Jack of All Trades

Let me start with telling you how I woke up... I was having a dream about how my sister had a cat and there was something wrong with it so we had to get it to the doctor. Point being, in my dreams, I was not India; I was with my family; and there were animals around. About 7:30 am right below our window (it seemed that close) was the most terrifying, most awful sounding puppy screaming that I have ever heard... There was some sort of dog fight going on and in my dream world, it was even worse. I jumped to my feet immediately to put an end to it, only to find myself in my room in India and not able to see out the window. It was very sad and a very rude awakening to my day... But it did get better!

Maddie, Morgan, and I have been asked to come speak to a communications class here on campus. The class is learning English and learning how to communicate it properly, so the instructors thought it would be great if we could come interact with them so they could practice with a real-live American complete with an "American" accent. Maddie and I went for thirty minutes this morning and I went for an hour this afternoon. Tomorrow morning Maddie and I will go again and Morgan and I will go in the afternoon. The students ask us questions and we are in the hot seat, which is actually pretty terrifying. But mostly, the classes (there are 4) all ask the same questions: how do you like India?, how does education in America compare to education in India, and do you know any Tamil words? The hardest questions I got were: what is the general opinion of Indians to Americans?, would you like to be born in India when you are reborn?, and what is the source of your nation? The latter by which I was completely baffled. I ended up talking about the development of America and the new health care reform, but I realized later that she was asking about our supporting industry; for example, in India, it's agriculture. I don't really think we have one in America. 

At work today I saw a few very interesting cases. The first was a woman who was informed that her fetus had spontaneously aborted 8 weeks into the pregnancy. This was very sad to hear and the family kept wanting to know why, but there wasn't really a correct answer. She had to options to rid her body of the empty gestational sac which included a typical D&C (surgery) or a medicine that she took in tablet form. She chose the tablet because it's much less invasive as well as much cheaper. In addition, I met a woman who had married a much older man and now has two kids. Though this family functions as a normal family, it is anything but. In the villages, they do not have the same rules as they do in the city. The husband was no longer producing live sperm and even after trying everything, the couple was still unable to conceive. So rather than adopt, the wife slept with a man who was not her husband in order to get pregnant, which her husband was completely fine with. Very strange indeed...

Some other random facts I learned today:
-The peacock (Indian Peafowl) is the national bird of India - it cannot be killed even if it is eating all of your crops
-Dr. Ravi likes to define MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) as Member of the Big Buttock Society
-I met a woman whose son was going to study at Clemson - Go Carolina's!!!
-Arranged marriages do indeed still exist in India
-Lizards can definitely get into our rooms here in the International Hostel. Morgan and I have two friends, Tony and Alfred, and they may or may not still be in our room. Wish us luck while we are sleeping!

And lastly, the title... Jack of All Trades. This comes from two things. First, Dr. Ravi is definitely a jack of all trades. He practices not only obstetrics and gynecology, but also pediatrics, dermatology, and geriatrics among others. It's quite amazing that he can know so much about so many different things! Second, the three of us have been playing quite a bit of Miami Rummy (a card game I was taught by my sister's boyfriend). It is a very fun game and you should all learn it if you don't know it already!

Until tomorrow,
Marissa