India atlast (long, grab a drink and get comfortable)

*view from my room at the Chella Nursing home

Arriving in India:

Late Thursday night I finally arrived in Chennai India. Upon arriving in India I disembarked the plane made my way to the baggage claim, collected my bag and my way in to the madness that is India. Once you exit the baggage claim area you are welcomed by yelling Indians who are kept at bay by a aluminum fence. As I walked by the fence I carefully read every sign looking for my own name. When I got to the last person holding a sign and realized that the name on the sign was not my own a sense of panic settled over me. Before I know what was going I was in the midst of the taxi depot. Drivers were approaching me and asking in a thick Hindi accent if I needed a ride. After turning down rides from several drivers a nice man speaking only some diluted English asked if I needed help. I explained my situation and showed him the email that had where I was going and the number for the hotel, Hotel Mount Manor. He quickly took the paper from me made three rapid fire phone calls and said that they were on their way. At this point the madness of it all started to sink in and realized what was going on. I had no idea who this man was and upon asking him I got a fast spoken long answer that I believe amounted to him saying he was some kind of transportation manager. He had an ID badge and appeared to be legitimate. But my mind kept wandering to the scene in Taken where the girls driver tells the Albanians where they are staying. I was scared this man called him thug buddies and they were gonna pick me and do who knows what. To my astonishment a Hotel Mount Manor van showed up with a driver wearing a matching Mount Manor polo. I figured he was legit enough so I got in and he took me to the hotel.

The hotel at the time seemed rather questionable but now that I have seen India I realize that I was staying in a rather nice place. The door to my room had 3 dead bolts, there was A/C and a semi-working TV.


Projects Abroad:

I woke up early the next day knowing that I had to catch a flight from Chennai to Madurai. I however, did not know what airline or when the flight left. I got up and checked out of the hotel room (which cost ~Rs1500 or about $30.00) and was at the airport by 6:30. I proceeded to ask every airline if I was on any flight to Madurai till I finally won the jackpot at Paramount airways. Unfortunately the flight didn't leave until 2:00pm so I had a solid amount of time to sit and read. I finally got to Madurai around 3:30, where I was met by Projects Abroad desk officer Austin, who is actually an Indian guy. Austin was a very nice guy who has a degree in English literature and spoke English fairly well. We got into a cab in Madurai and left for Sivakassi. This is where I was introduced to the Indian roadway and way of driving. In India there are, as far as I can tell, no laws for driving. The cab driver barrels down the road at a max speed around 60mph but slows for nothing. If a bus is ahead they will just pass, if you cannot pass they will wait literally 3 feet behind the bus and honk and then they will fly headlong in to oncoming cars and then cut the bus off just in time to not smash in to a truck full of people or propane or whatever. On the road everyone honks their horns ALL THE TIME. Unlike the states when you honk here it is just to signify that you are passing, not that they are in your way. Everyone here drives motorcycles( or as the locals say, two wheelers.) they bomb around town on their motorcycles and it is not uncommon to see a family of four or five on a motorcycle. usually a small toddler sits on the father's lap holding the handlebars, then the mother sits behind the father holding the baby and a teenager sits behind the mother. The Honda Hero is a popular choice and almost everyone drives one.


Karaikudi and the Chella Nursing Home:

After a six hour white knuckled cab ride from Sivakassi I got to the Chella nursing home in Karaikudi. Although the title is nursing home it is more like a hospital. Their are 3 doctors, 10 beds and an "Operating Room" (more to come on Indian surgery.) My room is on the 3rd floor and consists of two twin sizes mattress-like pads on metal frames. Their is a spout coming out of the wall that we use to shower and to our luck their is a western style sit down toilet. We also have a small balcony where I set up a clothes line. Ahhh before I forgot, I do have a roommate his name is William and he is from the UK. He's twenty and studies medicinal chemistry and some UK university. Their is not much more to say about the room, I think the picture will speak for its self.









Well I suppose that is enough to get through for now. I'll write more soon about life with the doctor, Indian surgery, Indian food, how the clinic works, and anything else you want to know.

Please leave comments I'd like to hear from friends, family, and friend of my family. If you have any questions feel free to ask in comments.


-Rick "your friend culture shocked in India"

The beatiful Belgium country side. . .

One nights sleep in a questionable hotel in New York, three movies, 2 plane meals, qnd oné Eùropéqn kéyboqrd lqtér i have finally arrived in Brussels Belgium. Id love to tell you how this is such a great country with great significance, but that wont be happening. So what have I done since being in Belgium. Well firstly, I took a leak and was introduced to the Dyson Airblade hand dryer. Its is a hand drying device that utilizes vaccuum parts to generate gale force winds whice in turn are harnessed to dry your hands. After hitting the can I proceeded to the duty free store to pick up some famous belgium chocolates. I have yet to try them, beings as I am full from the famous American choclate Kit-Kat and Reeses Cup. Watch for a side by side comparison of the American and Belgium chocolates in my next note. And the concludes my time spent in Brussels. Ill now be heading to my gate to catch my last flight to Chennai.

Just checked my email and it looks like I will be staying my first night in India in a hotel in Chennai. This is because they were not able to get train ticketts to Sivakasi. The next day I will be flying from Chennai to Madurai.

- Rick "your friend soon to be stuck in Chennai"

Dreaming of. . . Manahattan.

I arrived at Seatac airport at 0400 for my flight to JFK. There I was to board a second plane to Chennai India. Unfortunately things did not work out that easily. My first flight was delayed for mechanicals reasons, and I therefore missed my flight leaving June 22 for Chennai. So I was put up in hotel at JFK by American Airlines and given meal vouchers good for a nother tasty bar burger and a "cheap" bear (num num!) I have been rescheduled to leave to Chennai tomorrow at 1800. I'm hoping to get up early and head to downtown, see what this who New York City thing is all about and probably take some pictures while I'm there. Who knows. I'll see you all again on the other side.

-Rick "Your friend, stuck at JFK"

Two weeks from today and I'll be boarding that plane to India. It still doesn't feel real to me. Maybe its because I don't have much preparing to do since I was ready to go last year. Well their is not too much to report. I got more pre-departure vaccinations. Since their is nothing new to tell you, I figured I would put a couple of pictures from attraction that Projects-Abroad organizes trips to for the volunteers. Bellow is Thekadi Falls, above is Varkala beach, the very top is madurai beach.

NEW placement and accomodations

Five weeks and counting until I depart. I have just received different accomodations and placements, evidently the ones that were on my site hadn't been removed from my try at this.

I will now be staying and volunteering at the Chella Nursing Home (pictured above) in the Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu. The Chella Nursing Home is a privately funded hospital. The

departments it has are ENT, paediatrics and general surgeries. Their are 2 docs 20 nurses and 10 beds.

My supervisor is Dr.S. Paul Chellappa his wife Alice Chellappa is also a doctor at the clinic (OB/GYN.)

I will be staying upstairs in a room at the clinic since I am staying on the clinic campus I will be eating withh Mr Kulanthairajan's family, just a five minute cycle ride away. My contact in India insured me that my accomodations are safe and secure, so I will be bringing my camea gear with me so that I can get some good pictures of my trip. I have also been in contact with some fly fishing outfitters in India and hope to do some fishing for the Golden Saheer.

Placement and Accomodations

Update time:

Everything is finally starting to fall back in to place. Today I received my passport with my new Entry Visa for India. I was a little scared that the kind people of India may not let me in to their country, but they are. I also have received my placement and accommodations, and they are actually the same as they previously were.

I will be working at the R.S. Ortho Hospital in Rajapalayam. This is a privately funded hospital that does general medicine, orthopedics, and physiotherapy. Their are 15 beds one doctor and 6 nurses. The departments are as follows: General Medicine, Orthopedics, Anesthesiology, and Surgery.

They have put me up in the Hotel Anandas Boarding & Lodging in Rajapalayam. I am staying in a single room with two single beds, table and chair, wardrobe, a ceiling fan and an attached bath room with indian closet and bucket + mug shower. Their is a small restaurant on the first floor of the hotel where I will be eating all of my meals. Most of the meals they serve will be vegetarian and are served with rice and lots of rice products.

Thats all for now check back for more info.

A new year and a second try

So it's been a while, 7 months to be exact, but here it is a new blog entry.

As I'm sure you know my first attempt at going to India didn't work out so well, as a I sustained a serious injury days before my departure.

An update on the injury:

Well things have been going slowly. Since you last heard from me I have actually lost more teeth. After the root canals I was left with two fake fronts a fake L canine and no lateral incisors. Things remained that way until Friday of finals week. Immediately after my biochem final I hoped in my car and made my way to Dr. Laney's office where I would have surgery. The surgery was to remove the roots of my medial incisors and then do a bone graft. The doner bone came from chin, the bone taken went from mental foramen to mental foramen. That space was filled with synthetic bone. The piece taken from the mandible was then bolted in to the maxillary bone with three screws. Currently I am missing my four front teeth. The next step is to get the anchors for the fakes put it and that will be happen sometime in May.

Update on the trip:

After putting it off for several weeks I finally got back in touch with the people at Projects-Abroad. I rescheduled my trip for a departure around June 22nd. I have no idea if my previous arrangements will be retained or not.

Keep checking back I'll try to update once every couple of weeks.