Day Two

Hello all,
Day two of this crazy ride, and I must say that this trip is everything I hoped it would be and more! Awoke this AM to the sounds of many birdsongs since I'm on the lovely CMC campus (Anne and Christina reported their wake-up was honking horns). Met up with the ladies for a yummy <$1 breakfast on campus here, got a tour of the CHAD facility next door, then went into town to register at the hospital.


The CMC hospital campus is very impressive. Its like an urban university campus, with lots of people, motor traffic, all kinds of buildings to get lost in, etc. Everyone is really nice, and willing to help send confused foreigners in the right direction. Honestly, the only real differences I see between this and University Hospital in San Antonio are that this place is designed for lots of open air due to no a/c, and they dry their laundry by hanging it up on the roof. Otherwise, they are very busy, have all the same stuff that a modern US hospital has, plus the nurses are real nice and wear white hats and saris.

After registering, the ladies went across the street to get some native clothing, and I got my SIM card charged up (I think I may have gotten ripped off a bit), then tried to find them, to no avail. Thats OK, though, since I just wandered up and down busy alleys and side streets, where it looks like almost anything and everything is for sale. And cows just wander aimlessly around.

After lunch back at the college canteen, we headed over to the CHAD complex for HIV/TB outpatient clinics. (aside: met up with a student from Tufts who told me about the rumored swimming pool. will report back once have confirmed with my own eyes)
I saw several HIV patients in for continuity visits, all on govt sponsored triple HAART therapy. They are started on this regimen if CD4s drop below 200. My patients all were doing well. One had a son with her that a German med student kept playing with, until we discovered he had scabies, which ended the fun right there.

As we walked back to the computer lab, I took a side detour to check out the supposed giant bat tree, not 30yds from my hostel. And it is true. I thought I was hearing birds squawking, but instead, in this giant tree, were at least 30 very large bats, flapping around and making lots of noise. Pretty cool, provided they are not the vampire kind.

Some interesting things I have seen:

Squeaky shoes: in the US, little kids all have shoes that have little blinky lights that go off when they walk. Here, the shoes/sandals all have squeakers in them, so they sounds like a really loud dog toy every time the kid takes a step. When they get mad and start stomping their feet, the effect is spectacular. They also fit in great with all the horn honking outside. I am now searching for pairs in adult sizes.

Abject poverty: for all the fun entertainment I am getting out of this, I am also seeing true squalor and terrible crushing poverty on a daily basis. People are begging on most streets, little kids, old women with no hands being wheeled around in carts. Driving up and down the roads you see the things that people live in, lean-to's, a tent made of a sheet, on a pile of garbage, next to the fly-infested open sewer. And the garbage is all over, mounds of it, any place that is not walked/driven on regularly in town, is covered in trash.

Saris/women's attire: wow. Indian women, at least those down here in Tamil Nadu, really have great outfits. Their saris are full of incredibly vivid colors and patterns, and they often accessorize this with intricate jewelry, fresh flowers in their hair, and more. For all the poverty, dirt and dust around here, they women, as a rule, stand out. Rich, poor, whatever, they know how to dress.

CMC College Campus: as opposed to the CMC Hospital campus in town. Town is crazy, college campus is absolute serenity, with lots of birds, butterflies, steep mountains all around, big green trees, and neat cool grey stone buildings with dark cool corridors. And all electrical relay boxes are turned into tributes to great scientists (thinking of making a compendium of the electrical panels so far: Neils Bohr, Lois Pasteur, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, etc etc etc).

I was going to talk about the "south indian head wobble" wobble here, but it is so unique and pervasive, and throws us westerners for such a loop, that it probably deserves its own post. If I ever get the video thing worked out, I'll post some footage of it too.

so pics/video may be every other day, based on how often I get to a cybercafe. I will have lots more, and may resort to an online album as well, we shall see.