Elephants, cows, and monkeys

Here are some kiddos as they prepare for their "cultural show" last weekend - it was GREAT!
This dance was incredible - the girl wearing the head-piece danced with that heavy piece on her head for over 5 minutes, walking on top of people's backs and bouncing around. She was quite tired at the end...
This is an example of some bench-work at the lab. This method of "mouth pipetting" isn't done regularly anymore, but it was until relatively recently!
Cows in India are sacred. And they are always painted various colors - their bodies, their horns, everything. It is quite comical to see painted cows wandering around in the streets of a busy city. I haven't gotten used to the site yet.
These are my friends, Jon and Judith. They are here for a year; he is doing research on diabetes and she is working in the school (he is a physician and she is a teacher).
This is the market in Mysore - all sorts of different colored dyes for different "bindis", which is the dot that is placed between the eyes for many Indians.
This was a beautiful flower stall in the market. Many women wear fresh flowers strung together in their hair.
An example of a "Haddi", or tribal village where the mobile clinic visits to provide basic medical care.
Elephants! So many elephants today on the mobile clinic - we went into the forest and saw so many animals.
Here I am on "rounds" with Dr. R. Prasad and the nurses, as well as a dental fellow (he is taking the picture).


Goodness, it has been a while since I last posted! That is because I have had a busy week, which is never a bad thing. Let me give a quick summary of what I've done:

First of all, I GOT BETTER! That was huge. Antibiotics did the trick and I felt better the next day, thank goodness. I didn't want to waste any more of my precious India-time feeling crummy. There was a large celebration last weekend for the school kids (SVYM has a school just behind the hospital) - this was their end-of-year celebration, complete with dances and costumes and awards and speeches. I stayed for most of it, and LOVED the cultural show.

This past week has been filled with 2 mobile clinic days (including one today where we ventured into the nearby forest to treat tribal communities there and saw many elephants, monkeys, and deer), a day spent touring some of the local government hospitals and public health centers in neighboring towns, a day spent learning about how the lab is run here and how they decide which tests they need to run and not (VERY interesting to learn about, as this is most certainly a resource-poor setting), as well as daily rounds and lectures.

Wednesday was a holiday for India, as it was their Festival Day, celebrating India as an independent nation. I went into Mysore with my friends Jon, Judith, and Nandeeni and had a lovely day there shopping and taking in the sights of the closest city to Sargur. Jon and Judith are here from California spending a year working - he is doing diabetes research and she is working in the school. Nandeeni works here at SVYM in the management department.

I continue to be surprised daily by all of the things I am learning while being here. There is so much pathology to see on the wards, so much medicine to learn from, both in the hospital and in the field. My excursions to learn about the public health aspect of practicing here are equally stimulating and informative, as I get a better picture of how SVYM fits into it's surrounding community and environment, as well as what the major needs of the community are.

I have only a few more days here, which is incredible for me to think about. Tomorrow I am off, and will go to the smaller hospital for an Ayurvedic massage treatment, something recommended to me and I am quite curious and excited for the experience. I have interesting things going on each day this week, including giving a presentation to the kids at the school on Thursday on my Arctic experiences, which should be great fun. Friday morning I depart for Bangalore to begin the next portion of my India adventure, which is purely tourist-based. I'll have 2 weeks with Zach to explore many different parts of India - Agra, Bangalore and the surrounding area, and West Bengal and Darjeeling, which will include a 6-day trek on the India-Nepal border in the Himalayas. We are VERY excited.

Hopefully I'll be able to post again before I begin the tourist-portion, when I'm not sure about my internet availability. Enjoy the pictures above!

Laura