Anjum's Email

Anjum just sent out an email. Here is most of it:

Hello Everybody!

So much has happened in the last 8 days, I'm not even sure where to begin.

We left Delhi on Feb. 3rd and took a train to Chandrighar. The train ride was about 3 hours, after which we got into vans and drove another 5 hours to Bilaspur. The sites are breathtaking, the people warm and happy to have us in their state. We did two days of clinic in Bilaspur-"clinic" was housed in canvas tents, on the second floor of an unfinished hospital. Pictures can only truly describe our physical location. I didn't realize how much of a help knowing the language would be. So much more happened in Bilaspur but I can't seem to remember it right now (it was our first clinic site). Once I have my journal in front of me, I'll better be able to recall!

From Bilaspur, we drove about 2 hours to our first camp site. We camped out for two nights in Baged (yes, no running water, no toilets, no showers) and had clinic at Mr. Nadda's home-the Health Minister for the BJP. They were very hospitable; they greeted us with garlands and bindi's and had farewell ceremonies and gave us Himachal hats, more bindi's and burfi (yum). We had clinic at their house for two nights and then left for our second camp site (Kotedhar) where we camped again for two nights. This was a less comfortable camping experience. We were at an altitude of 3500 ft. It was incredibly windy-which wasn't THAT bad-but on our second day, winds hit up to 70 MPH and it was raining. We were holding clinic at a local government school, again in canvas tents, in the schoolyard (the kids were so cute). The weather got pretty bad so we ended up having to cut clinic early. We hiked back to our campsite and took shelter in one of the few canvas tents that was still standing. After about an hour, we started driving in pretty bad conditions (don't worry, Ma, we were safe) back to our hotel in Bilaspur. We drove REALLY slowly across muddy roads. One car got a flat tire during the trip but the drivers changed it out in less than 10 minutes. They're incredible. We finally arrived safely-but very cold and very wet-none of the vans had heating and there was so much condensation that we had to keep our windows open. Karin was getting pretty nauseous as we were driving up the windy roads; one of the other girls threw up, but thankfully all are back to good health now.

Upon arrival at the hotel in Bilaspur, we all took lukewarm bucket baths that felt INCREDIBLE. We all felt so dirty after 4 days of camping, getting rained on and having dust in our clothes and hair from all the wind.

The next morning (today), we left Bilaspur at 830am and made a stop at Mrs. Nadda's school for those with special needs. The visit was nice and we saw a few patients-though it seemed that the trip was more of a photo-op for the media. We arrived in Manali at about 3pm - again cold, but not so wet. The temps here are a lot colder than we all expected. And with our luck, it's been raining much as well (of course it hasn't rained here since September). Karin and I spent two hours in our room washing all our clothes. It was disgusting. The water was BLACK by the time we were done washing just 4 pants! I had some rope so we've hung all our clothes in our room and have little place to walk (thankfully Karin is only 5ft tall so she fits nicely :)

The people whom we have seen at clinic have been incredibly grateful for our work. We on the other hand, all feel completely inadequate b/c we feel we are unable to provide adequate care b/c at some level, the sources of their illnesses always will be there - their water will always be contaminated, their living conditions will likely always be unclean, and most do not have the money to get adequate care for long-term medical problems. Nonetheless, this is an incredible experience and is teaching us much about others and about ourselves.

The staff are incredible and have been taking such great care of us. They make sure we are safe and well-fed (in fact I've made many requests for food and they've been availed!). They are incredible.

Now Karin and I are both on the computer with only 3 mintues left. We'll have internet access until Thursday so please do write! I'll try to write again soon!

Hope everyone is doing fantabulously and keeping warm and dry!

Much Love,
Anjum