on Diabetes management. Then after that we went and rounded on the
pediatrics ward... i'm afraid between the days starting to get much
hotter, sick babies not feeling well and letting us hear it, and a thick
Indian accent on the English explanation of each patient I wasn't able
to hear much. It was odd that probably 75% of the kids we saw though had
nephrotic syndrome though, which is a name given to a disease process
when your kidney is spilling too much protein into the urine. We
foreigners weren't quite sure why such a high prevelance was present in
the population and never quite got a definitive answer as to why. The
best we came up with was that it was due to Minimum Change Disease (I
apologize for medical jargon), but again no reason for why it was so
prevalent. After ped's rounds we went down to observe the maternal and
child clinic... by far the busiest we've seen CHAD. Patients lined up
into the streets quite early in the day to "get their appointment" (they
got a number in line) and then waited until they were seen. The section
of the clinic that I was in saw mostly pediatric and adult medicine
cases, apparently the maternal pregnancy checkups were in another part
of CHAD. We got to see some vitamin A and most likely B12 deficiency in
a woman with Pica (eats non-nutritious material e.g. dirt, gravel,
etc.), a 8 yr old girl with a goiter but no signs of developmental delay
or cretinism, and take lots of pictures of cute children who were bored
in line when we had a small break. This was all before lunch. After
lunch a group of students decided to set in search of clothing shops...
a group of girls from Oklahoma apparently bought the one tour guide book
that didn't talk about the modest clothing appreciated here - so we got
more than a few looks, honks, and side comments as I traipsed around
town with several white girls with bare ankles. Still not quite sure why
ankles and shoulder's are found to be so provocative, but I guess if you
never see them because everyone covers up then it probably would be
provocative. Anyways, to our dismay once we arrived at our destination
we found all the shops to be closed til 6 p.m. in protest of the
genocide and persecution of Tamil Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka (were in the
state of Tamil Nadu). I need to do some research into the history of the
conflict because I don't know much. With our schedule chopping up parts
of our day we only had about an hour and a half to get back to campus to
"register" with the police, which I guess has become a big deal since
the Mombai attacks. So we decided to walk a ways back towards home
seeing more trash lined streets stuccoed with cow patties and a starving
forlorn puppy. After that, we sought refuge for an hour or so in the
pool near our campus until the appropriate time to go see the police.
After leaving the pool and walking to the place we were meeting we found
out that our appointment had been moved til tomorrow due to the city
wide strike/protest... not sure if the police participated in this as
well or not, we'll hope they didn't just take the day off.
*Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we
are responsible for who we become.*
-Unknown
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