TB, Scabies, Where's Harry?

I spoke to Karin this morning. She called me around 6:30 AM. I answered and we agreed that I would call her back 5 mins later. Sooo... I went downstairs, turned on the computer, and got comfortable with the phone. Then I dialed. But it did not connect. So I dialed again. This time a recording came on in Hindi. I tried again... and again and again. Then I resorted to different numbers, different combinations... Twenty minutes later I was ready to murder both the phone and the innocent plant next to the phone. I gave up in frustration and called Cathy. Thankfully, she had the number. And it wasn't the one I that I had been calling. I had pulled 2 numbers off the internet for her hotel and neither worked. Sooo... I called Karin's hotel and actually got through to the front desk. Then I had to try to get the front desk person to understand her entire 17-letter last name. Oy vey. By the time I got through to her I had bruises on my forehead from banging my head against the table.

Their trip to the northeast involved a 4 hour train ride followed by a 5 hour bus ride. The train was comfortable but the bus was... less so. The bus covered 90 miles in 5 hours. For those of you less adept at mathematics, that comes to an average of 18 mph.

So far they have seen about 70 patients. Things started off slowly in Bilaspur, largely because the doc there had neglected to properly advertise the arrival of this crack team of American and Canadian do-gooders. But tomorrow, when they get to their first (apparently crappy) campsite, they will be seeing hundreds of people!

As for the team make-up, I have only been told that there are 5 or 6 Canucks, who hail from Queens, Dalhouse and UBC (universities in Canada). The rest are Americanos.

Harry has been doing triage! He takes people's blood pressure and pulse, and then any loose change he can find. Anjum, who speaks Urdu (did you know that Urdu = Hindi?), has been translating for many of the patients. When I called, Anjum was busy shaving the back of Harry's neck (doesn't anyone edit this thing?).

One bright spot for Harry is that he is one of only 3 men on the trip. And Karin does all the scheduling - so Harry gets to influence whom he works with, if-you-know-what-I-mean, and-I-think-you-do. As soon as that neck is cleanly shaven, WATCH OUT HIMACHAL PRADESH!

The hotel has no heat. Instead, they provide all the guests with giant blankets. I think it's time to let the hotelier know about this central heating invention that is sweeping the western world. I don't think it's just a fad.

And now two potential "contraction" stories: Yesterday, Karin was asked to see a family member of the owner of the hotel. She agreed and examined this woman without wearing a mask (foreshadowing). Now Karin thinks that the woman has TB. The second story involves Anjum and a very cute baby that was brought in. Oh how they played and played... just Anjum and the baby. It really was something. The baby, it turns out, has scabies.

And one last story. Apparently upon arrival at some destination, Harry was suddenly nowhere to be found. No one could figure out where he was. After careful, level-headed analysis, they decided Harry had been................ kidnapped! They eventually figured out that he had run off early to be first on the internet.

LINKS: There are links all over this blog, people. Apparently not everyone knows that words that show up in different colors are links. Try clicking on them. They will take you to interesting places. And yes, Roy, I actually know people who do not know about links!