Heavy Rains

I started "working" on Monday after a weekend spent sleeping off the jet-lag. My main contact is Dr. Anjali, Chief Pathologist at Vikram Hospital, which is one of the fanciest hospitals in all of Mysore. It also happens to be about 4 blocks, up the hill shown above, from the house. The hospital functions surprisingly well, especially considering the conditions. There are masses of people sleeping, eating, grooming in the halls and an overwhelming, unmistakable smell of bleach that hits you as you walk into the hospital. At least we know it is clean and I suppose it is not too different from county hospitals in the States.

So far this week, I have spent my time split between Vikram and Mission hospital. The Prerana Project (the women's health initiative) runs out of Mission hospital. It is here that I will be working to implement a protocol for culturing Lactobacillus from possible cases of Bacterial Vaginosis. The staff is extremely knowledgeable, though the facilities lack technology normally found in labs back home. In fact, I feel stupid a lot of times because I don't understand some of their methods. I have relied heavily on technologies and products that are readily available in the states, but do not get used out here. The most striking thing about Mission hospital is that almost all the wards, including the lab, are open air. It is very interesting to see this stark contrast to modern hospitals in the US. With such a large population that is still growing, and the very recent economic growth, it is easy to understand the lapse in health care resources. I think many things will change in the next few years, especially if India continues to enjoy the economic successes it has experienced as of late.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tom, Yashoda, and I went to the More! store (picture a Indian style Wal-Mart, but 5 stories tall) to get some groceries and supplies for the kitchen. Walking into the store, there were a few clouds in the sky and it was about 88 degrees. After 45 minutes in the store, the sky was covered in clouds that were darker than any I have seen before. I am talking the deepest purply-black clouds you can imgine. We just made it back to the house, when the sky opened up and really let it rip. It rained like I have never seen it rain before. Lightning, thunder, pounding rain.....the whole works. Just to make sure everyone knew I was a foreigner, I tried to take some pictures, but they did not come out very well. The video came a little better, although it is still hard to recapture the complete show put on by the sky gods.

Recurrent power outages directly followed the storm. So shocking to see that 15 minutes after the rains ended, the sky was almost entirely clear again. I guess the storms and the outages are just par for the course in southern India. Everyone keeps reminding me that monsoon season has not even started yet. Can't wait.

With the power being out for most of the evening, Ranja, Ramya, (the security guards little kids) and I decided to play around on my computer for a little while. They really got a kick out of the Photobooth application, even though they were a little scared of the effects at first. Ranja had to keep touching his head and face, just to make sure it wasn't actually being distrorted. It has been a long time since I have laughed so hard.



The rest of the work week will be spent trying to make progress on my project. Things seem to move on a completely different scale. I have a meeting at 10, but it doesn't happen until 1130. I need to meet someone at 2, they finally see me at 245. I am told that something will take 2 minutes, but it always turns out to be 30 minutes. It is amazing anything gets done here, but it does. I just need to integrate myself into the system. Everybody waits because everybody is late, and everybody is late because everybody waits. I must say that it is thrilling to work in this new environment, as it provides ample time to work on my patience and my incessant need to over-achieve.