Despite the chaos, life here is simpler in many ways. People take time to greet each other, they relish having a meal together, food is prepared with pride and skill, and smiles are always abundant. (poeticizing aside, I just found a mouse literally inside the printer. I wonder why it hasn't been working???).
Yesterday, Matt and I joined a team of health workers on their weekly trip to one of the outlying villages in our district. The group is headed by this woman named Fulo. She has been at this for eight years and under her supervision, her team now personally cares for 27,000 patients in 20 villages. She is one of the sweetest, most kind and caring people I have ever met. She also visits the school twice a day to doll out medicines and fix minor cuts and bruises. The village we went to yesterday was only about 7km away, but because the roads suck, it took about 45mins to arrive. Word had spread throughout the 'village' that we were coming, so after about an hour, a fair-sized crowd had accumulated for us. The village seemed only to consist of 5 or 6 mud houses with makeshift roofs. Entire families live together inside each house, with each son's wife also moving into the house until all of the family's children are married. Because of the severe drought, most of the men had left to find work in more fertile states, such as Gujrath. Clinic started at 11am, and within 2 hours, Matt and I had seen a total of 40 patients together (all children under the age of 5). It was exhausting! That averages out to 3 minutes per patient, to do a full body check up. This is extra challenging in screaming children. Back in the US, we are taught a very specific way to examine kids. First you charm them, then you harm them (I made that up right now, but it sounds really good). But at yesterday's clinic, all rules went out the window as we struggled to listen to heart and lung sounds between high-pitched screaming and kicking. We did our best and we hope we didn't miss anything major because we are probably the only soon-to-be doctors these kids will see for another year. No pressure...When clinic was over we headed back to the 'city' where we ate lunch with Fulo and the rest of the team. FUlo had prepared a small meal for everyone the night before: tons of chapati (traditional, flat, round indian bread en lieu of a fork and knife. kind of like an amazing-tasting pita) and small amounts of potato and tomato dishes. We were about 8 people eating. Of course they insisted that Matt and I serve ourselves first, so I dished out very tiny portions to us. They all then started laughing and proceeded to fill our plates with food. You really cant beat Indian generosity.
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