Choupal & shillai Camp 2/8/09 - 2/20/09

I went to Praveen and Sirisha wedding on the 8th instead of leaving with the team. On the 9th i went with praveen mother and a whole van full of guests from the wedding to chandigarh and toured around. We visited the rock garden, a wholeplace made of everything from rock. he designed animals, people, giant swings, murals all out of stones he picked up. And than we went to the lake cafeteria. Its a big man made lake where you can sit and look out and eat your food as well as take paddle boats out. So me and three other college kids took them out and had a blast in a giant duck paddle boat. This is wear i tasted a Dosa its a south indian dish thats very tasty, its made out of material like crape and has filling inside. Than we went shopping where they have all the stores from home. Now i have been looking for "Singh is kinng" for so long this is my favorite hindi movie but i could not find anyone to sell it with subtitles, but i thankfully found it here I am so happy. At 9 PM Benny Uncle, mr yesupadem, his son and i took a local bus back to shimla and we did not reach till 2 AM i was so tired than we had to walk 20 minutes back to the hospital i was ready to crash. I slept for 1 1/2 hr and than had to get up and go to the bus station at 5 AM to travel to choupal the first camp site. Now you all know how everyone stares at me so i planned ahead and wore a shawl over my head as a disguise but it did not work so well everyone still stared at me. So i had to buy my ticket and than find my bus and travel there all by myself and let me tell you i was terrified. First you have to push your way to the front to get a ticket becuse there is no line. And than find a seat before there is no more and you have to stand. Choupal is 4 hr by bus so it was not going to be bad. except of course anything that can go wrong always goes wrong for me it seems in india. Something happened to the tire and of course no one speaks english becuase they are all villagers so they are not educated. So we sat for an hour while they messed with the tire and finally we were on our way again. but right away i hear a thumping noise so i was like oh no its not fixed. At this point i am praying to God feverishly praying for him to take care of me and let them fix the tire becuase im alone and have no other way of getting to choupal stuck in the middle of i have no idea somewhere in himachel pradesh. thankfully they fix it again and we are on our way. And of course i pick the wrong seat becuase the little girl next to me and the old woman in front of me is throwing up like crazy and thats one thing i dont like. We finally reach choupal and hour late and than there are no taxi for me to take to the hospital so i have to trek up to the hospital a good 20 min walk with all my luggage by myself asking everyone where the government hospital is no one speaks english so they just point but it gets the job done i made it safe with Gods help. Now the whole team has been there for two days now so im a little late but the wedding was worth it. We started surgery when i got there with only 1 1/2 hrs sleep and what i got on the bus. i assisted dr. ali the eye surgeon from shimla hospital. This was my first time with him and i was nervous becuase i was told he shouts if you make a mistake and im not good with shouting so i told him and he just laughed. But i survived it turned out he was very nice and didnt shout at me thankfully. He is an excellent surgeon, we operated on 15 pt the first day roughly 4 surgeries and hour is his speed. Savita is around 26 and gives the local block or anesthisia to the patients, i assist the doctor, and Dennis buyah (brother) circulates and gives us what wee need sterily. I really enjoyes this team we had a good time and accomplished alot. the 11th we operated on 25 pt, and one of the patients was disabled where his legs were permenantly scrunched to his chest so he could not walk i felt so bad he came to us blind and physically could not walk or work. And after the surger we gave him sight so at least we made his life alittle better, but it looked wild with him on the operating table legs sticking up. On the 12th it snowed and was beautiful we only got to play in it for a few mintues when we walked to the hospital and than got down to buisness. We operated on 31 pt everyday till 10:30 11:00 PM so i was not gettting very much sleep sadely i was so tired at the end of the day that i just rolled into bed. This is the first free medical camp done in this village and we could tell because there were so many pt and we could not help all of them we had to turn away so many people but there was one older lady we could not refuse our last case he family had abandoned her and she could not see to work and get around so we did her operation and she was able to see and function afterwards. The general surgery aso did well accomplishing 70 surgeries in4 days. This government hospital we worked in had only 30 beds and we had 150 some pt so where did we put them i dont even know God made it possible, 2 people in a bed on the floor anywhere we could put them. On the 13th we packed everything up and sadly had to tell so many people that we could not operate on them but come to the shimla hospital. Now becuase i was working so late and it was freezing from the snow plus the electrisity did not always work so my bath was not always warm so i got sick very sick. We traveled to Shillai are 2nd camp site an set up on the 14th., about 6 hrs farther south. We stoped at a river on the side of the road and a villgaer was fishing with a net and the baught some fish to eat that night and we took some good pictures. On the 15th we started operation but at this point i was so sick i could not assist the doctor so dennis and i switched places and i circulated giving them what they needed. we operated on 30 Pt till very late. and the next day we did the same 30 more pt. And of course this was the first time at this village as well so we had an over flow of pt again. The general operation did 65 in 3 days. Now this government hospital had even fewer beds only 20 so we had a surrounding hospital send us mattresses that they laid on the floor and doubled the pt up agian, it was an amazing site to see. We packed everything up on the 18th and traveled back to shimla a 10 hr bus drive on the 19th. We stoppedd along the way at a village and wathched how they make jagerty (brown sugar) they grind sugar cane into juice and than put them in three very hot vats and than spread it out to cool and than you have it. we ate the sugar cane off the stock and it was tasty and very good exercise for your teeth. Finally we reached back me sleep deprived but feeling accomplished slept for a day and than had to get ready for my trip to nepal. God blessed us greatly during these two camps all the glory goes to him.