shadowing at the hospital

Well on Monday, Anna, Jean, and I watched cataract surgeries for a little bit. The hospital is unsanitary...the doctor didn't even change gloves between patients. It was interesting but also pretty boring to see the same procedure over and over. For dinner, all the volunteers went to a new place. I don't think it will be a place we will go back to. The food was pretty gross and thankfully I noticed that when Anna ordered a juice, they put tap water in it. I have a huge canker sore on my lip that hurts all the time. The spices in the food here just aggravate it more. I went to the pharmacy to see if they have cream for it and they tried to give me pills! I decided I would rather be in pain haha.

Yesterday, 3 new volunteers showed up and one old one, Kim, left. The new volunteers all went to a different camp than us though so we haven't had a chance to get to know them yet. The camp the rest of us went to was a camp for hermaphrodites, prostitutes, cross-dressers, and abused women. Apparently all these people are shunned in society so it was nice to help the people nobody cares about. At the camp, they gave us a veg puff (the plate was newspaper) and some orange soda. Both were delicious. Since I didn't get sick from the food, I would assume I can eat street food now but I don't want to risk it. After camp, Kim, Jean, Anna, and I all did phaco (cataract surgery) to the goats eye. It was hard! And apparently my goats eye was bad cause they'd had them since that morning and we did the surgeries around 4 pm. We all paid 200 rupees for the cost of the goats eye. I went to a different pharmacy yesterday too and they had some numbing cream for my canker sore. It helps a bit.

Today, Jean and I went to Hande Hospital. We watched cataract surgeries, a hand surgery where the lady had inflamed tendons and a circumcision. We also saw a man with elephantiasis! It was so crazy to see in person! I'm sure I'll never see that again. When we were done at the hospital, Prashanth's grandpa brought us all food and the three of us ate in my hotel room. Apparently his grandpa didn't think there was enough food so while we were still eating he went out and bought more food! He came back with chicken biriyani and more chicken. He put a handful of the biriyani on my plate and reached for another handful but I was getting really full so I said I didn't want another handful. He looked offended so of course I had more, and 2 extra pieces of chicken! I don't normally eat big meals so that meal was 7 hours ago and I'm still not hungry. The food was very good though. Normally there are no eye camps in the afternoon/evening but today Thanraj called and wanted Prashanth, Jean, and I to go to the piston factory again. We were there from 1:30 to 6:30 and it was the third and final camp there. Tonight we are all going out to an Italian restuarant for dinner. Everyone is pretty tired of Indian food.

Tomorrow we are supposed to help with a hair implantation surgery (like actually scrub in I think!) and then we will probably go speedkarting and picking coconuts at Prashanth's uncle's coconut farm. I'm still enjoying myself. Apparently it's really cold in Alaska. I'm starting to get used to this 100 degree weather. :s