Ten Days Down, Ten Months To Go

I can't believe I've only been here for 11 days now. Seems like it's been much longer. I've settled in fairly quickly, and I feel pretty comfortable getting around places and finding things on my own. I didn't even feel any jet-lag at all (getting lots of sunlight in the morning really works)! I've seen quite a few things and met many people in the past several days. It makes me wonder how much more there is to come in the next 10 months.

Although, I have to admit, I don't feel like I've gotten much done in terms of work yet. I only have a vague idea what I might want to research. I still need to meet with more people, read more papers, and figure out what might be a good project to work on with the limited amount of time that I have. I hope that I'll find something exciting, and that I'll have a productive year.

By the way, today (15th of August) is India's Independence Day. So, Happy Independence Day, India!!

In a completely unrelated news (or maybe it is related to adjusting to life in India), this morning I had my first formed stool since coming to India. TMI? I know, but it's a great news for me so I had to share it. :P There're always many things to thank God for.

Darling Residency

Darling Residency (photo from its Facebook page).

Every Wednesday night, many of the international students (about 30 or so) gather to eat at a rooftop restaurant in a hotel called Darling Residency. It's another great opportunity (other than the swimming pool) to meet with people from around the world.

This week I met students from Malaysia, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, and Canada in addition to the ones I met last week, who are from Austria, Nigeria, Australia, UK, France, and Denmark. It's been a bit of a challenge learning their names (and I'm sure they have just as much difficulty with mine), but it's been a lot of fun learning about them and the places they come from.

The Mixed Sizzler.

Darlings serves quite a variety of dishes (mostly Indian and Chinese), and they are fairly descent (and more importantly, clean). This week I decided to go for one of the most expensive dishes (although it was still only Rs220, about $4.80) called Mixed Sizzler. Basically they put a bunch of stuff (chicken, lamb, prawn, fish) with gravy, and serve them on a sizzling platter. Interestingly, the menu says it comes with "ice cubes & butter" and we were all curious to find out what that was about. That was really the main reason I ordered it, but disappointingly I didn't see any ice cubes or butter. Although, it did make quite a sizzling noise when they brought it. It's a small place, so the entire restaurant could hear it coming.

In any case, I like coming to Darlings because I get to meet new people, not so much for the food. International students come and go throughout the year, so I'll probably get to meet a lot of people during my time here. By the end of it Lucy and I could be experts on Darling's menu.

Here are some more photos from the night:

Med students from Malaysia and UK.

Shellva from Malaysia, me and Florian from Austria.

Lucy from Boston and James from Australia.

The three midwifery students from Denmark and Craig from Canada. (Sorry Eric, I cut you off accidentally.)

Urban Slums

Riding in the back of a motorcycle... without a helmet!

Most of the morning today was spent in one of the urban slum areas where the two cohort studies on cryptococcal diarrhea are done. Lucy and I had to each ride on the back of a motorcycle to get there because apparently it's very difficult to get around the area by car. We visited homes where children are enrolled in the studies. It was quite interesting to see the environments where people live. Even within the same area, there were big contrasts in living conditions among homes.

We also spent some time at one of the pediatric clinics, and observed a local pediatrician while she saw some patients. Most of the kids seemed to have upper respiratory infections.

Lucy on a motorcycle.

In the afternoon, we went to the Low Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU), and met with Dr. Sushil John, who is one of the family medicine doctors there. LCECU provides care to the poor in the local urban slum at very low cost, and if they need a costly procedure or therapy, patients pay whatever they can, and the clinic helps find funding for them. Dr. Sushil gave us a little powerpoint presentation about LCECU which got me really excited, because it was all about what I want to do as a physician in the future. So I hope to learn as much as I can from LCECU this year, and apply it to my future practice wherever I may be.

After the presentation, we walked around the area near the LCECU, and met some of Dr. Sushil's patients at their homes. As we walked, he said things like "That man there has hypertension... this lady walking towards us had a baby with myelomeningocele... the man who lives here is an alcoholic... this boy has seizure disorder..." It was as if he knew everyone in the area, and it seemed everyone knew him too. People came up to him left and right with their charts just to update him on how they were doing, and he explained to us what were the issues with each of them.

The Low Cost Effective Care Unit.

Interestingly, patients at LCECU keep their charts with them at their homes, so when doctors from LCECU do home visits they would have their charts right there. It also saves the clinic a lot of money by not having to keep medical records. Dr. Sushil admitted that there maybe legal issues elsewhere, but here, having charts at patient's home is a very cost effective way that puts patient's care first. I definitely want to spend more time at LCECU during my year in India.

The long day was completed with a quick dip in the pool and meeting with some more international med students.

Praise God for another exciting day!

Shopping Spree

This week Lucy and I are meeting with various doctors and research officers to get a feel for the type of research projects we might want to work on. In the morning we headed over to the CMC hospital and met with Dhivya Anbu, who is a PhD candidate working on probiotics trial for prevention of diarrhea caused by rotavirus and cryptosporidium spp. In the afternoon we met with Dr. Rajiv Sarkar and Deepthi Kattula at Community Health Training Center (CHTC) on CMC campus. They were Fogarty scholars in the past years, and their research involves cryptosporidium in children (e.g. change in immune response over time in chronically infected children). Because our mentor Dr. Kang is in the gastrointestinal department, much of their research pertains to diarrheal diseases.

I have a lot of personal experience with diarrheal diseases (parasitic in particular), so I would definitely be interested in doing research in that field. We're scheduled to meet with people from other departments, so I'm excited to see what opportunities are out there as well. I can already tell that I'm going to have a hard time deciding on a project (or two) because there are so many different options here.

Harish Bakery

After our meeting with Dhivya in the morning, I went to the Eye Hospital to pick up my new pair of glasses (I can SEE now!). Then I walked over to Harish Bakery (my new favorite bakery in town) for lunch and got a variety of savory baked goods to go (I like their "puffs").

Next to the bakery is the Harish Grocery Store where you can get lots of imported food, toiletries, and household items (at marked up prices, of course). So I bought some food and a bunch of other stuff, such as insecticide spray, body wash, and hair conditioner (yes, guys use conditioners too... right? How else am I supposed to keep my hair nice and silky?).

One of the surprisingly expensive things in India is toilet paper. Four rolls of TP cost Rs180 (about $4.00)!

After our meeting with Dr. Sarkar and Deepthi this afternoon, I went over to the CMC College Store for more groceries, and stopped by the street vendors for some fruits and vegetables. I also got a new pair of sandals for Rs150 (compared to Rs180 for 4 rolls of TP).

One thing I couldn't find anywhere was insect repellent spray. The best I could find was insect repellent cream at the College Store. I'm not too worried about malaria since it's not endemic in Vellore, but I definitely don't want dengue fever.

I still need to buy some slacks and short-sleeve button-up shirts since a lot of men wear those to work here. I would wear shorts and t-shirts with flip-flops everywhere everyday, but I probably should try not to stand out too much.

Praise God for another great day in India! I actually felt pretty productive today, learning about all these research projects and getting a lot of shopping done. One thing missing from the day is a trip to the swimming pool, which unfortunately is closed on Mondays.

Europe in Vellore

Sundays are our days off, so Lucy and I spent couple hours at the swimming pool in the afternoon. It costs Rs200* to use the pool for a day, but we both got a 1-year membership, so we can go there everyday if we had time.

The pool is one of the main hubs for the many foreigners that come to Vellore (mostly med students rotating at CMC). So I got to meet several people from the UK, France, and Denmark. It was nice and refreshing to meet a bunch of people from various places. The place is well isolated from the outside world that, with all these Europeans, it almost felt like I wasn't in India any more. It's definitely a nice little getaway (and it's only a 15-minute walk from our apartment!).

Since we haven't started our research projects yet, I feel like I've been on an extended vacation... haha. I'm sure I'll get busy with work soon enough. I should enjoy this free time while I can.

After the pool I went to church service on CMC Campus. I came in couple minutes late because I thought the service was at another place, and when I sat down, I noticed that everyone around me were female. So for a second I thought I must have sat in the female section (not that I knew if there was one, but recently I found out that the seats on the left side of public buses are reserved for women). After a quick look-around, I realized that about 85% of the congregation were female. So I figured I was in the right place. It turns out all the nursing students were there, and they usually attend chapel at the CMC Hospital (which is different from Campus).

After chapel Lucy and I went to Dr. Kang's house, which is on CMC campus, for dinner. It was really nice getting to know her and her husband in a casual setting.

It was definitely a nice relaxing Sunday.




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*Rs = rupees; Rs200 is about $4.35.