June 7th: Hospital, Shopping and Mango Shakes

Some Adivasi women outside of the hospital

 The day here doesn’t start till 9 which is nice. Mala is the cook at the hostel and she makes the most amazing food for all us. We all eat breakfast together around 8:30 before heading down to the hospital for our day’s work. After breakfast I met up with Ammani and Sheila to go around the hospital and see what has changed and what I would be doing. The hospital is currently under construction. Additional wards are being added and separate buildings are being built for an operation theater, post-natal ward, blood bank and another guest hostel. It’s amazing the changes that are underway from last year.  I truly believe that this hospital has managed to find every kind-hearted, dedicated, loyal Indian in the vicinity to work for them. Everyone is so nice and helpful that is insane. Even all the patients are sweet and friendly. This hospital is definitely a gem that is hidden away in the Nilgiri Hills but I’m glad that I have been able to work with them and hopefully be somewhat helpful.

The additional wards that are being added on 

         Ammani and I spent the morning going over all of the educational material that they currently have in the temple. My project will be to take the current presentations, spruce them up, translate them into Tamil and make them into a pamphlet and then also make an educational video in Tamil of the same topics. Dr. Nandakumar is quite excited about this project and talks a mile a minute about the potential of the project which is kind of entertaining. He has designated individuals within the hospital as the “audio visual department” and I am to work with them to make these videos. Apparently I should not have majored in Biology but I think we are all learning as we figure out this project. The educational videos will be played not only at the hospital but also at all the local area centers when patients come to visit. The topics range from Sickle Cell, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, nutrition, sanitation, personal hygiene, rules and regulations of the hospital to whatever else the hospital thinks is important for patients and families to learn about.

            I’m excited to work on this project but I just need to figure out the logistics of everything. Dr. Nandakumar knows that I won’t be able to get everything done immediately but he wants to me to continue to work with the hospital in any capacity possible even after I graduate which I would love to do. I already want to try and come back at least once a year if possible but we’ll have to see what happens with the job search next year.

            For lunch we go back to the hostel and eat with everyone once again which is nice. The hostel is a 10 second walk from the hospital so we can always go back and forth during the day if we need to. After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon going over the information on my own and updating things as needed and translating everything.

Deciding whether she wants the blue salwar or the green

              

           Akshaya spent the day with Anna and Hayley following them around on their medical rotation. But we all agreed to meet up at 4pm to go shopping for Anna and Hayley. They had tried going shopping for clothes previously but couldn’t get the sales reps to understand what they wanted. The walk into town was nice and refreshing and we spent a good bit of time at the store but ultimately we were successful and both Anna and Hayley found a couple of salwar sets that they liked. 

They had some pretty interesting hats at the store

The best milkshake ever!

While the store was making the necessary alterations we headed over to Lulu Bakes to get some amazing mango milkshakes. I was introduced to the milk shakes at this bakery during my last visit and had to have more this time. They are by far the best mango milkshakes that I have ever had and everyone has agreed.We also picked up some sweets to try out to see which ones we liked. 

                

We picked up a few mangos after getting all the clothes before heading back to the hostel in an auto. After showing off the clothes that had been purchased and eating dinner we settled down to watch A Walk to Remember before bed since Anna and Hayley had not seen the movie before. A Walk to Remember is still probably one of my favorite Nicholas Sparks books/movies. 

Our new friends :) Anna and Hayley