Kidnapped at the Tower of Babel

Today has been one of my most interesting and fun days so far.  Yesterday and today I went out to the ICARE facility ( International Center for Advancement of Rural Eyecare) to learn more about the community healthcare delivery program that LVP has created.  The building is only about 15 kilometers away but takes 30-45 minutes travel because of traffic.  It was pretty interesting to learn about the vast network of centers that LVP has established with the help of the local villages and towns all over Andhra Pradash.  I hope to be able to visit one of the rural villages sometime next week to experience healthcare at the grassroots level.

Today I joined to community health diploma and masters students for a tour of Devnar school for the blind.  Apparently Dev means god and Nar means man.  So the name of the school means god within self.  The moto for the school is that blind individuals deserve opportunity, not sympathy.  It was a great experience to see the children running around and playing, smiling and carefree like children should be.  We even joined in one of their dance classes to have a little fun in the midday heat!

I might be off by a count or two ;)

One of the neatest things was a room filled with large 3D science models so that the students can actually feel out a structure.  There were multiple systems of the body, photosynthesis, malaria transmission, all sorts of models.  The title of each structure was posted next to it with braille over it.

I don't quite remember but I don't think I learned about nephrons until college! 

After a nice lunch at the ICARE facility (much better than at the KAR campus) I excitedly caught an early shuttle back to KAR campus thinking how nice it would be to relax, read and get some work done in the early afternoon.  However, I hadn't even put my bag down before I was summoned down to clinic.  Apparently there was a patient that speaks Portuguese and I am the only person in the WHOLE hospital that speaks a lick of Spanish.  And somehow, the rumor that I am fluent is Spanish was circulated around the staff, which is really sad since my Spanish is so poor.  Thus I spent my entire afternoon trying to interpret and explain medical conditions and procedures.  It was exhausting since it took so much concentration from me to remember any of the Spanish from my medical Spanish class a year a a half ago.  In the same patient encounter English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi, and Telugu was spoken.  It seemed that no one spoke that same language.  But, at the end of the day, I felt that I had actually contributed something which is always a nice feeling.

After clinic though, my roomie (Amy) and I got some nice shopping done before meeting up with our UK buddies (Louise and Emma) for a tasty dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad.  I know, I know, coming all the way to Hyderabad and going to an American food joint....but it was SO good.  So nice to have a good grilled chicken sandwich.  Listen to good American music that I could sing along with.

Left to right: me, Amy (the roomie), Emma (the silly one), Louise (the "I can't keep my eyes open so we have to take 5 of same picture" one ;) )

The ride home on the auto rickshaw was lots of things, but mainly just comical.  Amy is the supreme goddess of haggling with the rickshaw drivers.  It's awe inspiring to see her at work.  Originally we had to stop by the saree shop to pick up her new saree.  Amy haggled the price down from 100 rupees to just 50 rupees (which was probably still overpriced).  However, we arrived at the shop 20 minutes too late and they were already closed.  Since the shop was on the way back to the hospital anyways, we told the driver to just keep going...this is where it gets interesting (it's probably a "you had to be there to appreciate it' kinda story, but it's too funny (to me) to keep to myself).  Of course since we were going farther, a new price had to be settled upon.  Once again, the guy tried to charge us 90 rupees which was outrageous since we were already pretty close to the hospital.   No matter what Amy said, the guy wouldn't give us a fair price.  So...Amy told the guy to stop the rickshaw...and he kept driving.  Amy began to lecture him on the fact that we're at a disadvantage because he's driving and we're stuck in the vehicle.  He still wouldn't budge.  Once again, Amy told him to stop the vehicle...and he keeps driving.  Amy then proceeds to tell him that he is technically kidnapping us since we asked him to let us out but he won't.  At this point I can't keep it in any more and I start (quietly) laughing in the backseat.  Then come the threats.  Not from him but from Amy.  She threatens to take a picture of him and his rickshaw and call the police on him.  At this point, it's so ridiculous that I explode in laughter.  Amy continues to threaten to call the police as I am doubled over and crying because I am laughing so hard.  Apparently the driver finds it comical as well because he's laughing from the front seat.  She continues to lecture him with the definition of kidnapping and threats to call the police.  Somehow we settled on the price of 75 rupees for the whole price.  Mainly because we told the guy that's all we had so he could take it or leave it.  Not a single time during that whole ride did I ever feel threatened or that my safety was at stake.  I can only imagine what would have happened if we had actually called the police.  He probably would have tried to charge us extra money too!  This ride was definitely the funniest experience I've had so far on this trip.