I have become the stinky kid

Last week I spent in a rural village visiting local schools and giving health check-ups. It was truly inspiring, and included many treks, many trips on a motor bike into the hills, and a singularly daunting trip down the mountain on top of the jeep. I can honestly say that the week made my entire internship worthwhile.
The house we stayed in actually doubles as the clinic in Jibhi. It does an amazing mixture of community health and clinical work, and yet again I was able to spend most of my time with the most fantastic health workers from the surrounding villages. The house felt like a home, with music playing, and kids running around and dancing in the Kitchen. there was a mountain waterfall and everything. Paradise to be sure.
We returned on Friday evening and since then things have been back to normal. Besides the fact that when i went running last week I had a minor confrontation with a baby black bear. Apparently it was left by its mother and thus decided that my foot was a good alternative. Only in India is something like that even remotely possible. Also, the water in my building has decided that running isnt high on its list of priorities.

so yes, clearly still in India. Time here seems to slug by nicely. This week is sort of paling in comparison to the hills around Jibhi, so its giving me a lot of time to sit around and think about how ready I am to return home.
I am currently writing a booklet about nutrition, which is harder than it seems because telling small starving Indian children that they should eat less rice and more raw veggies seems slightly culturally inappropriate...if not pointless. In addition, I am back to painting the antenatal ward, which is a riot and a half because they asked me to paint a picture of a nativity scene. Oh baby Jesus, how familiar with you I have become.
Other than that, I am enjoying the company of a Spanish doctor, who has kept me laughing for the majority of the last week, and a Dr. from New Zealand who has had about four full blown debates with myself about development and the fact that the US sucks. He won them all.
I am learning and enjoying myself, though it is tainted slightly by the fact that I really do want to get home. I have plans to spend an afternoon hugging the shower-head and washing machine, then I plan to eat a burger. I have been a forced vegetarian and it doesn't suit me well. I haven't really planned past that point.
My mom and dear friend are coming to India in T-25 days, and I am nearly catatonic with excitement. It will be such a joy to have familiar faces in a country that has grown to mean so much to me.
ALSO. I recently got skype, and will be able to talk to those of you who might also have it. My name is Jessland23. I hope to hear from you!
Well, I am tired and think I will go make myself a cup of tea and retire with a book.
So much love from across the world.

Jaipur

Hey all,

If any of your heard, there were bombings in Jaipur the night before last.
They don't know who planted the bombs as of yet, but around 7:20, 7 bombs went off in the old city....all in extremely populated areas. The police were able to disarm two more before they went off, and as of today there haven't been any others detected.
Everyone from our program is safe by the grace of God, and we were under house arrest for around 36 hours to ride out any backlash.
As of yesterday, there were over 70 dead, and 200 injured. The city was pretty chaotic but yesterday there were enforced curfews in the city to avoid communal violence, which emptied out the streets pretty effectively.

It was really strange because we were supposed to go to the old city to buy sari's but ended up going to the tailor instead...amazing how simple things can make such a difference.

So, we are allowed out today, with the SIT staff chaperoning us throughout the city.

So, we are safe, if not a little shaken.
Much love to all

Here and back again

Well, after a tranquil three weeks, Kate and I are venturing back into the great heatwave that is middle India. It is strange because we made good friends with the elective students here, and now have to leave them. We have spent a lot of time debating the many differences, and surprising similarities between cultures, and working very hard at dispelling some of the more erroneous mass assumptions about Americans (mostly due to works of cinematic genius like "girls gone wild" and "superbad"). So, Kate and I are falling asleep to the sound of braying donkeys for the last time together. When I return I might be living in a flat alone for six weeks, so I am trying to soak up all of the company I can while it is still available.
Things here have been amazing, but I am ready to get back to Jaipur to see the group and hear about all of the amazing stories the other students have. Most likely we will be spending each day submerged in the pool at the Raj Mahal hotel, but I guess I can hardly complain about that. I maintain that things here have been calm, and our days have been mostly filled with typing our 30 page papers. My typing has been punctuated with the sound of my cursing, because the power has a tendency to go out (suspect I know) causing me to lose paragraphs with each outage.
The mountains maintain their majestic beauty, and every few days we wake up to a new snow covering on their tops. We went to a town called Naggar to have lunch on a castle balcony. The lunch was "minging" as the brits say, but the view was stunning as usual. The valley had a river and apple orchards with small homes sprinkled in. We were harassed by crows the sizes of pterodactyls, and appeased them by chucking bits of Kate's horrid sandwich over the balcony.
After a quick tour of an art museum, which did nothing but confirm my notion that India might have missed that the point of establishing a museum is not to creep out the customers, we wound back down into manali, and had a fantastic dinner at the charming johnson's cafe.
I think I will sign off now, so as not to keep kate awake all night with the typing.
Much love, and for those rowers who might check this. congratulations!
Love to all.

Revisiting my medical ABC's

So, this week has been dubbed a success, even though clearly it is only Tuesday. Yesterday Kate and I lounged around in our room until mid morning, working and reading, and then headed out to meet our unfortunate translator Jitu. Interestingly, he confessed to us only today, after about 6 days of this doomed employee satisfaction survey, that "If you had been doing this survey two years ago you would have interviewed me too, I used to work here, but then I had this small mental illness, and had to stop until this year". Awkward. At any rate, we spent the afternoon doing surveys, and meeting up with a few more of the doctors which is a nice way to meet people. Then around dinner time, we had the ultimate joy of an invitation to the house of the two doctors who essentially turned this hospital into what it is today. We ventured out into manali, with our only directions being "go towards the big bridge, and ask for Doctor-Ji's house". Yes, the hospital is the center of the town apparently, and they are so well known that we found ourselves literally led to their front door by a pack of small children in neon pink pants.
They were amazing. They live in a beautiful little vermont-like house, overlooking the expanse of the mountains. We spent nearly two hours just talking to them about their work, and the wonderful things they have done not just for the hospital, but for Manali as well. Heroes to be sure.
After that, we had our ration of cold veggies, and packed in for the night with our books, and were lulled to sleep by the sound of the pack of roving donkeys.
Today we were up early, and off to do a few more surveys. I am so sick of the questionnaire that it takes more and more self control not to just make up the answers. At around 12, I randomly asked some guy if Kate and I could join him in surgery, and he said yes.
Kate and I sort of sauntered into the operating theater, decked out in our scrub tops, face masks, and hats and were able to stand in the middle of the operating room while they removed some man's gal bladder. AMAZING. For whatever reason I ended up staying on my feet, without the urge to pass out, so overall it was a raging success. Notes on surgery: (1)They are the funniest group of doctors I have ever seen, and spend a solid portion of surgery singing along to seal. (2) sterile procedures, apparently not really necessary. (3) One way to bring man out of General Anesthesia is to hit him. (4) Because this is a training facility, I was able to ask questions and stand at the foot of the bed while a man had four hands literally inside him. Sorry for those of you who are squeamish, but it was like something of a movie.
Anyways, this afternoon we did a few more interviews, got invited to someone's house for tea, and here I am now. I have found that in the past few days I have also learned a lot about myself and my limits and capabilities. I have learned to not let chances pass me by because I am nervous about overstepping boundaries. I am capable of taking risks which I have finally seen the beauty of. Oh yey for unregulated countries.
Either way, things here are fantastic, and Kate and I seem to have finally settled into a niche. Aside from the unreal amounts of carbohydrates served here, morning, noon and night, I am happy as could be.
Love.

" My love is like lemonade. Beloved, let me glove you down"

Hey all,
The title of this blog is a reference to the extremely awkward bollywood film we watched this week. It is a direct translation of one of the songs.
So there have been a few key developments this week. 1) though manali has fantastic food, and a staggeringly beautiful view, it doesn't contain much else. It is a very small town, with enough Shawls to blanket all of India to be sure. 2)The hospital that I am at is absolutely amazing, but unless you assert yourself, one might be a little bored.
Kate and I have been hanging out all week meeting people, walking through the hospital, and we even got to stand in on a bowl surgery. Though I realize that not everyone would find that to be an accomplishment..we happen to be very thrilled. I almost passed out on the floor of the Operating theater, so had to leave prematurely. Though Kate tells me it was quite amazing. I am still trying to figure out what set me off, but who knows, maybe surgery just isnt the place for me.
As for this weekend, we went hiking through the hills today, and experienced a renewed sense of awe and wonder after climbing to a point on the hill where the mountains literally spread out in front of them, replete with spiked snow tipped peaks, and the cloud cover sending shadows down on them. We even saw an immense mountain waterfall which I have secretly been hunting for.
Tomorrow I think we will go on a trek to see what else we can discover.

Other than that, things are beautifully tranquil here. Now that the rain and hail has stopped (first time in my life "hail the size of golf balls" has had any meaning), we are able to venture out, and enjoy the crisp mountain atmosphere. We are getting along great with the medical students here, and its nice to have the new company. Kate is a wonderful travel companion, and we have spent much of the week just laughing at our situation, and gawking at how gorgeous it is.
Aside from small adventures, and many employee satisfaction surveys, things are peaceful.
Much love to all.

So this is what cold feels like

so, I am writing from the mountains.
Kate and I had one of those truly epic trips, beginning with a 13 hour train ride, and continuing with an 11 hour bus ride. I must admit, that though a small part of me may have wanted to travel in Indian style, whatever portion that was, was entirely snubbed out by my 11 hours crammed into a rickety bus, sweating, and cursing every time we turned a corner. I have flash images of peeking out the window and looking straight down into what I can only imagine would be a very immediate death. We hairpin turned through the mountains, arriving a whopping 3 hours late, and I had to literally contain myself in order to not kiss the ground with gratitude once we stepped off. Kate had a death grip on the seat in front of us for the majority of the trip, with a somewhat glazed over look, and I spent a solid portion of the ride attempting to avoid getting thrown up on by the small girl in front of me.
Either way, for as horrid as the trip turned out to be, Manali is as inversely beautiful. We arrived in the dark, so really had no idea what we were in for. when we woke up on sunday afternoon, we walked outside only to be greeted by what I can honestly say is the cutest little town, entirely flanked by the snow peaked Himalayas. They are stunning and I find it hard to focus on much else because they do so much to command attention.
The town is a bit touristy, but it also means we have access to whatever we need, and can wander for hours through the small back streets, and then on up into the wilderness whenever we desire. The most important factor of course is that its no longer hot. It was well into the hundreds when we left Jaipur, and here, well...let me just say that I have already invested in a new pair of wool socks.
Kate and I are working in a small hospital here, a mission hospital at that, so we are continually greeted by seemingly random verses from the Bible at every turn. Though I am not quite convinced Jesus said "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", perhaps its the message that counts.
The hospital staff is amazing, and we are here with a few student volunteers from Europe, so we have spent some time trading stories, and reminiscing about western culture. We will have the chance to travel to the remote clinics with them, as well as observe the surgeries that are going on throughout the week. Kate and I can't quite believe our undergraduate luck. Not to mention, we stumbled upon nutella and oreos last night, so perhaps the juice diet might wait. Operation "detox" might be more like operation "no more dal". We are spending the equivalent of 50 cents per meal, and 2 dollars per night in the hotel's guest housing, which leaves plenty of money left over for all of the shawls and angora socks which we no doubt will be relying on for the next four weeks. That or a plane ticket back to Delhi to avoid that wretched return bus ride.
So, overall, things are fantastic, the weather is gorgeous, the mountains are awe-inspiring, the hospital is absolutely perfect, and seeing as I was informed I might have a chance to paint a picture of Noah's ark on the wall of one of the waiting rooms; I can make the generalization that this is the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life.
Endless amounts of love.

sab kuch malega

My hell is an Indian Birthday party.

Today Kate and I are getting on a train to head up into the mountains! We are working at this beautiful little hospital in the hills of Manali called Lady Willingdon. We get to observe, do TB research, and whatever else comes along. So exciting, im off to go on a fruit juice diet for the next four weeks to try and rid my body of ghee and chapati. Wish me luck.
Love.