June 12th, 2008Today was a short hike to the health camp, which was held in a village directly neighboring Than Gaon. We saw A LOT of anemia. I asked Dr. Paul if this was due to the vegetarian diet that most people here adhere to. He said no, it was more likely due to poor nutrition and hard labor. One of the patients we saw was 100 years old. She was walking like she was 60 years old. Her only living relatives are her granddaughter and grandson who she lives with. Her chief complaint was weakness and her diagnosis was hypertension and anemia. Pretty good for 100.
It started raining really hard after her visit, but thankfully let up in time for us to make the walk home without getting soaked (which is mostly a problem because the sun never seems to be out long enough for our clean laundry to dry so none of us could afford to have anything else wet).
We had the rest of the day to hang out and it was beautiful outside. We got a lesson in cricket from the guys who work at Nature Quest. JP was pretty much the only one who didn’t have to have the ball thrown at their bat to get a hit, but it was a lot of fun nevertheless.
A few days ago we caught Dr. Paul at a vulnerable moment and convinced him to let us have a bonfire. Our agreement was that if I could get Rahul, one of our local coordinators, to buy the supplies for Smores we could have a bonfire. Unfortunately due to fuel shortages and the high temperatures in India, marshmallows are no longer a cost effective item to bring to Dehradun. Yes, this is a true story. Rahul and Jade were nice enough to buy us some delicious Lindt Dark Chocolate bars and bananas though so we roasted those around the fire and put them on Digestive biscuits.
June 13th, 2008
Our final day at Than Gaon and our final yoga session. Dvrinder, our yoga teacher told us something very wise about practicing the breathing techniques he taught us during the week, “God gave you breath and you should use it. I know you are busy medical students and when you get busy you forget to take deep breaths. But think of it this way, how do dogs breathe? They pant and take short inhalations and exhalations and they never live more than 10-12 years.” What a great way of thinking of it.
We got to see the little girl with the burn on her head again and her wound is continuing to heal. Val and JP had a good laugh on my part when they said a patient looked just like me. She went behind a curtain so the rest of us couldn’t see her for a few minutes. When she came in to see Dr. Paul she had a visibly swollen eyelid from an infection. This was a comparison to my bug bitten eye on the first day. Thanks guys.
This week was a tough week for me. I loved Than Gaon but I had a fever most of the time that wouldn’t quit and then got an upper respiratory infection. Dr. Paul, our wonderful healer, gave me some Ayurvedic medications (and I took antibiotics) which definitely helped. In some ways I was happy to be sick not from food-related causes, as nearly everyone else on the trip has experience.
After seeing patients Friday afternoon, Dr. Paul took us on a tour of the farmland and showed us all of the different plans and explained their uses in the Ayurvedic medications he makes. It is incredible how many medicinal uses one simple plant can have.
We said our goodbyes and then took the treacherous jeep ride back down to Dehra Dun, which consisted of driving down literally slate rock n a windy road. I came up with the idea of thinking of it like an amusement park ride, a la Indiana Jones and that we were on a track.
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