Life in India as we know it so far

Pinky, me, Nikkita-nursing students

             This marks the beginning of the 3rd week that we have been there. And, while that may seem hard to believe, it feels like the time is going by very slowly. We are slowly beginning to identify things that we can do to keep busy, and have been trying to adapt the mindset that we should let relationships be more important than the physical things we accomplish. That being said I think it is going to be very important for me (Raina) to get to know the nursing students who are here, and have met several so far. Last week I had the nursing supervisor show me around the hospital, and tell me what her ideas are for me to do while I am here ( basically tell the nurses how to take care of the acutely ill patients-especially in ICU, not my calling, although their ICU here is very different here than the US) I also "shadowed" in the Casualty (ER back home). The hospital-DCH-is connected with the nursing school which has over 400 students, and they all work in the hospital as part of their schooling. So, that means that the Casualty is over staffed. They have a staff nurse (1 nurse for 18 beds can you imagine MCW nurses?) 2 GNM students, and an "Internship" student who is basically a nurse. They have about 1 patient per hour I would say in the day shift. They also have a "ward boy" who is an older gentleman that runs around, transports patients, does EKG's, etc. -they call him uncle. :) The nurses do not speak English very well, and the students are afraid to try-so in essence I sat at the desk all day by myself and observed. Saturday I attempted to go in from 7a-3p and did the same thing-sat. They wouldn't even let me help them make beds! They said-'no mam no, you sit here'! I did make friends with a girl named Pinky, who does not think she can speak English as she went to a Hindi medium school, but I am working on her.  So after a couple hours of this sitting, the orthopedic surgeon told me he was doing a surgery that day-a tibial interlocking, if I wanted to assist. He seems to think I have worked in the operating room-because he thinks that's what all Traumas consist of-and wants me to assist. It has been very trying to work with him, because he does seem to realize that I am not an OR nurse (or Operation Theatre -OT as they call it).  There is a lot of yelling, which is normal for surgeons I know, but it is hard when they are speaking Hindi! However, it has been a great learning experience and I am trying to be appreciative. I have now assisted on 3 surgeries, and am learning how to do sutures (which ALL of the nurses do here...the surgeons do not do them!) He said that if I keep a journal of the surgeries with pictures of the x-rays (ps he takes pictures during the surgery to document his work...it is pretty funny) that he will give me a "certificate" when I leave, in essence it will look very nice on my resume. I guess I can be thankful for that! 

Sunset at the dam

      I am hoping to teach in the nursing school as well, and had talked to the Nursing school superintendent about that. She said she would talk to them on Monday (today) and let me know what the schedule would be, but then unfortunately her elderly father died this morning-and in India they have to have the funeral right away as they do not embalm, so DCH is kind of on standstill. .The students said that they do not have class tomorrow because of the funeral.  Wednesday is a national holiday, so nobody will work then either. Also, Dr.Chatterjee's mother said that she had wanted to teach us some Hindi and Indian cooking, but when we asked her about it today she said to wait until February....? This is giving us a lot of time to sleep in and relax and I guess we should be thankful for that!

Us at the Gangral dam

          KC went last week to look at a building about 20 minutes away (in Sankra) to give his opinion about renovating it. He is supposed to go tomorrow to meet the contractor with them, but again with the funeral he does not know if he will. That is one of the things we have learned to do here...be flexible. He was supposed to go to Sankra on Wednesday, found a note on the door that said they postponed it, then Friday-the doctor told me to tell him it was postponed again-then Saturday he finally went! You never really know what is going to happen in Dhamtari. We thought we were going to Raipur (The capital about a hr and a half away) yesterday after church with the Chatterjees (they told us they would take us) but then when we stopped by Saturday, her mother told us they went on Saturday instead...and Sunday they said nothing about it, but invited us to go see the Gangral dam for exercise! So-off we went, to the dam, a tourist attraction for people from miles around. It was very pretty in the sunset, and then afterward we stopped at Dr.(sir) Chatterjee's mother's farm to meet her. She was a hilarious 83 year old woman who spoke a mixture of Hindi/English and loves cricket. We spent an hour watching a cricket match with her, and she knew all the players names.

What KC does while I'm at the hospital!

Our first trip to the market

      We have moved into a new apartment that is very cute and has a balcony which gets good internet. I am currently on said balcony drinking 3 rupee chai that you can get from the canteen down the road-delish. On the days that KC has had nothing to do , he mopped the entire apartment's WHITE floor-by hand!- washed dishes and did laundry. Our neighbors have a washing machine, but we have no laundry line to hang our clothes to dry. So, we have been using their washer, and their line, and feel terrible. Sometimes we will go to get it out of the washer and their son's nanny has hung out or folded ALL of our clothes!We would use the Chatterjees washing machine...but a rat ate through the electric cord so that's a no go there. Speaking of small creatures, while lying in bed last night, KC sat straight up and said "there is a cockroach eating a piece of paper on the floor"-it was very calm. He then proceeded to drown it in Lysol (or "Lyzol" in India... and no it is not the same) and when we told Dr.Mousam and Dr.Shweta our neighbors, she said..."So- Cockroaches are our friends...you probably have little rats too!" Hahaha...needless to say I had KC shake out and fold all of our clothes and pack them BACK in our suitcases! The mosquitoes are ridiculous too-one morning in chapel I killed 18 during a half hour service, and we are wearing Deet to bed.Our last week also included our first experience to the market (which is really just a collection of roadside shacks, and you have to know what you are looking for). Dr.Mousam went with us, so we would know where to start shopping. Hopefully we will be going to Raipur soon, as that is the biggest closest city and although we have a stove and refrigerator now, we cannot survive on peanut butter & jelly, grilled cheese and PB crackers forever! We have both decided that although we are chicken lovers, when it comes to cooking we are vegetarians...as the chickens must be bought live and whole....

Our new apartment

Hope everybody in Ohio is enjoying the snow! 
Click here for the new link to pictures of India!
 Thinking and praying for everybody back home and missing you all terribly,

Raina (and KC)