Seize the Rain!

So this is my last blog from India....

This week was a nice wrap up week, we went to the private hospital, BSES.  We asked to be involved in a meditation class, so thats was kind of interesting.  They taught us in English, but it was an aweful lot like the butterfly story guy, but this woman was so soft spoken that it made you want to fall asleep, especially at 830 in the am!  Not to mention that she had a tendency to repeat the came concept over and over again for more than an hour!  I think I got three main concepts out of a total of about 3 hours:

The last days in Mumabi

1. You are the only one that can control your situation, keep a positive attitude.  If you cant reach the banana, dont blame others, get a darn stick and reach the banana yourself...or just dont think about it (thats my trick).

2. You cannot control your thought.  However, you can redirect them. Also, a ton of your thoughts are wasted thoughts, or ones that never amount to anything.  (Or if you are like me you write them down and create blogs out of them later!)

3. Yeah, I might have had wasted thoughts during this one, so now I dont remember!  But the banana story is a good story, right?

In the actual hospital, I got to hit up the Microbio lab (Jeanie they have api's here too!).  We got to see a sputum culture on a blood plate....nasty!  They dont try to ID the bugs, they just see what antibiotic will get rid of them.  Nice.  I also got to go see the gyn outpatients again, more of the same.  I am ok with that if I were physically doing something, but in a crammed room trying to decipher Marathi (Mumbai language) while starring at a pregnant womans belly gets old after a few hours.  It was a great experience to see the difference between the government and the prvate hopspitals, but I really wanted to do something more tangible.

I did, however, get to watch a cleft pallet surgery.  These are free for the patients family because outside charity money comes in for them.  That is such a fantastic thing.  This boy was over a year old, so I believe he was older than most patients and had to have the surgery in segments, but we got to see the lip be reconstructed to look normal.  We also were able to see the scar from connecting the pallet, and he still was going to have another surgery to bone graph his jaw and teeth.  Crazy surgeries for a one year old, at least his memory of it will be scarse when he is older.

The cleft palley surgery kind of opened my eyes to the surgeries that are more common in underpriviliged communities like this, and also to the fact that the community being poor causes a problem when it comes to the correction of it.  Ive always wanted to do international health, and ob/gyn, but seeing how much of an impact these surgeries can have on the people of this community makes me want to learn how to do the cleft surgeries and do those on the side when I do international work.  I can deliver babies too, but they always have someone who is capable of delivering babies, no matter where you are.  The cleft pallet surgeries might leave more of an impact.  I have a long way to go from here though, so we will see...that would be awesome though.  And I could tie my photography right in...before and after pics!  Saweeet.

The last big thing I did in Mumbai, I was hardly sorry for, even though it ended with a lot of coughing up dust and bugs in the corners of my eyes...we went on a Dharavi tour.  Dharavi is the biggest slum area in Asia.  Its 1.7 square miles and 1 million people live in it.  We followed around a local (our tour guide, he rocked) who showed us how they recycled plastic in the city, and took us up on a roof where we could see the whole area from above, right next to the cleaned plastic pieces that were drying.  All the colors were pretty.  This was actually a great moment because the air was clear up there!  We meandered through some insane working conditions, open flame and sparks coming from tools to shape and melt metal, tiny tiny quarters, sharp metal everywhere, and metal shards that you had to walk on mo matter where you went.  Also, no masks to protect you from the fumes and the dust.  Crazy.  The average working person in Dharavi makes 3000 rupees a month, thats 60 bucks!

We also got to experience the Indian way of making food...boys barefoot in an open room rolling dough out on a counter, folding it up, and tossing it on the floor, walking all over it and around it...soon to be baked into bread to be sold all over Mumbai...score.  Bet Ive eaten some of that.  We also saw them making rotti, drying them out over big baskets outside or over a lantern stove. (stove made by putting the basket over a lantern!)  Oh man I love India.

Other exported items we saw being made were duffel bags, clay pots and lamps, reshaped and repainted tin cans, and leather goods.  We actually caught the hydes being brought in.  For thin leathey they use goats, for thicker leather they use buffalo.

We also got to interact a bit with the children.  We entered  upon a large pile of trash, where kids were playing with who knows what, but they were figuring it out!  While we were standing in our little bundle listening to the tour guide, some of the kids came over and stood in our circle.  One little girl had a sparkley silver pen, and began to write on her hand looking up between each motion to see if we were watching...which of course I was!  First she drew an A.  Then a backwrds be to the left (on her right hand using her left, so thats correct if shes a righty) and then a backwards C to the left of that!  I may be naive, but I was quite impressed.  Then they followed us for a little more, and we took a picture with them.  Cameras were not allowed to be used on the tour, but because she asked for a photo, we got to.  Rock on!

P.S. there is an article in the May National Geographic on Dharvi if you are interested in reading it.  I have to find it myself...

The last couple nights in Mumbai we did the touristy things we had left on the list.  We went out to a few bars and an awesome club with water covered in rose petals as part of the floor one night, danced that night into oblivion.  I like to say I was trying to get back into the east coast time zone =)  The last dinner we ordered out, non-veg style, with some incredible tandoori chicken and some screwered veggies, holy goodness those were...i lover peppers onions and tomatoes, never mind with indian spices on them!  I avoided the rice and rotti as much as possible, but I did eat some garlic naan.  And after dinner I did up the henna!  We had a girl come and do it at the guest house for like 2 bucks!  Yaya.  I got my ankles done, because I didnt really want to stare at it on my hands while it faded away over the days.  Plus, its a nice compliment to all my foot jewelry I have accumulated here!  I wanted it to be really dark, so I slept with it on.  It didnt get anywhere, but my legs were kind of stuck to my sheets when i woke up, haha.  Thats ok, now its pretty.

So I had an incredibly lucky month of July in Mumbai, for it only rained like crazy on three days.  Totally abnormal for monsoon season here.  The first day was the day we were stuck on the plane, second day was the next day  meandering around for the first time, and then again today.  I really hope thats doesnt lead to delays in the UK!  All we have to do it take off on this side!  However, on the walk over here to the internet cafe, it was raining buckets and after only about 20 minutes of rain, the Mississippi River had already formed in the street!  My anticrocs were filled with water when I got over here, and they made me keep my umbrella outside!  Looking outside now though, I think it may have stopped.  At least all of the dust and dirt has been pulled down.  Sleeping the past few nights has been hard with how dry its been.  Never thought I would say this, but I really appreciate the rain today, and Im sure those farmers here agree!  They praise the Monsoon season in this country, for it brings the crops!  Me...I am happy with the way it happened.  Lots of sun and an occasional rain to pull the dirt down.

Things I am looking forward to if my plane actually gets out of this country:

Not sleeping on a hard bed covered in plastic under one sheet and a wool blanket that makes me itchy with a shall over my head (no skeets!)

Automatic cars and shock absorbers.

A nice soft squishy pillow

Not breathing dirt and dust from the street of Mumbai, and not having to cover my face in the car to filter out the lawnmower fuel (thats what the rikshaws use here!)

No honking, unless its absolutely necessary.

Cows who have meat on them (aka you cant see their ribs) who I will EAT in the form of a nice fat juicy cheeseburger with pickles and lettuce and onions and ketchup and musturd and...I think you get the point.

Jaymo's chili!!!!!

Things I will miss:

the adorable doggers all over (ps did I tell you I figured out where the sad puppy dog face phrase came from?)

The doormen at our hotel.  Ashok foe being so diligent and his adorable little girl, Vishal for listening to the tv really loud (go Indian MTV!), and Naresh for drawing me pictures and entertaining me at all hours of the night, AND for taking car of that jerk taxi driver.

The cheap antibiotics and other medicines that kill everything!

The rattys....oh wait I will get those when I go back to work =)

Lesson of the month:  India Rocks, for its people, for its bartering, and for its jewelry!  Well there more reasons than that, but I will spare you.

Cool thing of the month: No one will stop me from doing what I want.  AKA getting into medical school.  If I can make it a month in Indian Hospitals and clinics, I can definitely make it through medical school =)

Left to do:  Ride an elephant...I have just a few more hours to go find Laxmi, the elephant in Bandra (where we might try to go for dinner!)

People I will miss:  Dude, everyone. This country is awesome and the people in it, American, Indian, and the doggers, I will never forget.

It just thundered out!!  Holy crapper thats awesome.  Thats one more thing I am excited for, thunder storms.  America has way more of them...at least as far as I have experienced.