Photoshoots at Periyar!

This past weekend, Shaelagh and I went to Thekkady to visit the Periyar Tiger Sanctuary. Overall, the trip was a blast! We left early Saturday morning for Thekkady and were driven by Mubarak who is one of the FIMRC drivers. We got to Thekkady around 12:30 and headed to the home-stay we were staying the night at to drop off our bags. After stopping for lunch, we headed to Periyar Tiger Sanctuary to go on a boat safari on one of the large lakes in the reserve. The boat safari basically consisted of us wearing ridiculously large life jackets and slowly cruising around the lake while we saw some wildlife from very far away. It would have been a smart idea to bring binoculars, but we didn't think that far ahead in our planning. We saw red mongoose, indian gore, sambar deer, peacocks and a lot of other birds. We also happened to meet a couple from outside of Chicago. It was pretty weird to talk to other Americans. The boat safari wasn't too exciting but it was nice and relaxing. Next, we headed to a place outside the park to ride an elephant. I have to admit it was pretty touristy, but the riding an elephant was a lot of fun! Shaelagh and I had been looking forward to this for a while and were so excited when we pulled up and saw all of the elephants.

Elephants waiting for their passengers.

Riding an elephant! The ride operators thought they were pretty clever for giving us the white elephant...

After finishing our elephant ride, we headed to dinner and then back to our room. We headed to sleep early because we had to wake up at 4:30 am the next day to go on our jeep safari. After rallying out of bed, we were picked up by our jeep at 5 am. We headed for Periyar and got there before 6 am. Our driver seemed to be quite the experienced safari-er, as he drove while standing outside the jeep looking for animals.

Don't try this at home.

We saw black monkeys, more Indian gore, as well as elephants from very far away. Around 7:30, we arrived at the location where we would start our trek. After a large breakfast, we headed out trekking with our personal guide, Rajid. He was so funny and really nice. He hiked through the grasslands for a while before descending into the jungle. We had a lot fun as waded through streams, played in waterfalls and spotted various animals along the way.

The landscape of Periyar.

A waterfall we crossed during our trek.

The view over the edge of the falls.

A green wine snake we spotted during our trek.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any elephants or tigers during our trek. However, such sightings are quite rare and we really enjoyed the trek regardless! After about three hours of trekking we returned to our starting point for lunch. After lunch we headed out in a row boat with our guide to a another waterfall. Rajid decided to make Shaelagh and I pose for entire photo shoot at the falls that resulted in us getting completely soaked.

One of the many pictures Rajid took.

After returning from the falls, Shaelagh and I met back up with our jeep driver. We were lucky enough to see some more wildlife on our way out of the park. The most exciting spotting was of two elephants that were much closer to us than in the morning. 

Spotted: Wild elephants!

After watching the elephants for a while, we left Periyar and headed back to Thekkady to meet Mubarak. The drive to Thekkady was actually a lot of fun as our driver did not seem to shy away from driving fast. Unlike in the morning, we could actually see the landscape passing by and the drive was akin to a very scenic roller coaster ride. Shaelagh and I both wished we could have stayed in Thekkady longer. However, we had to drive back to prepare for work on Monday. 

I hope everyone is having a spirited Fourth of July! I am definitely missing being home today more than ever. I've never been prouder to be an American. This experience has definitely taught me to not take living in the US for granted!

God bless America!

Liz

2 Weeks to go!

This morning marked the official two weeks left mark. It's crazy to think I've been here for seven weeks. I am definitely getting excited to go home. I can't wait to see all my friends and family and head to the pool! I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I tried to upload a post when I had wifi on the Fourth but it didn't publish. The signal must have dropped out while it was attempting to upload. Hopefully I'll be able to try and upload it again soon.

The second meeting for the women's health program is this Sunday, so hopefully it goes well! We are having our first education session. I think it will be on either breastfeeding or prenatal care but the final decision is yet to be made. Otherwise, it's been life as usual here... Going to Pasam, the creches and working the clinic.

Counting down the days to the US of A,
Liz

Pictures and Thekkady Trip!

Shaelagh and I are heading to Thekkady to go to the Periyar Wildlife Reserve tomorrow morning! We are planning to go on an elephant safari and might even get to see tigers! It should be an awesome trip and we are so excited to get away for the weekend. I will definitely post updates and pictures when we get back. In the meantime here are the pictures from the OR that I promised a while ago...

I starting to countdown the days until my return because I only have three weeks left in India! I have to admit that I am bummed to be missing the Fourth of July!

Liz

It's Been Awhile!

I've pretty much given up hope of the wifi at the volunteer house being fixed. Although I am glad we at least sometimes have internet access via ethernet, these circumstances have really taken a toll on my blog... My apologies! On Sunday, Shaelagh and I happened to run into an older couple, George and Vera, who has been living in Kodai for sometime but are from Canada. They were so nice and actually invited us back to their home for cappuccinos. They live in a beautiful house surrounded by a pear orchard down the road from us. 

Vera leading us through the orchard.

Cappuccinos and biscotti eventually led to an open invitation to stop by and us their wifi, loans from their personal library, gifts of food, a delicious lunch and a puppy rescue operation (more to come). I'm actually at their house now for wifi! George owns a food business that makes biscotti, bagels, english muffins, tomato sauce, hamburgers and chicken burgers. We had planned to go into town for lunch but found a very distressed stray puppy on the way and aborted lunch to help it.

The pup covered in dirt and fleas.

We took the puppy back to George and Vera's, bathed it, gave it some warm milk and deworming medicine. She was in pretty bad shape but has started to improve. After taking care of the puppy, George cooked us up some delicious hamburgers! Definitely the most American food I've had since coming to India. We eventually returned home full and so grateful to have met George and Vera.  When we got home, a new volunteer, Ankur, had arrived. He is a premed student from Cornell and is staying for three weeks. 

The beginning of this week was spent at Pasam and the three crèches. A new physical therapist has started working at Pasam, so Shaelagh and I have been observing him some. He has very limited equipment so it is interesting to see how he treats patients. It is definitely very different than my work at school with the sports medicine department!

Krishnan, the new PT at Pasam.

After tea today, the nurses asked me to help make medicine covers. As I believe I mentioned before, they make the medicine covers out of old newspapers. The nurses were all gossiping in Tamil as I sat there clueless. Somehow the conversation eventually turned to my hair. Sangeetha, one the nurses, was asking me why I hadn't combed my hair. The next thing I know my hair is being combed out, braided and adorned with flowers. They told me I better come with my hair combed tomorrow... they don't get the whole, "I don't comb my hair because it is curly and will become a huge mess," explanation.

Shaelagh and I are heading to Thekkady this Saturday to try and ride an elephant so hopefully I will be able to post some pictures!

Liz

Ps. I just put up two posts from a while ago that I thought I had posted but didn't actually get published due to internet problems!

The Life of Local Celebrities

Being one of the few foreigners in a small Indian hill station can be a little daunting, but at times it leads to hilarious encounters. Today, Shaelagh and I couldn't help but make new friends wherever we went. We dubbed ourselves local celebrities based on our newfound popularity. It all started when we walked down the street to buy some sugar. On our way back home from the grocery stall, two Indian boys riding a motorcycle pulled over to say hello. This is pretty common. Curious locals, especially kids, are always waving at us and saying hi as we pass by. 

Kids waving hello from their house on the hillside as we walked by below.

However, this was the first time someone had really struck up a conversation with us. After introducing himself and asking where we were from, he asked us how many trips we had made to India. After telling him it was our first trip, we received a warm welcome to India. After several more questions about why we are here, if we like the food, etc., he asked us for a picture. Once people start asking for your picture you're obviously a celebrity, right? After posing for a few pictures with the boys, we headed home as we laughed about the encounter.

But it doesn't stop there... Since it was Friday afternoon and there wasn't much going on in the clinic, Shaelagh and I decided to head out for a run (third run this week might I add). After changing into Indian-style running clothes (that means pants...) we were on our way. There is a huge hill right up the road from the house where we go running that we usually walk. I made the bold decision to run up it on Thursday and my chest felt like it was going to explode for the rest of the run. As we were walking up the hill, we noticed a woman shouting hello behind us. Eventually we turned around realizing she was trying to get our attention. She was pointing towards some men standing outside a new hotel that had just been built who were waving at us to come talk to them. At first I was confused and a little skeptical, but they were not giving up on their cause so we decided to see what they wanted. They said they wanted us to come see their hotel and directed us into the lobby. We sat down and the hotel manager began asking where we were from and where we were staying. Somehow he mistook us saying, "The United States" for "Iran", but we quickly corrected him. He told us he loved foreigners and wanted us to stay in his hotel. We told him we are here volunteering and already have housing, but this didn't seem to dull his hospitality as we were then offered coffee, tea and dinner. Unfortunately we had to decline as we were supposed to be on a run. After being given numerous business cards, we were on our way with a standing offer of a campfire and dinner.

Clearly, being the town's "token white girls" can have bring about a lot of attention. Luckily, people in Kodai have all been very nice and just seem interested in knowing where we are from instead of attempting to scam us! In other news, the wifi at the volunteer house has been out since Tuesday morning, so don't worry I am still alive and well just wifi-less. I am not sure when and if the wifi will be fixed so I might be relying on occasional trips to town for wifi. It's kind of a bummer that I probably won't be able to post as much or be in contact with people from home very often, but I am almost halfway done with my time in India so I am trying to make the best of the situation!

Liz

Monkeying Around at Joshua Crèche

After a slow morning shadowing Dr. Arun at KHMS, we headed into town for lunch. We went to a small veg joint called Tava. After having Devi and Krishna decipher the menu, I ordered channa masala (chickpea masala) and chapatti. It was delicious. We then hopped back into the taxi and headed to Joshua Crèche. On the way we saw a bunch of monkeys and of course had to stop for a photo op.

Some monkeys just hanging out.

Joshua Crèche is the smallest of all the creches we work with. Normally, there about 30 kids but only the returning kids were there today so there were less than 15. Dr. Arun was able to roll through the check ups quickly. Most of the kids seemed fairly healthy and lively, but there were a few kids with white patches on their faces that are characteristic of nutritional deficiencies.

All of the kids at Joshua Crèche waiting to be seen by Dr. Arun.

Dr. Arun checking of the kid's breathing.

All smiles after her check up.

After all of the kids had been seen, we were served coffee and biscuits. I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a single place we have gone to work that hasn't offered us either tea or coffee. I'm definitely not complaining though.

Getting fancy and drinking coffee from actual tea cups.

After finishing up our snack, we went to play with the kids. They were all so energetic and so much fun to play with. We were getting them to imitate us as we clapped out different patterns and then were playing pass in a big circle with all of the kids. Even though they can't understand a thing we say, the kids are so friendly and absolutely love getting their pictures taken.

Hanging out with some of the silly kids!

Tomorrow we are visiting the third and final crèche that we work with so it will be another day filled with the smiling faces of children! After visiting the crèche, we will have to rush back to the volunteer house to work the clinic so it will definitely be a busy day! However, I think tomorrow is the last day of the festival that has been going on for a while so it might be another slow day at the clinic.

Liz

Finally Back in the OR!

A lot people wouldn't consider watching someone be cut open fun, but I love watching surgery! I finally got back into the OR today almost a year after shadowing orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sarah Pettrone last summer. I had already seen some minor operations here, but they weren't performed in the full "operation theater". Today I had the opportunity to observe two cataract operations performed by Dr. Mascarenhas. I had never seen cataract surgery before so it was new and exciting. Also, it was interesting to see an operation that I know my beloved GranB has undergone herself! There were definitely some differences between the setup at Pasam and a typical OR in the US. They used sterile cotton cloths instead of the disposable plasticky sterile blue drapes usually seen in the US. There were also a lot less machines in the room. No monitor for patient vitals and definitely no computers! Otherwise, the setup was pretty westernized with a bovie and a wide variety of surgical instruments.

We took a handful of pictures of ourselves suited up for the OR and of the OR setup but because of internet issues I don't have them to post at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to post some later!

Liz