To Eluru and Back

So it turns although internet was available, I just wasn't in a blogging mood most of the time and when I was there were always a bunch of men standing around my computer reading what I was writing (rolling my eyes).....but no harm done b/c I know you're still reading this Chika :)

Getting to Eluru turned out be an adventure in itself. It was pouring rain outside the night we left CHAI and we had to take ricshaws (luggage and all) to the train the station. Obviously the four of us and one of the sisters couldn't fit in one ricshaw with all our stuff so Farzina and I took one Kim, Caitlin, and of the sisters took another. Mine and Farzina's driver arrived at the station first, dropped us off and unloaded our bags. Little did we know, he dropped us off at the back while Caitlin, Kim and the sister were dropped off at the front, waiting for us inside. Our train was to leave at 9:15pm and by 9:05 me and Farzina were still waiting for Caitlin and Kim on the wrong side. To make matters worse, the place was filled with A LOT of men, many of which were eyeing our bags. By 9:10 we decided to walk around a bit (still at the back) to try the find the rest of our party. We found a couple of employees (I'm assuming that's what they were but I can't really be sure) in a booth and asked them how get to the trains. He pointed outside and said around. So we had to walk outside in the pouring rain to the other side to station. As soon as we got in (but not before we were totally soaked), we found the rest of our party and made a mad dash for the trains. We were on platform 1, got on the train, walked down the entire length of train car dragging our luggage and hitting passengers with it, only to find out by the ticket guy that we were on the wrong train and that our train was on platform 10. The ticket guy handed back our ticket, the sister handed it to me, and I put it in my bag (at least I thought I did). We ran like crazy people (with all our luggage I might add) up these never-ending stairs, across a bridge, to platform 10 and on to train which, by God's good grace, was running late and had not yet departed. However, when we got on the train and I went to take out the ticket I couldn't find it!!! It turns out I had dropped the ticket when I was putting a way, and by sheer blessing, some random guy had picked it up, followed us to platform 10 and gave us the ticket that we needed to be on the train. As we sat the down, the train started to move and we were off to Eluru...

Eluru itself is decent enough, but I was eaten alive by mosquitoes by the end of it. The rooms we stayed in were okay, but there were some serious gecco and cockroach issues, and our bathroom was dingy and gross...at one point, we had toilet that just would not flush, we got to swtich rooms a little later on during our stay. Things were less gross once we were in the new room and all-in-all I think we managed okay. Our time in Eluru consisted of making visits to various Integrated Counselling and Testing Centers (ICTC) across the district with two nurse supervisors. The ICTC centers provide HIV testing and counselling services as well as prevention of mother-to-child transmission counselling. The ICTCs are found in the primary health centers (PHC) which are health facilities meant to serve rural populations.

We met with the district medical health officer of HIV/AIDS and Leprosy as well as different hospital administrators at the numerous health centers we visited. I guess the biggest highlights of this sixteen day experience were going to the inauguration ceremony of the government hospital getting a CD4 machine. It was attended by this mayor-like figure head of Eluru. Up until then, blood samples were being sent all the way to Pune for testing, so with the CD4 machine now in the hospital, turnover time for test results will significantly improve, which means less waiting time for confirmation to start positive people on treatment regimens. The other big highlight was the presentation we gave to probably about 250 junior college students about HIV. We gave them the Canadian perspective, compared it to India, and even got some participation out of the students. It was difficult though b/c although they understood English, the language barrier was definitely present. Thankfully, there were people to translate :) We also visited another leprosy center, this was quite extensive and had more patients than the one in Warangal.

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting details here and there, but that was, essentially our Eluru experience. We leave to go back to CHAI tonight....another night train...so hopefully this train ride experience will be a lot less stressful than the last one. I'll post pics once we're back at CHAI. Bye for now :)