Greetings from the land of Bengal tigers, chai and (of course!!) Bollywood

Hey all! It certainly has been long enough since I have posted for this blog. I'm not going to lie, this isn't the first time that I have had access to a computer since i have been in India. I did have access for a half an hour on Monday morning before our meeting with Dr. Bhatki, but that was at a crappy internet cafe that took forever to load one page. Remember how slow dial up was? Ya, and even slower. So you'll have to forgive me for waiting until now to update you.
The flights were alright. I spent the eight and a half hour trip to Frankfurt, Germany in a mild comatose state until the plane landed. Upon arrival, I realized that my phone could not get any service and there was no way to inform family and friends of my arrival. Not to mention India. The company I had gone through had also given me the wrong information for my connecting flight to India, so there was no way for anyone to keep track of me back home even if they wanted to. I got it all figured out and did board the correct plane. This plane was awesome!! Now, you may be wondering how it could be so awesomly different from any other plane I had been on. It wasn't really, except for the simple fact that each person had their own television screen and could choose whatever they wanted to watch, either English or Hindi. I totally watched Bollywood the entire way there!!! Yay me!!
When we arrived in India, it was hot, but not too hot. The plane didn't pull up to a terminal. Instead, we pulled up against a fence and they had us disembark down a ladder. There had been hundreds of people on our flight too! Buses took us to the terminal and we then had to go through customs. The plane landed at 9:30 and by the time I was finished with that it was already after 10 and I still had my bag to pick up. When I, eventually, found the correct place, I could not find my bag. I stood there with other passengers from my same flight for nearly an hour and a half just waiting. It turns out that they sent half of the luggage from our flight through and then put through all the luggage from some other flight arriving from Singapore and then the rest of our luggage.
I was, needless to say, very worried about whether my ride had given up on me or not. I exited the airport and walked through the line of people holding signs twice and could not find my name. I had to find a phone and call Hema the CFHI representative for the entire country of India for help. She told me that my ride was there and had been looking for me. I had to describe where I was and then waited for him to come. Not too long after, he arrived. The man who showed up turned out to be Claver De Costa (I'm probably spelling the last name completely wrong) and he is our Local Coordinator, he shows us (and even comes with us) how to get from place to place in this hectic city.
I followed him over to the place where Bryce and Kristie were waiting and then we got some cabs to take to the university campus. Kristie and I shared the one while Bryce and Claver shared the other. It was quite an experience, like none I've ever had before. There is no regard for the "rules of the road" like we have in the US and pedistrians don't have the right of way, the cars do. Cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, cabs, motorized rickshaws, etc. find any whole they can squeeze into and just go for it. It is not uncommon for vehicles to be within inches of each other, from all angles. They also constanly honk to attempt to make people and other cars get out of their way.
The rest of that night was pretty unexciting. The next morning, we explored the city and had meetings.
My schedule right now is lectures in the morning to give us background on the diseases we'll be looking at and of the city in general and in the afternoons we go to a clinic. I have seen Malaria, Typhoid, and Leprosy, just to name a few of the major ones, so far and a lot of very common things. The style and atmosphere of healthcare in India is extremely different from that of the US. Gloves are only used when absolutely necessary and there is really no such thing as doctor-patient confidentiality. Also, patients do not have the time or the funds for doctors to run all sorts of tests so they medicate them as soon as they see them for whatever they believe they have, whether they actually have it or not.
There hasn't really been a whole lot of sight seeing so far. We did go to a mall yesterday where I purchased Parugu (Yes, it has Allu Arjun in it) for less than three American dollars, and we went to a movie. We went to Kites because that was all we had time for before curfew at the guesthouse, but I would not recommend seeing it. It was made to try to sell to the US and is not really Bollywood and not good by any standards whatsoever. Also, today we went to the beach and I got to see the ocean for the very first time. The wind there was so refreshing after doing all that walking in the hot sun. :) I will post pictures soon.
My hour is almost up after catching up on facebook and twitter and then this. I will add more the next time I am free and we make the trek down here. :)
Love and miss you all
Lydia