Comforts of Home

Don't let that shower head fool you.  Look a little farther down.  That's the only faucet that works.  That's right.  This is a squatting or bucket shower only bathroom.  Having tried both, I can tell you that the squat shower is much easier and faster than the bucket shower (bucket hidden behind the curtain).  On the plus side, my quads should much more defined by the time I return home at the end of February!  Happily we do have western style toilets here, so no squatting required there :)

I've found that this time around it's taking me longer to grow accustomed to the food.  It's not that I can't handle it (and my stomach is just fine after street vendor food last night!).  I just don't like it as much as the food we had on the Himalayan Health Exchange (HHE).  There are a few important differences between this trip and the last one though.  First, we had cooks that traveled with us on the HHE trip.  And as most of us were foreigners, they catered the food to our palate.  It was still Indian food, just a little more mild than normal.  Here it's hospital food.  And hospital food is hospital food, no matter where you are.  Plus, most people eating here are Indian, thus this is straight up Indian food.  At least for now, I'm supplementing my meals with peanut butter crackers, protein bars, and fiber bars.  But I think tonight I'm make another trip to that yummy street vendor!!