After our meeting yesterday Dr. Italia seemed to think it would be nice and informational for me to visit another Primary Health Center and go along with some of the counselors to visit families that are affected by Sickle Cell. So today, Tanvi, Dr. Abhishek and I went to the Primary Health Center in Gage. It was kind of entertaining when we first got there because everyone that worked at the health center was waiting for me. Dr. Italia had called them ahead of time to tell them that I would be coming to observe so they all were there to show me what they did. Chairs were pulled out for me, someone went out and bought a bottle of slice when they realized that there wasn’t any filter water and I was treated very well. It was amusing. Anyway, while I was there I got to observe the lab technicians while they performed the initial DDT test on the samples collected. This initial test is done on the samples collected during screening of the villages (not the newborns). A positive test result will appear if the individual is trait or disease so if a positive test result is found then the sample will be sent to the lab in Valsad for confirmatory testing to determine the exact sickle status of the individual. On average the lab in Gage screens around 500-600 individuals every month. The primary center we visited today serves 6 villages in the area and provides counseling and medicine to 52 sickle cell disease patients. They also have awareness days at local schools and conduct mass screening camps in the schools and other areas in the various villages.
The two counselors at the health center took us to meet two families in the nearby villages. The first person we met was a lady that was diagnosed with sickle cell in 2009. She is probably in her mid-40s and already has children. Before her diagnosis she had been in hospitals due to painful crises and for blood transfusions. But after her diagnosis and receiving medicine she has not been admitted to the hospital and her pain crises have been managed by pain medication. She has two kids and both of her kids are trait positive and do not have disease. The next family that we visited was very interesting to learn about. The father, son, daughter and father’s sister all have sickle cell disease while the mother has sickle cell trait. All five members have at least one copy of the sickle gene. The daughter has had the need for one blood transfusion but other than that no one has had any pain crisis or complications with SCD before or after diagnosis. Remember that all of these individuals were diagnosed in recent years through the Sickle Control program.
The first place family we visited.
After visiting these villages we went to the Chickili Blood Bank to eat our lunch. Apparently there is a shop across the street from the blood bank that has really good egg dishes and our driver and Dr. Abhishek really wanted to get food from there. They ordered and sent two dishes to Tanvi and me which were very good. Don’t know exactly what they were but there were some sort of egg/vegetable mixed dish?
Tanvi and My Lunch: It looks weird but it was actually really good
After lunch we went to Tanvi’s home, or rather her parent’s home since she lives in Valsad with her husband’s family. Tanvi’s father has a mango farm so we all went to see the farm and it was amazing! Apparently southern Gujarat has a lot of mango farms and Tanvi said her father has 400-500 mango trees. There were so many different types of mangos and I was in heaven. Most of the mangos will not ripen until mid-June but she gave me a mango that I can eat green with some salt and chili powder. Will have to find a knife first but it was so cool to see a mango farm.
Entrance to the mango farm So many mangos!!!!!!
Packing of the mangos
Tanvi, Dr. Abhishek and Jithin Bhai Mango!
Tanvi's niece Harshuvi
We headed back to Valsad after the visit to the farm. Along the way....
People washing their clothes and drying them by the river. Some kids going along for the ride on the tractor
For some reason people love painting their houses with bright colors. This house had practically every color of the rainbow somewhere. Loved the flower on the right. There were different types of flowers on all the farms we drove by today
A lorry accident we passed by on the way back to the blood bank
While we were gone for the day the other girls had gone through the PEAS document and put together some of the standard operating procedure guidelines that needed to be created which was very helpful. Riddhima had invited me to her house for dinner so after work, Riddhima, Dhara (who is also Riddhima’s cousin), and I headed to her house. We got there a little early so we went to the Sai Baba temple that was down at the other end of Tithal Beach. The temples here are gorgeous and that much better because they are along the beach.
Sai Baba Temple
The view of the beach from the temple
When we reached Riddhima’s house again she gave me a tour of her house before dinner. It’s a gorgeous house and her mother made one of the best dinners I have ever had and I am very very picky when it comes to eating Indian food. There was so much food and it was all so delicious. We had puri with subjee, mango pudding, vada, pappadam, spicy buttermilk, rice and daal. Her mother kept putting more food and my plate and by the time we got done with dinner all three of us were stuffed. I especially liked the mango pudding, it was cool and refreshing. Riddhima and Dhara’s grandmother was there as well and she was so cute. She only spoke Gujarati so she just smiled at me a lot and asked me questions through Dhara and Riddhima. As I left Riddhima’s mother gave me a gift and it’s a gorgeous jewelry box. It was totally unexpected but it’s so pretty and a perfect gift for me.
All in all it was a great day and this meal is probably the best I’ve had so far on my trip. Her mother basically invited me over for the rest of the week if I wanted to have dinner with them. I’m tempted to take her up on her offer because she is an amazing cook. I’m excited for tomorrow now, I get to pick up my chaniya choli and do more shopping :-P
The jewelry box Riddhima's mother gave me
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