So Monday and Tuesday six of us volunteers went to go visit the Leprocy Mission hospital near Muderai. It was me, Kylia and Lisette with three British girls who are placed in Purianguri, about an hour away from us. Becci was great, very bubbly and funny. Pippa was very sensible, she's been a nurse for 6 years in England. Izzy was a bit know-it-all, but generally a good sport. We started out at six, as I said, and stoped for breakfast about halfway there, arriving at 9:30. They took us to the house that we would be staying in (three double rooms and a common room, which was great) and introduced us to the supervisor of the mission. He was really great, a doctor who had studied in Holland and spoke really good english, so he co9uld answer all our questions. It was interesting the types of questions people asked. Kyla's were mostly "So...if I get leporcy"..."Yes, I know I probably won't but IF I did...", "So we COULD get it?" which was really funny. Mine were mostly asking about the social ramifications (moer about that later) and how this related to their HIV work (since leporacy is decreasing in India, they have expanded to providing general healthcare and educational outreach as well as their specific leporacy work). Pippa wanted to know about epidemiology and wound care (she's a visiting nurse in England and apparently terats lots of wound for elderly diabetic patients).
They took us into the ward to meet the patients. The structure was one story, with three large rooms connected by a porch/hallway. Two of these were womens ward, noe was mens. directly across the courtyard from this was another long strech of rooms, with another mens ward, private rooms, and the maternity clinic. The head nurse took us around (a truly frightening lady about 4'11") and told us about each of the patients. For those of you who don't know, leprocy is a baterical infection that causes nerve damage. The nerve damage (and resulting loss of sensation) are the really dangerous part of it, you can easily get cuts, ulcers and other sources of infection. These infections are what make you loose your apendages, not the disease itself. So, most of the people we saw didn't actually have leprocy, in the sense that they were carrying the baterica inside them. They just had resultant nerve damage, and infected wounds. There were also a lot of diabetic patients. To try to reduce the stigma of leprocy, they dont seperate the leprocy patients from the others (since it's very had to catch, and most people dont have active cases anyway) but you could tell who was who by the type of beding they had. Blue stripes for lepers, white sheets with plad blankets for diabetes, plain blue for other cases.
In the womens ward we met a 73 year-old who has been at the mission for 50 years, and has no fingers or toes. She's their only resident patient. She came at a time when it was common for families to throw out lepers, and though they've since changed their policy, she has no where else to go. She was very sweet, smiling and visitng with the other patients. The nurse bwas very deferential to her, and I'm sure she kind of rules the roost around there. She can eat by herself with a spoon, but needs helkp getting dressed. For patients now, the mission offers incentives to get people to keep their family members. This includes job training, social programs, and money. They have outreach teams in lots of local villages, to try to help with prevention and raising the general standards of nurtition and hygene. Still, the woman in the next bed has been divorced by her husband, and they were still working wither her brothers family to take her in. Also in that ward was a 14-year-old girl who had a sore on her foot. In the men's ward we heard fewer life stories, but met some very grandfatherly men who greated us with palms together in the traditional namaste. I havnt seen anyone do that since I've been here, so it was very nice. ONe man was having a cast put on (his sore was rubbing and they needed to imoblize the foot) so we watched that and then went to the house were would eat for our first "tea break".
Our cook, Gloria, was so sweet. She made us tea, asked about our families, and insisted that we eat lots of "biscuits" (cookies). It was almost 11:30 when we left, but she reminded us that lunch was at 12:30. When we went back to the hospital, they handed us to another nurse who basically took us through the wards again, which was a but embarassing. Still, she talked more about how the hospital is run (pay-what-you can for lepers, about $2 a day for general cases), which was interesting. Then we had lunch (eggs and rice with sambar, we were told to be back at 3:30 for tea break!), and a little nap before heading to the lab to watch them to tests for leprosy on some new patients. ONe was a little girl ,who was very brave. They have to take skin-pus samples from the forehead earlob, finger, and thigh (plus any light colored patches that might be from the disease) and stain them, then look for the bacteria. He showed us some positive samples under the microscope, as well as some TB. Then, we watched one of the docotrs do a sensitivty test (using a feather) on the girl to see if she had any nerve damage. The light patch on her arm was parrtially insensitve, which wasn't a good sign.
We went for another tea break (this time, Gloria looked surprosd that we asked for biscuits...maybe they are only for FIRST tea break?) and had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. We went to town and interneted a bit, then Kyla and I walked through the town. There wasn't much to see, but we did buy Gloria some flowers and Kyla some "cornflakes" (corn flake with curry powder and salt. They're good!). We got back for dinner at 7:30, and Gloria was pleased and surprised with her flowres. I'm pretty sure that they were supposed to be for decorating an idol with (they were in a necless shape) but it was the thought that counted, I guess. We headed to the house and played some cards. I learned new rules for spoons (or, as we played it, PENS since we didn't have spoons), that "Egyptian Rat Skrew" is called "Strip Jack Naked" in England, then Izzy tried to discribe a game called "Big Twos". It took me a minute realize that she was discribing a very common game we used to play in college (the one with four positions that James was so against). I tried to explain the social aspects of the game in America, but she shot me down with "I really don't see what that has to do with the game". So much for cross-cultural understanding.
About 10 minutes later, the power went out (which is HORRIBLE here because the fans go off and you feel like the air is going to collapse your lungs) and we couldnt see our hands in front of our faces. It was a little scary until Izzy found her "torch" (so I had to forgive her) and soon after we went to bed.
The next day we watched them clean the wounds (it was gerat to have Pippa there to expain everything). There were people with wounds that went clear through their feet! It was really interesting, but very gross. Afterwards, we were standing on the porch getting some air when one of the old men came over to me. He handed me a phone number, and indicated I should call it. I still don't have a phone, but I borrowed Izzy's and rang him. He stood there for about 30 second totally ROCKING OUT to his Bollywood ringtone before I hung up. Then he gave me a dazzling smile and walked off. I now have the cell numer an 80 year old leper. I wasn't feeling very well so I slept for the rest of the day. About 4:30 we got picked up and left, and arrived home around 10:30 last night. For Kyla and I, it was a very long car ride, though we all did play "How did they die", "20 questions and riddles. I stumped the car with the "box without hinges" riddle from the Hobbit, but it was the "Jack and Jill are lying on the floor..."that everyone really got into.
Still feeling a little poorly today, but I hope to improve tomorrow. I love hearing from you all!
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