Can I just go home please? Nevermind!

Saturday

I absolutely love it here. It’s been so much fun so far in Hindi classes and our excursions into the town. The landscape is gorgeous and I’m so completely psyched to be here. We decided to go out to dinner to a very expensive (as in USA prices) restaurant and spent a late night there. The restaurant is also a hotel. It was originally the Kashmiri hunting palace and the current Kashmiri prince had it converted into the hotel and restaurant. It is called Taragarh and was absolutely gorgeous. We spent until about 2am drinking and enjoying each others company. About midnight it really started to rain hard. Just a note, marble stairs are slippery when wet. I managed to slip and fall on my injured arm and now the trip changes.

Sunday immediately after the fall through Thursday

I was in more pain than I’ve ever imagined. It took 3 hours to get to a doctor and get the initial pain treated. I absolutely hate  it here in India. So far, my experience following the initial visit after the fall has been awful. You have to bring your entire medical record each time you visit (which I kept forgetting). The doctors are extremely demanding and harsh and get annoyed quickly and they don’t believe in making co-decisions but in just ordering the patient around. At least he speaks English. That is a bonus. I visited each day this week continuously forgotten something new. Sunday we tried to get a CT since he wanted to double check for sure that I didn’t injure the surgery sites. The power went out so that didn’t happen and the doctor was angry at me. Then he decided to send me for an MRI, which was even more frustrating. The technician didn’t ask me to take off any of my clothes and then came back in, said I had metal in my shoulder and said they couldn’t take the MRI. This then led to a call to the doctor stating that and determining what to do next. Now, they said we’d do a CT scan. He then said I had to take the bra off because it has metal in it. Then there was no  metal discovered, hence I could have had the MRI done. Now the doctor I see here demands that I get ahold of my US doctor and ask if I had non-MRI compatible metal implanted in my shoulder or if it was merely the technician’s fault for the mistake. The doctor here believes I have a basic understanding so he is willing to listen but then he believes my observations and opinions don’t count for much concerning events. I’m continuously told what I need to do but it changes consistently and is completely unordered which makes it hard to follow through so now I’m seen as completely unorganized because I’m having a hard time figuring out what needs to be done or brought into the office and such. The system is unclean (I was given a shot Sunday night for pain and he just used a dry cotton swab to clean the area) and rushed and too slow at the same time. Orders are confusing and aren’t written down or explained at times or the explanations are confusing. He often turns to one of the program people and speaks hindi re-explaining orders or giving new ones which I didn’t know about.

Finally, after all this, my US doctor and I conversed and that led to a recommendation to an orthopaedic  doctor here who then ordered an X-ray and criticized the orders for the CT as unnecessary. I finally got a treatment plan of 3 weeks in a sling for a complete fracture to the neck of the humerus and three medications to take 2  times a day to help with the healing.

Besides the frustrations, there are many interesting things to note about the medical system. Regular, non-hospital, doctors are available for emergencies 24/7 and are easy to get in touch with directly and not through nurses and such. They also understand and approve of the usage of items the US doesn’t really discuss. For healing my shoulder injury from surgery I was prescribed glucoasamine and diacein tablets both of which are vitamin supplements in the USA and I had planned on taking when I got back to the USA. Also, for the fracture, the orthopaedic doctor stressed the importance of taking the prescribed calcium and vitamin D tablets he ordered in order to promote fast, and strong healing of the fractured bone. They understand the use of supplements as important enough to prescribe them to patients to promote better health.

The cost of healthcare here is very cheap as well. Between the CT Scan (2900 rs.), X-ray (150 rs.), the doctor visits (760 rs. + 300 rs. + 150 rs.), and medications (140 rs.)  I’ve paid under 100 USD for health care. This is so cheap compared to the US. It’s definitely been interesting and frustrating. For a while, the frustration made me want to come home to deal with my doctor and have my family, but I feel much better now. I suppose my wish to learn the system here came true in a way that was completely unwanted and unexpected.

On the brighter side, I now have clean clothes and two new salwaar kameez (the Indian outfits) and two new kurtas (shirts) to wear and one more set to be made at the tailors soon. I went on a language scavenger hunt in the market and really enjoyed speaking in Hindi and being able to converse. Life here is so different and amazing and frustrating and fun. I can’t wait for my internship to start and to heal up the rest of the way.

I’ll be in touch!!

Of Crazy Drivers and Amazing Landscapes

So, I will officially never complain about American drivers ever again. Wednesday, I had my first introduction to Indian driving habits. Compared to here, Americans are tame. Posted speed limits are completely ignored. Three lanes are crammed with 6 cars side by side. Motorcycles and mopeds slide between cars with barely an inch between them and the next car. Cars swerve in and out of traffic finding the fastest routes and nearly causing serious accidents in the process. When rushed on time, they have no problem speeding at 70km/hour in opposing traffic’s lane straight at oncoming traffic. Drivers squeeze through tight spaces barely making it through. They dodge random people walking across and in the middle of the road. They take turns as fast as possible. The people are insane. I sat in my seat for most of the trip to the bus station (which would transport us to Palampur) with white knuckles breathing a sigh of relief at each near miss.

            The bus ride was mildly insane as well. The bus takes turns on mountainous roads at fast speeds as well. You are bounced around swerving from side to side with each turn. The air is either all the way on and freezing or completely off and stifling. The luggage in compartments above the seats are barely staying in them compartments and on some occasions landing on people’s heads. My arm was so sore following the bus ride. I have a good bruise on the elbow where my arm was jammed into the armrest consistently. Sleep was nigh on impossible. It was the 12-hour bus drive through hell. I’ll take any other mode of transportation over the bus system here.

            On a better note, arriving in Palampur on Thursday morning was amazing. Our first view was of the cliff at the edge of the village with a nice, fast flowing, mountain river flowing between the two mountains. As we got into the cars to travel to the house, we got our first view of the mountains. There are 3 mountains easily seen with trees all the way at the top (I learned we will be climbing one of them and the top is about 11,000 ft). There are 2 of them that are tall enough you can see the white, snowy tops in the early morning. As the day goes on, clouds tend to obscure the tops of the mountains. I have taken some pictures in the morning, but starting tomorrow I’m going to have my camera out and taking pictures of the landscape that I am living in. So far we’ve had rain every afternoon, which cools the area down from upper 70’s to low 70’s and later 50’s for the night. The sun rises about 5am here and almost everyone seems to wake with the sun.

            After we reached the house, we unpacked. We found out the house had literally finished being built Wednesday and was declared livable. As of now, we have no internet, no hot water, and the kitchen isn’t functioning yet. So, we go to the old house everyday for food. We found out the locally the areas were designated as the upper or lower area because the city is on a slope. They don’t designate direction like left or right or north or south. So, the houses we spend most of our time at are known as the upper house, which is where we sleep and studying and has the best view of the mountains and river, and the lower house where we have classes, the office, and eat.

            Thursday afternoon, we went shopping for clothing. I bought two salwar kameez (the traditional clothing including pants, shirt, and scarf) and two kurtas (just a shirt). They are being made at the tailors at the moment and will be finished by Wednesday next week. We also sampled Indian coffee, which is very much like espresso in the US and then drowned in milk and sugar. We ate three meals here on Thursday and the homemade food was wonderful. We have dhal (lentils) at every meal as well as chapatti (tortilla like bread). Breakfast consists of warm milk, corn flakes, chapatti and some main dish. Thursday morning we had fruit (papaya and mango) and yogurt. We have chai between 2 to 3 times daily. The chai is amazing. You can’t find chai that beats traditional Indian, homemade, chai. So for most of Thursday we took the time to settle in, shop, and be introduced to our surroundings.

Friday we began our lessons in Hindi. The professor, Christoph, is American. He has lived in India for three years. He comes from Seattle. He and his wife, Ranni, a traditional Indian woman, are helping to teach the intensive Hindi course. Christoph, having been told that some of us have had a few years of Hindi language exposure, decided to place us in a separate group taught by his wife. I am part of that group. The nice thing is instead of the 9-3 intensive study, we study from 9-10:30 with Ranni and 3:30-5 with Christoph. The majority of the day we are studying the background information needed for our internships.

The trip is forcing me to draw a lot on the lessons learned during my previous trip to Costa Rica. Many aspects of the culture are similar. Time is completely relative here, people are extremely open, and other aspects of the plumbing and electricity are similar. It’s been fun because toilet paper cannot be put in the toilet, trash is burned since there is no trash system. We do some basic chores such as washing dishes and keeping the house clean. At the upper house, we will be planting a kitchen garden, which everyone has been asked to help tend. I’m really excited about the kitchen garden.

We don’t have traditional showers. We have what we call a bucket shower. You fill the bucket with water and dump it over your head with a cup to wash. So far we’ve been promised hot water in the upper house but right now it’s still ice cold so showers are interesting for sure. I’ve had to make some changes to my routine because it’s difficult to do many things with my arm the way it is. We are very cautious of where we get our water and food due to the concern over the purity of the water.

Over all the first few days have been interesting. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve had some issues with the food the last day or so where it just tasted too strong and I didn’t want the spice combinations even though it smelled and tasted good. We eat a lot of rice and starch so we fill up fast. It’s been fun and I’ll try to keep up posting.

India at Last

I got on the plane about 7:30pm in Helsinki. The flight went well. I slept throughout most of it but also watched the King's Speech. I arrived at 5am this morning in the Delhi airport and after going through customs met with the GSC representative. I was the last of the group to arrive and we are all scheduled to depart for Palampur tonight at 7:45 though we will be leaving for the bus station around 5.

I am completely exhausted. I already took a nap today and will definitely be sleeping on the 12 hour bus ride to Palampur tonight. We will be shopping for clothes and any needed supplies tomorrow in Palampur and our Intensive Hindi Language classes start on Friday. I will note that sleeping on planes is really hard to do when you have a bad shoulder. I could not find a comfortable position so instead of having at least a little energy I am fighting to stay awake for the most part. 

Helsinki, one more leg to go!

I am now waiting in Helsinki for my last flight. I have about 3 hours until they start boarding. I will be getting food in about an hour or so an looking forward to sleeping on the flight. I have had 3 hours so far and need more. I'll post again when I reach India. NAMASTE!!

First Leg of the Journey

I have finished the first part of my trip. I've reached Manchester, England 40 minutes early and am now waiting for my flight to Helsinki. The food was pretty good. I had the vegetarian option Which was Thai red curry with vegetables. I drank a lot of tea on the flight. Sleep was spotty due to struggles with finding a comfortable position. My shoulder is sore so I will be stretching it while I wait for my next flight. This is going much more smoothly than I imagined and I can't wait for the next leg of the journey to start.

4 Days Away

I leave in 4 days! I'm so excited and nervous. Anxiety has definitely set in. I have currently gotten all but 3 or 4 items packed in my checked bag and will be packing my carry on bag tonight except for a few minor items. I will be leaving on the 16th. I'll begin making at least weekly updates hopefully after I arrive. I will try to inform everyone of where I am on my trip over there via the blog if I have access to internet since I'm not too sure that I can use my phone for that. The only stop I may not have time to do that is during my layover in Manchester, England. You will definitely be informed of my arrival to Helsinki, Finland and my arrival at New Delhi, India.

Welcome

Welcome. I am traveling to India starting May 16th for a little over 3 months. Beginning the day I leave, I will try to post about each day on here. Since this is a university funded program, I will be using this blog to complete my journal requirement about my experiences so it won't just be about what I do each day but also a reflection of my experiences.