Dehradun January 25, 2013 - the trek home

Today is our travel day.  Everyone fragmenting already - Deb Rusy, Les Procter, and Nisha Chaudrey all took off this morning.  The bulk of us leave at 3pm for New Dehli, and a few will remain for evening departures.

My travels home, from Dehradun to Arcata, will be over in at least 48 hours, so this blog also includes January 26, 2013.  But it is all a continuum for us, so it all appears here.

One of the diligent hotel workers.  So much in India is done by hand, and by multiple people.  How to keep the unemployment rate down!

Checkout; also a bit of chaos.  Extra bills to pay for laundry and food, keys to turn in, and luggage to bring down.  Really bookmarks that it is the end of the journey.

Illustrious anesthesia team, and yes Butch - "auspicious!"  Bonnie, Les, and Deb.

Pankaj, local anesthesiologist who helped us during the first week.  Mary Beth in the background.  Deb gave him a Wisconsin t-shirt and some payment for his time and monitor.  A great contact for future trips!

Total team - Pankaj, Deb, Les, and Bonnie.

Three generations: Arjun, Yogi, and Kush.  So much knowledge, and so much potential.  All sensitive souls who make the world a better place.

I love the positive spin - rather than "Reserve right to refuse service."

One of our drivers with Pirko and a carload of people in the back and bags on top.  Heading to Dehradun airport.

Mary Beth hopped right up and started loading.  Most of the men would not let us life a finger, and I think we gave them an eyeful with our participation and independence.  Go Mary Beth!  Ever the helper.

Kush and Gary supervising the women loading (kidding).  Everyone helped and worried together.

Produce stand on the way to the airport. 

Little money sitting on the side of the road; you can see the car shadow.  I gave him a "psst" for another shot, and he started running at me.  Aggressive bugger!  They are everywhere, and very confident.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhesus_macaque

Here we are at Dehradun airport, after several check-ins.  They took away my batteries and a dental pick.  Bored I guess.

Lovely art at the Delhi airport.

Nine of the Mudras hand symbols, at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.  When I first saw the airport in Delhi in the '70's, it was an old hanger from military days that processed about 1300 people a day at wooden counters in one large drafty room with electric rotary fans for comfort.  Now this amazing, modern facility processes about 35 million people a year, one of the largest in the world.  They are hoping to ramp up to 100 million.  I can't begin to imagine...  They better figure out a way to streamline their customs processing!

Abhayaprada mudra is a protective hand gesture symbolizing strength or fearlessness.

More art, with Bonnie cheesing the frame.  Sorry.

Another farewell - Mary Beth splits off to visit Jaipur; we already lost Gary, John, and Liliana.

Good-byes are a hard but inevitable part of these journeys.  "Until we meet again," perhaps as members of another team.  Each person brings his and her gifts and we all get to share, learn, and grow.  The best part.

For me, I had to continue on another 24 hours, and by the time I got my pets and landed at home, it was a full 60 hours after we left the Aketa Hotel in Dehradun.  In a few days, it will all be a memory, but one I will hold dear.  Thank you all for your amazing effort in a less than ideal situation - your innovation, knowledge, experience, and determination made it work.  I'm not surprised, but am in awe.

Namaste!

Dehradun January 24, 2013 - last day of work

Today was a shortish day - we don't want to do complicated cases that may need our follow-up or assistance after we are gone.  Lots of local cases, dressing changes of the patients we have gotten to know so well, and financial accounting of what we have used while we were here and what we owe everyone locally.

Beth, our occupational therapist, changing a dressing for this little patient.  She made a face somewhere between nervous laughing and crying, but quickly ended up happy.  It didn't hurt as much as she thought!

Concentration.  Beth was such a help, as positioning and bandaging of patients after their surgery is so important.  She kept on the dressing changes and found some situations we needed to remedy.  Sometimes infections flare, blood supply is not good, or skin grafts fail.  There are many possible problems, but finding them early is key.

Pirko working with Fran on a patient.  What a great team this has been!

One of our many OR helpers - folding the blankets in a uniform and tight way, not unlike the New Delhi Hilton!

A brother waiting to hear how his sister is doing.  These are such beautiful people.  I am amazed as I do this travels and we see people "come down from the mountains".  Many of the stereotypical facial traits of a country seem to soften and a very universal face prevails, not unlike those we see from the same mountainous areas of Vietnam, South America, China, and our own Native Americans.  We really ARE all in this together, and have more similarities than differences.

These legs, believe it or not, belong to our young patient whose skirt had caught on fire and burned her upper legs.  They had healed in a folded position, and she could not walk or get around.  After multiple surgeries and dressing changes, they are now nearly straight.  We will have to arrange some difficult rehab for her after we leave, but this is a huge step in the right direction - to walking!

When she woke, I showed her the photo of her legs.  She could only stare.  It is a nice surprise, but she still has some difficult hurdles in front of her.

This little patient had injured and lost her hands to electrocution while simply playing in her neighborhood.  She has been fitted for and received prostheses, and came by to show the team.  She was able to write and function fairly well without them, but these will open a new world for her.  It was touching to see.

After hours of packing ...  Wait, we don't have all those boxes to worry about.  What a relief!  This is our lone box to bring back to the airport; such a luxury.  Maybe leaving the boxes is not such a bad thing after all...

Three of our nurses from southern India who came to join the team.  All our adjunvant workers were so critical to making it all happen.  We will miss them!

We also had a farewell party at Kush' house; a chance to mingle with those on our team and those who have worked with us while we were here.  And of course Kush' family!

David, looking very classy.

The team, all abuzz, relaxing at last.

Les, Terri, Pirko, and Fran.  Nice to see everyone out of scrubs and enjoying free time!

Pirko and Fran viewing photos.  It all goes by so fast.

Our elegant coordinator and my co-boxcateer Nisha Chaudrey.

Terri, Pirko, Fran and Deb.  What a team!

Gary, Les, Beth, and Yogi.  All talented and hard-working people.

Mary Beth, Liliana, Lucy, and Anila - glam and happy.

Kush' daughter - such a wonderful helper, amazing young woman, and a delight for us all.

Kush arrives finally to a home full of colleagues and applause.  Kush is a surgical resident, son of Yogi, and the reason these Dehradun trips work as well as they do.

Henna!  Arvin the artist, starting in on Kathleen.

Wonderful art, but this nutrition college professor Kathleen will have some explaining to do when she lectures and gestures to her students.  They will love it.

Lovely to look at.  The initial art is 3 dimensional, almost like icing.  Needs to dry and then be treated with a salty acid mix (lemon and salt worked).

One of our local nurses with her art work.

Kush the host, making a variety of drinks and beverages for all.

Very intent process.

Unusual but wonderful location for Fran's artwork.

Several people got the image of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god.

Deb, newly grafittied!

Beth is unable to use her arms; an odd situation for such a hard-working therapist.  This is how I will remember Beth - joyful!

Deb and Kush with his new scrubs.

A beautiful bird for one of the local nurses.  This art-making went on most of the evening.

Kush's son with the gourmet chocolates Deb brought from Wisconsin.  Hard to keep our hands out of the box!

Kush' mom, hard at work making fresh breads in the kitchen.  We all agreed the food was marvelous - the best yet on this trip!

Food - one of many things this team has in common...  David, Gary, Pirko, Terri, and Mary Beth.

Another kitchen scene - so many wonderful dishes came from here.

Our photographer John at work, taking our last group shot.