Still breathing

When I work at the Charitable Hospital, I try to do only clinic work, primarily because Expectations and Roles are so different between my home country and this fair city.

But it was just a matter of time before something bigger happened.

I was seeing patients in clinic today at noon, when a nurse popped in and said I should come upstairs because there was a baby who was not breathing.

Running up the stairs with her, I found a newborn lying on a metal trolley, blue, floppy with no heartbeat and not breathing. Well, that's no good.

I immediately began CPR, and got a pretty healthy heartbeat after a minute or two, as well as seeing the little boy begin to pink up nicely.

But he just wouldn't breath on his own. By history, he had had his cord wrapped around his neck. I wasn't able to get anyone to tell me exactly when he had been born or how many minutes he had been laying there. (His mother, laying nearby, clearly had just given birth.)

After about 15 minutes, he did begin breathing spontaneously, and a "Junior Doctor" (the local name for the Resident type folks who run some of the Hospitals) got an IV in (Strong Work!). The patients regular Paediatrician came after about half an hour, and I was more than happy to hand over the job to him. The baby was still breathing adequately, and his heartbeat was fine, but clearly wasn't out of the woods yet.

Hmmm, nothing makes me hungrier than running a "Code". Overall, this was a good thing for me to do, because it helped me to see a little better how the System works (Yes, there is a System!). When I know better how the System works, I can better help improve it. Normal Newborn Protocols seems to be one area.

Wanna help?

The Mufti and I meet yet again

We had the annual Nursing School graduation not long ago, and the Mufti of Banaras showed up to bless the event.

The Mufti is the spiritual leader of the Muslims of Varanasi (Banaras is another name for Varanasi), and we have met on a few occasions before.

He is younger than I am, and even more publicity shy, which is kindof funny considering the bulk of his job is to show up at special occasions and give a short speech to bless the occasion.

He is good at that part of his job, not sure how trained he is otherwise... presumably quite well.

Nurses Graduation

So why was the photo above (of the Mufti) rather blurry?
Well because of all of the candles in this photo.
Each of the nursing students and graduating nurses got a candle. The room was small and crowded and poorly ventilated. The candles were wrapped in red celophane which added to the smokeyness.
End result? An hour later the room was like a 1950's Doctors Convention (back then all the Doctors smoked in America, nowadays, they all do in India).

Give me Oil in My Lamp

So the Nurses had their annual graduation for the Nursing School. It was fairly uneventful for the most part: nice things were said about various people (most of whom deserved to have nice things said about them), and speeches were made about how needed these Nurses are (not that the Hospital will hire any of them; they hire their Nurses from the South).

At one point when all the Nurses were lining up to have Nursing Pins pinned on them, some of the other nurses (see picture below) began to sing, in a rich, thick accent belying their lack of native English, "Give Me Oil in My Lamp."

Huh? Where did that come from?

One of two of them are Christian, but I am wondering how the rest got roped into singing the song. Granted, it is not particullarly Christian song, and they modified the verses to make them even more generic ("Give me Service in my Heart, keep me helping, helping, helping..."), but "Huh?'

Mucho Kudos to you...

The last post ended with the phrase, "So it goes".

Big bonus points to the one who can correctly point out why that pop culture phrase is so relavent this week.

"I Didn't Clean My Shoes For a Week!!"

Well, assuming a foreigner visits America, what is the first thing he will tell his family on his return his home, assuming his home is our fair city?

My Urdu tutors youngest brother is a computer guy, works in India for some American outfit. They brought him to Chicago for a month of training. The fellow was the talk of the neighborhood here in Varanasi.

He seemed to enjoy himself, and the biggest thing that got talked about on his return was how clean America is.

In Varanasi, I clean my shoes before I put them on in the morning (it doesn't make sense to clean them in the evening, since they would just get covered in dirt while sitting through the night). By the time I get to work a half hour later, they are grey with dust, and I have a rag tied around my bike just for the purpose of wiping off my shoes one more time.

Well, Northern Illinois was not like that. And the whole family was amazed to hear that he went a whole week without wiping the dust from his shoes.

So it goes.

It helps when most of them are named "Emily"

Nora Grace had a blast last month when I was getting my Continueing Medical Education up to date in Thailand. There were loads of other little girls (and boys) to play with, and oodles of space to run, and plenty of things to do. She didn't watch TV for two weeks and didn't miss it a bit.

On arrival, she did not know (or if she did, she didn't remember) any of the other children. She was greatly assisted in remembering names by the fact that most of the other five year old girls were named Emily.

Three doctors daughters in India

This photo is of three five year old girls, all of them Doctors daughters, and all living in India. Cozette (she goes by "Cozy", isn't that great?) on the left is from midwest, and Abby on the right is from the South.

Do they ever stop talking?

Still figuring things out

I am going to try very hard to respond to comments made on my blog from here on out, and I will attempt to do that in the comment section.

Us old folks (41 tomorrow, thank you very much), need a little extra time to figure out what comes so easily to some.

oh yeah, why we are here

Just a little reminder why we are here.

We have a genuine desire to see the weavers of this fair city improve their situation.

At left is a typical room full of these weavers doing finishing touches on silk saris, which they make.

"Sweatshop" doesnt really apply to the term, since the original term meant that was a place where people sweated, but people didn't elsewhere.

Here, at this time of year, everyone sweats all the time.

Regarding Teeth...

It has been a very eventfull week here, regarding childrens milestones.

Nora Grace has her first loose tooth (front lower right side). She burst into tears when she realized what it was, but is now quite excited. Mealtimes now involve Nora Grace giving Play by Play as to which part of her mouth she is chewing with, since she won't chew with that part.

Sam has popped in tooth number one, and tooth number two, both in the past ten days. They are both bottom middle, and he is more than happy to use them on anything he can lay his hands on.

And Miriam is doing quite well in the potty training department. She takes a nap in the afternoon with only her "big girl panties", and wakes up dry, but still wears a diaper at night. She can use both eastern and western styles.

My signboard

If anyone is interested in seeing me at the Charitible Hospital, you just have to find my signboard.

I am the second name down (sharing a room with an Orthopaedist listed above).

The devanagri script would transliterate roughly as: "Dr. Law-vail STaaz-fuss"

And thanks to the fact that most sign board painters are illiterate, I am now a member of the "AAFD"

(I am actually a member of the AAFP", though of course such detail is tiresome, isn't it?)

Old photo of our fair city

Found this old photo of Varanasi, dated at 1922.

The Riverfront has not changed much since then, though a few hundred feet west of here has changed dramatically.

A hundred years ago, Banaras (another name for Varanasi), was a sleepy little town hugging the banks of the Ganges. It has grown 10 to 20 times in population since this photo was taken.

Amy broke another Water Glass

We were sitting down to supper this evening, and Amy was pouring water from the fridge into everyones glasses. (Well, Amy and I have actual Glass glasses, while the girls have plastic cups).

She picked up her glass for a drink, and stopped and said, "Well, there goes another one."

Her glass had cracked right through the bottom. It was still being held together by her hand, but as she set it down, it fell in half.

Since the heat has come (107 F today, 41 or 42 C), we have broken a couple of glasses by putting water from the refridgerator into "Room Temperature" (i.e., very warm) glasses.

How are you all doing today?

More Comments on McDonalds

Lots of comments on the McDonalds posting?

Marika, it is in the IP Mall (just down from Liberty Shoes); Odyssey Books has moved there, plus a Pizza Corner has just opened, plus a bakery named Biscotti (doesn't actually serve biscotti) and an American Dollar Store will be opening soon (everything is 99 rupees).

The best entertainment at the mall is to watch people try out the escalator. (Think, this is a country where the International Airport in the Capital City has no working escalator). People just don't get it, and are inclined to hurt themselves. Growing up in a place where it was easy to make fun of Amish with their lack of worldly ways, I do recognize the rudeness of watching as people fall all over themselves going up an escalator.

But it is sort of funny.

Now who is in Chicago? Is that the Lindquists? We love you guys!!

(Should it not be the Lindquists, I am nonetheless confident of our great affection for you. We were just trying to figure out who wrote from Chicago) :)

Molly is correct in that the Chickenburger is not particularly more healthy.

And with the Taiwan comments, I am assuming this is Ingrid (aka supermom, superwriter, and of whom we have the best wedding stories to tell).

McDonalds Varanasi serves the McVeggie Burger (Potatoes, Carrots, Peppers, Chilis etc all smashed together with loads of clarified butter and fried), the Aloo Tikka Burger (Mostly potatoe, with lots of fried), and several wraps (The Maharaja Wrap, the Mexican wrap), and so on. I do not actually recall what is being served in the Happy Meals.

And why not? In Thailand, they serve Sweet Corn Ice Cream.

As Miriam is rapidly expanding her vocabulary, one of the first words we recognized from her was, "DONALDS", shouted when we would drive past McDonalds.