Catching a ricksaw through Delhi

Babu got his leg!

Windswept in the jeep-Corbett National park

My safari buddy

How the kiddies get to school......A locked cage rickshaw. Brilliant idea

Elephant ride looking for tigers......

I liked this one.

Some alligators looking for lunch

Trying to sleep on the train....fun experience but definatly no sleep!




Its gotten busy again which is cool.....We had 2 days off for our 3 year wedding anniversary to catch the overnight train up to Corbett National park-about a 7 hour train ride away. Its known for its tigers, wild life and elephant rides. The train trip was an experience! You get woken up every half an hour with guys yelling "CHAI CHAI CHAI" , seeing if any ones up for a cuppa Indian tea. We got a 2 day tour with a guy in his jeep through the national park spotting loads of animals like owls, otters, crocodiles and alligators, dear, wild boar and loads of monkeys. Also loads of rare but boring birds.

We stayed the night in the reserve and went on a cool elephant safari at 7 am for a few hours through the long grass trying to find us a tiger. Didn't get to see one which was a bummer but still such a nice few nights away.

The public buses here are so funny. They cant believe it when you get on as no white people ride the buses here, and they arn't too used to seeing white people up north Delhi where we live. All the Indians within sight turn around in their seats to get comfortable enough to stare at you the WHOLE hour home. Makes things slightly awkward! Haha.

Babu Sadar - the pickpocket guy we picked up at the start of this blog (fell on train tracks and munched his foot trying to escape after stealing purses on train) has got his new prosthetic leg! Hes so happy and its hard to take it back off him as he wants to practice all the time. He says hes really keen to get back to his wife and 7 year old boy he left in Calcutta so we will buy him a train ticket home. So so hoping he doesn't sell this to go back to Yamuna Bazaar for drugs like so many patients do. Man its frustrating! You wan the best for these patients yet ultimately they have to make their own life choices.

We had a bit of a scare the other day when a lil 4 year old boy here I love called Arun (hes in a few pics-one on Jake's shoulders earlier in blogs) had a epileptic seizure and was found outside the kids house face down in a rotten sewage puddle. He was grabbed out while Jake and our friend Ruth tryed to sweep out his mouth and see if he was breathing. He was unconscious but still breathing ok. He came around but was really drowsy as they are post seizure.

I picked him up and drove him into the local doctor who checked his lungs and made sure he was OK which he was thanks goodness.

Its so hard as I definatly love this lil boy and feel I am getting attatched yet find it hard not to as he is just crying out for love and attention which his parents do not give him. You want to give them so much love yet know it will be hard when we have to leave in 6 weeks-both for us and the patients also.

Some good news is the guy Jake picked up from outside the hospital with all his foot bones sticking out and maggots falling everywhere has had his patial foot ampuation and its looking good. I was dreading taking the dressing down but its looking healthy so we can get a skin graft to cover it then send him home. He definatly abit crazy but harmless.

So many funny characters here which makes this place hilerious, never a dull moment!

Koi baat nahi

Pyara Baba

Two of our patients passed away this morning. One of our staff came and told Ruth before breakfast that they weren't doing well. She found them in their beds semi conscious and struggling to breathe. Pyara Baba had been with us for months and was on TB meds but over the last couple of months his brain had slowly deteriorated from TB menengitis and he had become one of the crazy characters that makes life at the ashram so colourful and different. His tall and skinny body been helped to the clinic for his dressing as he called out "koi baat nahi" (hindi for 'don't worry') was an everyday sight and sound that we'd gotten used to.
The other patient, Lakhan, was a more recent admission, also suffering from long term TB. He was old, emaciated, and had a chest drain protruding from his right lung that sucked in air every time he inhaled. He'd been walking around the ashram even as recently as yesterday, and didn't look too close to death. But this morning, he looked like another man, gasping for breath, eyes glazed over, and not responsive to questions.
The decision was made not to rush them to a hospital as they probably wouldn't survive the journey and the hospitals won't intubate someone whose sputum positive for TB anyway. So we put them on oxygen and spent the next hour with them, comforting them as best we could as we sat with them, holding their hands and inwardly hoping they wouldn't struggle for too much longer. Lakhan was the first to give up his struggle for oxygen and his laboured gasps became slower and slower until they stopped altogether. Pyara Baba followed him within minutes.
The Indian boys then wrapped the bodies in white linen and covered them with flowers from our garden and we had a small funeral service for them. A time to reflect on the value of life, its shortness and the importance of how we choose to live it.
Its been such a privilege to be able to help give these guys food, shelter, care and love so at least their death wasn't alone and on the street like much of their lives had been.

The new year begins

Raj Kumar

Cremation, India style on the Yamuna bank

A namaste from Kaka

Sunday night chicken biriyani

Rajastani nomad walking his sheep on the main road

hey!

Its been awhile since we last blogged, but not too much has been going on here. It is the middle of winter here at the moment...for some reason I thought India was always warm! Its so cold though, which is OK but as there is no heating there isn't any place to get warm again. You can only imagine what it is like living on the street at this time of year (like the 150000 people that do in Delhi).

All the patients are hiding in their beds under their blankets all day so the ashram feels more quiet than usual! The days here are very foggy and apparently we will not see the sunlight much at all for the whole of January. Bring on February!

One thing I'm loving at the moment is going running with Jake or my other friend Ruth on the back roads here. We definetly get some funny looks as 1) we are the only white people in this area. 2) We are running-apparently not a big market for exercise among the poorer Indians! We have got to know the local Rajistani nomads who live in the surrounding fields who greet us every afternoon we head out for a jog. They even stopped us the other day to ask us to help them pull a massive loads of hay off a tractor for their animals. So funny to be pulling on a rope attached to their hay load with turban wearing moustache curled nomads. One of those "what the heck?" moments for me for sure. Was loving it though.

We have just received a new grant to get two more patients prosthetics which is so cool! Our other grant through a south Delhi hospital had run out so we would have to pay for them ourselves...money that wasn't there really. So yeah a huge blessing to get a grant through another hospital!

More patients are turning up every week. Seems crazy that in a city of 20 million we are the only type of facility that helps these destitute patients in the way we do in regards to medical care and rehabilitation.

Things are chugging along. Feels quiet at the moment but maybe we are just getting used to the craziness that is India.