All is well here in India and once again its been a busy week though a little frustrating as we had no internet at home, thus I got very little work done. It was nice to have the forced break though so I could spend a bit more time with the kids while on holidays and more time at the ashram.
Ruth and Jake, a couple from NZ arrived this week. They will be volunteering for the next six months and even after a week their valuable nursing and physiotherapy skills have made such a difference. Ruth is a nurse and has had a lot of experience with wounds and Jake is a physio and has already got Vinod sitting up!
On a sadder note Om Prakash passed away yesterday. He was the patient I wrote about a couple of months ago who had the massive pus balls in his neck. We knew it was inevitable but for a while there he was doing so well, he really took a turn for the worse over the last week or so.
This week I went with Shar, Ruth and Hunter to visit Jonny in the local Narela hospital. Although its a good size hospital it seemed almost like a ghost town compared to an Australian hospital as there are so few nurses. It took us a while to find Jonny as we did not know his full Indian name and we had to walk from floor to floor via long ramps. We were a bit like the pied piper, by the time we found Jonny, we had about 15 people following us, once we found him the security shooed them away. Jonny was in the orthopedics ward which looked like a torture chamber with all bars, pulleys and wires hanging from the bed. Jonny was very happy to see us. We bought him some bananas and Anzac biscuits as well as some clean clothes. Because it took us so long to find him we couldn't stay long, after we left we were once again followed all the way back to the car.
Went for a shopping day this week with Shar, Ruth and Hunter. We managed to fit in three markets and finished up meeting the guys at Khan Market for dinner at the Big Chill. That day we managed to get a rickshaw wallah to use the metre for the first time... he insisted the market he was taking us to was closed but we made him take us anyway. On the way Shar said to Ruth one day a rickshaw driver will take her to a tourist emporio against her wishes (tourist emporios are government run shops which are filled with overpriced local handcrafts, Rickshaws and taxis must get some sort of kickback for taking foreigners there because they only insist that you go in just for a minute) The next thing we know we are out the front of a dreaded emporio, Shar and I gave the driver such a hard time. He was trying to insist that he had taken us to Sarojini market part 1 and that Sarojini market part 2 (the place we wanted) was closed today. There is no Sarojini part one or part 2! We were so angry so we both yelled Chello! jaldi jaldi. Which means get going quickly. Eventually we got to Sarojini and what do you know... it was open.
Sam and Ray are going with 30 of the ashram staff and volunteers to the 20/20 cricket on Sunday night. While I was shopping with the girls I ducked into a cafe and bought the tickets. No ticketek here. The guy was a bit surprised when I asked for 31 tickets. He asked if I was going and I said not a chance. They are going to see 2 matches featuring the NSW Blues and the Delhi Devils and a couple of other teams. Hope they have fun!
Last night we picked up about 10kgs of mail from the Gibbons. It was mostly schoolwork but there was a lovely parcel from the Rogers. It had 3 jars of the new Vegemite as well as loads of melted chocolate :) and jelly beans. Its breakfast time now so I am off to have Vegemite and ghee on toast (forgot to buy butter).
Ciao
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