Photo info is at the end of the Blog so go to the end.
Happy Vishu or Happy New Year.
It’s Sunday and I am back in my room. It is also Vishu, the First day of the Tulu & Malayalam Calendar but I cannot find what year it is supposed to be? You may want to lookup Vishu, but here is one site: http://www.festivalsofindia.in/vishu/ The fireworks are going off every now and then outside. On my way home last night there were bands playing and colored lights on many buildings and streets.
The physical trip going to the Tribal Health project was easier than coming back yesterday. I think it is always better to travel in the morning. No one wants to get up early so it is much less crowded. I forgot how it was until we were in the midst of it again. This time a man was sitting where Dr. Patel (my co-worker and travel companion, I call him Arun, his first name) should have been and I was going to say something, even if he didn’t understand my language, I think I could have gotten myself understood. But Dr. Patel said no, he went to get the conductor and the conductor made the man leave. But after that the conductor started checking everyone’s tickets and there were at least two people who were sitting but the tickets belonged to someone else standing up. One was the young student next to me. I think it was his father who was standing. I know he was a student because he had a book to study for some kind of entrance exam, the NDA or something like that. (I just looked and it is the entrance exam for getting into the military. That’s a big deal here, like going to one of the military academies in the USA.) Then the young woman across from me also had a man standing who held her ticket. I am not sure if he was a brother or cousin but the train was so crowded and now I knew why. Can you imagine if everyone who got on a plane gave their seat to someone else and decided to stand for the trip? But of course they all had luggage so all the baggage places were filled, and after an hour everyone was leaning against the end of the seats so it was uncomfortable. We were in Second Class because all the Air Conditioned seats were sold out when we decided to go. That is the first thing we learned, next time we will book our seats wayyyyyyy in advance so we can get an A/C seat and then they make sure only ticket holders are sitting in the coach.
Going on Monday was very pleasant. The scenery was beautiful. I sat next to a teacher who could speak a little English. I found out that school was closed for the holiday and that is why the train was sold out and crowded. The taxi driver met us at the train station (how did he recognize us? Ha Ha) and took us to an air conditioned restaurant for refreshment before we started on our two hour drive to Kalpetta. At one point the road goes straight up the hill on a switchback road that advertizes there are Nine Hairpin Turns and then starts numbering them as we go up. I wasn’t paying attention and missed a couple on the way going. I was too busy paying attention to the landscape, the traffic and how the drivers drove. The big buses and trucks would swing way out into the other lane when they came to the switchbacks because they couldn’t turn that sharp. So the oncoming traffic would have to stop to let them pass. Very interesting but not funny. At least they don’t get snow up there so that doesn’t close the road but I suppose they must get their number of accidents by careless drivers.
We arrived at Royal Palm Resort where we were booked and our “Resort” was not really a resort. We were in the “off-season” so were usually the only two rooms occupied or maybe there was just one other room occupied by a whole family of adults and children. Dinner was a Buffet, but since they had no one else eating they let us pick what we wanted from their list and cooked it up. They delivered it to my room and Dr. Patel and I ate there but then it took several reminders to get them to remove the dirty dishes that I didn’t want to have them in my room all night. Again, no A/C and the room was hot but they also gave us a Mosquito Repellant electrical gadget so there were mosquitoes and I didn’t want to open my windows. The ceiling fan helped a little, while there was electricity. Yes, it kept going off and on. In fact I fell asleep watching TV, a treat for me, and when the electricity came back on it woke me. I got to see the Animal Planet about Africa, and the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. I may be living in the same environment but it is still interesting watching it with commentary and explanations of what is going on. Like there was a program on Monkeys. I will post some photos that we saw lots of monkeys, in fact our driver pointed out monkeys on our way to the train yesterday and it was like, SOOOoooo, no big deal we’ve seen enough of them already. We only got to see three elephants in the wild, one by itself and then two together. The one by itself was small, not an adult, and it was having an altercation with a dog! The dog belonged to the house it was passing and didn’t like the dog barking at it. So he hung around trying to bully the dog and the owner of the dog had to watch the scene to make sure it didn’t get out of hand. We left before it was over so I can’t tell you how it ended. Elephants are hard to see in the wild, believe it or not. When I lived in Africa I was told that sometimes Peace Corps volunteers would still see the steaming piles of fresh feces so they knew they had just left, but were nowhere to be seen? How can you hide something that big but from the photo I hope to post, you can see how they blend in.
So chronologically we spent Tuesday at the Tribal Health Project, and then went with them to an outreach post. It was held at a one room school and the mothers and a few grandmothers came with them. The doctor (not Arun, their doctor who is like a resident physician that he finished his training and is now working in the field) and the team of nurse, pharmacy technicians, and volunteers, would meet with all the children and guardians one by one. They weighed them, examined them, took blood pressure readings and dispensed drugs. I was curious what they were dispensing and was told “antibiotics” if they had infections, vitamins, just the standard run of the mill drugs. No big diagnosis on this kind of visit, if they find anything they would ask them to come to the clinic at the Tribal Health Project itself. I got to walk to a small family compound not far away to see how they lived. A house to a family (there were three houses), and a well that was shared by the group and was very much like the ones we installed in Africa 32 years ago, communal bucket at the end of a rope that was lowered into the well. A barking dog to protect the group. Only one older man came out and a few women, around the same age, and several children. One of the older women had come to the school with a child so we recognized her. I asked how the people were related and it was the man’s sister in the other house, and a sister-in-law from the third house. There was a pile of tree branches and someone asked who collected the wood for cooking and it was the women, of course! I pointed to the wood pile and to the women and smiled and they laughed. Women’s lib has not reached the Tribes yet.
Wednesday we spent at the Project where they can have from 150 to 200 patients a day. If it is really busy day, they could have as many as 300+. Like in Africa, rainy season has more patients than dry season and it is still dry season here. There are only two doctors besides the resident who accompanied us on the outreach. There is a husband and wife doctor team, Indians and her family comes from the nearest big city to the Project. Calicat, now called Kozhikode. (I wouldn’t have known we were at our train station except it was the end of the line.) When we left on Friday the doctors were going to town to spend the holiday weekend with her family. Back to numbers of patients, when it gets really busy, 300+, they said they get the assistants (nurse and volunteers) to weigh patients, take temperatures and blood pressures before they are seen by the doctors. And as usual, the woman doctor will try to take the women patients. I didn’t see any men patients, except older men.
Thursday was our play day. We went to the Nature Reserve where we saw the elephants, deer and monkeys , see http://www.banasura.com/tourism-destinations-wayanad. But then saw the monkeys close up at the Edakkal Caves, see http://www.edakkal.com/. It’s amazing how there is everything on the web now. And we went to a dam, the Second Largest Earth Dam in Asia, (the first is Hirakud Dam, I had to look it up for myself) where there was a beautiful lake, except that it was dry like out West. Again it was the people on these visits that made it fun. At the Caves we met several groups as we were taking photos, a Bengali Family from Kolkata working in Mysore, and 4 Christian families that were traveling as a group. I got a photo of all of us together that the children wanted to practice their English and was asking me What is your name?, and Where are you from? As I asked their names, they were all Christian, like the little girl was Mary (the girl in front with the blue dress/white blouse on) and I made a big deal that her name and mine were the same! But there was also Anthony, and Matthew. We got home to the Resort just in time for a power outage. Everyday where was one. They have a backup system but it like a battery that stores power, not a generator. Only certain electrical appliances work on it, mainly a light in the main room of the cottage, a light outside the room and the ceiling fan. Not even the bathroom light comes on. So after the long day of tourism, I had to take a shower in the dark. We ate very well during the day so we just had fruit for dinner. That was our pattern after the first day. And then we had tea or coffee with cookies as a snack around 8:00 p.m. We went down to the dining room for our tea.
Friday we had a treat that a Swami came to visit for the holiday Vishu. He was going to the Health Project and also wanted to see two other things, a new hospital/teaching college nearby, and a one year old Ashram they are still building nearby. We were quite the group, the swami in orange robes (he spoke very good English), Arun in Western attire (did I say he has lived the last 15 years in Great Britain?), and a Western woman dressed in a saree. We were treated like royalty at the new hospital as Swamiji assisted them in getting the software from our hospital for use in their hospital. My hospital AIMS is funny that they have all these computers and software but next to all the computers they have ledgers that everything is done paper AND computer.
(The hospital and medical center we visited see www.dmwims.com The website starts with “Welcome to WIMS Located in the north eastern Kerala, Wayanad is touted as one among the 50 must-see destinations in the world by the National Geographic. Wayanad offers a picturesque ambience and the vibes of tribal life combined with the tranquility of an amiable hill station that makes it a nature's version of heaven on earth in Gods Own Country where humans merge with nature.”) God’s Own Country is Kerala’s tourism phrase. I didn’t know this about Wayanad. Glad I went to see it.
We were so happy to see that this new hospital is going straight computer, no paper! We’ll see how that goes but at least they are trying from the very beginning so no need to get old records converted digitally. And the head of this new hospital knows the head of our hospital, they were classmates. The head of this new hospital is such a Renaissance man, that he has studied Classical Indian Singing and had a performance in Cochin where my hospital is located and our Medical Director went to hear him sing. The medical school is planning to start accepting students this August, and is already operating as a hospital. The American OSHA would have had a fit that the hospital is open and operating while it is still under construction. But it was very modern, and busy already so they must need the services there. A teaching hospital needs 700 bed capacity so that is what they are starting with. Our hospital is growing and they are building additions to get us to 1,400 bed capacity.
The new ashram we visited was in a lovely setting, and had a monastic resident tending a cow there. They have weekly satsangs (talks and chanting) and it is being completely donated by one local devotee: land, building materials and workers. It was very special to share in the inspections with our Swami visitor.
So now I’m back and need to see what I should be working on. We haven’t met with our Hospital Medical Director yet to discuss our report on services to the elderly. Remember that things move very slowly here so after we meet with him, it may take months before we know what they think of the report?
I also have to go online and check my email that I have checked at the Tribal Health Project but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on their computer. I saw that I received information from Gecko Travel that must contain additional details about my trip to Africa.
I’ll keep in touch. I hope this posting was more interesting than “a day in the life.” I thought that was so boring but some of you wanted to know.
Love,
Marie
I'm going to put some photos here and then some more in a separate posting.
First is a group shot of the visiting team, I'm standing next to the young doctor. Two photos from in front of my cabin at the Royal Palm Resort, raining cats and dogs while we were there. Only happened at the end of the day on two days. Next is the group shot of the children we befriended while visiting the caves. Then the school house at the Tribal colony and finally the driver and me infront of the car we took there. All of us from the first group shot were in this one car for the trip. I'll put the animal shots in the next posting.
