And we're back.

“Bring it India.” –Carly Miller
Today we did India. Like I mean the for real deal. We decided we would split our weeks at the Christian Medical College as follows… Week 1: Work at CHAD (a hospital with a labor room and medicine wards and also a program that sends nurses/docs out to 80 villages surrounding Vellore to provide medical care). Week 2: Surgery (scrubbing on ENT(e), Gen Surg(car), Gyn(liz), and Anesthesia (drea)) Week 3: working at a leprosy clinic and leprosy research facility. Week 4: Do the Taj Mahal. So today we were headed for CHAD. Aside from a minor misunderstanding with a local bus driver shuttling us to the opposite side of town from the community hospital where we were working, the rest of the day was complete awesomeness. Liz and Andrea joined the team in the peds wards for an Indian style pimp session by interns and attendings. They were rockstars and answered all questions correctly. (right girls?) And of course Carly, superstar surgeon, hung out on the medicine ward to change dressings for a patient with leprosy and she also managed to contract a few TB airborne particles and Typhoid germies in the meantime. I spent the morning in the newborn nursery/NICU where 8 new mothers in gorgeous sari’s cared for their ill children. The staff nurses basically run this joint and know about 10,000 times more than I do about just about everything. So I learned a lot and tried to help start an IV which I was rather unhelpful with. But I did get to talk with a mother, Malle, whose baby was admitted for lethargy and poor feeding. (she allowed me to take their photo.) After the Vellore Four realized how unhelpful we were in our various stations, we took a stroll of campus and had a run in with a herd of monkeys, swarm of bats (really thought that was a nighttime animal), and the biggest tree of all time ever. (see photo). But the best ever part of today was when we strolled deep into the heart of Vellore. We discovered flower markets and coconut stores, and stores that sell nothing but little plastic chairs. And I realized the craziest thing about India is that everybody seems to be selling something but I haven’t actually seen anybody buy anything. The store owners were super excited about having their pics taken and even handed out free herbs (ie. pit fresheners). I guess we are starting to seriously smell like curry because even the Indians are raising a stink about it. We ended the day by throwing utensils out the window, eating with our bare hands and sampling North Indian style cuisine at a family owned joint. I think we’re all really finally starting to embrace the culture. I say this simply because during our meal Andrea gazed across the booth and casually mentioned to Liz about the presence of a cockroach creature behind her right shoulder. Liz gave the insect a quick gaze, shrugged her shoulders and kept nibbling on her naan. We really are beginning to love you India.