Bad Weather, Hard Work, Harry In His Element (and XL2 success)

When I last spoke to Karin she was just coming off 12 hours of sleep following the hell-ride she had coming out of the mountains. She had done the Gravol-Dramamine thing (read sedation) in anticipation but even that wasn't working so she had doubled up... which did not work either. By the time she arrived at the hotel she was extremely nauseous and even more medicated and went straight to bed. Even after 12 hours of sleep she was still in a bit of a stupor.

When Team Himalaya had arrived at the home of the Ex-Health Minister, they had each been treated to a bindi and a garland. A bindi is the red decorative dot that is worn on the forehead. Wikipedia describes its religious significance as follows: The area between the eyebrows (where the bindi is placed) is said to be the sixth chakra, agni, the seat of "concealed wisdom". According to followers of Tantrism, this chakra is the exit point for kundalini energy. The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration. It is also said to protect against demons or bad luck.

The team then went to work seeing patients. Over the past 4 days, the Team has seen an average of 150 patients per day. Karin, for some unknown reason, had been advertised as a "child specialist" (she is a family doctor). She thus has been seeing children almost exclusively since our last report. What's interesting about these children is that they often come in without parents. Dr. Rash says it's quite something to have a 5 year old boy come in alone and to have a discussion with him about his condition, symptoms, and treatment options.

A number of the cases are of developmental delay and mental retardation. Those are particularly tough as there is very little that can be done for them. For many other patients the doctors are able to give a few samples of medication but it's frustrating because they know the patients will not follow up by securing more once the sample runs out. And for others the resources that the physicians have are too rudimentary to properly test and/or treat. For extreme diagnoses they get referred to a hospital in a city but there are many borderline cases where additional equipment would be welcome.

It's hard work. It got particularly rough when the weather turned and they were suddenly confronted by strong winds and pelting rain. Since Karin is in a supervisory role, she had no choice but to run between the tents where patients were being seen. Within a short time she was completely drenched.

Eventually the weather got so bad that they decided to wrap up early to get on the road to Bilaspur and then on to Manali. That's when they packed up, loaded up the bus, and had that terrible ride.

The celebration of Harry's birthday continued last night at the hotel. Harry, as he is wont to do, held court in the hotel bar. Most of the revelers went to bed at 10. Karin retired at 11. But Harry and the trip leaders were still going strong when she headed off. This morning Harry chose bed over breakfast.

Today the group will be seeing children in a mission-school. Sounds like they are all doing well and are seriously enjoying being back in a hotel. I have yet to hear of anyone that is overly-excited about getting back into the tents - at what will be even higher elevation and with significantly colder weather.

I do have one complaint about calling them at the hotels in India. Every time I call, a man typically answers and says "Hello?" I then say "Hello, may I speak to Karin....?" Then I hear "Hello? Hello?" as if they do not hear me. So I will say again, more loudly, "Hello! May I speak to Karin....?" Then they will say "Hello? Hello? Hello?" as if all they hear is dead air. And so it goes, back and forth, getting louder and louder. This usually goes on for a minute or two, until the phone is inexplicably passed to another person. The second person says "Hello?" and I say "May I speak to Karin..?" And they say "Certainly, just one moment please." As in, there was never anything wrong with the line! The first person obviously heard me but chose to keep on saying "Hello? Hello? Hello?" anyway. Anyone care to explain?

And in case anyone is interested, all went well in the XL2. There's a story there too but this isn't the right forum for it. If anyone wants to go flying, let me know.