Wednesday Jan 21st

Not only did we get to watch the whole inauguration…but HBO showed the MLK day celebration at the Lincoln memorial. So we got to see it all! He even made front page of the Hindu paper. I haven’t seen any for sale yet, but I am going to try to buy one if I do. It was an Washington article, but it was still exciting.

Not quite as fun but….

I am on the medical floor now. I like it a lot better because it is much more like how I would run things at home. Nurses actually wash their hands, so that is cool! The nurses are also a lot more concerned with teaching me. The mornings are nice because we walk around with the nurses for rounds and they explain every patient’s disease process. The Doctors are really great at explaining disease processes too. They all like teaching foreigners and are much more inviting to us than their own students giving us coffee and samosas at break time. I went back to the ICU today as well. They have a boy with Tetanus and a little girl with Haemophilus Influenza. Both of which we are immunized for in the states. It is really sad because sometimes it is like they use the patients for experimental purposes and then give up on them and let them die. I have an American friend that is a Fellow at Cinnicinati Children’s hospital. She is really great about confronting the Indian doctors about their care choices. She and I also have stepped in a few times to intervene. When a child’s oxygen level starts to drop, no one seems to do anything, so we go in and play with the ventilators to help them out. It has been really good for me to start to understand vents. Today I also saw a 6month old child that only weighed 7lbs. They called it failure to thrive but it has to be some kind of rare dwarfism because it doesn’t look emancipated. It just looks like a small newborn. They are not sure what to do with him yet…

Let’s see I have not told you about how we are perceived here. Children either love us or hate us. Some women throw even their babies into our arms or turn them around and make them shake our hands. Indians do not shake hands at all, so the kids get a little freaked out about it. A lot of parents and older children try to talk English to us. Sometimes they are understandable- and sometimes I just smile and nod. Most of them are very eager to uncover their kids to show you their injuries and you just smile and say it looks good no matter how bad it looks. Sometimes it feels like we are in a zoo. We are either the extremely weird looking creature that no one has seen before. Some people just stare as we walk by. Others treat us like we are awesomely rare monkeys and smile, wave, and tell their friends that, “there are Americans over there!” We just smile and wave back. Everyone loves to have their picture taken. There is no concept of privacy in the hospital and many of the students take pictures. It still makes me feel really weird though, so I cannot do it. Beds are four feet away from each other and every child’s diagnosis is on the foot of the bed with a plan for the day. Charts are also spread around for anyone to look at. As an American I could go through the entire hospital without any one ever questioning me. I could probably even steal a child if I could get the mother away for a bit… There are guards at every door, but I am not sure what they really do. They more keep extra visitors out. They do not have guns or radios so I am not sure what protection value they have.

I guess that is all for now… we have a big trip planned for the weekend with 8 girls. It should be fun! Tonight we have to say goodbye to yet another Aussie friend named Shree that lives in our hostel, and 4 other Aussies that live in a different one. Shree has taken such good care of all of us girls, and it will be sad to see him go. We have met a new girl that is from Zimbabwe. Her name is Rossie and she is extremely nice. Let me know what else you are curious about. It is hard for me to remember to tell you everything and there is no way I could tell you it all. Sometimes we still feel like we are in a movie just as bystanders because what we are experiencing is so unbelievable…