Gremaltes Hospital

Today we went to Gremaltes Hospital in Chennai. We were leaving at 7:30 and I woke up at 7:25... off to a great start. I rushed out to the buses and... there were no buses. So we waited for a little bit and ended up taking the jeep. We had to take 5 big boxes of supplies to the hospital which took up the back of the car so we were crammed in nicely into the middle seat. And, once again, the a/c didn't work. But as we always say, TII or this is India. We have come to expect these conditions so it's no big deal. The drive into Chennai is usually about 2 hours but we got lost on the way so it was closer to 3. We finally found the hospital and by Indian standards it was actually really nice! It started out as a treatment facility for leprosy but it has expanded and now provides care for everyone. The guy who took us around the hospital was great, really nice and I could actually understand the majority of what he was saying. We watched a video on leprosy and it's symptoms which was super corny but I actually really enjoyed it. We have heard so much about leprosy and obviously seen a lot of it so it was nice to get the actual clinical facts about it. Everything we have seen makes more sense now. After the video he took us on a tour of the different departments and we went and met the patients in the leprosy wards. Leprosy and Tuberculosis are both caused by mycobacterium so they are very similar so we saw a few patients with active TB too. We did our best to avoid any coughing, hopefully we don't all come home with it. We visited the lab and got to see a slide under a microscope of the leprosy bacteria and the guy explained all about acid fast testing and what not and it was actually really cool, thank you microbiology. After we left the hospital we stopped at this big mall called the Skywalk and went to Mcdonalds. It was so good and so cheap! Our driver had dropped us off in front of the mall and he speaks zero english so when he drove away we had no idea when he was coming back, so we got our food and went out a waited... and waited, and eventually just ate our food on the side of the street as everyone drove by and stared at us. Finally, Tanner goes and looks for him and he was standing outside the door of the mall waiting for us. Oops. Anyway, we start the trek back home and end up getting lost again. We finally got back to Rising Star after 3 hours or so, and chilled for about an hour until we had clinic duty. Our group has been depleted since the Morley's and Nadya left, and Tyler is at a colony so it was only Me, Tanner, Elle and Nathan. The clinic is open from 4-6 and the kids come in if they are hurt or sick or whatever and we are supposed to treat them. Of the 4 of us I have the most experience so you can imagine our field of knowledge is not that broad. A lot of the kids have been sick with fevers, so we had a lot of kids coming in with that, everyone was fine until one boy came in with a temp of 103.5. yikes. As a side note, all of their drug names are different here so we had to factor that in too. Anyway, I prescribe some Paracetamol (Tylenol) and re check the temp in 4 hours. Well within my scope I'm sure. Then we have this little girl come in with a productive cough, so I listen to her lungs and I decide she has crackles, but I wasn't about to touch that one so I tell her to come in when the doctor gets back. Then we got a little girl who fell and was complaining of pain in her arm. I assessed it and observed range of motion and i was out of ideas of what to do with her. It was crazy, not sure I am qualified to be doing this. We closed the clinic and had dinner which was interrupted by torrential rain which is more than welcome because it cools things down so much. Then we had family time and helped the kids with homework. I was sitting on the ground with some of the boys when I see a massive spider crawling towards us. I was out of there so fast, I told the boys to kill it and I went running out. Shortly after, Elle saw it and came out screaming, of course all the boys in the hostel thought it was hilarious so they cornered us and kept pretending to be throwing the spider on us. It was legitimately terrifying because we knew one of them had it but we didn't know which one. One of them came out with a giant plastic spider on his hand and it looked totally real so we were just beside ourselves. This went on for quite a while and finally I asked Josef where it was cause I knew he would tell me the truth and they said they had thrown it over the balcony. I am now hoarse and have a sore throat from screaming so much. I had seen exactly 3 little spiders since I have been here and I was so pleased that I hadn't seen any more. Now I am on high alert, it was absolutely disgusting. We had to leave family time early because Elle was flying out tonight, it was so sad to see her go! We have big plans for future travels, so I'm sure we will be reunited soon. It's crazy that my time here is almost over, I feel like I have been here for forever but at the same time it has gone by so fast.

Nathan and Elle eating Mcdonalds on the side of the road

Elle, Josef, Me and Arun

The pretend spider the boys kept coming up to us with. It was terrifying

Brenen, Elle, Tanner, Me and Sam before Elle left :(

Delhi, Agra and the Taj Mahal

I am finally back at RSO! We got home at 1:00 this morning and we were all so so tired. It was a crazy weekend. We left Friday morning at 3:00 am and drove the 2 hours to the Chennai airport. Our flight left at 7:00 am and it was about 3 hours into Delhi. I was having horrific memories of my time at both airports so I was super excited to be there. Our tour bus picked us up at the Delhi airport, it was giant and bright orange with "Tourist" written across the front. Because a group of 20 white people needs more attention drawn to us. We started with a tour of some of the sites in Delhi, we saw all the embassies of other countries, the president's palace, and some other historical sites. I was expecting Delhi to be a more westernized city but it wasn't all that different from Chennai. It seemed a little wealthier and a little more western but not by much.  After our tour we hired bicycle rickshaws to take us around Delhi and it was hilarious. Those things are death traps. We rode around on those for like an hour and we stopped at this ancient temple. it was in some weird back alley so I thought it was a little sketch but we went in anyway, and this guy appointed himself to take us on a tour. We followed him upstairs and he showed us like 3 things in whatever jibberish language he was speaking and then stopped us in the middle of the room and started asking for money. Nothing but class here, it was weird anyway so we left. How we survived the rickshaw ride I will never know. Becca and I were on our rickshaw, and I was filming so I wasn't really paying attention until I realize I am flying out of the rickshaw. Our driver had run into the back of the guy in front of us and we took a nice nosedive. Fortunately, my driver caught me before I hit the ground and there were only 6 million people on the street to witness it and awkwardly stare at me. It was not our best moment. We have a girl in our group who is Baha'i so we went to see the Lotus Temple. It was pretty cool,  I know nothing about the Baha'i faith so I couldn't really appreciate it but it was cool none the less. A few of us went to the bathroom so we didn't have time to wait in the line to get in to the temple so we stood outside and in the 15 minutes we were standing there we were launched to stardom. Literally at least 70 Indian people came up and asked for pictures with us. Or just stood there and awkwardly took them. I had men hugging me, women wrapping their shawls around my head, people handing me their children... it was crazy and so so funny. We left the temple and started on our six hour drive to Agra. On our way there we stopped at this nice hotel to get some snacks and go to the bathroom. Let me preface by saying that absolutely nothing in India is without charge. They people here would charge you for breathing if they could. So we pull up to the hotel and there is this nice man there to direct us, I was already impressed. Then a lady standing in the bathroom with napkins to use for toilet paper. I was thrilled, such hospitality! Right. I wash my hands and am walking out when I start getting shouted at in Hindi. There was a basket of cash sitting on the counter, that lousy one ply napkin cost me a buck! I was not pleased. Anyway, we all loaded back onto our bus and drove the rest of the way to Agra. We finally got to our hotel, Jaypee Palace and it was so nice. It's 5 star and supposedly the best in India. It was enormous and the staff was so nice. Best of all it had a real shower, with hot water!! Never been so excited for a normal shower in my life. Sam and Nadya were my roommates so it was fun. We just went to bed and were up at 4:15 to get to the Taj Mahal for sunrise, and to avoid the ridiculous heat. We had an awesome tour guide in Agra, he was telling us he has done tours for Sarah Jessica Parker and the American Congress, and now us. I'm sure our group was the highlight. I am bummed because when we got to the Taj we were running on zero sleep and had just travelled about 11 hours, so by the time we got there I was exhausted and of course it was ridiculously hot so I was kind of over it. But it was awesome to see and our tour guide explained everything and it really is amazing. I'm glad I got to see it. After the Taj we went back to the hotel for our buffet breakfast and it was amazing. They had Indian and American food and it was so so good. After breakfast, we went back to the room and took a much needed nap. That afternoon we went to Agra Fort, where the Indian army base and it was actually pretty cool but just so hot. We went to lunch after that and again, so good. Our tour guide took us shopping after and we went to a rug store where they showed us how to make hand made persian rugs. It was cool for the first little bit until they tricked us into the show room and showed us 5,000 carpets that no one had any intention of buying. When we finally escaped that we went street shopping and it was the best shopping I have seen yet, tons of shoes and bags and jewelry. We went back to the hotel and hung out there, there was a disco dance club that we had to check out but it was just a few creepy men sitting in a corner so we vetoed the disco, so we tried to play pool but we hit the ball once and this worker came over and, you guessed it, asked us for money to play pool. So Eric, Nadya and I took ourselves on a tour of the hotel grounds. There was a playground with a treehouse and see-saw that Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed. We went back to the room and just hung out and talked and then went to bed. Sunday morning we woke up and went back to the buffet breakfast where I ate my weight in hashbrowns and bread. We checked out and loaded back in the van for our 6 hour drive back to Delhi. On our way back we stopped and rode elephants! I was so stoked. There was an elephant and a camel and a monkey that was dressed up and on a leash that you could pay for it to sit on your lap. They couldn't have paid me 7 million dollars to let that thing sit on me, it was disgusting. I took a picture of it, and surprise... there was a fee. The elephant was fun though, the ride was about 2 minutes but that was enough. We finally got back to the Delhi airport for our flight back to Chennai. Dr. Morley, Eric and Stephanie were flying home from Delhi so we had to leave them at the terminal and that was super sad. We all piled into the bathroom and there were like 16 of us in line. Somehow one of us only managed to get every fourth stall. There is absolutely no concept of personal space here, or the concept of a line. It is so frustrating. Same thing with boarding the plane they just push you out of the line and walk right in front of you. I have started to lose my patience with it, I just assume they don't speak English, if they do I might get myself in trouble one of these days. We finally get into Chennai at about 10:00 pm, Nadya was leaving that night so we were trying to find out about a taxi for her and while we were doing that the 5 of us got separated from the group so by the time we got out of the airport our bus was no where to be found. We stood on the street in hot, sticky, dumpy Chennai for like 25 minutes trying to avoid getting hit by the cars driving every which way. Finally we see our  bus and pile on for the 2 hour drive to Thottanaval. We were almost home, driving through the local villages and there was some big party going on, I think a wedding but there were people all over the streets, and naturally our bus dies. The people start surrounding us and it won't start again, and it's like 1:00 in the morning. It was slightly terrifying but fortunately the people in the village love Rising Star so it wasn't a big deal. We finally get home a little after one, and we were all dead. This morning we were up bright and early to do anemia screenings on the kids and also to give Tetanus vaccines. It has been a busy few weeks!

Becca and I on the rickshaw

The Delhi group in front of the Lotus Temple

The Birthing Clinic

Today we went to the birthing clinic about an hour away from RSO. The nursing group went yesterday and they got to see one birth and another labor that wasn't progressing very quickly. We thought for sure we would get some action and I was totally ready to deliver my first babe. Nothing quite worked out as we planned... we were ready to go at 8:30 but then our van broke down and we didn't get to leave til about 10:00. We ended up taking the jeep which is a lot smaller than the van so we had 4 of us piled into the middle row and our 4 guys in a tiny compartment in the back. And to add to the comfort the A/C was broken so we had all the windows down and the scents and sounds of India flowed freely into the jeep. Super. We finally got to the clinic where they make everyone take their shoes off and walk bare foot. Through a hospital, in the birthing room, with blood all over the floor. No problem. First, we walked through the "nursery" where there were like 10 brand new babies and their moms. They were all so tiny only 2 kg (about 4 pounds). They were all laying on twin size beds in the wards no cribs or incubators or anything. We talked to some of the moms a little bit but I'm sure they were all wondering what we were doing there, as were we. The doctor took us into this little room and gave us a lecture about something, again I didn't understand a word of it. There was one lady who hadn't delivered yet but she didn't even look like she was in labor so we were trying to think of things to make her do to induce labor but to no avail. There was really nothing else going on so we piled back into the jeep and drove home. We spend the rest of the afternoon just relaxing and playing games. We had clinic duty tonight from 4:00-6:00 so a few of us went and sat in the clinic and 2 kids came in complaining of being sick but nothing too exciting. We played quiz Lisa about medical trivia for like an hour, I had a great time! We had dinner which was actually really good I am obsessed with coconut chutney since we had it Andhra Pradesh and that's what we had tonight. Then we had family time with the kids and tried to make them watch Brother Bear but they thought that was super lame. They wanted to watch a movie in Tamil but Elle and I said no because they need as much english exposure as they can get. Then cool uncle eric let them watch a Tamil movie, and Elle sang to the little ones and I helped a couple boys with math homework and then helped the house mother GandhiMathy paint names on dishes and cups. It was a pretty chill day. Tomorrow I think we are doing dental checks on the kids in the clinic and then we are off to Delhi!

Ambulance

Love their old school nursing outfits

Eric trying to convince the kids that Brother Bear is a super cool movie

Working on our multiples of 3

Josef. He is the best kid, and he is the one coming to the states this month to dance on So You Think You Can Dance

GandhiMathy and me labeling plates and cups

Andhra Pradesh

We are finally home from our journey into Andhra Pradesh! It is the state just north of Tamil Nadu which is where Rising Star is. We left Monday morning at 5:30 for the 6 hour drive north. We stopped and ate our first traditional Indian breakfast and it was so good! I can't remember what it was called but it was basically a giant crepe with some kind of potato concoction in the middle and then you dip it in a bunch of different sauces. We finally got to our hotel about 12:30. It was the sketchiest place I have ever stayed, it was absolutely disgusting. They told us to bring our own sheets which should have been a tip off for what we were in for. Elle and I shared a room and it was one bed in this tiny little space, a tiny little bathroom which had a foot of water in it when we got there, and of course a bucket for the shower. The sheets were filthy with stains and hair everywhere. Laura, you would have died. So we covered up the bed with the sheet we brought and tried not to think about it. After getting "freshened up" at the hotel we went to lunch and it was  so so good. We had rice and curry and naan and it was fantastic. We were all super nervous about getting sick cause half the people in our group have been sick so far but I took my chances anyway. So far so good. We finally got to the colony about 3:00 and set up the clinic. It was so good, the people were so super nice and Andhra Pradesh is not as hot as Tamil Nadu and not as dirty. As soon as we got set up we got slammed with people and right then it just started to down pour. So so much rain, it was crazy! We were under this pavilion but there was so much rain everything was still getting soaked so we had to cram everyone into a little space to try and keep everything dry but we still ended up getting soaked. We saw about 70 patients at that colony so it wasn't too bad. After that we went to dinner and got more rice and curry and naan. I have literally eaten my entire body weight in the last two days, the food was so good. We finally got back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We both got all ready and then just stood there for like 15 minutes not wanting to touch the bed but we were so tired. So we lay down trying to touch the least amount of bed possible and we are just about asleep when we hear someone trying to get in the door, like trying to jimmy the handle. Super. I thought for sure we were going to die but they just left. So we went to sleep. We had asked the front desk to give us a wake up call at 5:50 the next morning and they promptly called to give us our 5:00 wake up call. Close enough. so we got up and took our bucket shower and then headed out to the other colony. This colony had so many people! We ended up seeing 150 from the colony and then 10-15 people from surrounding villages. It was crazy. These people only get medical care once or twice a year so some of them were in pretty bad shape. It was really hot today and there were flies everywhere. Literally, I would look away for 3 seconds and then the patients foot was completely covered in flies. It was awful. We were there from about 8:00-2:00 so it got really hot. After that colony we went to lunch at the same place we had had lunch the day before and had more rice, curry and naan. So far I haven't been sick at all so hopefully it stays that way. The drive back was hilarious, we played a bunch of games and it actually went by pretty quick. Overall it was a good trip but I am definitely happy to be back at Rising Star. Tomorrow we are going to a birthing clinic near Chennai and I guess if there are babies being born we get to help with the deliveries. No big deal. Pictures posted below...

Our bed at the hotel

The shower

The first colony

The second colony

Second colony

One of the leprosy ulcers

Fly covered shoe

Bay of Bengal

Today we went to this beach town called Mahabalipuram (I think). We shopped at all the little hole in the wall shops and got harassed by all the street vendors, and I brushed up on my superb negotiating skills. We had 3 or 4 guys follow us around for about an hour, all around the ancient temples trying to sell us these elephants that they put their blood, sweat and tears into. Funny how all 27 men can make the exact same thing. After an hour of ignoring them and trying to escape them, they told us we were crazy Americans and never to come back to their shop. Not a problem. I did buy a batik that I liked, the guy started at 400 Rs. and I offered him 50 so he gave me his sob story about how he has 4 beautiful children, he has never drank alcohol yada yada, so we agree on 150 and then after I bought it we asked him how much they really cost and he said 50 Rs. Sucker. Then there was this elephant I really wanted but it was big and heavy and he was asking 1800 Rs. so like $30. He wouldn't come down enough so we left and then went back and then left again, but this time he sent his little runner boy to come to our bus to bargain and he offered it for 800 Rs. but I still said no. I drive a hard bargain. Anyway, after that we went to this beach resort which was really nice, totally different from the village we went shopping in and went to the beach at the Bay of Bengal. Elle and I were on the beach when this guy asked if we wanted to go out on his skiff (there were like 30 all up and down the beach) so we wanted to, so we got eric to come with us so they didn't murder us. The guy brought his whole family out so there were like 7 of them and 3 of us. They brought us out some life vests which were hilarious, and then started putting the boat together, literally. They carried the motor out from their house and connected it to the skiff somehow then started pushing it out.  We jumped in and out we went. It was kind of terrifying because I was convinced they were pirates and it was the perfect place for them to murder us but they didn't. He let us stand at the front and hold on to this rope and ride the waves and it was way fun. I guess the whole point was to take us far out to swim but we didn't want to get in the water to we just floated for a while out there in the middle of the ocean. That was when I was certain we were going to die, but again we didn't. We made it back safe and sound and it was fun. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at our first Indian restaurant for this food that I can't remember the name of, big surprise, and there were flies everywhere. I have never seen so many flies in my life. The food was actually good though and we are all still alive so far. We all just came back and chilled for a bit and then we had movie night with the kids. All 200 of them piled into their dining hall and we watched hercules. We sat on the ground and of course I was holding 4 kids and I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. After the movie we laid on the roof and found constellations in the stars. Anyway, that about sums up the day, enjoy the pictures.

Elle, Nathan and me at one of the temples

Me and Elle with the man who pretended to make the batiks

The beach at the Bay of Bengal

Our trusty skiff

Me, Eric and Elle. Or the A Team

Our First Colony

I just wrote this post and then accidentally deleted it so I may cut it short... Today we went to our first colony and of course I don't remember the name because I can't understand anything. It was about 45 minutes away and we set up the clinic at the nursing home in the colony. We set up a bunch of stations, blood pressure, blood sugars, medications, washing/oiling, nail clipping, debriedment and bandaging. I started off doing blood pressures which was nice because it was inside which is slightly cooler than outside. We all wore masks because Tuberculosis is so common but they made it so hot, so after about 15 minutes I decided to take my chances with TB. After doing that for a while I wanted to get in on the action so I switched stations to the nail clipping station. Big mistake. It was outside which was beastly hot, I literally had flies swarming around me and these peoples toenails were no ordinary nails. These nails were indestructible, we were using industrial strength pliers (not kidding) and I had to use both hands and all my brute strength just to bend the nails. Not to mention that every nail I did cut managed to hit me in the forehead. Needless to say I wasn't loving it, but then the last guy I helped just kept thanking me and blessing me and wishing me good luck with school so then I felt bad for being such a stink about it. Great. And there had been a spider on my leg which I flicked off and it crawled up my patients neuropathic leg. Oops. Also, we were putting this oil around their ulcers that tastes super bitter because the doctor was telling us that in the night rats will come and bite off their toes and they can't even feel it, but since the oil is so bitter the rats won't eat it. After the clinic, we visited an art school in the colony where all the art is done by the leprosy patients and it is actually really good seeing as how they have no fingers. After we got back to RSO I just relaxed and took a little nap to recover from my battle with super nails. We had dinner then had family time with the kids where we had another dance party. The new cool thing is for me to hold all 20 kids at once. It's working out really well for everyone. Then we put the little ones to bed, and Elle and I just talked while Eric watched youtube with the bigger kids. Then we came back to the hostel and talked, did a little facebook stalk naturally and now it is time for bed. We have to be up early tomorrow because we are going to this beach town and going to the beach and shopping. Should be fun! Here are some pictures of the colonies...

The nursing home where we set up the clinic

The washing assembly line

India Love

Ah I love India!! At first I wasn't so sure about this place but it and the kids have definitely grown on me. Today our group did MMR vaccinations on all the kids in the hostels and funny enough who was the only one who had ever given an injection? Me! So I was responsible for mixing the preparation, figuring the dose, drawing up the medication and administering the injection. It was pretty super. All of my medical supplies came in handy, we only had gloves cause i brought them, we used the little baby band aids and mom, you saved our lives with the stickers, that was their reward after they got the shot. The first kids we did was UKG and 1st standard (kindergarten and first grade) so they were just little. It was so sad but they recovered quickly. We only had one girl really put up a fight and we had to chase her into the other room, corner her and drag her back into the room. And naturally, as Eric was giving the injection the needle disconnected from the syringe, squirting me, eric and elle with MMR juice as well as this little girls blood. Super.. so we had to poke her twice. She LOVED us. After we finished up the vaccinations the guys went around and did safety checks making sure the school and playground are safe for the kids and the girls went and talked to the older girls about starting menstruation diaries. So we had to counsel them about their periods and it was mortifying for them and us. Try explaining that it the most basic language you can. It's not easy. We are going to our first colony tomorrow so we made about 50 kits to take with us, of gauze, antiseptic, scrubber things, glycerin, scissors... everything we will need to treat the people. After that we all just chilled for a bit and played games, played guitar and just hung out. We have the best group, I am so happy I ended up in the group that I did, we have so much fun. After that we had play time with the kids. There is one little girl that I played with a lot the other day and we played a lot again today, and in the middle of it she just stops and looks at me and says, "auntie Lisa, you're my best friend" aw! They love me. Then we had dinner which was decent, its pretty much the same thing every day. Then for family time tonight we had planned to have a dance party cause a lot of the boys in our house love to dance, and they are good! In fact some of them are flying to the states on June 24 to be on So You Think You Can Dance. Pretty impressive! So we did the macarena and danced to Michael Jackson, it was so funny. Then all the little kids were going to sleep, they just sleep on mats on the floor, so we were singing them to sleep and I was just going around telling them goodnight and closing their eyes and one little boy, he is like 5 sat up and just kissed me on the cheek. He is just the sweetest little thing. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we are going to our first colony tomorrow, and next week our group gets to go to Andreh Pradesh which is the most coveted colony so I am stoked we get to go. That's all for now, here are some pictures. Mother, Indulge.

Putting our boys to sleep

Perfect Technique

Sam and me preparing the vaccines

Me with some of the boys in my family

Elle and me at Dominos

Our group with the Dermatologist who gave our seminar in Chennai

This is India...

Yesterday our group was in the clinic again, this time doing routine physicals on all the kids. We all split up  into stations for height and weight, blood pressure, HEENT, and the cardio, respiratory, GI and neuro exams. I was in charge of the HEENT portion. We set it up well in theory but then our automated blood pressure cuff was too big for the kids, one kid read at 164/133. Picture of health. We had a pediatric manual cuff but it was so loud and too hard to hear so we nixed the blood pressure. Then we did heights and weights on all the kids and their growth percentiles but about half way through we learn that when babies are born in India they are automatically 1 year old instead of 0 so all of our percentages were a year off. Super. All the kids checked out without major incident except one little girl who was complaining of abdominal pain. So when we checked it out her stomach was distended with absent bowel sounds. So I threw out Kwashiorkor, but they think it may be a parasite. We already gave the kids the antiparasite medication on Monday so they are hoping that will keep it at bay and just wait for something to go wrong. Stellar game plan. After clinic we had play time with the kids and I played frisbee and soccer, and carried this little girl 400 miles on my sweat laden back to the mango trees where she insisted on touching every one. We took some pictures and some videos and then the kids went to dinner. After dinner we went back to the kids hostel and played with them until bed time. Overall it was a pretty chill day. Then today we went to the hospital in Chennai. It is about a 2 hour drive from Rising Star to Chennai. The roads are absolutely ridiculous, how we didn't get hit a million times I will never know. In India there is still a class system and people who are more educated will not talk to those less educated and the less educated will not ask questions or provide information because them assume the more educated person should already know. Obviously this is problematic in health care because the doctor won't speak to the patient to get information, and the patient won't tell the doctor whats wrong because they assume they already know. So we were there to be the middle man between the doctor and patient. We were supposed to take our patient through the entire hospital process from registration to pharmacy to the procedure to discharge. Also when we get there we learn that we are supposed to be doing the procedure the doctor is just there to oversee. Well one of our patients was having cataract surgery... not sure we are qualified for that. Not to mention that we have no idea where to take them nor do we speak Tamil. Pretty sure we were more of a hindrance than a help. They had planned for us to have a seminar with a doctor at the hospital, it was scheduled for 12:00, we didn't get there til 11:30 so by the time we got our patients to where they needed to be we had to leave. So we just left our patient, totally defeating the purpose and went over to the dermatology clinic where this doctor was. We saw this guy wrapped from head to toe in sheets and then we saw him back in the exam room, and he has this autoimmune disease called Pemphigus which causes giant boils all over his skin. It was awful. So the dermatologist took us into his little office and launched into an hour long lecture on leprosy. I was dying, it was super long and I have such a hard time understanding anything. Basically it was just an hour of jibberish with an occasional mycobacterium or cranial nerve reference thrown in. Fascinating. Some of us were in serious need of caffeine so we began the hunt for diet coke. We had already stopped at a little "store" on the way to Chennai but they didn't have diet so we vetoed. We found this cafe at the hospital but all they had was apple juice. For lunch we went to dominos where I finally just settled for a coke and breadsticks. Then we went to a supermarket where we found the blessed diet coke and, drum roll please... peanut butter! I have been eating a piece of dry bread for lunch every day so the peanut butter will be a nice addition. I also found soy milk so I can have cereal. After the 2 hour drive back to Rising Star we had play time with the kids and then dinner. After dinner we had family time which was hilarious. There are too boys Josef and Sean that are 14 and they are hysterical. Josef taught be all the ballet steps and Sean trashed me in an arm wrestle. We did the macarena but with no music so tomorrow we are taking a lap top and playing the music and teaching them the boot scootin boogie.  The people in my group are great, this girl Elle is my new best friend, she just voices all my inner thoughts, we are hilarious. 

My hotel room in Chennai

The streets of Chennai on the way to Rising Star

My room at RSO

The medical clinic at Rising Star

Me at the clinic