Always an Adventure: Arrival and Depature in Patna

We heard the news from the United States about the bombing and subsequent suspect chase in Boston. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected!

Today is our last day in Patna, so it's fitting to write about our arrival and living situation here now. We arrived here last Thursday from Delhi with out any airport issues. When we arrived, we noticed a man who was holding a sign with only my name. I told Shreya, "well, looks like my ride is here, I'll see you at the hospital. So long sucker!" And then she punched me. After that we told the man that we were both volunteers. He looked a little worried, looked at our backpacks, and asked if we were sure both of us were going to the clinic. We assured him we were both volunteers, and he engaged his Bluetooth to call for the car. We decided to nickname him Barney, after Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother, as he was relatively well dressed and Barney sometimes answers his phone with a Bluetooth device and says "go for Barney". Anyway, once the car came we understood his concerns:

The actual car that picked us up was slightly older version of this car.

It was a Maruti Suzuki Alto, which isn't a problem by itself, but was filled with Dr. Sinha, a driver and a large baby stroller built for twins. We were adding, Barney, Shreya, myself, two 13 kilo 65 litre (ha metric!) packs, and two small-ish day packs. We piled in semi-India style (no one on the roof), with our backpacks on our laps and all the other gear packed around us and headed to Dr. Sinha's house. I'm not very claustrophobic, but I did have to talk myself down from a panic attack. Five people, plus luggage, a twins stroller, and a dwindling A/c in temperatures hitting close to 40 C (fahrenheit conversion), in a car smaller than a Honda Fit had my head spinning. We did make it home with no issues and a great story! We dropped off our stuff at the guest room (sorry for the poor quality):

One of the coolest things we got to do here was participate in an eye surgery! We got to scrub in and help lubricate the eye while the doctor performed a phacoemulsification. "Scrubbing in" to a surgery is a big deal. You have to make sure that you are as clean and bacteria free as possible to ensure that the patient does not get an infection. There is a detailed process for how to get the soap, how to wash your hands, how long you wash, what process you use, how you put on your apron, and what to touch to get your sterile gloves on. It was an intricate process that Dr. Sinha guided us through. Our jobs during the surgery were to provide a saline solution to keep the eye moist every time Dr. Sinha said "VSS":

Don't pass out!

As the saying goes: Nothing is constant, except for change and the way things operate day to day here is "the same as usual" which means everyday is totally different. No two days have been the same and we've been floating around trying to be ready for anything. Some days Operating Theater starts at 9 other days at 11 or 12. Sometimes we put ParaCain (description) drops before the patients enter the OT and sometimes only in the OT. Sometimes we give medication, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we plow through a bunch of auto refracts after OT, sometimes we head to the charity clinics, which themselves are at different locations depending on the day. Out of the 10 days we have been here we expected at least two days to be the same (the clinic is closed on Sundays). So in the morning when we wonder what is in store for us that day we respond with "the usual" meaning we have no clue. This has contributed to the excitement during the day as we never know what will happen after we finish a task. The experience here has been great, and kinda feels too short. We head out early tomorrow so I'm going to cut this blog post a little short and wrap up with some pictures. Enjoy, and we'll report next from South India!