I am Very Feeling

So it's official, my last full day in Trichy is coming to a close. My time here has been so amazing and I have learned so much. India is such an amazing place and there is so much to be gained from spending time in a very different culture; for me, this has been confirmed by my journeys to India and Haiti. With each new experience, I am able to learn and grow into a better and more informed version of myself. Traveling is something that makes you grow in ways you couldn't even imagine and as Mary Ritter Beard said, "Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." 

On that note, I have a whole day to share with you. And since I have a lot of very unrelated things to share, this blog post is going to be fairly jumbled - bare with me! So here's a snapshot of my last day in wonderful  Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India:

First, the medical things I learned today! As I mentioned a couple posts ago, a woman pregnant with twins had come in with very serious edema, or swelling. She was so swollen from her feet to her thighs that she was hardly able to move. After being sent home, she returned yesterday because she could no longer bare to be so swollen and she was subsequently admitted to the nursing home. Since she had previously been discharged she had developed jaundice as well as all symptoms of Hellp syndrome (Hemolysis elevated liver enzymes low platelet). She had a planned elective cesarean, since one twin was breeched. But because of the Hellp, they were fearful she would bleed out and transferred her to a better-equipped multi-specialty hospital in the area. Hellp is often a side effect of preeclampsia (hypertension during pregnancy), but this patient only had very mild preeclampsia. They did the cesarean today at the multi-specialty hospital and luckily, both twins and mom were okay! But Mom's jaundice was so severe that even the uterus and amniotic fluid were yellow! Hopefully post-op will continue to go will for all involved. 

In the afternoon Morgan came to Janet with me for a reason that I will get to in a few minutes, but while she was there, we were able to see a couple last surgeries! The first was a laparoscopic vaginal hysterectomy. This surgery is almost suture-less, since everything inside is disconnected via laparoscopically and the rest is pulled out vaginally. Since I hadn't yet seen a hysterectomy, I was glad I got to see one before leaving! The second surgery was a routine cesarean. I have seen a couple, but Morgan had only seen cesareans in goats! This one was a bit different for her since she got to see the birth of a human baby, but she said overall it was pretty similar! I was glad that I got to see a birth on my last day since I was really hoping for it!

I also found out today that one of the other girls at Janet, Ajumunnisha, is getting married in the next couple of months. She invited me to her wedding, but since India is not a cheap plane ticket, I'm not going to be able to make it! Ajumunnisha is only 20 years old and her fiancé is 27. I can't imagine getting married right now, but I wish her and Rahila both all the best in their futures with their new families! 

Speaking of families, I saw my youngest patient yet today. A Muslim girl of only 17-years-old came in today and she was 5 months pregnant. She had been married for 7 months and was now expecting around October. I was unable to see the husband's age, but I was curious as to the age difference. The girl looked very young and her young age was confirmed by her chart. We have many teenage pregnancies in the US, but very rarely is it a young teenager who is already married. 

Since we have been here, we have always wondered why there were lots of bangles tied around this specific tree outside Janet. Today, Raja told Morgan that reason! In Hindu tradition, the pregnant women wear many bangles during their first pregnancy and shake them so the baby is able to hear. After the birth, they hang them on a tree (the tree outside Janet if the child is born there) as goo luck for their first child!

My wish finally came true today! I got to play with a little girl! This little girl was so smiley and was laughing and kept waving to Morgan and I from afar. So when we headed back into Dr. Victoria's office following her lunch, we made a quick stop by the little girl. She was so giggly and was smiling so big when she told us hi, waved, and then shook our hands. Later when I saw her again after my Mehandhi (see below) was completed, she was in awe of the art and was looking at her hands trying to figure out why she didn't have any. She was so precious and it was wonderful to see her so happy!

The left is a traditional wedding Mehandhi,
while the right is traditionally Arabic
Mehandhi

For our last day, Rahila did Mehandhi for both Morgan and myself. Mehandhi is what we think of as Henna, but is so much cooler! The work is so intracate and is mainly completed on the hands. Often it is done for decoration or for special occasions such as weddings. The Mehandhi will stay on for two weeks or so, so I hope to still have it when I get home! In the photos, I still have the actual paste once because I want the stain to be as dark as possible, but I will post another photo after the paste is washed off and it is finally set! Also, since Morgan was at Janet and had never been there before, the girls all had a new name to quickly memorize. At one point, Rahila was trying to saw everybody's name and struggled with Morgan's. She ended up saying, "Maddie, Marissa, and Mango." So now those are the three M's and Morgan is now known as Mango Fitch! Silly girls!

With my head low, I am sad to announce that tonight was our last trip to our favorite ice cream shop, Ibaco. Two celebrate I got two whole scoops of ice cream - one cappuccino (my favorite) and one New York fudge! It was a wonderful last trip and I'm surely going to miss our frequent trips! I'm sure the workers are going to be wondering where their frequent American customers went!

Some new Tamil phrases I finally learned!

Nalla irukiya - How are you?

Nalla iruken - I'm fine. 

The last thing I want to share is some of the phrases I was told today. The first is the word "super." Think of the okay symbol you do with your fingers and add the word super while you do it. This is often what people say when they like something. For instance, today I was wearing a jeweled hair barrette and jasmine flowers. Upon my arrival, multiple people told me it was "super" complete with the okay hand sign. I really love that and I might start telling everyone that things are super! The second is the phrase "I'm very feeling;" Another that I like very much. Raja and some of the girls at the clinic today all told me that they were very feeling. This basically means that they are sad because we are leaving. I like this phrase because I have had many experiences where I have a lot of emotions and I am definitely feeling, but it is hard to describe what I am feeling. So from no on, I may resort to this phrase... I am very feeling. 

And finally, some photos from my last day. I am so happy I was able to share my journey through India with you and I hope that my faithful (and occasional) readers have enjoyed it. I've had readers from all over the world (Serbia and Russia - also other non-Americans - shout out to you) and I'm so happy I was able to share my adventures with so many people. I hope you all continue to read as I continue my journey through Europe over the next two weeks!

Farewell from India,
Rissa

Dr. Victoria and I!

The girls in reception + the OP-assistants. From left to right: Rahila, Ajumunnisha, Saranya, Bona, and myself. Also, Saranya's face in this is priceless, please take note of that! You can also see in this photo how gorgeous Rahila is, the photo below does not do her justice!

The OP-assistants: Saranya, Vijaya, and Rahila

A final group photo with our faithful driver Raja

The men in this photo are the principal of Bishop Heber College (left) and Dr. Relton (right) who was in charge of our program. We are so thankful for everything they offered us here in India and have enjoyed our time spent on their campus!

அம்மாவாசை

Hi all. I apologize for not posting a blog yesterday - I had some stuff to share, but not that much so I decided to wait! So I will include all of that on this post with today's information... I took six pages of notes today, so I'm going to try to make this all work without being a jumbled mess! So here goes nothing!

So to begin our day yesterday, we had a little bit of a let down. The girls and I woke up promptly at 5 am so we could head to the kidney transplant surgery at 5:30 am. When we arrived at the hospital, we were a bit scared. There was barely anyone there and from the outside it seems less than ideal. When we found out that no one at the hospital was able to understand us, and we were asked several times if we needed surgical opinions, we decided to call our driver Raja to come pick us up and head home. So on the downside, we didn't get to see the kidney transplant. On the plus side, we did get to sleep for an extra two hours after our return! 

After a much-needed nap, I headed to Janet for the afternoon shift. I've decided one of my favorite parts about Dr. Victoria's crowded office is the children that come in with their mothers. Their are usually three types of children: shocked and happy to see me, terrified because I might be an alien, or curious but too nervous to come talk to me or say hi unless coaxed. Yesterday there were two little girls who came in that clearly had personalities of their own. One was about three and decided she needed to weigh herself and figured out how to make it work easier than most of the patients. The other was a bit older, but was so interested in what Dr. Victoria was saying that she seemed to be paying more attention than even her mother. But on the way out, both of the little girls waved good bye to me, which always leaves a smile on my face

The most interesting thing that happened yesterday was an unmarried pregnant girl came in. For us in America, premarital pregnancies hardly get a second glance. But here in India, this girl who is 21 years old is looked down upon by almost the entirety of society as someone who has cheated her family and is a disgrace to the family. When she came in for abdomen pain, after a routine scan, they discovered she was four months pregnant. Because she was still within the 18-weeks limit, termination of the pregnancy is still legal, which is exactly what her parents wanted. They also didn't want to know who the boy was, even though the daughter claimed no contact with a boy and Dr. Victoria advised them to find out since it's often a relative or an acquaintance. However, after the girl went to get the termination medications from another doctor at the clinic, she informed them that she did not want to take the medication and intended to keep the baby and runaway with the boy. I was told that this is not uncommon, but that all contact with the family would be cut off and the family would be expected to support themselves entirely. 

After we got home that evening and Maddie and I were headed to dinner while Morgan was at the private clinic, we ran into Dr. Rohini headed right towards our hostel. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but Dr.Rohini and Dr. Ravi already gave me three pairs of earrings and gave the three of us two loaves of delicious whole grain bread. Well yesterday when Dr. Rohini came towards us, she was holding a bag with a strand of jasmine flowers for each of us as well as a bookmark for each of us. On the bookmarks, she had written a special note such as "Rissa, It was a joy having you at our clinic... God's plan. Love, Stephens." Now let me just say, the Stephens are really the sweetest people in the entire world. I seriously cannot express my gratitude to them for everything they have done for us since we've been in India. It was very nice to get to see Dr. Rohini one last time since I didn't get to see her when I told Dr. Ravi goodbye the other day after surgery!

Anyways, onto today! Many women in India are either very underweight or very overweight. Either way there are risks, especially when it comes to pregnant women. Based on their pre-pregnancy BMI, the women are advised to gain a certain amount of weight. For instance, women who are obese (BMI 30+) are advised to gain only 7 kg. Those of normal BMI (20-25) are advised to gain 10 kg. Those with BMIs lower than 20, or underweight, are advised to even gain 15 kg to support the fetus and themselves during child-bearing. Women who are underweight often have uterine growth restriction which then causes the demise of the fetus. 

Since Maddie came to Janet with me today (the Stephens went out of town for a wedding for the next two days), we were able to watch two surgeries. The first surgery was a laparoscopic tubectomy (or tying of the fallopian tubes). Doing this laparoscopically means clamping each tube and sliding a clamp over the area. If this same procedure is done during open surgery, the tubes are instead cut and then tied. As I mentioned in an earlier post, sometimes women wish to undo the family planning surgery. Obviously, cutting a simple loop would be a lot easier than cutting the tubes back apart and then freshening them so they are then able to be placed back together. So for many women, the laparoscopic tubectomy is ideal, but because the surgery is often performed during a C-section, not always the most plausible option. The second surgery we saw was a laparoscopic exploration to determine the cause of infertility. Nothing out of the ordinary was discovered except for polycystic ovaries. Polycystic ovaries are the most common cause for irregular menstrual periods and infertility at Janet. In order to temporarily relieve the ovaries of the cysts, each ovary is punctured three or four times and drained. However, the fluid usually builds back up during each cycle, so the hope is that conception will occur within the same month as the draining.

We also got to see a couple procedures in the labour room today - one to help conception and one to hinder! The first was an intrauterine insemination. The woman was being injected with donor sperm directly into the cervix to lead to better chances of conception. The family had decided to go with donor sperm since the husband was HIV-positive and the couple had no sexual contact but still wanted children, so this was the best option for them as a family! The second procedure was a temporary intrauterine contraceptive. The contraceptive lasts for three years and has a nylon string attached for easy removal. Every year the string is checked to insure that is is still in place and accessible. This contraceptive method is ideal between a first and second child, but can also cause menstrual problems.

Something that definitely varied with my previous thinking was the "ideal age" of pregnancy. I know there is a time that is best for pregnancy (22 - 25 years) but I was also told today that a pregnancy over the age of 30 is considered elderly in India. In the US, the age is 40, so that was quite different! Dr. Victoria informed me that after 30 years of age, there is an increase in risk for diabetes, hypertension, fibroids, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary disorder. So the ideal age here is 22-25 and the latest Dr. Victoria likes to advise is 29! Crazy since my mom had all three of her children after the age of 30!

Today was also a special day in two ways: 1) the beginning of Ramadan in the Muslim religion and 2) an ominous day due to the lack of a moon. Ramadan is a 30-day fast in which those of Muslim religion are not permitted to eat or drink anything, including water, during daylight hours. They eat a large meal around 4 am before sunrise and a large meal around 7 pm after sunset. Today is also called Amavasai (அம்மாவாசை) which is an ominous day. Due to that reason, the day was much slower than any day I have seen at Janet thus far! We only saw 50 patients, most of which were infertility cases and very few pregnancies. We also didn't see any deliveries because it is considered bad luck to deliver on these days. Tomorrow is also part of Amavasai, but since it's my last day I hope we are able to see a few more interesting cases and I'm especially hoping for a delivery to end my journey on a high note!

I think the rest of my day can probably be explained via photos, so here you are!

During Dr. Victoria's lunch period today, I worked on my Tamil! So my name is the part at the top. The best one is the one that says V. Near next to it! The others are Saranya, Rahila, and Jennifer's names first written by them and then by me. Personally, I'm pretty impressed with my Tamil writing skills!

I went to pick up Morgan and Maddie from the clinic and, of course, because I wasn't there they saw lots of adorable babies. This little guy (shout out to Rocky cause you guys share a name) was there when I got there! 

He was also a little squirmy-worm!

Excuse the editing, it made this photo worthwhile. But Yoges (left) and Reo (right) have helped us so much while we've been here. They are technically attendants to the hostel, but they have been so friendly and have made sure that our time here has been great! 

And finally... tomorrow is my last full day in India! Can you believe it... I've been in India for one full month. The time here has flown by. Sometimes I feel as if I've been here for only a few days and then sometimes I feel as though I've been here for a year! I've learned so much in my time here and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity. I cannot wait to continue my journey in Europe after I leave India, but leaving will definitely be bittersweet.

Until tomorrow, my last day in India,
Rissa

Double Two

Hi everyone! This post is going to be a mix of yesterday and today and since I finally have my notebook back from Dr. Victoria's office, I also may post some of the things I learned/experienced on Friday! And the name of this post comes first from it being my 22nd post, and second from the fact that they say "triple one" or "double five" to describe numbers here! So this is post number doublet two!

I forgot to mention on Friday that each of the babies that in born in Janet receives a cushioned baby wrap that sort of acts like a bed (and it can also be held). It is so precious when they have been all cleaned off and get put into their bed wraps! On a totally different note, I also learned the Tamil word for earrings on Friday: jimiki! When I told Dr. Victoria I had learned the word, she followed up by asking me if I wore such large earrings at home! My answer, of course, was no since I barely even wear earrings at home! But everyone wears them everyday here so I feel like I have to as well.

Yesterday rounds at the clinic were very interesting, but also very sad. First, I found out that there was a case of chicken pox. Most of us know that it is much better to get chicken pox as a child because it can be very hard to handle as an adult and there are fewer risks if you get it as a child. Well, when a pregnant mother has chicken pox, it can either be an okay thing or a bad thing; in the case that I saw, it was bad. If the mother is able to carry the child for ten days after contracting chicken pox, the children is exposed and will be born immune. If the child is born before the ten days is over, he or she cannot be anywhere near the mother and thus, cannot be breast-fed. He or she must get the Varicella Zoster Immunoglobin vaccine in order to quickly create immunity so the family can be reunited. Unfortunately, the little boy in this case had been born only five days after contraction of the virus. The mother is in ICU and the baby is in the NICU. Dr. Victoria had tried to stop the labor pains and contractions with some medications to slow the birthing process, but the attempts failed and the little boy was born early anyways. Hopefully he will get the immunoglobin soon and he will be reunited with his mommy!

Two other cases I saw during rounds were a woman with a very swollen lower body (edema) and a woman who had "bad obstetric history." The woman with edema was pregnant with twins and was due on August 3rd. However, she was so swollen from her feet to her thighs that she could barely even move. In order to make sure the babies are healthy enough, they are trying to wait until at least next Monday to deliver - so hang in there, little ones! The woman with bad obstetric history was the saddest case that I saw all day. She had a heart problem which they believed to be causing the termination of her pregnancies. Her first pregnancy she carried full-term, delivered a live baby, and then it died. Her second pregnancy was a full-term still birth. And her third and fourth pregnancies both resulted in spontaneous abortions at 5 months despite cervical tightening. While we were in her room, she was crying and asking if they could just do something to end her life. Basically, she had decided that if she couldn't have children, there was no point in living. It was extremely hard to watch and I can only hope that Dr. Victoria will work the magic that she always does and will help this woman to have children of her own.

I mentioned a couple posts ago how they are able to reduce the number of fetuses via ultrasound. Well, I met a woman on Monday morning who had a ten year old son, but since had not been  able to conceive. After a while on fertility drugs, she finally conceived... Sextuplets! Because it is extremely hard to safely maintain a sextuplet pregnancy, it was again reduced to twins. This morning I found out that the same mother had gone into labor on Monday afternoon and I missed the birth of the twins!

I've recently seen a lot of cases where mothers have wanted to continue having children despite already having "enough." For example, today two woman came in wanting to have more children because they specifically wanted a boy. One woman already have three girls, but wanted to keep trying. The other was a bit more extreme. She had already had two girls and had the family planning  surgery. But now that she wants a boy, the family planning  surgery has to be "undone." As Dr. Victoria explained to me, this surgery is not easy. They have to again open up the patient (she has already had two C-sections), release the Fallopian tubes from the previous ties, cut out the scar tissue, and reconstruct the tubes so they are able to properly function! We talked about how it is crazy how much families will go through just to have a boy. Boys definitely have a higher worth here in India and it honestly makes me very sad to think that the two or three little girls that the family has is not enough for them. Again, I know it is definitely a cultural difference, but I can only hope that one day the country will progress to think higher of its female citizens and understand their worth as well as the man's. 

Today I learned some more about the girls who work in the office with Dr. Victoria! The three main ones that I know are Rahila, Vijaya, and Saranya. Their job title is OP-assistant, which I think means Outpatient assistant and most, if not all, of them have their B.Comm. B.Comm. here is a bachelor of commerce, not a bachelor of communications as you might think! Saranya was sick today, so I didn't get to talk to her. I found out that Vijaya has two young boys and that Rahila is soon to be married. She is 22 and is getting married on July 31st to a 26-year-old. I'm not sure if it is arranged or not, but I'm also not going to be the one to ask! I don't know if that sort of thing is a touchy subject here or not, especially to the bride-to-be. 

One other interesting, yet unbelievable, thing I learned today was that 3D scans are almost routine now. This is interesting because the mothers are not allowed to know the sex of the baby, so they cannot see the actual scan. They are given a sheet and a CD of photos that are zoomed in to just show the body parts of interest (I.e., spine, upper and lower limbs, spine). The scans are important because they allow the doctor to see physical anomalies very well. Dr. Victoria told me that if there is a non-lethal anomaly, such as missing digits or cleft lip, she advises the mother to continue with the pregnancy. However, if the child has a "more serious" problem, such as a limb completely unformed, she will advise them to terminate the pregnancy. This was very interesting to me since I feel as though a missing limb is not a lethal diagnosis, but something a person is able to live with. I would be interested to know the opinion of a obstetrician in the US on this subject. 

This evening I also went to the private veterinary clinic with Morgan because I just wanted the experience of it! Unfortunately I am terrible luck and I drove all the animals away! We did not see even one case! I was very sad about that, but it did learn to write my name in Tamil and that made my time there worth it! We were also told about a book called the Thiru Kural (or Tirukku a) which is a book of law that is cherished by many and gives rules for life, much like the Ten Commandments but giant. It is made up of 1,330 couplets meant to govern the lives of people for the best. The first couplet reads: "Agara muthala ezhuthellam adi, bagavan muthtre ulagu." Which basically means God created everything. Another one reads: "Kal thonra man thonra kalathe, mun thonriya mootha kudi." Which means before the sand and stone were discovered, there was Tamil. The book was originally written in Tamil and is now being translated to English due to its importance. I also learned that in Tamil there are three different "la" sounds. They all have different script letters (204 total letters) that depict the specific la that is being used. But to be honest, they all sounded the same to me! 

On Monday I saw a uterine fibroid removal surgery. It was initially meant to be laparoscopic, so a specific general surgeon was brought in. But after going in with the camera they determined that the fibroids were too close to the Fallopian tubes and it was not worth the risk to do it laparoscopically. So everybody began shuffling around, things were being moved in and out of the operating theatre, and Maddie and I just tried to stay out of the way! Eventually everything was set and they began to open the woman up so they could do open surgery to remove the fibroids! It was very interesting to see the shift in type of surgery and the smooth way everyone was able to handle it. Tomorrow morning (bright and early at 6 am) we are going to see a kidney transplant! Or at least the harvesting of the kidney (for certain), which takes about three hours total. We are very excited and I will let you know how that goes!

Until tomorrow, 

Marissa

P.S. Here are some photos that we took on the auto on the way to shopping the other day!

The beautiful Catholic Cathedral across the street from where we shop

Our Auto Selfie!

Maddie decided to try out the typical picture-taking face here in India

There's a Tree.

Hello everyone! It has been a very eventful weekend (especially Saturday) and I have a lot to share! Fortunately for me, most of my sharing can be done via pictures because you know what they say: A picture is worth a thousand words! So this blog post really has about 50,000+ words, because it has a lot of pictures! I'm really bad at narrowing down photos, so you've got about 50 to look through in this one! I hope you enjoy them all!

On Saturday morning we headed out a little before 5:30 am to head up to Kodaikanal, which is a hill station about 3.5 hours away from Trichy. Hill stations are towns on top hills that are common tourist and vacation spots since they are so much cooler than the rest of India. Also, fun fact: my best friend's boyfriend was born and lived in Kodaikanal (also abbreviated as Kodai) for four years when his parents were missionaries here in India! Pretty cool! Anyways, on the way to Kodai, we stopped for some Masala tea/coffee and cookies. Masala tea is what we call Chai tea in the US. Since I was unaware that this was the tea they served, I got coffee, but Maddie got tea and after trying it, I was very sad that I didn't get tea. But fret not, I got my own Marsala tea later! We also got cookies with the title "Dark Fantasy," which sounded a bit sensual to me, but they were absolutely delicious! They are chocolate cookies filled with chocolate syrup... yummmmmyyyy!

Here's your Dark Fantasy

We continued up the mountain and our first stop was at an overlook! The drive there looked almost like we were driving through the mountains of WNC; it almost made me forget we were in India! But a few honks will quickly recall your senses! On our way up, we took lots of photos, so we can take a quick break to look at those!

The overlook!

There was a really old structure that was built to have a better view of the overlook. I really wanted to climb it, but the wads of barbed wire made it very clear that they did NOT want anyone to climb it!

There was a temple at the overlook as well!

Monkeys! They look huge, but they are really only about a foot tall and super cute.

If you look closer, this mommy is carrying a baby!!!

Check out that smile!

Waterfall on the way up!

In Kodai and on the way up, there is a fruit called Jackfruit here but we know it as Durian Fruit. The funny part is Solomon (our RA who accompanied us up to Kodai) first told us they were called Junk Fruit, which we found hilarious. We had to explain to Solomon that in the U.S. "junk" means garbage, so it's basically called Garbage Fruit! We were also drying and Solomon was trying to tell us there was a "junk fruit" tree, but he ended up just saying "There's a tree" and we all cracked up since there were trees everywhere! 

Jackfruit tree

Masala Tea! So Delicious! I got some tea leaves to bring home - I just have to learn how to make it perfectly!

German Shepherd puppy!

Sorry for the gross photo, but this is how meat shops work here - gross...

Why did the monkey cross the road?

We also went on a "trek" or a hike through the forest and ended up at a waterfall overlooking Elephant Valley. The elephants hide out in the forest during the day and then come out at night, but since we were there during the daytime, we didn't get to see them! We were told that one had passed through, but we just missed it!

Maddie is scared of heights, so I had to help her down to this point so she could take a photo!

We almost climbed this, but it was very steep and Solomon was also scared of heights! But maybe one day if I come back I will continue my explorations of Kodai's forests!

Black pepper plant that looked a lot like Kudzu to us!

After we finished our trek through the forest, we drove the car up to the City View and the Silent Valley! From these points not only were you able to see the entire city, but take beautiful photos of a valley as well.

City View

Silent Valley - it was very bright, so we are all very squinty

Next we headed up to a pine forest. We have lots of pine trees in WNC, but I have never seen anything quite like a pine forest; there are very tall trees every couple of feet. It really puts you in perspective of how small we are in the world - as if being in India didn't do that already! The sad part of the forest is that it is not as beautiful as it could have been because people have littered everywhere. Not only do people just throw their trash everywhere, but they also leave shoes. It is not an uncommon site to just see one shoe left somewhere. Solomon seemed very confused when we asked why someone would leave their singular shoe; he just responded with "it's damaged." The cultural difference in that aspect is very strange!

Trash in the forest

It was a little slippery walking down - the tree caught me, no worries!

This is what happens when we go places and try to take pictures...

The last big stop we made was to Guna Cave. The cave used to be open, but the cave was actually very dangerous and people died, so they closed it off for various reasons! But they did leave areas open so you able to see into the cave through some fencing.

People just hang out on these awesome roots!

View from the cave 

This family wanted to take a picture with me and I couldn't resist this one especially since that little boy shook my hand when he met me - SO PRECIOUS

And after a long and beautiful day, we headed down the mountain. Lucky for me, I was finally able to have some real Indian naan and it was every bit as wonderful as I had hoped! Naan has to be made in a special oven, so we aren't able to have it at the hostel dining hall. It is my absolute favorite bread though and I was determined to not leave India without having it! I had it was paneer masala and it was very, very wonderful!

This little baby decided to have a snack right beside us!

So when we finally got back to the hostel, we were all exhausted and went straight to bed! Today we headed back over to Chennadakai Street for some more shopping. Since things are so cheap here in India (conversion rate is 60 rupees for 1 US Dollar), we have all decided to stock up for gifts for everyone. I decided it really doesn't matter if I get too much because: a) I am sending a box of stuff home before I travel Europe regardless and b) if I have too many gifts to give upon my return, I can always save them and give them to others throughout the year! Tomorrow I will be headed back to Janet Nursing Home for the morning shift and there is another surgery at Stephen Nursing Home tomorrow evening, so I will be headed there in the evening instead of Janet.

Until tomorrow,

Rissa