Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

THE MEDICAL

CMC Hosptital is a mega-complex of hostpitals, outpatient clinics, and teaching areas. This is the building for outpatient clinics and the canteen. Here, you start to get an idea of how crazy it is. Imagine the Texas Medical Center with a quarter of the buildings but the same number of people...

This is the CHAD (Community Health and Development) hospital. CHAD is similar to a small community hospital that does mainly outpatient and one-day procedures, but it also incorporates a social and educational aspect for its patients. Never worrying about money, the hospital finds a way to treat everyone.

The other component of CHAD is the villages where the intricate setup of part-time community health workers, health aides, nurses, and doctors go to the villages. Here, you can see the health aide in pink and the nurse and nursing student in blue walking through the village street. It is amazing how much the umbrellas can shade someone from the unrelenting summer sun!






Again on nurses rounds, we have arrived at one house to check on a newborn baby. In addition to the nurses and health aide, there is the PTCHW who knows everyone in the village well. This family was one of the first we visited on our day.







This is one of the buildings on the CMC campus. This building includes the computer lab and library. This campus is incredibly green and full of flowers--and very litterfree! It is definitely a nice place to escape the busy-ness that is India!

This is the bus used for the mobile clinic. Here the bus (which contains the exam room and pharmacy) goes from one site in a village to another site in the village instead of house to house like nurses rounds. In this picture, you can see each of the components: in the left open window, the nurse (blue) is manning the pharmacy, the doctor (middle open window, wearing white) is seeing the antenatals with the one exam table, located on the opposite side of the bus, and the health aide (pink in the right open window) is documenting for statistical purposes. Outside, the patients come up to the windows as needed.

The last village of 4 during the mobile clinic was by far the largest and the most populated with elderly people! Here, there is a row of elderly men, patiently waiting in the shade for their number to be called, most for medication refills.

THE STREETS

The autorickshaw. This is the Indian way of the affordable taxi. It is similar to the idea of the taxi in NY in that they are everywhere and ready to move...and sometimes a bit dangerous. This is our main mode of transportation--it is brush with death each time, and if we don't almost hit another person at least four times, it wasn't a real ride!



This is often what you see from the front. In case you are wondering where the divinding line is, the white car is on it. To give you a preview of what is to come, that blue car behind comes even further over into our lane, being one of the closest near misses we have had! As I have said, the white line (which can be seen faintly behind the blue car) is merely a suggestion!


Welcome to one of the few stoplights in Vellore. Can't see any lanes here either? Well that is how it works. Much like all lines here in India, it is more of a huddle in an impatient wait for the light to turn green. In fact, there is room for a few more motorbikes and bicycles. Who needs lanes when you can have controlled chaos!



I put this up in honor of the MS150 this past weekend! Here is the Indian version--although this isn't a race, this is just waiting for the green light to go!






THE FOOD

Our first breakfast in Vellore! This is dosa and it has 4 different dipping sauces, although only 1 wasn't spicy and 1 was tolerable... From here, we gave into jetlag and slept through the day!






This is egg dosai. This is my favorite breakfast at the canteen--I think of it as the Indian version of a spicy French Toast. My favorite days are when they add less pepper so I can still feel my tongue when breakfast is over! This goes great with one of the many fresh fruit juices they have--my fave is pineapple!



This is a parota! This is my favorite dish in all of India! It often comes in pairs, but I ate the first one before I remembered to take a picture. The empty bowl is the mixed green sauce that is NOT spicy! Also, they have started serving it with an onion milk-type dip--also very good! I need to find me a good parota place when I come back...ideally with tea!