When we got back I showered and went on rounds with Biku. He's letting me do most of the basic assessment and translating for me. The nurses got up right after we finished rounds and sat with us while waiting for new patients. It's a little crowded with the 4 of us all shadowing Biku like a ..herd? Pack? Flock?.. Of ducklings. I went to sit with the dresser for a while and watched and helped remove stitches from several patients who had been operated on last week. He wears gloves much more often now that the nurses and I gently pressure him to for every patient. Aside from the surgery cases, the dresser sees lots of feet injuries (tons of gross nail extractions without anesthetic). Today we also saw some with injuries from one of the bulls we see everywhere and someone with a huge laceration on his neck from a fight. It's all cool to see and I'm learning a lot.
The nurses made some Spanish omelettes for lunch and they were the least oily thing I've eaten since getting here. Delicious.
We played the Indian card game we had learned for a while after lunch and then went for a tour of Juanga. We went into Biku's uncles house and they made us ginger chai tea and a bunch of snacks. This has been a big hospitality thing anytime we meet new people. It's considered rude to refuse but all the milk definitely doesn't agree with me so much.
Biku's uncle has one of the biggest buildings in the village and it was the first built not from mud. We stayed on the roof for a while and drank the chai listening to prayer from the nearby temple (sounds a little like a Bollywood dance)
India has temples everywhere. There's one by the school, one in the middle of the fields, a shrine under the huge tree next to the hosptial and a bunch in the villages. They're always swept clean an prayed at several times a day.
On our way back, Biku walked into someone else's house, there was a calf inside and we sat on their bed. My bed still feels like I'm sleeping directly on the floor, but this was worse. I'm convinced it was just a blanket covering a wooden platform.
Back at the hosptial, we finished our card game (Biku and Ana won) and then went up to the roof. Biku had been talking about beer, because the girls said they loved cervezas when he asked. (Obviously, all climbers love beer). But he said we could only drink it in the dark on the roof so none of the patients or staff would know about it. It's how I imagine stealing from your parents liqueur cabinet with your underage friends would go (not that I'd ever do that mom & dad). The beers are gigantic (and pretty bad) here. We were also joined by Chiku (Biku's brother) and Bikas (the hosptial driver). The Spanish girls put on some John Mayer and we drank under the stars for a while. When everyone else went to dinner, Biku and I hung back and talked about traveling ( he's never left Orissa ) friendship, and money/responsibility. We couldn't have come from worlds more different, and that doesn't seem to matter. People everywhere share some ambitions and values, despite massive cultural differences.
Couldn't keep my eyes open after dinner and went right to bed, maybe it was the one beer..
-AB
A line of ducklings
Running after Dr. Goose
Spanish medicine
His name's topu
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