't speak it so well. 

Emily, Christine, and I just got back from a cookie hunt/shopping excursion. It was really fun but the streets are insanely busy right now. And there were a lot of cows out..

and a few yaks. Still trying to get used to that. 

Oh, and yesterday while I was walking to the first school, I tripped over a rock going down a hill and snapped my sandal. So out of desperation I put a hair tie around my shoe and foot. Stylish.

Photo Entry

Picture Perfect

Today was our 2nd day in the community and I have SO many great pictures! We went to 2 different schools and the children were so precious! We brought a slinky and they were all amazed. They loved playing with us and the mothers loved posing for our pictures. I have never seen mothers care for their children the way they do. It's so laid back but so so loving. The children are very young but really take care of themselves. They're calm and collected, when they fall down they get right back up. They raise their children to be strong people, which you can see from how strong the mothers are.

In the 2nd school we went to the environment was completely different. The walk there was filled with huge piles of cow poo, flies and bugs swarming, animals wandering through the yard and walkways. And unsurprisingly almost every child was ill. They were all anemic, all of them had worms, and the majority of them had pretty severe colds. The children had rags safety pinned to their shirts because their noses were continuously running.
These kids were the happiest kids though. We played for so long. One little girl kept holding my hand and showing me all around. She loved my earrings and treated me like I was her show and tell :) There was also a new born baby there and it was SO tiny and adorable! Today we had another doctor in training named Lucy join us. She's a med student from New Zealand. She was really good with the kids and she showed us how to check vitals and filled us in on what she was finding in the children.

After that we came back and did more mapping for the tuberculosis research. We all got together after we ate and shared pictures and talked with the group from the hospital about what they had done. Today they watched 3 major surgeries! Hearing about it made me lose my appetite.

We all hung out for a while in the boys room and began collaborating on what we wanted out of the trip and what our expectations of the staff and of our own research was. We all came to the conclusion that the trip was not what we were anticipating. So we compiled a list of the things we wanted clarification on and things that we wanted out of the experience. Once Heather and her mother came back from the market we all sat down and talked for several hours about how to meet these standards and what things needed to change. I think it went really well and we now have a better understanding of how to best manage our time for work while also enjoying the environment and the country itself.

Enjoy my adorable pictures!

Playtime

I did not write yesterday because honestly, not much went on.
We had our first day in the community where we basically just played with the kids in a local village's preschool. We were with Dr. Kathleen who is American, as you could have guessed, and is in Manali for 3 weeks doing her 3rd year residency. We went into the school to weigh and measure the children, which they do monthly to keep in check with the general health of the kids. The staff, who were also the mothers, were so wonderful and generous. They were radiating happiness, and the children were all so calm and quiet. We took digital pictures of them and showed the kids. They were amazed to see a camera and to see their own faces on the little screen. It was so great to watch.
There wasn't much for us to all do other than to keep the kids all occupied. They were adorable, and according to Dr. Kathleen, seemed to be fairly healthy.

We all felt so terrible because when we first arrived they gave us glasses of water, which none of us drank and left sitting on the floor. Afterward, one of the mothers invited us back to their home for drinks. We sat on their porch on small carpets and were handed fruit juice... which we can't have. Then they offered us freshly picked cherries which looked gorgeous, but had been rinsed so once again couldn't have them. THEN they brought us chai, which everyone could have but me since it is made with milk, so I pretended to drink it and then passed it along to someone else. They were really trying!

Afterward we came back to the hotel, did some mapping, had dinner. Then late that night the boys FINALLY took us out to their favorite place that they keep raving about called People. It's a little restaurant hot spot for foreigners. On the way we stopped at a cafe that Dr. Kathleen recommended called Dylan's which is dedicated to Bob Dylan. It was a really cute place, completely open, no windows or walls between the cafe and the street. Quite hip!
People was really neat. The whole place is covered in pictures that people from all over the world had drawn. And apparently Indians appreciate my weird artistic ability because they thought my picture was wall worthy. I have made my mark @ People in Manali :) I'll post a picture of my drawing later. Anyway, we all sat and had drinks. Some ate but we mostly just talked and it was SUCH a fun time! Finally having us all connect and talk was so great and it felt like we were all best friends and had known each other for years.

Unfortunately our food took forever and we couldn't get a rickshaw back because it was late and none passed us so we walked all the way back (20 minutes at least) in the dark, no street lights, lots of stray dogs. But we all survived. And also got a stern talk from Heather :/ Now we have a curfew which is at 10:45.

In India you have to "expect the unexpected" and so we'll have to give ourselves at least an hour in the future to make it home.

Gone Trekkin'

Wow. It's 8:16 pm and I am ready for bed.

This morning we had breakfast early at 8 so we could meet a tour guide at 8:30. We took autos to some new part of Manali, at the base of the mountains. We trekked for 4 and a half hours up into the himalayas. It was so gorgeous. To be at the base looking up, the mountains look so overwhelming. Then you reach the top and you look down and it's completely unbelievable that you're standing at the point you were looking at just hours prior. 

The walk through wasn't just scenery. We walked through a small village that looked completely disconnected from the world. But in the best way possible. We passed a guy on a tractor who took us for a ride haha you know you're from Maryland when you're riding tractors in India. And ironically, I got my first farmer's tan today. 

The further we got into the village the more shocked people were at our presence. If they were building houses, they stopped to stare. If they were farming, talking, gathering, they would stop and stare until we were out of sight. I don't think they were bothered at us being there, more so intrigued. 

Everyone was so friendly, they let us come into their homes to watch how shawls were made, into their mills to see how wheat was made.

I could really go on and on about the scenery so I won't. I'll just let you admire via pictures.

Afterward we went to an Italian restaurant because everyone is already craving food from home. Personally I could eat Indian food everyday and be satisfied. But we had pizza and pasta instead. Then we rushed back to have our first class at the hotel on tuberculosis and research ethics. It was really just a discussion and overview. Then we went downstairs for dinner although none of us were actually hungry. Now I'm sitting in bed ready to sleep.

Tomorrow I'm going running in the morning, then we head out to collect data and do mapping for tuberculosis demographics. 

And I guess now that we are almost a week in it's about that time. Everyone's gettin reealll sick.. :/ 

Bath Bucket Mishap

Just had to share since everyone here is fast asleep.

The bucket we bathe with is right next to the toilet. Our toilet happens to be broken at the moment, meaning it has yet to be flushed. Our only bar of soap just flew out of my hand and right into the toilet.

And that is all. 

Vegan sweets & Hospital visits

The title helps to explain the two highlights of my day :)

We got up, had a very unsatisfying breakfast. Afterward we walked up to old Manali again to sightsee. Found a little doggie tour guide and looked down off the cliffs onto the water. It was gorgeous! Minus the mass amounts of cow poo.

On the way back we stopped at a pizza cafe where everything was made of carved wood! The tables were rooted in the ground, it was amazing. Obviously didn't have any pizza, but I got a mint green tea, plum juice, and litchi juice. All were so delicious! Afterward we came back for lunch at the hotel and got dressed in our salvars. We headed into town, lots of very curious looks being white girls dressed like Indians. But Mili said they would enjoy it and respect our attempt to adapt haha

We walked over to the Willington Hospital where we met Dr. Philip Alexander for the very first time. He was so very charming! He took us on a short tour of the hospital. Only 50 beds and around 350 patients a day! He is the ONLY surgeon in the entire hospital and only about 7 doctors. Amazing.
He talked to us about what we would be doing in the hospital. Told us we can work inside of the operating room alongside the doctor. We will see and assist deliveries!! And we will work one on one with a doctor learning about procedures and documenting data. We're all so excited, I can't wait to start!

AND there is a nutrition ward! I told Dr. Philip I will be back for a full time job :)

Afterward we changed back into our clothes and sat around at the tables outside reflecting. We talked about how to collect the demographic data on the tuberculosis patients. We have to design a google map and locate all of the homes of the patients and try to find factors contributing to their illness.

The opportunities that Willington is offering us is something we could never even imagine having in the US. While I have strange feelings about inflicting on people's privacy, I also feel like having this opportunity is going to change our lives and prepare us for anything we wish to do in the future which will hopefully involve changing other people's lives.

So we hiked back to old Manali AGAIN! haha we might as well just live there. But I went with 3 others and we bought some things, talked to A LOT of really amazing, (some crazy), friendly people along the way. Everyone tried to convince me that I need to dread my hair. We shall see, we shall see..

Noah and I bought some Mango wine!! He is pouring it right now! I also found some vegan cookies and couldn't stop smiling the whole way back. We had a delicious dinner. There was a yogurt dish and a lamb dish but I easily filled up on curried veggies, rice, bread, peppers, and black tea.

Now we're all sitting outside blogging and playing Indian music which I am totally in love with. Heather and Sunny brought us all sweets and found wheat free for Abby and dairy free for me. They are so sweet! And everything is absolutely delicious!
Finding those cookies made me the happiest girl in India.