My last few days here have gone by super fast. Today was my last day of work then I fly to Australia tomorrow afternoon. This weekend was fairly uneventful. The 5 of us volunteering split up 3hr blocks to sit at the school with Kokila for 6hrs each day. Saturday morning myself and one of the other girls took the first shift from 10-1pm. It didn't really need both of us there, but I needed to sort out her medications into a simple, foolproof way so her mom would understand how to give them. And it just happened that when we got there, her one ear (which was very badly bruised extremely swollen) happened to open up during the night and was oozing blood and puss!! So, I got to gently squeeze a nice amount of lovely, purulent discharge out of a screaming 14yr old girls ear first thing Saturday morning. Then she through a huge fit about taking her medication, more crying, sobbing "please, no Didi, no Didi (all the women get called by their 1st name and Didi, which means sister)", gagging on multivitamin syrups. So, after some pretty decent drama, going for a little walk, and playing some computer games, Kokila was tired out and wanted a nap. When she went to lay down she pointed at the bed by her head and said "Sit Didi, sit". So, sit I did. Leaning against a shelf, with no back support and my legs over the side of the bed on the edge of a couple wooden boxes with Kokila's legs resting on top of mine.... at least she was comfortable, as I was far, far from it for the hour I had to sit like that!

The last hour brought more drama as we applied ointment to her healed burns/grafts to keep the skin from drying out, cracking, itching. She cried so much that her little friend Pardo (who lives at the school with her brother, and Kokila looks after for a couple hours each day after school) was hiding around the corner crying, when the next volunteer came for her shift.

That was basically my Saturday. I came back to the apartment and spent the rest of the weekend sleeping and not feeling very well.

Monday morning brought no sign of Aarti and her family. Apparently they gone to see the Dr on Saturday but he wasn't there so were supposed to go back on Tuesday.

Kokila had an appointment at the hospital for the Dr to look at her dressings and the areas still healing. The traffic was crazy and it took us (myself, Kokila, and her mom) an hour and a half in the taxi to get to the hospital making us half an hour late for the Dr. appointment. Although, being late wasn't an issue as we ended up having to sit there and wait for him for almost 2hrs... when he finally showed up he was very apologetic and said nobody called him and he had been in surgery up until he got there. The appointment took about 30mins max. and we were off again looking for a taxi. Finding a taxi was a bit of a gong show but we finally got one and headed back to the school. Again the traffic was bad but not as bad as it had been. Oh, it also happened to be about 40 degrees out, so that was fun sitting in a little, hot taxi, in traffic. Needless to say we were all pretty spent by the time we got back to the school at 4pm.

Tuesday ran pretty smoothly. I spent the day working with Vikas, going over, and over, and over, and over the questionaire he will be using. It worked out that we saw a few people and ended up having to take one of the girls to see the Dr as we thought she could have Malaria (which it turned out she does). So it was really good for Vikas to get to use the forms in a real setting instead of me making up scenarios.

The day went fairly well, with only one time where I actually laughed, like crying laughing, at Vikas' expense :( I know, not very professional, but it was pretty funny. I had told him that I had come to him with the complaint that I was really sad and couldn't stop crying for weeks and weeks. As "really sad, can't stop crying" is not a check off box he was having some difficulty figuring out where to check off that one (also, he has some difficulty with english). I wasn't giving him the answer, hoping he would figure that he could write it in the "other" space (which we had gone over a few times, again some things get lost in translation). He was pointing at the different things that could be checked off, looking at me hoping for an answer, while I just said "don't ask me, I'm the patient". Finally he found one he didn't know, looked at me and asked, very seriously, "is it constipation?". It was late afternoon, and we had been doing this all day, I couldn't help but laugh. I did feel a little bad after, since he really didn't understand. Anyhow...

I'd probably feel pretty sad and be crying if I had been constipated for weeks I guess!

Today we saw Aarti and her mom on the walk to school! Isha (Aarti's mom) handed me the baby and basically said "go"... so we went to the school with Aarti sleeping. We actually weren't quite sure if she was alive or not at first as she didn't move AT ALL when her mom gave her to me. When we got to the school she finally woke up and was all smiles! She actually feels a bit heavier, but couldn't weigh her as the scale got broken the other day. She then promptly pooped on me and then peed all over the floor. I ended up getting peed on 3 times today, so that was fun! So I spent most of the day holding and feeding her, finishing up handouts for Vikas, and checking in with Kokila. Apparently Aarti did not see the Dr yesterday, so it was very strongly explained to the mom that her and her 2yr old brother need to see the Dr tomorrow or there is a good chance they will die. So, hopefully 3rd times the charm.

Right before lunch, Vinita (the social worker here) called me into the main classroom where all the kids were sitting ready for lunch. They all said a big goodbye to me and gave me a couple cards they had made, along with lots of hugs, handshakes, and thank-you's!

After lunch we went with Vinita to see some of the family homes in the slum behind the school. The kids were super excited to have us come see their homes as well as one kids pet rat. Thankfully it was only one of the 10-15 rats he's decided to make into pets!!

And that, is the end of my time here. Tomorrow afternoon I head to the airport Australia bound!

It has been great here! Will miss it, but ready for relaxing and hanging out with friends in Oz!!

Smiles and Tears

The last couple days have been a bit crazy. Yesterday morning started out normal enough walking to the school in the morning. Just before we got to the school Tania saw a new family she has been trying to get into the school so their baby can get some desperately needed medical attention. So as we were headed to the school, she took the baby and the mom followed with the other 2 children. The baby is 3 months old and not bigger then a new born. Tania looked at me and said, "well, looks like you have 1 week to save a babies life".

Once we got to the school, the work began. As I said Aarti is 3 mo old. She weighs 1.9 kg (4.1lb) and the height of a newborn (52cm). Her tongue is coated white, she can't hold her head up, she has a firm round little belly, and is having green mucousy poops.... but on the plus side, she is alert, looking around with big wide eyes, and constantly smiling! Her mom told us that the baby is not hungry and just sleeps all day. So basically she doesn't get fed because she isn't crying. I think also, the parents are working all day picking garlic to sell, and Aarti's 2yr old brother still can't walk so has to be carried around all day. A sleeping baby, is easy.

Someone, for some reason, at some point, donated a bunch of infant formula to the school (and not a formula company). I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have EVER been happy to have formula around! And even better it's not expired AND we have clean water at the school and syringes!!

So, feeding began. Because she hasn't been eating (breastfeeding very minimally) her tummy can't handle very much at all. Initially, the formula just ran out of her mouth. It took a few minutes before she started to swallow it, then started sucking at the syringe, then her little arms and legs started squirming and she was sucking madly (although weakly) at the syringe, crying when the formula wasn't given. I only gave her a few ml's but we did it 3 times yesterday. We also sent her into see a dr as we had another young boy going to see the eye specialist. Unfortunately the dr wouldn't even look at her due to her current state. She is to see a different dr (whom Tania says will see her) tomorrow, so hopefully they take her.

While we were dealing with baby Aarti, one of the older babies at the school (whom we call crying baby because he is always crying) was crying, his crying set off one of the other toddlers crying, then starving baby (Aarti, whom we have very morbidly been calling dying baby- please don't think this heartless or calous) and her mom left for the hospital leaving the two older siblings behind screaming until she got back.... I had a headache within 10mins of getting to work yesterday. That was just the tip of the chaos.

In between feeding baby and trying to do assessments on her siblings and mother, I was also trying to sit down and go through charts and form with Vikas who at this point is a bit overwhelmed with everything, but excited and keen.

Today was a much calmer day, although lots of excitement as well! Today Kokila came home!!

First Aarti and her family came in (on their own, which was really exciting). Her mom had dressed her up for the occasion in a clean ruffly black and gold dress. As I was mixing formula, she promptly pooped and peed on me (they babies don't wear diapers of any sort), luckily mostly missing me!

After feeding Aarti, it was off to the hospital with Tania and Vikas to pick up Kokila and her mom to bring her home! She was sitting up on the edge of her bed waiting to go home (it took us over an hour to get to the hospital because of traffic). After sitting for another 30-40mins the Dr showed up to give Tanya and I instructions for Kokila as she will be staying at the school for the next week. He was very thankful to Tanya and touched by the amount of effort and care she has shown towards Kokila over this past month. There where some happy tears that she is finally able to come home and at how well she has pulled through. She has a long way to go before the scars and skin grafts are fully healed, and still has a couple dressings that will need to be looked after but they are healing well.

The taxi ride back to the school only took 20 minutes and I sat in the back with Kokila as she quietly took everything in, holding my hand the whole time. Back at the school most of the kids and staff had already left by the time we arrived, but her brothers and sisters were there to great her as well as a couple of the staff. Because she has quite extensive burns to her face and body and her hair has been shaved, I think a number of people where in a bit of shock when they saw her and just sat there staring not saying anything unfortunately :( It was great to see her little brother excited to see her and climb up on the table to hold her hand then climb over to sit on the bench beside her! About 30 people stopped by to see (many just to look at her which involved them being asked to leave). We had set up a matress in one of the classrooms after having some of the staff clean and bleach everything. Unfortunately, being on the floor was too difficult for Kokila, so she had to basically fall down onto the mattress.

Being exhausted, she tried to sleep but then was in pain (I think more emotionally then anything) so Tania sat with her for a bit while she cried, then I took over as Tania and the other teachers had to leave to do some other work. I spent the next 45mins sitting on the mattress with Kokila laying in my lap sleeping.

We (the boys who work at the school) set up a bunch of wooden boxes and placed the mattress on them so it is up off the floor, as well as put up a gate to keep the rats out, and set up a makeshift bucket toilet (as she is not strong enough to use the squat toilet at the school). We will see in the morning how things went tonight and re-adjust anything that needs to be.

It has been an exhausting few days, but with some good results. Tonight we are heading to have a games night to end the week with a little bit of fun!

I keep meaning to write here but end up working on other things, and then it's midnight and I have to go to bed! Right now it's only 11pm so I guess I have an hour! Things have been pretty busy here. Sunday was a good chill day, went for a walk around Bhandra (the area we are staying in) then went to a free yoga class near our apartment. The yoga studio is a 5-10 min walk from our place and is super nice. Monday morning Tania, myself and a couple of the girls who are helping out on the health project (organizing charts) met to figure what our plan would be for the next couple weeks. After getting that sorted, it was work time! I spent the day working on creating forms for Vikas (who I am training) to use for interview questions when he sees someone who is sick (ie on of the students) etc. Oh yeah, Monday was a holiday, Ede, and we were strongly advised not to leave our houses unless we wanted to see some serious animal carnage. Basically all the great big goats that were all over the city, in our neighborhood, innocently hanging out, where all killed (as in on the street), sacrificed, and then butchered to be eaten. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but the smell of dead meat is seriously the worst smell ever here. I can handle smells pretty well, but the smell of the meat makes me instantly feel like gagging. The meat market is the worst place to walk by just because of the smell. Sooo, when we finally ventured out of the apartment to go to yoga in serious need of fresh air and exercise, the smell was pretty intense in a few places (more so then normal).

Tuesday was the first actually day out of the apartment to work. I spent the day at Khar school going through the medical files and making a list of all the kids needing follow-up assessments (from the last time they were seen in April), helping Tania transfer the form I made, onto an excel form (easier to use, I don't have the program, and she's good at it), and sorting out a big bag of medications that had been donated to them from somewhere in Spain! And of course, more yoga in the evening. It's good for the body and soul! And more importantly, they have air conditioning there!!

Today I went to the hospital with Tania in the morning to meet Kokila. Kokila is one of the students at the school in Khar. She was badly burned by propane about a month ago. She ended up with over 50% of her body burned (you can read her story at: http://oneinternationalinformation.blogspot.com/). The skin grafts have taken really well and everything seems to be healing great. The plan is for her to come home on Friday as long as everything continues to go well. The big issue will be keeping everything clean and rats away (there is a ridiculous amount of rats everywhere. The kids all have rat bites regularly).

So we are trying to plan for ways to keep things clean and manageable for her (even using the bathroom will be an issue as they just have squat toilets). This afternoon was spent doing follow-up assessments on kids. Most pretty basic, just doing quick check-ups. One kid with something really bad going on with his eyes (Tania was able to get an appointment for him tomorrow with the specialist so hopefully it's not to fix whatever it is and keep him from going blind), and some not nice looking ears.

Today was also Vikas' first day EVER doing/seeing anything medical related. A bit overwhelming for him has he told me later he has never even seen someone have their temperature checked... Thankfully he is smart and super keen and excited to do this job!

Tomorrow will be an all day intensive working with Vikas to get him familiar with everything!

It's midnight now, so I need to go to bed!!

Back to Mumbai

I arrived back in Mumbai yesterday afternoon, after my flight being delayed for almost 2hrs (not sure why). Also, almost missed the flight when we were finally able to start boarding as they changed the gate last minute. I think it may have been announced but I couldn't understand or really hear any of the announcements.

Anyhow, I did eventually make it to Mumbai. I was met at the airport by one of the other volunteers here. She is here working on a project for her Degree in Public Health. Our taxi ride back to the volunteer residence was quite fast! It was kind of like being in a movie during a high speed car chase. The taxi driver was on a mission, swerving around vehicles, squeezing in between them... but we got here unharmed, so all good!

Monday is a muslim holiday here. I can't remember exactly what it is for, but it involves alot of slaughtering and sacrificing of goats. So, Monday will be a good day to stay inside until mid afternoonish!

Monday we (the health team people) will meet and set up a plan for the next couple of weeks. One of the girls that attends Khar school here was burned quite badly by propane about a month ago. She is most likely being discharged from the hospital on Tuesday so Tania and I will need to figure out (talk to the dr etc) what her dressing changes will be like and how we can help her family best keep them from getting infected.

So, otherwise it is hot here. It was 33c yesterday when I flew in, and our apartment doesn't have air conditioning so it makes it really hot!

There are 4 other volunteers here right now. The volunteer residence is small but clean and the other girls are all really nice, so should be good.

Off to Mumbai

Today is my last day in Kolkata. The last few days I have been feeling pretty cruddy so nothing really exciting going on! After making myself eat last night and choking down some nasty tasting electrolytes(even though I was far from feeling like eating), it did the trick and am feeling much better today. That being said, I think I will be living on veg. fried rice for the next couple days...

Anyhow, I fly to Mumbai tomorrow morning and will be there for the next 10 days. Kolkata's been great (minus the last few days). The past 2 weeks have gone by super fast, and at the same time it feels like I've been here forever!

Today walking home from the Dispensary the timing seemed to be a bit off for us! First we were held up (only for a few mins) twice as we happened to be heading home at prayer time, so the street was blocked by people praying. Then when we passed them, a few minutes later had to wait as a huge herd of goats passed us in the street! Love it!!

Anyhow, like I said I don't really have anything interesting to talk about as I'm pretty sure nobody wants to hear the details of my last 3 days of stomach upset!! Mumbai will bring many more interesting stories I'm sure!