The medical director, Dr. Sujith, came back to the clinic today after being in Delhi for a few days. We met him for the first time, and he is extremely friendly and likes to give a lot of teaching. He has been orienting us more to the clinic, and giving us plenty to keep us busy – we’ll give short presentations each morning on a certain topic related to the patients in the hospital, and we will work on a project over the next two weeks studying breastfeeding practices in the area.
Tomorrow we have a trip planned to the Ganges River, which is India’s largest (and most polluted) river. It is considered by many to be holy water, and people frequently bury their dead relatives there with the belief that this will provide them with a good afterlife. People also take trips there to dip their bodies in the water to wash away their sins. We will go have a picnic there with other staff from the hospital. The weather has been very warm and beautiful during the day, and there are many mosquitos out – we have plenty of bites to prove it. We have also seen a variety of animals around the clinic and on the streets – monkeys, dogs, pigs and cows. The monkeys have a reputation for stealing clothes, so we’ve kept a close eye on our laundry and so far, we haven’t seen any monkeys running around in our outfits!