I think I'm starting to smell like curry...

Well it's been a wild couple of weeks and I have loads of stories to share. Two weekends ago we all felt like a little treat and ventured to the town of Pondicherry on the east coast. It was once a French colony so it had a very nice western feel to it. It was a nice change to be in a place that actually had sidewalks, street signs and blossoming trees lining the streets. We went into a supermarket and marveled at the broad selection of western foods, hair care products and deodorant. We even managed to find a Pizza Hut. Other than the good food and cheap wine, Pondicherry was still very India; croweded smelly and full people people trying to take your money. Nonetheless, it's still always nice to get out and explore more of India.

The following week was relatively lackluster at work. I spent most of my time sitting in the doctor's office difting away as he talked to patients in Tamil. Sivakasi, on the other hand, was bustling. There was some big election happening at the end of the week. To advertise Indians like to blare "propaganda" from giant speakers strapped to the top of their autorickshaws. It even served as an alarm clock some days as a rickshaw would scuttle past my window. When the ballots had been totalled and the victor declared, supporters of the winner marched through the streets whistling, cheering and singing at the tops of their lungs. Part of me wanted to join in with the celebrations, however I think I might have been a little out of place.

This past weekend was also the start of Diwali (or in Tamil Deepawali), the Festival of Lights. It is to commenorate when Lord Krishna vanquished a mighty giant that was killing many innocents. Basically, it's just an excuse to eat a lot of sweets and blow up an extravagant amount of fireworks. Sivakasi just so happens to be on of the firework capitals of souther India... maybe all of India. As the week progressed, the explosions of firecrackers and other "small bombs" increased in frequency. Due to the complete lack of saftey employed by Indians and the instability of the fireworks, I had suspected to see many children visiting my doctor with blown up hands, but strangely enough the office was relatively quiet. He said that very few people come into the doctor during Diwali because everyone is spending time with family.

We headed off to Madurai, a nearby big city, for the big celebrations on Saturday. We spent the day wandering the surprisingly empty streets looking for the few shops that were still open. Everyone was apparently at home celebrating the holiday with family. It was a nice treat being able to walk the streets without having to negotiate a large crowd. However, that just made it easier to see the mounds of garbage that piled the streets of Madurai. Madurai was really filthy and full of beggars and smarmy salesmen. It made me appreciate the small, uneventful town of Sivakasi. As few shops were open we ventured to the temple in the center of town, one of the city's biggest draws. Sadly, the elephant that usually occupied a space outside was absent. It seems as if I'll have to wait a little longer before I can be blessed by an elephant. While walking the city, not a minute would go by without hearing a loud bang. At times the explosions would be so deafening we couldn't even make conversation. One of our party joked it was like being in Iraq. That evening we reserved a table in the restaurant atop our hotel. The evening was amazing. All over the city large fireworks were being lit. Explosions of all sorts of colors would be happening in all directions overhead. The funny thing was, I'm sure none of them were "shows". They were all groups of individuals lighting the fireworks they bought several days before. With the occular symphony proceeding above, we celebrated the festival of lights in grand style.

The next day we spent making up for the shopping we missed the day prior. We went to the market which is housed inside an old temple like structure. It was a pretty impressive sight, slightly marred by the constant badgering of salesmen. After a successful day of shopping, I returned to Sivakasi. The week has been slow as usual. But today had its moments of excitement. In the morning, my doctor took me to his private family temple, where his extended family all gathers during the holidays. I don't know the number of people attend, but he said there are currently 48 families that gather. Must be quite the crowd. We then headed to his family farmhouse where they grow mango, coconut, sapota, guava and a myriad of other fruits. We loaded his trunk full of coconuts and headed back to the hospital. I then saw him perform a tonsilectomy (spelled right?). It had been awhile since I had seen any surgery, so it was nice to finally have a little excitement. I hadn't seen that operation before either, so it was a nice treat. It was surprisingly bloody, but not as bloody as the femur head replacement I saw shortly after. We went upstairs to an operating room I'd never been in before. It seemed much nicer and more modern than the rest of the hospital. I deduced this was where orthopedic surgery was performed. I had seen this procedure once before in China, but it was still very exciting and informing. It was also interesting to see the subtle differences between the Indian method and the Chinese method.

When I was riding home the other day, I think I finally obtained a level of comfortability in Sivakasi. Between all the car horns, bike horns, bus horns, between the fragrant stench of open sewage, between the yelps of stray dogs and between hot sun burning the back of my neck, I could hear the breeze blowing through the trees and the sky slowly changing color as the sun set and I could sense the pleasantly slow pace of life in this place. I realized that India has a beautiful sky... Then a car almost sideswiped me which caused my bike to swirve into a cowpie which my bike smelled like the rest of the ride home.... Ah yes, now there's my India.

I feel so White...

Hey there folks. I know it's been awhile, so I suppose I should make this a long entry. I suppose I should give you all my first impression of India. LANDFILL. However, as I've been here for some time, I've changed my opinions. Only Tamil Nadu is a landfill, the other parts are actually quite pretty. You may think I'm just using my powers of exagerration, but in all honesty, the state of Tamil Nadu is a dump. Garbage blankets the ground. I've stopped calling them garbage fields though. I've changed to calling them the pig and goat grazing areas. A lovely spectacle I assure you.

When I was in China, I was quite aware of how westernized it had become, but I still thought it had a long way to go to catch up with the west. However, now that I've been to India, going back to China would be almost like going back home. I feel fortunate to even have internet access. It's been good though. It took me awhile to adjust to the Indian pace of life. Shanghai was constantly entertaining, constantly things to do and people to see. India on the other hand, has absolutely no source of entertainment and very very few volunteers within close proximity to each other. Fortunately, I've gotten into a routine that gets me through the week and look forward to the weekend.

I suppose I should start off with my actually placement: Graham's Nursing Home. It's not really a nursing home, that's a misnomer. It's more or less a hospital with one primary doctor, a few assistant doctors and a handful of nurses. While my place is going well, the most exciting part of my day would probably be the trip there. It's about a 10 minute bike ride from where I live and the hospital abd each time I get on that bike, I fear for my life. First off, I hadn't ridden a bike in years... maybe since I was 12. Secondly, it's more or less an old rusty bucket of scrap metal with a seat far too high that can't be adjusted. I get on my bike and venture out onto the street. Of course, calling it a street might be a bit too generous. It's a rough strip of pavement hardly big enough for traffic on both sides. Aside from the constant excitement of dodging other bikers, motorbikes, buses and trucks animals also pose another obstacle to avoid. Since I've been here I've had to swirve through a goat herd, play chicken with a few trucks (and lost), almost T-boned a cow (pun most definately intended), and was even criminally cut off by an elephant. With my life amazingly intact, I arrive at work with a nicely tenderized buttocks due to the constant potholes and excessive speed bumps. I then proceed to sit with the doctor while he sees patients, speaking in Tamil for several hours. I usually drift off till he says something to me in english or lets me leave for my lunch break. However, I also get to see a significant amount of surgery. He's a general practitioner and a general surgeon, so I see a nice variety of operations. He is apparently also one of the most accomplished and respected doctors in the area. He is often called away to other hospitals to perform certain procedures other doctors cannot. During my first week we hopped onto his motorbike and drove to another hospital in town to do a C-section. A motorbike ride is quite similar to a regular bike only.... much faster. Fortunately he was driving. I spent the first couple of minutes of the ride trying to figure out how tightly I wanted to grasp the back of the seat. Should I hold on with all my might for fear of flying off? Or should I relax my grip in the event that the bike crashes and I can tumble free? While contemplating this I soon noticed that we were following close behind a large yellow truck with the words "Danger. Explosives" written in large red letters on the back. At this point I realized that my grip on the motorbike had little bearing on my overall safety. Last week he drove me to other towns nearby to perform some pretty gruesome operations. Fortunately we were in a car... still immensely dangerous the way they drive, but at least I had the comfort of a seatbelt. The experience is quite different than shanghai and I think more enjoyable. I find myself getting more out of my placement now than I did before. Still, the weekend trips are nice.

Every other weekend TPA "organizes" things for people to do in certain cities. Most TPA volunteers are spread out all over southern India, with only three or four in each city. So organized events in various cities is a good way to get everyone to meet each other. My first weekend, most of the other volunteers came to Sivakasi to play cricket: Volunteers vs Staff. Since cricket is basically the only sport they play in India, the staff was really excited while the volunteers were... less enthused. It was still a good time. I learned the intricacies of this odd sport and managed to get horribly sunburned in the proccess. It was still nice to touch base with other volunteers. The next weekend many of the volunteers decided it would be fun to go to Varkala, a nice town on the western coast. The was my first chance to get out of Tamil Nadu and go to Kerela, which was a far more beautiful area of India. Varkala was gorgeous. I made some good connections with more people, got to walk on the beach, and finally eat something other than curry. It was a quaint seaside town, geared towards tourists, but fun nonetheless. After another week or work, we took friday off work and ventured to Kollam thursday evening, another coastal town. Kollam is less of a seaside village though. It really wasn't that beautiful or enjoyable. Most people don't go for the city itself though, but go to boat around the backwaters of kerela. We took a nice little push boat through the lush jungles of the kerela backwaters. It was lovely. We would stop at various places so they could show us how they made the boats, dried coconuts or created rope from the hair around coconuts. Saturday, TPA had organized a boat ride to some museum/temple 4hrs away. Some of us weren't too keen on the idea, so we decided to rent a house boat for the day and night. It was not a large house boat. We managed to squeeze 7 of us into two bedrooms. We spent most of the time talking, reading or listening to music. It was very pleasant. The houseboat came with a driver and a cook. The food was spectacular. Kollam wasn't stellar, but the houseboat the and backwaters made the trip worth it.

I got back to Sivakasi Sunday night at 11pm and and ended up getting up at 5:30Am the next morning to leave for a leprosy clinic. I spent Monday and Tuesday at the leprosy clinic with another volunteer and I'm sure that we will never see another thing like it again. Let me just say, leprosy is an awful awful disease. Fortunately it is easibly curable now, but if the infection isn't stopped in time, there is permanent nerve damage and the person has to live the rest of their life suffering from awful ulcers and infections. This causes significant deformities that are too dificult to describe here. This clinic was an amazing place. It was actually a mission, completely nonprofit. All patients receive free treatment and medication. The mission makes special footwear with a special rubber for those with leprosy to decrease the chance of ulcers on the feet. They also train the patients how to perform certain occupational tasks in order to prevent unjury. Their mission statement is to eradicate leprosy, help reintigrate people back into society and spread the word of Christ. Those suffering from leprosy have an awful stigma attached to them and are greatly ostrasized by society and even their family. To help reintigrate these people back into society, the mission helps the patients to by a house, put their children through school and buy their family food. They give some patients an allowance, and once that person has a steady income, their family often takes them back in.... doesn't exactly say great things about the India Family. It was an amazing, enlightening and disturbing experience.

I'm sure I'll have more stories to come. I shall try not to delay so long in updated. I hope you are all well. I miss you all.