Arrival

It's 5:25 in the morning and I'm laying in bed, watching the sunrise through the open door. I've only slept a few hours since I left home two days ago so forgive me if this post is a little rambling. There was wifi when we got in last night but it seems to be gone now, so I'll post this when it comes back. I'm not sure how to begin. 

For the few of you that don't know, I'm in India working for a nonprofit called Citta with a friend from high school for the next few months. Citta runs hospitals, schools and women's centers in India and Nepal. (www.Citta.org) I'm going to be working in their hospital in Juanga and Connor will be helping at the village school. 

We left Westport on Wednesday 10/21 and took a 15 hr flight to New Delhi, had a 5 hour layover and then another 2.5hr flight to Bhubaneswar, where we were picked up by one of the doctors, Biku and his friend. (It's always hard to write about traveling. It seems like a simple journey when I write it down, but who wants to hear about the minutiae of a long flight?) 

As soon as we left the airport, the sweaty fog glued our clothes to our skin. I had been thinking I might go to sleep in the couple-hour car ride to Juanga, but I didn't understand India. Our little Suzuki car rarely let off the horn as it fought through the chaos that is Indian traffic. We shared the road with rickshaws, trucks, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles carrying entire families, sacred cows, and everything in between.

The city was filled with color and noise. There is a festival going on and there was Indian music and dancing along the road along with bright led lights. There was a very abrupt change as we left the city and all the lights faded. Driving through the fog would have been enough of a challenge without the road narrowing to single lane dirt (still shared with the above groups) 

When we pulled up to the hospital compound, we were greeted by many of the hospital staff. Govinda, Biku's dad & the other physician, greeted us with a 'namaste' and pulled each of us in for a bare-chested hug. 

After dropping off the backpacks, we ate dinner with Biku and the cook (Sergio?). I'm going to have to practice eating with only my right hand. I also stated learning some basic Odia. (Bahudwalla--very good). After dinner we talked to Biku for a couple hours and heard all about his recent romantic troubles (a blog post in itself). After tying up a mosquito net, and scaring a thumb-sized cockroach off my bed, I went to sleep. 

I don't think I've given an accurate picture of how different this has already been from my experiences in the United States. Maybe if I have time later, I'll expand in another post. 

I'm about to go get out of bed and see what's going on. 

-AB

I'm still alive, mom

Squat toilets take some practice

Juanga Village