Warangal Pics (again...in no particular order...)

Warangal Fort...the intricate stone work....

Caitlin walking by some pillars

Me beside a beautiful stone carving...the pic really doesn't do it justice

Examining the amazing work...I still can't believe things like this could be created with minimal technology

On top to the stone elephaht...getting on that thing was A LOT harder than it looks....

Caitlin and Farzina showing off their saree material after an evening of shopping :)

First of all the hill is enitrely stone and at the top is the temple thing....if u get closer you can see a wall spiraling up and around the hill to the top of the temple (kind of reminded me of the one in China)

Kim on the top part of the place we resided in Warangal :)

Farzina and Caitlin working away...trying to put the research on paper....

Down the road on the right hand side was the care and support center where we spent our days working with the nurses...

More pics to come in a couple of weeks....

The Life and Times in Warangal (Including Attack of the Gecco!!)

So we finally have access to the internet at last!!! I'm not sure anyone is reading this anymore but I'll update it anyways to remind myself....We spent 12 days in Warangal, which a small city about a 2.5hour drive from CHAI. The ride there was decent enough. On the way there we saw this massive rock hill which actually turned out to be a sort of fort. As we got closer we could see this stone wall built all the way up and around it and at the very top of the of the was a temple. It was quite impressive, unfortunately I wasn't able to get a decent enough picture so you'll have to use your imagination. We arrived at the Care and Support Center (CSC), which is outside of the main city of Warangal. My first impressions of place...rural, rural, rural!!! Being more of a city a girl, this was quite the adjustment for me....The actual building we stayed in about a 30 second walk from the CSC. One thing that took ALL of my enegry getting used to (and I never fully did) was all the flies. It felt like there were hundreds of them all the time!!! Anyways, getting back to the CSC, it is for HIV positive pts providing inpatient services for those whose health status has deteriorated because of the disease. There are also 60 orphans at the center, all of which are HIV positive. The kids have their education, food, recreation, etc. provided for them by the center, but it's definitely a struggle because the funding for the kids is so little. There are 9 nurses that work at the center as well as a counsellor, and the director. The people at the center and in the village in general were all so friendly. But we got a lot of stares everywhere we went b/c I guess they don't get to many foriegners in that area. Everyone was so curious about who we were and where we were from and my goodness were the girls ever interested my braids!!!

We spent most of our time at the center in the mornings helping the nurses give meds, taking blood pressures(manually I might add!!!), checking weights, and in the afternoons doing rounds with the doctor who would come in to see the patients. I think my favorite thing was spending time with the kids though. They were so full of energy and brought the whole place to life. Unfortunately, b/c of confidentiality rules, I can't post pics of the patients or kids :( which is a shame b/c they're amazing pics...

After a couple of days into our stay at the CSC we got to go into the city and go to this place called Warangal Fort. The fort was amazing, the architecture was so intricate and the size of the fort was huge!! It's hard to believe such work could be created without the use of the technologies we have today. Across from the fort was a rather large park, and if you climbed up this hill you could get beautiful views of the district. One thing I thought was funny was, once again, all the attention we got. So many people wanted to take their photos with us!!! Like I said before, they don't get many foriegners there so I guess it was kind of a big deal. People would even just snap our photos when they thought we were not looking!!!

Back at the center, the kids and the patients were getting used to us. The kids were even calling us "sister" which is what they call the nurses. One thing I have to mention here is about the nurses is how phenomenol they are at start IVs. For all fellow nurses out there, you can appreciate why I would mention this. Some of the pts have such tiny viens, or they're so difficult to find, but the nurses can still start their IV with no problem...we never attempted to do that, I should also add, but it was always so amazing to watch.

On one of the afternoon, when Caitlin and I returned to our room, we saw this tiny little lizard gecco thing (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) on the wall. I, of course, was disgusted. Caitlin tried to scare it off, but it ended up falling into the garbage can. When she went to move the can the thing jumped out onto her hand and she flung it off. This would have been okay, except the creature went flying off her hand and into me.... landing right on my chest!!! I, naturally, screamed and flailed around and flung it off of me. Then we couldn't find it for a couple of seconds and we were worried it might have crawled into to Caitlins open bag. But it turned out it had found it's way back onto the wall (by this time I was standing on my bed completely flipping out...). Caitlin actually managed to scare it off and it scurried it's way outside our room. I was so paranoid and jumpy for the rest of the week. Every time I saw something move out of the corner of my mind, I would freak out!! The next morning, I woke up to the sight of yet another gecco thing on my wall. However, this one was high up by the window, not really close to Caitlin or myself and so, in an effort not to have nervous breakdown, I decided to name the thing George. As crazy as it sounds, that actually helped to take the edge off!!!

The next night, it was the birthday of one of the nurses. We had delicious food and cake. The kids all got a piece of cake to and I have to say, they were extremely well behaved during this process. They all patiently and quietly waited their turn to get thier piece...very well disciplined that bunch!!

The remaining days we spent in Warangal we got take tours of other community services. The places we visited were all about 5-10 minutes walking distance from each other. One place we visited was a center that cares specifically for leprosy patients. That was really interesting, and we got to briefly meet some of the patients as well, but they didn't speak much english. On the walk there, we saw bunch of monkeys and I stopped to take a picture...but I have to say, I think I had paused any longer I would have been attacked...I got the sense they felt threatened rather than amused by my camera. But luckily no harm came of it.

We also got to visit another nearby village and got a tour of some of the services they provided for that village and surrounding area. I should mention, all the services provided for the people, that we saw, were provided by sisters and priests. Basically they were faith-based organizations and the work they do is very impressive. It ranges from schooling for children that would otherwise be able to afford an education to health care for the sick and a lot work around education and reducing stigma regarding HIV/AIDS.

We went to another orphanage about 30 minute drive from the center. It was specifically for girls. It was funny b/c as the jeep pulled up to the orphange, when the kids saw us in the car they all started screaming!!! I guess they were pretty excited to see foriegners!!
Of all the visits we had, my favorite, by far, was at the school for the deaf. The school, was about a 5 minute walk for the center and is for children from probably about kindergarden age to teens all of who are deaf. As soon as we walked into the area all of these kids came pouring out of the building and were so excited to see new faces!! There was no sound but you could feel the energy and excitement. There really are no words to describe it. They just surrounded the four us and had pads of paper and wrote questions, to which we wrote replies. They did these high five things with us, and they wanted to show us dances, they wanted us to dance, they were just so interested and so excited...it was truly truly truly amazing :)

On our last evening at the center, the director took us into to town so we could buy sari materials. It was pretty sweet b/c he knew the owner of the store so we got everything half off. The car ride back was okay....except when Farzina threw up...poor thing...
We finally headed back to the CHAI on Wednesday. We head out for Eluru on Sunday evening...taking the train (should be interesting). The good thing is, unlike Warangal, we should have internet access at the Primary Health Centers so hopefully I'll be able to update this a little more frequently :)

Farzina and the Cockroach, Hospital Visits, and some Local "Celebrities"

So it looks like I have little bit of time before we leave for Warangal so I'll take the opportunity to give an update. So on Tuesday night Farzina was outside her room on the phone but had left her door open. She saw something scurry across the floor in the hall into her's and Caitlins room. Unsure of what she saw, she and Kim searched through the room using Kim's flashlight but couldn't find anything, so everybody just went to bed. The next morning as Farzina and Caitlin were chatting, Farzina was going through her bag when this huge cockroach scurried up her arm (which apprantly felt very fuzzy). That's when I heard her scream from mine and Kim's room and she ran outside. When I took a peek in her room I saw this thing which was, without a doubt, the largest insect I have ever seen in my life!!!! It was so disgusting!!!!! Caitlin was finally able to trap and throw it outside and that was how our Wednesday started.

After breakfast the four use, accompanied by one of the CHAI workers, took a tour of the government hospital, which I talked about in my previous post. I'll add a little more here though. The place was quite huge. Unlike hospitals in Canada, this place had two separate buildings. One for inpatient services and one for outpatient (OP) services. Like I said before, we took tour of the OP building, talked to a couple of docs and counsellors. The only thing missing was that we never got a chance to talk with any of the nurses. But what we did learn about was quite informative. There seemed to be a lot of services in OP dedicated to HIV, STD prevention, treatment, and counselling as well as Prevention of Parent-to-child transmission programs and services which, I thought, was pretty great. One thing that was interesting to us was how some of those we talked to had the view that Western medicine relys predominantly on technology as opposed to clinical skills. I would argue, however, that while the technology has been a major asset in improving the care we give patients, as nurses, or doctors, or PT's, or OT's, etc. etc. skills are still used a great deal and play just as important a role, actually more-so, then the role of technology.



This morning, Thursday, we visted another hospital. This time it was faith based institution. The hospital is named St. Theresa Hospital, and it has connections with CHAI. They several other hospitals throughout India, as well as a hospital in Ghana. It was very interesting to compare this hospital to the government one. St. Theresa's was very impressive. Just the atmosphere alone was so warm and welcoming as opposed to the often cold sterile environment of many of our hospitals back home as well as the hospital from yesterday. I actually felt quite at home and and content to be there. Being faith based, St. Theresa's is Catholic hospital, offering the same services as any hospital in Calgary or Toronto, but one thing that makes this place quite special is that they have an orphanage. Children/babies would be left there because of whatever circumstances and they were taken in, raised and cared for, by the sisters. Up until a few years ago, these kids could also be apoted by families within India and abroad. However, this has been stopped temporarily but will hopefully continue in the future. While the kids are there, they go to school and are raised to just like any other child would be. We met the sister who takes care of them...she was such a sweet lady :) The hospital also has a nursing school attached to it. We met with some of the students which was pretty neat. Their system of teaching is intense, to say the least. The students even have a lab component which incorporates labs from micro and biochemistry. They also have their own SIM lab, which I think gets used pretty extensively. I was very very impressed with the school.


Us with the sister who takes care of the orphans :)




The nursing school

I also have to say, that I am quite impressed with the work of Catholic organizations in India. I know that there are other NGO's that do things that are just as great, but the ones we have seen have been Catholic and their work has been quite remarkable.

Outside the hospital with one of the sisters (in the orange), she is a teacher at the nursing school. The other sister (in the blue) is from CHAI.

On a less deep note, it would appear that the four of us have become local "celebrities"!! Our pictures showed up in two different newspapers today!! One of the pictures was of us standing along the bridge on Tank Bund road. We had been on our way back to CHAI from Lumbini park couple of days ago and I guess a photographer snapped our photo. Then we found out that at the government hospital we had visited on Wednesday our photos were also taken there. In that situation, an MP had come to the hospital that day for an inaugurational ceremony of the GI department getting an endoscope. The media was there and a photographer was snapping our photos which ended up in the newspaper!!. We were informed about this by one of the sisters at St. Theresa's Hospital today. LOL!!! We're not that special in Canada though!!
Page 5 of "The Hindu", a local newspaper. Believe it or not, that's Kim, Farzina, me and Caitlin standing on the right!!! -- Unfortunately we couldn't find the other newspaper that had published our picture at the government hospital :( But at least we got this one!!!

Last Set of Pics for the Next Little While

So since we are heading out to the rural areas tommorrow these will probably be the last set of pics I put for the next couple of weeks. The pics are of the Birla Temple, the big Buddha statue, and the government hospital we visited yesterday. The hospital experience was quite informative. We got to tour about half of the facilities and talk with some of the doctors and counsellors about the services they offer for the patients. It was an informative day and overall a good experience :)
Birla Temple

The Buddha statue

Outside the government hospital

Talking with one of the docs in the STD clinic

The green things are the linens used in the hospital. They lay them outside the air dry...

More Pics -- in no particular order...

Kim and my room

Caitlin and Farzina enjoying breakfast. The food has been delicious :)

Me standing outside of CHAI

Those crazy ricshaws!!! Being a passenger in them can be scary as hell....

The shanty town just up the road and right across the street is the gated community.

Pictures At Last!

Walking through the medicine garden.


The sisters in the back do basically all of the healthcare work for those in rural communities. That's Fr. Sebastian beside me.


Just outside the community care center before we left.

Inside the Community Care Center

This was taken at the Front of the Community Care Center set to open at the end of July.

A Day Full of "Adventures"

So on Monday we started with orientation. We got an introduction to what CHAI is about. I was very impressed with how extensive their work is. They many branch organizations, and I think their contribution to healthcare in India has been quite significant. After the morning orientation we had the afternoon off and decided it might be a good idea to buy a cellphone before we head off into the rural community. It was quite the adventure/stressful/frustrating process in doing something as simple as buying a phone. First we had to take a ride in the ricshaw to get into the city, which was decent enough, and we actually found the mall we were looking for easily enough. We had to withdraw cash from the HSBC ATM which was fine except for the creeper trying to look over Farzina's shoulder when she entering her pin number. Getting into the mall and the stores was a bit of annoying process b/c everywhere you wanted to enter there were metal detectors and security personelle who searched our bags. It was annoying as hell, but for the sake of safety I guess I really can't complain. In buying the cellphone, like so many things we've experienced this far, it was ridiculously complicated. First we had to give the salesperson a photocopy of the visa and a photocopy of picture ID (i didn't do this, Farzina did, which I thought was pretty brave of her). The purpose of the photocopies is so that phone companies can track the calls being made, b/c I guess in the past, bomb blasts were coordinated through cellphone use. Anyways, in order to get the photocopies, we had to leave cellphone place and go back into the mall, through all the security again, and get into the Xerox place, and the photocopy process ended up taking probably twice as long since the machine was just barely working. We went back to cellphone place afterwards and then were told we also needed an actual passport sized photo as well!!! We were getting pretty frustrated at this point so he was nice enough to sell us the phone without the picture but told us to get a photo to him within the next couple of days. Then, for whatever reason, he told us the SIM card we needed to buy to validate the phone a purchase minutes had to be bought at his uncle's shop which was another 10 minute walk on those crazy busy roads. The whole getting the SIM card and buying minutes process took probably about an hour and by then it was getting dark. Then we decided to try to get the passport photo, but we had to go to a completely different shop to get this and when we got there there the salesperson told us we had to purchase a minimum of 8 passport photos even though we only needed one. The whole thing was tiring and frustrating and we just left without the photos. In the end we got the cellphone, the SIM card, and the minutes, but it'll only be good for a max of 3 days unless we give the original guy who sold us the phone a passport photo, which means we'll try again for today.

On the way back from the cellphone adventure we took another ricshaw ride. It was rush hour so the traffic was crazy and our driver kept almost hitting the people walking along the street, the people on motorbikes, the other ricshaws, and buses. But this time it was more amusing then it was terrifying, b/c these people never seem to get into accidents despite the madness/chaos on the roads. It's quite amazing actually, and would never EVER work in Canada.

We finally made it home in one piece :) But, of course, before I could go to bed I had to have just one more "adventure". There was one of those geco lizard things on the outside screen of our window!!! Even though it wasn't inside and couldn't get in our room it was so disgusting watching it dart around as we tried to scare it off. I actually gagged a couple of times. Once it finally scurried away I was able to get a rather decent sleep. I'm sure there are more random adventures to come so stay tuned :) I'll try to post pics within the next few days :)

My first attempt at posting some pics. This is a pic from the Training Center we visited on Sunday. We are in the medicine garden.

Adjusting and Re-adjusting

Sooooo, we finally made it to India!!! We arrived at around 1am saturday morning but by the time we got our luggages we didn't end up leaving the airport until about 3am. it was fine though b/c one of the CHAI employees was waiting for us to pick us up. a very very friendly man :) after a few hours of sleep we spent most of the day just wandering around CHAI headquaters getting used to it.

One of the first things I noticed about this place is the stark contrast between the rich and the poor. There really is no middle class, you're either wealthy or live in poverty. Just up the street from CHAI, on one side of the street is a shanty-town...house made literally out of garbage and on the other side of the street are these big homes in a gated community. I know it sounds cliche, but being here really makes me grateful for all that I have in Canada.

The next day, Sunday, we went to the CHAI training center which is on this sort of farm. The center is set to open at the end of july, a work in progress, but looks like it will be pretty nice once it's done. The training center will be for training and teaching nurses and nurse practitioners. Plus it will provide care for HIV, TB, and malaria patients. The place also has a garden which has natural medicinal herbs, like the aloe plant, plants for colds, etc. etc. I thought it was pretty clever since the place is quite self-sufficient.

In the afternoon we went into the city. CHAI is actually located in Secunderabad, which is the twin city of Hyderabad. So Secunderabad to Hyderabad is like what Scarborough is to Toronto. Anyways, we took a richshaw into Hyderabad, which was scary as hell, b/c those things are about half the size of Chika's pontiac, and there are no doors on it. Yet we made into Hyderabad without incident. We tried to find the tourist office to take a tour of the city but ended up wandering around aimlessly for about an hour, and when we finally found the office we had missed the last tour bus. So we ended up walking to a park nearby, Lumbini park, and sat around and chatted. It was pretty nice, the only gross thing we saw a great big rat scurrying across the park bench....yuk. Then walked from the park to this restaurant reccommended by the Lonely Planet called Paradise Persis...which is famous for its Biryani (i'm pretty sure i spelled that wrong). The food was pretty good, and the service was top notch :)

Today we got a bit of an orientation to CHAI. We got more of an understanding of what the organization is about. Their work is pretty impressive. In a country thats' healthcare is taken over by private care and not so great government hospitals, CHAI is doing a lot in terms of community health, health promotion, treatments for the sick etc. They cater primarily to the poor, who can't afford to pay the prices charged in private and government hospitals. Most of the funding is throgh church donations, and some government funding. I think tommorrow is more orientation and wednesday and thursday are hospital visits. I will try to post pics as soon as i can figure out how. That's all for now :)