A Reality Check...

My Indian Friend :).  

So, I've been here almost an entire month! Where has the time gone? I feel like I just got here yet I feel like I've been here for ages. I also just finished visiting all of the colonies. There's only 10 so somehow I missed colony visits every Wednesday for the past month. They all are great and now I know what to expect from each.

Today I cleaned some of the largest and most infected ulcers I've seen yet. The smell is the worst part but you just have to throw on a few extra masks and that problem is mostly taken care of. I just feel so bad for these patients! I just try to imagine living a life where society has condemned you to an isolated colony, you have very little job opportunity if any, you have no toes or fingers, and you're going blind. Not to mention the festering wounds on your feet, legs, and hands...

The other day I went to a colony and I just like to sit and talk with the patients. Well, I try to talk with the patients, they speak like 4 words in English and I speak 5 words of Tamil so it's mostly hand gestures. I was teasing one of the older men and we were all laughing and then he just started crying. I still don't know if it's because he was so happy or because he was in pain. But he apparently fell the other day and skinned his knee and was just having a lot of problems with his vision. This place is so humbling. In America, people would be sedated for the treatment we provide at the colonies. It can sometimes get bloody and some of the infections are awful. This people are so tough and just deal with the pain.

There are so many medical issues everywhere though. Now that I've been here long enough I'm no longer looking at the flowers and pretty buildings but more at the poverty. I see people with tumors, deformities, wood planks used for legs, polio, TB... just about everything I've learned about in my classes. It's a rough life here yet the people are amazing. The kids are folding laundry and cleaning at ages 3 and 4. They don't cry unless they're literally broken in some shape or form. The other day at play time this kid fell, ripped his knee open and it was bleeding down his leg. He just ran to a bucket and washed it off and started playing again. No crying, nothing. We are so spoiled!

Okay, enough of the sad stuff. Here are some fun videos and pictures from the week.

 How Indian children dance with pillow cases on their heads. 

The long lost child...wearing a pillowcase. 

Superman Monday. :) The kid on the left is the one who ripped his knee open and just bounced back up. Tough kid. 

My favorite old men playing games and jokes. The one in the middle was singing, buttoning his friends shirts (even though he has no fingers) and just teasing everyone. I couldn't stop laughing at him. I wish this was a video but he was bobbling that guy's head back and forth singing some chant while the other guy sat there laughing. 

Can I keep this child?

 I was supposed to be taking people's blood pressure but it was slow. So we played with my phone instead. She got a little excited.

  MOORTHY! This is the guy I was talking about earlier. So handsome. Also, all of the kids called me a grandma because of my outfit that day. I can't escape that nickname no matter where I go.