Ok so this is my third attempt to publish this blog...maybe the computer won't crash this time.

I updated my pics from two blogs ago so take a look!

I just finished the second leg of my trip to India and am in Chennai for the night before flying out to Delhi tomorrow early morning to start Hindi lessons. So despite how frustrating it was at the beginning, these two weeks have been amazing as I have been exposed to things that will affect me forever. I’ve also become friends with engineering students that were displaced from their villages after the tsunami. We spent most of our time trying to communicate in broken English, playing Carrom board, eating from thalis with our hands, and going to temples. I’ll miss those guys.

So for the most part, I spent my time in a rural clinic and the main Christian Medical College hospital. These clinics were really different from each other and much different than anything I’ve seen in the states as far as the types of cases, the type of medical care, and the administration. The rural clinic is a free clinic that serves the rural villages around it. They have such a large number of patients each day that the doctors and interns have to fly through them so everyone gets seen. Even if they spent a lot of time figuring out the best medical treatment, 99.9% of the time, the patients would not be able to afford the medication. And other times, many patients come in with very simple illnesses like a cough or general pain, which could just be a result of the difficult jobs they have, but they come so they can get the free medication. There are just so many aspects to running this type of clinic and to make it successful there must be a education program co-existing to prevent more diseases, which has been implemented with this clinic. While in the main hospital, I spent most of my time in the infectious disease ward where I saw patients with HIV, TB, malaria, and meningitis. This hospital was of course ridiculously busy and well over its capacity. Tamil Nadu has the highest HIV population in India so hopefully the government will be implementing this program to help the costs of medication. Right now many of the patients can’t afford the treatment or further testing and are therefore more prone to other diseases such as TB, which will quicken their death. Furthermore, AIDS education programs must be implemented despite the stigma attached to it.

Anyways, I’m off to watch Argentina beat Germany….and then Delhi!
Hope everyone is doing well.

Tried posting pics in this blog, but not working so check out Facebook.

Ok so finished my first round of trips in India. I am now in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, actually I am 30 km away from that small town. I am in a little village living in a hostel for two weeks working with a department that is part of the christian medical college. It's called RUHSA and it deals with people that live in rural areas. I am in the middle of deciding my exact plans for the next two weeks, but I know that it will involve HIV/AIDS education. But yeah, kind of sad here, not anyone else here really besides me so it can get kind of lonely, but I guess I got to make do of that. Watching episodes of Lost helps, but they will run out soon...eek...and this internet is dial up which is cool too. I guess it is about time to get kicking on that med school app too. Ok well, updates to come later...and i can't seem to upload the rest of the pictures from the previous blog.

If you get bored send me an email and let me know what's up wherever you are....

I can't believe I've been in India for over a week now. Once again I've been really bad at updating, but just a quick run down about the past week. It's been a hell of an experience and a lot different than I could have imagined. So I am here in a small town called Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu which is pretty close to Kanyakumari, which is the city in the southermost part of India. I am here with a group of 12 other people from the states and we are working with Habitat for Humanity. We aren't working directly with the houses hit by the tsunami, but close by. We did visit the tsunami site and the damage is still clearly visible. We have been working on a couple houses and it has been no joke. The weather is hot and humid and we are out there from 9-3. The work we've been doing is a lot different than Habitat in the states. The tools are different and the methods of construction are completely different. We've been moving dirt, stones, and clay with pans and buckets. We end up drinking like 6 liters of water each day without having to use the restroom at the site because we just prespirate it all out. We are living in this really nice hotel like a few minutes from the worksite where there is air conditioning and running water all the time, which is a luxury. So after a long workday, it's great to have somewhere pretty decent to stay. As far as things outside of the workdays. We've had bharatnatyam lessons for a couple days, yeah go ahead and laugh. That was pretty interesting as the guys enacted Krishna and the girls enacted Radha. We visited a temple where the guys had to take off their shirts for some odd reason. We visited a few other religous sites and of course we've been eating a lot. Dosas, idlys, saambar, waadas, thalis, chinese food, yeah it's been good...and dirt cheap! Anyways, I got to head out, but that's a quick sum up of stuff and I'll include pics when I get a chance. Btw....the funniest thing that has happened to me is that this kid yesterday kept on asking me in tamil if bruce lee and jackie chan lived in my town...haha...WAJJJJJJ

The Habitat Group in front of a Palace

Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari

Thiruvalluvar Statue (Tamil Poet)

Sunset where three bodies of water meet (Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal)

Succhindrum Temple

Locals at the worksite

South Indian Thali

Saif Ali Kahn on the Lays Chips we eat each day during break time (Spicy Masla is the best)

Bharatnatyam Dance Lessons Initation

Hotel in Nagercoil

Me and some of the school children at the worksite

My new girlfriend =)

One of the classes of kids...dang...they are cute

Tsunami-destructed home

so i made it to india safely...after a lonngggg trip...all i gotta say is that it is freaking hot here....


more to come later...........

Got Home on Saturday and tomorrow I'm headin out to India. It's been a good few days, spent some time with my family, saw some friends, and relaxed a teeny bit. My brother headed out yesterday to study abroad in China for the summer so I only got to see him for a couple days, but I know he'll have lots of fun this summer. It's kind of sad leaving my parents again, but I think that I am going to get a lot out of this trip to India. It doesn't really feel like I am leaving tomorrow, but maybe it'll hit me when I get to the Mumbai airport at midnight as I stumble around looking for my hotel shuttle. Anyways, I am definitely going to update more this go around and add lots of pictures. Hope everyone has a great summer whereever you are and see you all in the fall.

Jeshi Krishna