Yamuna Bazaar pick up

Homeless guy sleeping right beside the open sewer.

Waiting to see the Dr for his TB medication

The drop in centre with the local sewer running through.

Junkie in the trash.

This is Gopal on the street-traffic and people all around but not one who helped.

Sonu having his wash and shave

Gopal's swollen and dirt encrusted feet waiting for his shower.

Sonu tired and broken.

Sonu.

Had thee craziest last few days.
Went to Yamuna Bazaar with the head nurse from here (Uwe) and an Indian worker to look for new patients. We went first to a drop in centre in the heart of the bazaar where junkies and the homeless can receive free Dr treatment and clean needles. They work in two tiny dark rooms which sit right beside the open sewer. I had to step in this to get across to the small building. Nice. Got to take a few photos which was cool because usually you don't really wanna take out a piece of equipment that's worth a good 6 months of dirty drugs to them.

We drove to another spot in Delhi and weaved our way through the small streets through cows, rickshaws, scooters and cars to a small lot filled with trash and junkies.
As we walked through the trash I looked down to notice all the used syringes and needles sticking up through the rubble thinking thin jandals were not the best footwear I could have worn.
I found myself surrounded by junkies one wielding a needle and syringe totally off his face asking to money for "his two children". The look in his eyes of sheer desperation for drugs was so awful. I stepped around another passed out guy and found one patient with one leg missing and the other leg a big wound so we picked him up and chucked him in the back of the ambulance.
By now a crowd had formed as they do when you are the only white people they'd ever see in their part of Delhi. They surrounded the ambulance and one junkie who had just tried to grab the other male nurses camera asked us for money. When told no he reached in to grab the ambulance keys out of the ignition. After some yelling pushing some guys from the street pushed a few of them back so we could drive off.

We did a quick drive by the Bazaar again and found two guys a few metres apart. One was so emaciated and dirty and cried out in pain as we lifted him him up and into the ambulance. The other I found him completely naked under his disgusting thin blanket which was dark with dirt and flies.
We headed back to the ashram to shower and clothe them.
Seeing them naked and broken as a few other workers washed and shaved their heads was heart wrenching. They were the skinniest guys I have ever seen. Gopal could not lift his head he was so weak, and even after the full showering and shaving we still could not get rid of the flies.

Over the next few days we gave then the best medication and care we could and started TB medication for both of them. Sonu was the first to give up his fight in life. His lung collapsed late Saturday night. He was rushed to hospital but was refused by two hospitals after taking one look at him in his state and knowing he was sputum positive TB. The third hospital after alot of persuading intubated him but it was too late.

Gopal dying yesterday gutted me. I had spent so long with him begging him to eat and getting it interpreted he had to fight to stay alive. He asked for Pepsi which I got and then bribed him to eat a few spoonfuls of rice. Late yesterday afternoon I found him unconscious and after doing everything we could he started seizuring. After an agonising two hours waiting with him he died.
So frustrating as I wanted these two guys so badly to have a new chance in life, a little help out of the pits of destitution so they could see that they were important, and so worth loving and living.
Crying in my room that night Jake reminded me that even though they died, they did not die like a dog on the street as they would have. A little comfort on a crap night.