Day 18-19: A beautiful last weekend in east India

After a rather quiet week at the hospital, we had quiet a weekend. On Saturday, we went to chapel and then rounded on the patients in the hospital. Shortly after breakfast, five of us students packed up in a cab and headed to a nearby city called Bilaspur. The Norwegians were craving pizza, so we Americans tagged along for the hour long ride to Dominos. Why not?

We stopped first at an open-air bazar. It was pretty chaotic and overwhelming. We wandered through the busy streets, trying to avoid being hit by motorbikes and looking through the massive variety of things for sale. 

I miss saladddddddd!


We were quickly hot and tired and got back in the car to head to our next stop: the Magneto Mall. I try to keep my expectations low when heading "back into civilization" on trips like this, but was pleasantly surprised. It was a big, beautiful mall with lots of shopping, a movie theater and places to eat. 

 

We had some pizza (which was honestly pretty weird and not at all like US/Mediterranean pizza), bought a few things from the supermarket and the clothing stores and headed back to Mungeli. It was all in all kind of a strange day. Its hard to explore a city so far from home without a good guide to take you to the best places. A fair adventure nonetheless.

When we got home, we found the men preparing for our big picnic lunch the next day. Goats, purchased whole and home-butchered.

The afternoon we were gone a patient was brought in who had suffered burns to 60-80% of her body. According to the patient and her family, she had covered herself in kerosene and lit herself on fire in an attempt to commit suicide. This is a fairly common suicide tactic by women in this area, and is usually associated with terrible disagreements in the family about the dowry that a man receives from his wife’s family during the marriage. Most marriages at least in this region of India are still arranged by the parents, and dowry disagreements can become very heated, last many years, and take a significant emotional and psychological toll on women.

            The woman, who was only 21 and already had a couple children, was treated with aggressive rehydration (burns cause a massive loss of water from the body) but her prognosis was very poor. Even her teeth were charred so I had concerns her airway was likely badly burned as well. Mercifully, she passed within about 12 hours of the event. In situations like this, the husband and his family are questioned and occasionally spend some time in jail for the abuse. It was a shocking case, and hard to believe they say it’s a common one here.

On Sunday, we slept in a bit, did some brief rounds in the hospital, and got packed up for a picnic at a nearby lake with the hospital staff and nursing students. Everyone was pumped. We loaded up 2 bus-fulls, perhaps 80-90 people? After an hour’s drive, we arrived at probably the most serene place I’ve seen in India yet.


The men had been cooking for a few hours when we got there.


It was a gorgeous day, about 90 degrees with a lovely breeze. Megan, Steena, Erik and I had to jump in and cool off. It felt wonderful. 











Dr Henry got his boat out and into the water.


The nursing students were eager for a ride.





After awhile, we sat down to have some lunch.

Goat curry and rice, delicious as always. I've been working on my sans-fork technique. I assure you, it is really attractive.

The crew.

Soon after lunch, we packed up and headed out. We were stopping at two nearby Hindu temples on our way home, as well as some other places...

A beautiful view at a stop on the ride.


The first temple we visited was built in 1349 and was in beautiful shape. It was covered in images from the Karma Sutra (which seemed strange as a holy building? I'd like to understand more about that intersection...)






The second was bigger and built in the 11^th century.


The detail of the stones was absolutely incredible. I can't imagine how they made the pieces.



Inside. There was a priest sitting down the stairs in side the small room. People approached to pay respects and be blessed. 



After a tour of the temples, we got back on the road to check out a nearby waterfall. It was a big hike up, but beautiful from the top.










Some of the beautiful nursing students.


Finally, we got back in the bus for the 2 hour trip home. It was quite a day. We saw so many beautiful parts of this region all in one day. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back.

It’s our last week in Mungeli and we’re trying to make the most of it. I’ll let you know what we get into.

xoxo,

Lily