Goodbye India, Hello America!

This is my final post! I hope everyone has enjoyed my blog. Thanks for reading!

We arrived safely back in the US on Sunday! Danielle and I had many delays causing a lot of running through the airport, but we finally made it safely home! It was wonderful to arrive to the Charlotte airport to my mom, step dad and sister's smiling faces and of course a trip to Olive Garden on the way home.

I had an amazing experience in India and I am so thankful to everyone who made the trip possible. I learned more than I ever thought I would and met some amazing people.

I am not only going to miss how genuine everyone was and the Indian way of life, but the crazy traffic, constant honking, random music playing, the wonderful dentists and assistants, our wonderful food and cooks, Mangos, Raja our driver, feeling like a celebrity when I walk into a room, having my picture "secretly" taken, the people I met at Bishop Heber, cows and goats everywhere, waking up to a cow's moo and the cock-a-doodle-do of a rooster, and the warm weather. I'm even going to miss having dirt in my shoes, weird smells every five minutes, and the constant biting of mosquitoes. Basically, I'm going to miss everything there is about India. I truly fell in love with that place. Hopefully one day I can make it back to visit the wonderful people I met and show them once again how much I appreciate everything they have done for me.

Thanks for reading my blog and supporting my trip! Now time to write my paper to finish off this wonderful experience!

Time for Goodbyes

 

Words cannot express how sad I am to say that today was our last day in India. We have started our goodbyes, which has been extremely difficult. The assistants today were super adorable and gave me a bunch of little gifts and a card.

Priya, who I have come to love, wrote me her own little note and gave me the keychain and bouncy ball shown in the picture. Her note was translated into English so I could read it, which I thought was just adorable. They told me I needed a flower in my hair today, so they picked out a beautiful rose. Yes, that is a bobble head dog.

***Picture once I can get it uploaded.

Seeing their cheerful faces waving goodbye to me as we pulled away made it that much harder to leave. I’m truly going to miss everyone at Dr. Gurucharan’s office.

We ended our night with another wedding. The wedding was the Stephen’s nephew, so it wasn’t quite as weird that we were. After the wedding, we went to the reception where they serve food and everyone sits and watches people talk to the bride and groom and get their picture taken.

This is at the end of the wedding as the bride and groom were walking out. The bride was wearing a sari instead of a wedding dress which is the typical wedding attire for women in India. Notice the guy on the keyboard. He was their DJ and jamming out to all of the songs.

The reception. The bride and groom are up on stage and slowly people line up to go talk with them, give them gifts, and take pictures.

 Our food at the reception served to us on a classical Indian banana leaf.

After the wedding we had to go for ice cream one last time at Ibaco and say bye to everything on our way back to the hostel. Today has been so hard on all of us, I can’t even imagine what tomorrow will be like as we pull away on the plane.

Breeze

**Sorry this post is a day late. Apparently the wifi just doesn't like my computer. Everyone else can surf away on the internet, but not me!

Tonight we had our farewell dinner with Dr. Relton, Shalini, Josephine and the principal of the college. They took us to a super nice and Western-style restaurant called Breeze. It felt like we teleported to the US for a nice Indian meal. The restaurant was a buffet so we were able to try a ton of things we haven’t tried before and of course get more of the stuff we loved. I think one of our favorite part was the Indian sweets bar. It was wonderful to finally get to try some original Indian sweets since that’s one of the things South India is known for.

The four of us with Josephine and Shalini

 

Dr. Gurucharan wasn’t at the office today so I got to watch all of his assistants. I saw one dentist take the braces off 2 patients, watched some crowns being placed, and a few scalings. The assistants were so much fun today since the Dr. wasn’t in. I guess when he’s gone it means play time. They just wanted to play all day and show me things on the computer. I think at one point they were trying to pull up Photobooth so they could take pictures with me, but I had to leave before I figured out what was going on there. I could tell they don’t use the computer often because this took them forever. Being with the assistants is so much fun, but very comical since they speak VERY little English. It’s more of them talking and me motioning things to them.

I'm Going to Miss This Place

It really hit me today that we are leaving in a few days. As I was talking with the nurses I realized how much I’ve truly grown to love this place and how happy I am to have had the opportunity to come on this trip. As I was thinking about all of this, naturally one of the assistants was in the mood for pictures. Of course that only made it that much harder to think about leaving soon. She told me that they are going to have a small gift for me on Friday, I’m anxious to see what it is. They’ve asked me so many questions I can’t even imagine what they’re going to come up with. The assistants are some of the sweetest and most playful people I’ve me while here. I’m truly going to miss their smiling faces every  morning.

Here’s two pictures of me and some of the assistants. Priya, the one of the right, is one of my favorite. She always works with Dr. Gurucharan so I get to spend the whole day with her.

 

So as I get my camera out to take the above pictures, they were anxious to see pictures of my brothers and sisters. I had to get my phone out to show them those pictures, so naturally they saw my whole family, my cat, my dog, and of course all of my friends. Anytime a new assistant would walk into the room they made me get my phone back out to show them the pictures of my family. I guess they all learned a little bit about me today.

Movie Time

Have you ever sat through a 2 ½ hour movie in another language? Well I have. Tonight we were taken to see a movie in Tamil. I couldn’t tell you the name to save my life. Don’t worry though, all four of us were assigned our own translators so we knew what was going on. Surprisingly, the acting was animated enough so we knew what was happening without having to have every word translated. To give you an image of what the movie was like, just think of Wall-E. Almost no talking occurs in the movie, but you still know what’s going on.

So what are movie theaters like in India, you say? This one was very Western. The movie theater was off of a food court similar to what you would see in any American mall. The food court even had a Baskin Robins and a CFC (Chennai Fried Chicken). The movie theatre had an arcade section, ticket booth and concession stand. They sold your typical American concessions along with some baked goods. Although the movie was long, it had a 15 minute intermission which was perfect for us all to get some classic movie theater popcorn. I think our theaters need to start having intermissions for every movie, it was a nice little break.

Here are some pictures I took of the movie theater and food court area. As you can see, very Western.

What fun is a movie theater without arcade games?

I guess since they don't have a KFC, the enjoy some CFC.

 

Since I am here for Dentistry and not just for Indian fun, I’ll tell you a little bit about my day at the clinic. Dr. Gurucharan saw a ton of patients once again. One patient was this tiny little girl, I’m going to guess around 2, who had something wrong with her jaw. I could tell she previously had jaw surgery due to the scars on her face. She was so adorable, but so scared to be at the dentist. Her mom had to lie down on the chair with her to make her comfortable. It made me happy to see the way the dentist acted around her. Even though I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was doing everything in his power to comfort her. I didn’t have the opportunity to ask Dr. Gurucharan what was going on with that case. Whenever it’s super busy, he’s cranking through patients too quickly for me to stop him and ask for a translation.

While Dr. Gurucharan was doing a Root Canal, I went next door and watched the orthodontist for a little while. I figured since I’ve seen about a gillion root canals since I’ve been here, I’d go see something different for a little while. While I was watching the orthodontist, he put braces on one patient and placed a crown on another. One thing I learned today about putting braces on is that they do not use any form of light to help bond the glue. I’ve noticed this other times, but I always just thought it was that particular dentist’s method, but apparently not. I have yet to see anyone use a light for anything, rather it be braces, a filling, or a crown. They just leave the patient’s mouth open for a long time until it dries. I wonder how uncomfortable this is for the patient compared to the method used in the US.

Long Walks and Abscesses

Today has been a great day! We are all very sad that it is our final week in India, so we have decided to make it the best one yet. There are finally students on campus since classes started last week so the atmosphere is a lot more lively. It’s beginning to look a lot like the type of campus we’re used to. During our break today we walked around campus and town, venturing out further than normal. Due to my Appalachian t-shirt and extremely mix-matched outfit, we ran into a very nice couple from Houston. They said they grew up in Trichy and were here visiting family. They had a ton of questions to ask us, like was there any culture shock coming from the US to a place like Trichy. It seems that every time we meet someone new they wonder why we came to Trichy of all places. We all decided anytime we run into someone from the US we feel like we have this immediate connection, and I guess we kind of do.

The dentist office was poppin’ today. Dr. Gurucharan was cranking through a variety of patients today. Usually he does the exact same procedures every day, but today was a little different. A patient came in with a huge bandage on her face because she had an abscess draining through her jawbone. Not only did she have drainage from the outside, apparently the infection had gone through her muscle of mastication so she could not open her mouth. Dr. Gurucharan had to slowly pry her mouth open little by little with a small metal tool. He was able to get it about halfway open so she can eat. He said once the swelling from the infection goes down, he will open her mouth more and remove the impacted tooth causing the abscess.  Although this has been very painful for the patient, it is comforting to know that it all will be fixed and she will be back to normal before long.

Srirangam and Indian Treats

We started our Sunday morning off very early with a trip to Srirangam Temple. This temple is the largest temple in India. It took us about 2 hours to walk through, if that tells you how big it is. We were not able to see all of the temple because many areas were for Hindus only. This got a little frustrating at times since all we wanted to do was respect their practices and see their gods. In some places we were told not to take pictures, so we respected their wishes.

 

Yelling a prayer to the gods in this corner is supposed to bring a lot of wealth to your home.

The ceilings were very intricate whether they were painted or stone. 

All around the temple there were these stone carvings. This one in particular is supposed to have all of their gods on it.

We saw many of these "Only Hindus Are Allowed" signs.

One of the many bodies of water inside the temple.

We were told this is similar to a Sunday School room where they come to learn about their gods.

 

Right outside of the temple were a ton of shops where we could get cute little knick knacks. We’re still learning how to barter to get lower prices, but I’d say we were pretty successful today.

After the temple our driver took us to two supermarkets. We kept telling everyone we wanted to buy some Indian foods to take home, so it was wonderful to finally make a trip there. Indian supermarkets are very much like supermarkets in the US. Surprisingly, there are not a ton of products that are strictly Indian. We noticed a lot of brands that we see in the US and products that were made in other parts of the world. My goal was to find some good Indian candy to bring home, but it seemed like most of it was made elsewhere. Thailand candy seemed to be pretty popular. Although there wasn’t a huge new variety, I managed to find a good amount of Indian goodies to bring home!

Famous in a Small Town

Today was super busy. We started our morning off with a large breakfast consisting of lots of fruit, toast and eggs. We all needed to do a little bit more shopping so we went to a big department store called Sartha’s and to some surrounding shops. Ali and I went there the first weekend after we saw Rock Fort, but the other two hadn’t been so it was fun to take them. Once again we all bought a ton of stuff at hardly any cost. Gifts for everyone! For lunch we decided to try a restaurant that we drive by every day called Arab Spice. The food was delicious! We all ordered something different to share, including the traditional Indian drink, Lassi. We were told we needed to try one, so I’m glad we finally had the chance.  It pretty much tasted like very sweet melted yogurt. We also got a bread basket which consisted of a ton of different Indian breads, probably the best decision we could have made. The bread was amazing. I hate that I can’t bring fresh bread home for everyone to try.

 

Here's a picture of Lassi. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures while we were eating a Spice, so this one is from the internet.

 

After Spice, we were taken to a rural village that Bishop Heber helps take care of. They provide the people with healthcare, an education, agriculture, and fix up their village to make it a nicer place to live. We were given a nice tour by Ravi who once lived there. As soon as we showed up, everyone flocked to our car. We felt kind of famous. The children in the village absolutely adored us and wanted their pictures taken. The same 2 little boys wanted to be in every single picture we took, so that made it a little difficult. Every step we took it was either “What’s your name?” or “Picture”. That might be some of the only English they knew, but they knew it pretty well. We went into a couple houses to see what the typical Indian home looks like. Each house consisted of one room where eating, sleeping, cooking, socializing, pretty much everything occurs.

Here’s a picture of Dawn trying to go through a door. The door frames were very small because as you probably know the average height of an Indian is much less than that of an American. .

It was very hard to get candid shots because once the kids knew we were taking a picture of someone, they had to run and get in. This little girl was super cute playing with her paper and pencil, unfortunately this is the best picture I could get.

This was their main water source. The women fill up their buckets here and carry it back to their homes.

Here a woman was cooking dinner outside of her house. Typically we saw the stoves in the homes.

If the family had a bed, this is what it looked like. Sadly we did not see many beds.

The next 3 pictures were taken inside the home. The house was one big room where everything took place.

This is from the inside of the house. These kids, plus the four of us was about all that could fit in the house.

I just thought this little boy was adorable playing with his candy.

This is 3 of the trouble makers who had to get into every picture.

We then came back to the Hostel, enjoyed a nice little dinner and sat around and watched Little Miss Sunshine. We had a nice relaxing evening after such a busy day.

The Underserved

Tonight I got to experience how personal dental hygiene in India is nowhere near what it is in the US. A woman came into the office because she had a tooth ache. She opened her mouth and every single one of her teeth had large amounts of decay. The dentist was able to extract the tooth that was giving her the most pain, which was nice. I then asked her what she was going to do about the rest of the teeth, to which I got the reply “Nothing, she can’t afford it.  I would have to do a root canal on every single tooth in her mouth.” It broke my heart to think that this woman knows she is going to slowly lose every tooth in her mouth and it all could have been prevented with proper dental care.

Not long after this woman came in, a 9 year old girl arrives with a big spot on her neck, complaining of pain around the area. It appeared that she had so much decay on a tooth that an abscess has formed and is draining through her jaw bone and through her neck. Due to neither her nor her dad knowing how to speak Tamil or English, Dr. Priya was only able to prescribe her an antibiotic and send her on her way. She could not do any surgery without being informed about the girl’s medical history or without properly informing the family of the procedure needing to be done.

These two events have reminded me of exactly why I want to be a dentist. They have encouraged me to keep striving towards my goal to help the underserved and make a difference in these people’s lives.

Jal-Jeera, a One of a Kind Drink

We all got to experience some Indian culture first hand tonight at dinner. It all started yesterday when Solomon asked us what our favorite foods were. One of us said sweet potatoes, thinking you know, sweet potatoes. So tonight at dinner we sit down to a plate full of white boiled potatoes. Not remembering our conversation last night, we expect them to taste like normal salty potatoes. Not quite. Instead of giving us orange sweet potatoes they cooked normal potatoes in sugar water to sweeten them. Literally making sweet potatoes. Believe it or not they were actually pretty good and tasted just like sweet potatoes.

Not long after the sweet potato discovery we were presented with a green water with ground mint and pepper on top. We were told this was the Indian drink Jal-Jeera which aids in digestion. Curious, we all took a big gulp. It was interesting. Here is the wiki definition, please read for further explanation.

“Jal-jeera, or jaljira, is an Indian beverage, or else the powder used to flavor this drink. In Hindi, "Jal" means water and "Jeera" means cumin. The beverage form is essentially lemonade and jaljira powder, and is a popular summer drink in India. It is sometimes served as an appetizer, as it is intended to "startle" the taste buds.

Jaljira powder generally consists of cumin, ginger, black pepper, mint, black salt, some fruit powder (usually either mango, or some kind of citrus zest), and chili or hot pepper powder.”

When it says it is made to startle the taste buds, boy is that correct. I cannot upload a picture right now, the internet is not being friendly. So feel free to Google the drink yourself.

Today was very eventful at Dr. Gurucharan’s office. It was implant day! Apparently the staff enjoys days Dr. Gurucharan does implants because everyone seemed to be very chipper and happy this morning. I learned a ton about the jaw bone and size of the implant during the procedure. The procedure only took him about 20 minutes which I found to be very fascinating. I’m not sure if that is because he had a lot of other patients today so he was working quickly or if that is the legitimate time for an implant procedure. Whatever the case, the procedure was done and the patient was happy in the end.

A VERY Thorough Tour

 

Today we went on a little field trip. Our field trip consisted of a tour of Joseph Eye Hospital specializing in….eyes. They also have a section of the hospital focused on disability rehabilitation. We began our visit to Joseph Eye Hospital with a 15 minute chapel service that all employees attend in the morning. We then went on a very thorough 4 hour tour where we were showed everything in the hospital including, but not limited to the operation rooms, fire extinguishers, walkways, accounting offices, HR offices, patient and employee canteens, and disability friendly ramps. I think the only thing we were not shown were the toilets. Our very friendly tour guide introduced us to almost every employee of the hospital, except maybe the janitors, allowing us to see every department. The introductions even led us to get to enjoy a stock room full of lenses. He even had their blind patients show us that they’ve learned their way around the hospital and had one patient in rehabilitation walk around the room to show us she can now walk.

 

Joseph Eye Hospital is very top notch. They had modern accommodations, operating rooms, and sterilization. We were shown their processes for sterilization, feeding patients, and scrubbing in for an operation. There were three things I really enjoyed about this hospital: they self-employee their patients with disabilities, they will do procedures for free if the patient cannot afford it, and they care about patent care just as much as they do about medical care. Outside of the eye portion of the hospital they focus a lot on patients with disabilities, providing them with jobs and education. We were told that the disability patients are taught simple ways of life so when their family members pass, they can support themselves. They teach them by having them make cups, candles, chairs and tables, envelopes, and notebooks which they then sell in the hospital.

A disability patient selling snacks and products made at the hospital.

 

Here's us and our wondeful tour guide.

 

So today we got a new driver, apparently our other one is taking a month off for health reasons. Now, I wouldn’t normally include our new driver in my blog, but tonight it led to an adventure. Not only was it this new driver’s first day, he speaks little to no English. Tonight he graciously drove me to Dr. Priya’s office as told, which I find out upon arrival is closed. I tried to tell him her office was closed and to take me back to Bishop Heber which then led to us sitting on the side of the road for 10 minutes and him trying to drive me to a different hospital to observe. He could not grasp the concept that he took me to the correct place but she was not there. He gave up on our lack of communication skills and eventually called someone to translate. 20 minutes later I made it back safely to Bishop Heber College and our driver is now probably confused beyond belief.  The bright side is I learned how to communicate with our driver: two word sentences accompanied by hand motions.