Nursing Rounds

OK, first another correction. The "health dates" are really "health aides"- would make sense, right? About a million people said it to me and I heard "dates" everytime.

Nursing rounds today was arduous. Very. It is so amazingly hot in these villages and the finite time in the Jeep with the windows down was not enough. I kept thinking over the early signs of heat stroke. Add to that my disinclination to drink too much water since I had no idea when or where we might stop, if ever, for a bathroom.
But we caught onto a lot of interesting stories, dramatic many of them, as the nurse and a health aide- one for each two villages- were driven around to see patients. We went into homes for most patients except a few who ran up to the jeep looking for meds. These were antenatal appts- women who had pink cards like our yellow ones at home with each antenatal visit information, BP, edema, urine, fundal height, etc... No serologies.
The homes were interesting as some seemed quite remote but would have electricity (ie: a fan or light bulb). Others did not have electricity and most were one or two rooms, a mud hut with low thatch roof. No beds inside- possibly a cot, but mostly mats for the dirt floor. They would roll out the mats for us to sit on and for the pregnant woman's exam. Men vacated quickly and the sari was undone to feel for baby placement and auscultate heart rate. After this the nurse when through a litany of "If you feel ___, come to CHAD hospital immediately. If ___ happens, do not worry but report as soon as possible..." That speech in any language sounds the same.
At some houses we received snacks- a banana or chocolate candy off a tray once! After I took pictures of lots of coconut spread out to dry, we were given whole bits of coconut to eat.
Some of the villages required walking across several fields and around quarries. The nurse and aide had umbrellas and looked quite picturesque in their white blue and pink sarees. I wore an ugly orange hat and scared small children. Plus I was sweating like you've never seen and they had a bit of glisten which they blotted with handkerchiefs.
BTW, I did not get many pictures because despite buying a whole second new set of batteries, they were dead! The package had not been tampered, but India is so hot all the batteries die in transport. I have wasted alot of money so far. This afternoon I am going to desperately look in the cooler stores for brand new batteries. Or no one will see pictures of the Taj and I will cry.

At one village we stopped at about 4 houses trying to document the cause of death of a man living there. Everyone seemed to have lots to say about it and the small enclave in the middle of the village had a crowd which gathered to watch the man's son take on his spirit. This guy was dressed in a white lunghi and was careening around the crowd yelling and yelling. He then whooped, convulsed, and fainted. We were told he had taken on his father's spirit and was communicating his wishes. Or something. Who needs speaking in tongues?
We stopped at several houses to coo for a good half hour over babies. The health aide and the nurse at the last villages were very chummy and were having a great time. They felt sorry for me as I looked like death and didn't understand ANYTHING going on and bought me a 7 UP. Then made fun of me because I couldn't finish it quickly enough. My belly was all bubbles. Too hot to eat anything either.
So, a lot of gossip later we went to a house where an old woman without any teeth was kind of hysterical and we waited with the cows while she and a few others chased after an old man down a creekbed. Turns out, he had attempted suicide because he believed his wife (the hysterical woman) was cheating on him and had rope burns all over his face and neck. They were urging him to go to the hospital. Wasn't happening. So we left the health aide there to call if she could get him to come and took off at long last back to CHAD.

Additionally, we met several PITCHWs who were very old. One followed us- a very small, toothless woman- around a village and joked with the nurse. She had trouble with the nurse's name "Clara" saying "Cavida" instead. We spent alot of time lunching on the health aide's porch with this lively old woman. After Illeana and I took her picture she started crying and crying. The nurse translated that the PITCHW's husband had died 40 years ago and the mites had eaten her only picture of him.
The PITCHW also told us that she married before menarche and had to wait 2 years before moving into her in-law's house. She married with a veil and never saw her husband until two years after the ceremony.

I bought some sandals like the ones the PITCHW was wearing and have now seen several old woman in them. I guess I buy old lady shoes here. I'm sorry about the lack of pictures. The guy at the internet place just shakes his head at me everytime I bring my card! I think he's tired of us downloading pictures since it takes so long.

I will expand the "everyone knows what we are doing at any moment in time" to include rickshaw drivers. I walk up and a dude I've never seen is like "Darling residency?" He knows!!
And they also know not to actually stop at Darling since we aren't staying there but use it as our stop for the internet place. HOW, I ask you? There are only a hundred of them, but they know...
Yesterday, I was peeved when our driver stopped the rickshaw to talk on his phone. Lauren pointed out optimistically that this was the safest thing to do, ignoring the irony that we were sitting on each other's laps without seatbelts on a three-wheeled diesel contraption with the battery under our feet. But oooo do I love rickshaws.