Ok so here is the next part of my giant catch-up...enjoy.
On Monday and Tuesday (June 6th and 7th) I went with the med students from UC Davis (they were my group for this session) on an overnight trip to Andrah Pradesh--the state neighboring Tamil Nadu where Rising Star is located. There are two colonies here that do not get seen very often so help was much needed. We got to the first colony at around 3:15 when we had been planning to get there at about noon...we were now in a time crunch. To make the time crunch all the better, it started POURING about 20 minutes after our arrival. As is seen, the place we were working was just a covered patio so we all got wet. It was pretty crazy and chaotic there for awhile with all the patients cramming into the patio and the rain pouring and all of us trying to meet everyone's needs as quickly as possible. It was nuts.
This cobbler was here to measure the leprosy-affected people's feet to make new shoes for them that would help their deformed extremities instead of harm them...this cobbler was paid for through the money raised at the Dancers Making a Difference Benefit Concert :) Bunker Dancers, this is your hard work in action.
One of the med vans and the patio where we set-up the medical clinic
This was my first colony visit since last year. I had forgotten how much I love interacting with the leprosy patients and what amazing examples of strength and kindness they are. They are beautiful people.
We gave 5 new pairs of crutches to the leprosy patients that needed them the most. It was amazing to see how excited they were to get these crutches. (From left in picture: Dr. Morley, myself, Dr. Kirby, and Dr. Susan).
Beautiful children of God
After the torrential rain. This is a GORGEOUS colony.
She is such a kind and caring woman--always grabbing my hands and squeezing them. She loved getting her picture taken and having me tell her it looked super.
The second colony we saw in Andrah Pradesh the next day was HUGE. We saw 150 patients!!! We worked straight for about 3 hours because there were so many people who wanted to be seen. It was amazing to see the med students in action really working hard to see everyone and give each patient the individual attention they needed.
With Sharmilla, one of Dr. Susan's right-hand nurses. Sharmilla works the medication station and it amazes me how fast she finds the different pills and ointments so quickly. She's a rockstar for sure. I also have to add that she is a fan of American music and has 'Bottoms Up' by Trey Songz on her phone...we definitely jammed to that on the long drive home.
Amazing family that lives in the second colony.
Leprosy patient waiting for her feet to get washed. We had lines of people waiting at each of the station--it's like the med clinic turned into Disneyland and each station was a ride!
Overall, Andrah Pradesh was two days of hard work that went wonderfully thanks to the volunteers' hard work and Dr. Susan's careful planning. It was a great trip.
So this picture obviously needs some explaining. We got back from Andrah Pradesh late Tuesday night and just had a regular day planned for Wednesday. I was coordinating group 1 and we were scheduled to go to a birthing clinic to see how it was run and talk with the patients there. Like lots of free clinics around the world they are very hit and miss--there are either lots of patients and things to do (the group that had gone on Tuesday saw a live birth) or there isn't much going on. We definitely ended up there on an off-day because there were only about 5 patients, no one was in labor, and there were no procedures scheduled for the med students to sit in on. Because of this, our all day activity turned into a 45 minute activity and we had all kinds of time on our hands. When this happens, my job is to call Dr. Susan and find new things for the volunteers to do. She had given me a few assignments and we were good to go. Down the line, though, some information got mixed up because one of the things that the entire group was supposed to do ended up being a crazy errand that just Derek and I went on. I was told to go with the bus that takes the teachers home at 4:00pm and after the teachers were dropped off I was to pick up an order of medical supplies. I asked Derek to come with me and thank goodness he did cause things were crazy from the get go. We pulled out of Rising Stars main gate to see that about 8 giant piles of rocks (a precursor to paving the road) had been dumped on the road and blocked the only way out of RSO. So, to flatten out the piles and make it so we could drive across, we all got of the vans (all the teachers were dressed in their professional attire) and started flattening out one side of the rock pile so it was more manageable for the cars to drive over. It was hilarious all of us out there stepping on the rock piles and trying to get it so we could get out of RSO. After about 30 minutes and a lot of flattening, we were finally able to get across. We dropped the teachers off at various places and continued north towards Chennai. After we passed Chengalputt and a couple other landmarks we recognized, we started to wonder how far we were going to get these supplies (we assumed the driver knew where we were going). Finally, we pull over and Dhuravel, the driver who speaks very little English, asks to see the address....we don't have it. We were trying desperately to get in touch with Dr. Susan or one of the other drivers that had been there before but all of them were up in the middle of the mountains on the second overnight trip. As is common in India, the driver got out and asked some random motorcyclists to directions and all the sudden about 4 men and Derek were all discussing were to go to pick up this stuff. After their discussion, we started driving aimlessly in search of the pick-up place. We would drive awhile, ask someone where the courier was, then keep driving. Only in India would you head out on an errand without an address or any idea where you're going. Finally, though, we were able to get in touch with Dr. Susan and she was able to give directions to the driver. Turns out, we actually weren't that far from where we were supposed to be. We arrived at the warehouse (which was the only building in a dirt lot) and instead of the small pick-up of medical supplies that I was expecting we had 62 boxes...yep, that's right, 62. Let me remind you that the only people on this errand are me, Derek, and Dhuravel the driver. We signed for everything and got to work loading all the boxes in the med van. First we loaded as many as we could on top of the van and tied them down and everything. Then, we realized that we could fit all the boxes inside the van, so we unloaded the top of the van and reloaded those boxes inside of the van. Remember: 62 boxes, 3 people...this took awhile. This is where the dirty picture comes in: the boxes had been sitting in the warehouse for quite a few days and were disgusting, by the time we finished loading the van we were covered in dirt. After the van was finally loaded we started home. We got into Thottonaval Village (the village nearest to RSO) and were asked by Robinson (the national director) to park in the field nearby cause the rock piles were still there and it would not be possible to drive into the campus. By now it was after 8pm and had been dark for awhile...so to cap off our crazy 4 hour errand we had to trek through the field and over the rock piles with only our little cell phone flashlights. It actually wasn't that bad but it was funny considering all the other little mishaps on what was supposed to be a quick errand. The whole time I couldn't help but laugh and think, "Well, that's India for ya."
More to come soon about my weekend with the kids (which was actually last weekend), my second overnight colony trip, riding down a river in a coconut boat, and taking 30 5-7 year olds to get blood-typing done....it's gettin good people. :)
Vanakkam
No comments:
Post a Comment