Labor and Delivery

I am finally getting use to the whole staring thing that Indian people do. I realized that they are going to stare at me regardless of what I do. I stopped the whole starring contest thing, b/c in the end they usually win and I end up looking away out of uncomfortableness. My new fascination is the way they say yes. In the US, when we say yes we shake our heads up and down. But here when they say yes they do this sort of side-to-side shake. To the average American, it looks like they are saying "Maybe," "I am not sure," or "Kind of." It in no way resembles the standard "yes" head nod. It is hard for me to explain on paper. I wish I could video tape someone doing it and post it on my blog. Anyway, it causes me a lot of problems on a day to day basis b/c I can't figure out if someone is saying yes or no to me. They kind of look like bobble head when they do it.

About two days ago, Erica and I decided to go jogging on the college campus. It was actually a nice jog. The college campus is surrounded by forrest so their was a nice breeze blowing while you jog. We ran across some bats during our jog, which was bit scary at first b/c they move so fast. But don't worry, none of them bit us. The main problem we ran across is after running, I just kept on sweating. The concept of evaporative cooling is lost in a country where most places aren't airconditioned and the only form of circulating air comes in the form of a fan. One of my fellow students saw how bad I was sweating and offered me a moist wipe which helped a lot.

That same day, I was taken to the police station by the bell boy at my hotel b/c as a tourist I have to register with the police department for some odd reason. He took me down there with some other medical student from Germany. This was her first time in a developing country and she was having a hard time adjusting. She said that one day she went to the local park to read a book and she was bombarded by a group of kids from a school close by. They came up to her and started touching her skin and her hair.

When we finally got to the police station, we walked in on some cops beating one of the locals with a big stick. The German girl looked really scared and said, "This is such a crazy country." I wasn't shock since I feel cops are crocked wherever you go. The cops weren't the only ones beating the man, another local person starting hitting the guy on the back. Then they moved the guy into the back room and a bunch of other people followed them into the room. Then they told us to wait outside. That whole incident was very suspect. Poor guy.

Grand Rounds: On Wednesday, I went on Grand Rounds with OG team 2. Here grand rounds just means the team walks around with the attending to each floor to check up on ward patients. This was not a pleasant experience: The team never asked the patient if they could draw back the curtain before they came in. Several times we walked in on patients in the middle of breastfeeding. The residents here talk really soft when they are presenting patients. It is really annoying b/c I can't hear anything they are saying. They stand about 2 feet away from the attending and she can magically hear their whispering. Plus it doesn't help that I am about 4 feet taller than everyone around me so I am constantly bending down and pressing my ear against their backs so I can hear what they are talking about.

When rounds were over, the team dropped me off at Labor & Delivery which was completely dead that day. Only 3 women were in the ward and none of them were in active labor. Then I saw Erica's OG team walk by so I ran to catch up with them to see if they were doing something a bit more interesting. They were also rounding on patients and had just got back from a lime juice/coffee break (NOTE: Indians love to drink freshly squeezed highly sweeten fruit juices here and people take breaks from what they are doing at work to go get some). Her attending was so much better than the one I rounded with earlier that morning. Her name was Dr Verghese and she was really into teaching her residents. She pimped her residents hard but wasn't harsh on them for not knowing the answers to her questions. One of the interesting things she discussed was their management of eclamptic patients: Eclampsia is like a norm here. I have seen lots of preeclamptic patients in SA, but never an eclamptic one. She said when an eclamptic patient is actively seizing they usually just wait for the seizure to end before they intervene. They do not give anything like phenytoin or any other meds to break the seizure. They simply do seizure precautions (turn patient to side to prevent aspirations or give them a tongue dam to prevent tongue biting) and cry for help. Scary!

Labor & Delivery: L & D here is split into two sections: high risk and low risk pregnancies. The room is set up with high risk on one side with the better baby-mommy monitors and low risk births on the other side of the room. Inbetween these two areas is the baby resusitation area where they take the babies to be cleaned and clothed. I couldn't find an ultrasound anywhere in the room and wondered how the doctors knew what position the babies were in. It turns out you can do pretty good Leopold's manuvers on these women b/c they are pretty skinny. They only do ultrasounds if they feel something is really wrong.

The nurses wear the cutest white saris and they call them sisters instead of nurses. While the doctors wear big scratchy scrubs that tie in the back and the pants are very high-water. Each bed is only separated by a flimsy curtain and no men are allowed in the ward. If you want your husband by your side you have to pay a lot of money for a private room. The beds have no stirrups. They just ask the women to hike up her legs and move to the edge of the bed when it is time for them to push. The women are not given epidurals unless they can afford it. So most of these women are giving birth without any form of anesthesia, which is amazing to me. Watching this was a good form of birth control and makes me not want to have a baby anytime soon. You could tell they were in actual pain b/c they would have tears in their eyes and moan but they would not scream and shout like women in the US who get epidurals. Also the women would barely scream during contractions or when they were actively pushing. The OGs do not waste anytime here when a lady is fully dialated. They are quick to pull out the vaccum, forceps, or scissors to give episiotomies. They barely ever protected the perineum when the lady started pushing.

The episiotomies were so painful to watch b/c they just use a little bit of local or a pudendal block and start cutting. The same went for the stitching the OGs did on the lady's perineums once the baby was out. You could tell the patient felt the needle or scissors by the look on there faces. After being in L&D for two days, I was sure that I truly wanted to be a Pediatrician b/c I spent more time playing and holding the babies once they out than watching what the ob/gyn was doing. They did not do much to the babies once they were born. They suctioned their mouths and nose then took them back to the resuscitation room to clean them and cloth them. The babies are also very small here. They are about 2-3kg when they are born which is about 4.4-6.6Ibs. The truth is that we probably just have super fat babies in the US. Plus the women here are pretty small statured so they wouldn't be expected to have huge babies. I also picked up a few words of Tamil while in L&D: "Muca Ma" means "Push Lady." I like saying that.

Most of the time while we were in L&D the only people that spoke to us were the interns and nurses. The upper level residents always seemed too busy to deal with medical students. We met one really sweet intern that asked us tons of questions about the US way of medical school. Here you go straight from high school into medical school which is 5 years. Then you do an intern year rotating through all the specialities. Then after your intern year you specialize in whatever field you want to go into, which usually takes about 3 years. She also asked me about my braids b/c she didn't understand the concept of braiding your hair and wondered how I kept them clean.

Pictures above:

1) Erica and I on the public bus back to our hotel one night.

2) This is a picture that was on the public bus we took. In Vellore, they have two types of public buses: one of them we call the party bus b/c it has pictures everywhere, flashing lights, and music (we were on this one) and the other one is just a regular crowded bus.

3) The whole gang from UTHSCSA. From left to right: Jenn, Kathryn, Erica, Aruna, Collin, Seema, and Nicolete. We were eating at a nearby hotel called Hotel Surabi. We met up with some other international students who were volunteering at the Leprosy Hospital, which is 30minutes outside of Vellore. I want to go there at least once before I leave Vellore.

4) This is a picture of one of the new born babies. He was so cute. Indian babies have the biggest eyes when they are born and open them wide. And they have a full head of hair.

5) This is the baby resusitation room.

6) This a picture of the saris the nurses wear and the ugly scrubs I had to wear in L&D.

7) This is Erica, Nicolette, me, and one of the interns we met in our fabulous scrubs.

Starting my OG rotation

Two nights ago we attended the international welcome party on the CMC college campus. They had three girls do Indian traditional dances, which was fun to watch. The picture to the right is of one the girls dancing. Then they fed us some dessert thing that looked like a piece of poop on top of ice cream. The ice cream stated good, but not the poop looking thing. That night, I slept awesome. I think I am finally getting over my jetlagged. I am dreamimg more often than I ever did in the states, which is great. I usually never remember my dreams but I am here. I still think it is the mefloquine I am taking that is having this affect on me.

My observations of the clinical setting: The next day I started on OG II. This team was doing outpatient work on Tuesday morning. The ob/gyns gave me the same feeling that they do in the states: overworked and bitter. They have this kind of apathetic attitude, where they kind of ignore you b/c they are so busy to make time to explain stuff to you. I wasn't the biggest fan of the ob/gyn rotation at UTHSCSA so this brought back bad memories for me. Most of the time I just sat there trying my best to stay awake as they interviewed the patient since I couldn't understand anything what they were saying. The patients generally looked a lot older than their stated age. I guess b/c they live a very hard, rough life. Most of their husbands looked like they could be their fathers. Plus their husbands sure did do a lot of the talking eventhough the issues the women were coming in for had nothing to do with them. I always believe: if you don't have a vagina, you don't have anything important to say to the ob/gyn.

The residents speak Tamil (a South Indian dialect) to the patients and English to the other doctors & nursing staff. About 80% of the clinic time was in Tamil, with the occasional English was directed at me when I would remind the residents to tell me what was going on. The room was set up in a small examining room that was basically the size of the rooms we use in the outpatient clinics in the states. But here, doctors share this one room and use one table with one computer. Most of the charting is done by hand with lab values checked on the computers. The patients sit with each doctor along with whomever they brought with them to the clinic visit. Then there was a flimsy curtain in the room for where patients would be given PVs (this is their lingo for pelvic exams). PVs are only done to married women, b/c they don't want to break women's hymens prematurely. It is funny how in the US we assume everyone is having sex, but here they assume otherwise. The table had no stirrups and there was a window wide open right next to the bed. CMC hospital has no concept of privacy as you can see. Each patient sat on the this same bed with their legs spread open. The table was never wiped down between patients. Residents did wash their hands after each examination, but they used the same towel to wipe their hands each time, which bothered me a little.

The residents did not have the best bedside manner either. We are taught in medical school to be very gentle with the pelvic examination and make sure that the patient is well aware of every step along the way. Here they just tell the girl to hop on the bed and hurry up and drop her panties & spread her legs. They grab a very small spectulum out of a jar (which I think they call a spatula here and it looks more like a anoscope than the type of spectulum we use in the states), put some lube on it and stick it in without warning the patient. They also use a tongue blade to collect cervical cells. Can we say ouch? I kept on wondering if they ever leave splinters on a lady's cervix with this method. Another painful thing to watch was the fact that they do not use jelly when they do pap smears, b/c it will messes up the results of the smear. So they stick the speculum in the ladies vagina dry. OUCH!! Besides the PVs, the entire physical examination only involved looking at the patients conjunctiva, feeling their thyroid, and asking them to stick out their tongue.

Also the doctors rarely made eye contact with the patients as they talked to them. They mostly spent most the time writing. And if a nurse walked in or medical student walked in with a question for the resident, they would totally ignore the patient and concentrate on the questions asked. Sometimes the doctors would leave the room for an hour or so eventhough their were still a pile of patients to see. They use a number system here for the order they see patients. So you wait in the waiting room until your number is called, but I do not think most patient understood this concept and kept on coming into the very small examining room and standing in the background thinking that would make them be seen faster. The doctors did not seemed phased by the fact that everyone in the room that wasn't even related to the patient was able to hear the HPI the patient was giving. They never even introduced me to any of the patients and just told the patient to sit and start talking about their problems.

Interesting patients: A 40y/o woman came in with complaints of problems urinating. She had a tertiary cystocele & rectocele and pelvic prolapse. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Her cervix was practically sitting outside of her vagina. They swabbed her cervix with it sitting on the table. The worse part was that the lady also was suspicious for pulmonary TB and the attending didn't know this and told her to cough so her cervix would pop out. Then the resident told the attending about the lady's TB and she said "Oh shit," which I thought was hillarious since she was the first Indian person I have heard curse down here. And of course we did not wear masks when we saw this patient, so now I think I may have TB also. I also saw a lady with an extensive episiotomy. I am not sure what degree it was, but it looked bad and big. I guess they don't stitch them up right away here and just let them heal by secondary intention and approximate the edges later. We also had a 27 y/o lady come in with lower abdominal pain likely due to PID. In her chart it said that she didn't believe her husband was having an extramarital affair. I wanted to ask her where she thought the chlamydia or gonorrhea that lead to her PID came from.

The best part of the whole day was when the 2nd year medical students showed up. They were so cute and little, which makes sense since they are only 2 years out of high school. They were super nice and asked me lots of questions about where I was from. I was really surprised about how much the other residents pimped them though. Eventhough, I felt ignored most of the day during my time on OG, I did enjoy seeing the difference between practicing medicine in a developing country vs a developed one. You never realize how blessed you are until you see things on the other end of the spectrum.

Pictures above:

1) Indian traditional dancer

2) This is the entrance of hospital

3) This is the front of Ghandi street, where we do all our fabulous shopping.

4) This is Masala Dosa, another traditional South Indian breakfast dish. It is a crepe stuffed with potato mixed with masala spices. The stuff in the little cups are chutneys for dipping.

The Stares.

The rest of the day yesterday was spent chilling with Nicolette and Aruna on the CMC college campus. They gave us a tour of their $2 a night rooms, which weren't too awful except for the fact that they only have a ceiling fan. We also walked some trails on the campus and ran into four monkeys on trees. I went to get a closer look but one of them started peeing and so I backed away b/c I wasn't about to get my braids urinated on. For dinner we ate on the roof of Darling Residency, which is another hotel close to the hospital. I had some cashew gravy dish with chicken and rice, but I can't remember the name. It was really good also. The view and breeze from the top of the hotel was really nice. I felt for a moment that I was back in the states, but then the sounds of motorcycles and horns quickly got that vision out of my head.

Last night was another night of horrible sleep. I tried so hard to stay up until 11pm to help counteract this whole jetlag thing, but I think I fell asleep before 10pm. The I think I was in and out of sleep from about 2am on. When I did actually sleep I kept on having these weird dreams where I would hear a beeping sound or think the phone was ringing. Also Erica said during the night I kept on picking up the phone thinking someone was calling me. This is weird b/c in the US I never remember my dreams. So now I am starting to think that the mefloquine is causing these strange dreams and reactions since a side effect of the medication is very vivid or psychotic dreams.

Anyway, I finally jumped out of bed at 7am and took another shower in the morning eventhough I had taken one the night before b/c I still felt icky. I had Dosa for breakfast which is a traditional South Indian breakfast dish. It is basically a big crepe with different chutneys and sauces to dip it in and of course it tasted great. Then we headed off to the CMC college campus to meet up with Nicolette, Aruna, and Kathryn. Kathryn is from the January group and loved the India rotation so much she decided to stay another month. She gave us a quick tour of the campus showing us the different buildings and facilities the campus had to offer. Then we registered for our CMC rotation. I will be doing a week of ob/gyn, which they call OG here, one week of pediatrics, and one week of CHAD. CHAD is a rotation where you go out to the villages with the nurses and doctors as the round on the patients that are unable to make it out to the hospital. They also have an option through CHAD to visit the leprosy clinic.

We made our way back to town via the public bus. This was an experience: It is a pretty huge bus and they just pile as much people as possible on the bus as they make each stop. Luckily I got a seat and tried to clutch my purse close to me as possible for fear of pick-pocketers. I actually felt claustrophobic for a bit, which has never happened to me before. This is were the staring thing Indian people do was taken to another extreme. I finally realized that a lot of these people have never seen a Black person before so they love to just look me up and down. Eventhough they have people just as dark as me, they still have the long silky hair that is very different from mine, so I stick out like a sour thumb. And they way they stare is not in a nice way either. It is in a lets look at this strange dark alien person until she feels really uncomfortable. I have learned the trick to stop them form staring is to look them straight back in the eye. This usually makes them really uncomfortable so they quickly look away. Sometimes I just want to stick my tongue out and say "Booga, booga." I even got worse stares when we arrived at the hospital. Those of you who know me well, know how much I hate being stared at generally, so this is really hard for me to get use to. I am trying my best to just ignore them and focus on whereever or whatever I am doing.

We finally arrived at the CMC hospital and it is massive with people everywhere. We had to pay $100 to register for our rotation, then we met some of the people in the Development Office. They showed us this video about the purpose and mission of the hospital, which almost made me start crying. I may act like I am a hard soul at times, but I can cry at the drop of a hat if something sad happens or someone else starts crying.

After touring the hospital, we went to Chinatown which is some restaurant all the foreign workers at the CMC eat lunch at each day. I had the Dragon chicken and Nan bread and of course it was again yummy. I think I am going to gain some weight while here in India b/c I am constantly loading up on carbs. Aruna told me how Diabetes is a big deal in the Indian population b/c of the amount of sugar and carbs in their diet. For example, when you ask for tea they automatically mix in the sugar and milk in your drink before they serve it for you. If you ask them not to do this, it is a very difficult concept for them to understand. I think I am going to start spliting meals between people around me so I don't ge too fat. The portions are pretty small though in comparison to US standards so I am not sure if I will get full when I split the food.

After lunch, we went back to Ghandi street for some more shopping. It turns out that I am considered a L or XL here or plus size here. Isn't that crazy? They haven't seen nothing yet, they should see the people in SA. Then they will know true plus size. This time shopping was much better b/c Kathryn took us to shops that she knew had bigger sizes with cute options. I finally find good conservative clothes I can wear to work at a place called Jojos. He had the best stuff and is my new best friend since tailoring the clothes is included in the price. Later tonite we will be going to the international students' gathering at the CMC college campus. I am looking forward to meeting all the other students from other countries.

Pictures above:
1) The first picture is of the ceiling of Hotel Avana Inn. I think it such a cool ceiling and had to take a picture of it.
2) The second picture is of Erica and Nicolette taking a picture of the ceiling. I thought this was cute picture.

3) The third picture is of a autorickasaw.
4) This last picture is of four of us crammed into a autorickasaw on our way to the CMC college campus. I couldn't get Nicolete in the shot.

Finally in Vellore

Sleep two nights ago was torture. This jetlag thing is driving me crazy. I went to bed at about 10pm, but woke up every hour on the hour from 3am in the morning till I finally decided to get out of bed at 7am. Both me and my roomie can't sleep and are constantly asking each other what time is it as we both get up like clock work to use the bathroom. I don't know why I am urinating like crazy here, I guess it is better than having diarrhea.

After finally getting up at 7am to eat a yummy breakfast, I was suddenly tired and fell back asleep. Then one of my fellow classmates Aruna called and said her family was on there way to pick us up for the drive to Vellore. I am super grateful to her relatives for renting a car and letting me, Erica, and Nicolette ride with them. The distance from Chennai to Vellore was about 70km, which is about a 3 hour drive. Along the way we stoppedat a local place to eat. I got to try and array of curries and gravies with bread. They were all yummy. They fill you up at first, but after a while you feel really hungry again. Then I got my first experience at an Indian public toliet, which is basically a hole in the ground with a toilet seat. I luckily got the stall with the only working toilet bowl. Thank God for handsanitizer, moist wipes, and kleenex.

We finally arrived in Vellore and the driver was insistent that we visit the newly built Golden Temple. The only catch was that you had to walk barefoot from the car to inside the temple. Aruna didn't think it was a great idea, so we stayed in the hot car and waited for her relatives to come back from touring the temple. That was cool with me b/c I wasn't trying to get any organisms crawling into the soles of my feet. All the walls in the temple are painted with 14 carat gold and is a new big tourist attraction in South India.

I was glad when we finally arrived at our hotel (Hotel Avanna Inn). It is 1181 Rupees a night which is about $30 a night, $310 for 3 weeks. Aruna and Nicolete are staying at a hostel on the college campus which is only $10 a night but it is not air conditioned. I have bad memories of sleeping in non-airconditioned places in Nigerian so I was adamant about staying somewhere where I can stay cool no matter the cost.

Getting our room at the hotel was a lot of drama: I handed the guy at the front desk my hotel confirmation and he kept looking at it like it was fake. Then he completely ignored me for about 30minutes. Then they finally told me that they only had double occupancy rooms which only have one queen bed that are airconditioned eventhough on the website it made it appear like you would get two beds. Then we had some communications issues with the deposit you have to pay up front. The lady working the desk kept on giving me this face that if I was in the US she would get a piece of my mind, but I had to remind myself that I can't be ghetto here since I am not from here. I think Hotel Avanna staff never recieved a customer service seminar before opening uptheir hotel.

Our room space is pretty tight. I do appreciate the fact that they have a restaurant in the lobby opened really late and 24 hour room service. The towels are really scratchy though and the sheets are soiled. At first I tried to sleep on the dirty sheets like they were and ignore the fact that they weren't the cleanest. I just tried to imagine that they clean sheets and that we could be sleeping in worse conditions. But when I looked at my roommate's face and how uncomfortable she looked I decided to bring out some sheets I brought with me in case of emergencies. So we used these ones instead. I think Erica may be having some trouble adjusting to all the lack of luxuries here in Vellore. I think we got spoiled with our $90 a day hotel in Chennai. Now she sees the realities of true third world living. Also she is complaining about eating curries everyday. I was like, "What do you expect to eat everyday, steak and potatoes?" I have never been a picky eater so I am really enjoying the food.

Sleep last night was a little better, but I still woke up at about 6am and sat there until breakfast time at 7am. Then I did a little exploring today to try to find some Indian clothes. That venture didn't go too well since most people are about 5feet 4 inches here and a size 6. And the other two people shopping with me are really petite. Plus I want cotton stuff b/c the other materials are way to hot to wear around. Finding clothes is going to be an adventure. Hopefully I will have better luck on a weekday when more stores are open.

Right now, I am just happy to have found an internet cafe with fast internet. Next time I blog, I will try to post some pics. I forgot my USB port in the hotel.

First Impressions

I can't believe I am finally in India. It seems like it took a lot of work to get here. Honestly, I was dreading the trip a little b/c I have been doing so much traveling over the past two months and was ready to just spend a couple of nights in my own bed. In the past 3 weeks I have been in 3 countries, 5 different states, and 8 different cities so I am ready to stay put for a while.

The plane ride over was an interesting one. I arrived back in SA from DC at about 9pm on Jan 29 then I stayed up until 1am to pack and do laundry. It was really hard firguring out what to bring since everyone has told us most of our clothes would be inappropriate. The next morning I woke up at 7am to do some last minute packing and errands then I was off to the airport at 2pm with my travelling buddy Erica to catch our 4:20pm flight to India.

Our first stop was only an hour out in Houston. The stressful part was the flying from Houston to Dubai using Emirates, which was a 14 hour trip. I do not think the seats on Emirates were meant to accomadate anyone over 5 feet 4 inches. Anytime I moved I would hit my knees on the front chair. Then my back began to hurt and then my whole body. Also I have the smallest bladder in the world and I kept on having to tell the guy next to me to move so I could go to the bathroom. My flying buddy was excited about eating on the plane and kept on asking when we were going to get fed. I on the otherhand was not too exicted about any sort of airplane food. That kind of food always gives me gas and I was getting kind of worried since I forgot to bring tums. So I made the best of the situation and enjoyed the different movie options on my private TV screen. I first saw Gone Baby Gone with Casey Affleck, which sucked by the way. Then I started watching Ratatoue, which was such a better movie (Disney & Pixar easily excite me). I didn't finish my second movie though b/c I fell asleep, which were the worst hours of sleep I have ever had.

We finally arrived in Dubai and I kind of wish I had time to go outside of the airport since everyone has told me how beautiful it is in Dubai. From Dubai we catch a 3+ hour flight to Chennai. The plane that took us to Chennai wasn't as nice but was so much more spaceous. But the TV sucked and the volume kept on going out during the middle of the movies. We arrived in Chennai at 2am in the morning and were met with lots of stares as we exited the airport. We then hustled a $7 taxi ride to our hotel at the Comfort Inn. We got to the hotel safely and I was adament about spraying out room down with bug spray before we did anything else. Then I noticed how swollen my feet were. I think I had a good 1+ pitting edema all the way to my shins. I then took a shower and attempted to sleep. My roomie, Erica was knocked out but I just laid there staring at the celling for a couple of hours. I guess that's what happens when your body still thinks it is about 6pm in the evening. I woke Erica up at 7am and insisted that we be first in line for our complimentary breakfast. Breakfast was far from complimentary, it was more like a feast. I pretty much put everything I saw on my plate. It was kind of weird munching on stuff that I wasn't sure what it was, the oatmeal was a bit watery but everything else tasted ok.

We then attempted to go back to bed and watched some Indian TV for a while. We found a couple of English speaking channels. Our plan was to wake up at 10am and go shopping for clothes, but we didn't wake up until 3pm. Then we ventured out into the city on an autorickasaw (I think that is how you spell it). They are basically motorcycles with a car built around it. I think more developing nations should in invest in them, they are very fast and cheap. We only spent 90 rupees to and from (38.80 rupees to the US dollar) but I still think we were overcharged b/c we are tourist. We went to some mall called Spencer Plaza and made some purchases of cute tops and purses. The shop owners were working really hard to get us to buy stuff. As soon as you walked into their shop they would bring out all this stuff and pour it on the floor and tell you how nice it looked on you eventhough it really looked like crap. One guy put about 20 rugs on the ground begging me to buy one. I had to hurry out of the store b/c I think he was getting mad b/c I wasn't interested in buying.

Well, that is pretty much my first day in India. I am very excited that have not developed any travellers diarrhea yet, which always follows me when I leave the US. My first impressions of India is that it reminds me a lot of my home country Nigeria, except with less people that speak English. It is overcrowed like Nigeria, everyone walks everywhere or uses motorcycles, people drive just as crazy while honking their horn, and everyone is out to make a buck. The staring eyes are exactly what happens to me when I go to Nigeria, they tell me that eventhough I am Nigerian, I just don't look like I live there. Another diffference is that I keep on wondering where all the women are. Most of the time when we are in the street, all we see are men everywhere. It is kind of weird. I am looking forward to tomorrow b/c we will be driving to Vellore. Hopefully I will be able to get to sleep tonite and won't be too jetlagged.