On getting sick in India...

Here is a painting on the side of a wall outside the school that SVYM did - they do yearly assessments of these schools, map out all of the houses in the community, and keep track of how many houses have toilets (none), wells (2), working pumps for drinking water (3), etc. The writing you see is in Kannada, which is the local language.
Here are some of the girls I screened. They are in 7th grade.
Here I am checking in the mouth of a boy - he is in second grade. Quite small for his age, as you can see - that was a very common finding.
Here I am with some of the kids I screened. They were quite playful and enjoyed me, once they realized I wasn't going to hurt them:)
This is the team that went with me. The gentleman to my right (with his eyes half-closed) is Dr. Dennis, an Ayurvedic practitioner who mostly works at a different hospital started by SVYM, but he runs a mobile clinic once/week, as well as doing the school screenings when needed.


Well, I suppose that isn't the most jolly of titles, but it's all I can come up with at this moment. And don't worry, I'm not JUST going to talk about getting sick in India...but I might just start with it. I didn't get the kind of sick I assumed I'd get (the belly-kind)...instead, I ended up with strep throat. After experiencing my first high fever in as long as I can remember, I decided it was time to take some action today. I'm not 45 minutes into my first course of antibiotics and tylenol to help break the fever, and I'm already feeling better. That could be me mentally willing it to be, but I know when my fever breaks I'll feel worlds better. So, moral of the story for me is...don't get sick in India:) It takes away from all the other really cool things I could be doing! Like attending a huge celebration for all of the school kids this afternoon and evening. I'm hoping to still be able to make some of it, as I've heard their dances are quite cute.

Onto a better topic, the end of the week went pretty well for me. I spent Thursday going out and doing school health assessments at a school about 45 minutes from here. It is in a tribal community where SVYM has been working for quite some time, and they send a mobile clinic there every week, as well as helping them with their sanitation and subsidizing their food. We screened 41 children of the 90 who are enrolled in the school (a few ran away when they say us, a number of them were not in school that day, which is pretty typical apparently). The biggest things we screened for were tooth decay, anemia, malnutrition, and skin diseases. All 4 issues were quite common, particularly the malnutrition and tooth decay (one leads to another, as you might imagine). But the kids were adorable and my colleagues great with them, giving out vitamins and anti-parasite medications to all kids. I really enjoy the time I spend in the field here, as getting a glimpse into their lives and struggles is quite compelling and helps me understand more fully their health issues.

Tomorrow (provided I feel up for it) I will head out on another mobile clinic. This week is packed with many activities, with a day off on Wed, as it is some sort of celebration, though I'm not sure what. More to come!