Naughty tomatoes

I must say that the naughty tomatoes did not stand a chance to the mint mischief.  As tantalizing as the package looked, they were very disappointing.  As you have heard, we are currently having a great time in Hyderabad.  I don’t think anyone has hardly mentioned the train ride.  I was very leery as we were walking along the train looking for our car, however it turned out to be a very comfortable ride.  At least for those of us who did not have to stay with men engaged in secretive conversations or sleep with our suitcase (right Tim?).  If you ever plan to travel by train in India, I highly recommend 1st class with a/c.  Definitely beats the open-air, overcrowded wooden benches of the 2nd, 3rd? class that we passed by.  We arrived at the station only about an hour late, which is probably considered to be on-time here.

We spent our first day in Hyderabad relaxing at the fantastic apt that we are staying in and getting to know our new friends.  Emily, a 2nd year medical student from Chicago who is staying at Sivananda for 3months, and Shobha, an ID attending from NY that Gopal has previously mentioned (you may have noticed her blogs) hung out with us for the afternoon as we went over our presentations.  I gave my leprosy talk, Tim educated us on TB and Brooke discussed the ethics of HIV in India.  Our talks initiated some interesting discussions about the various topics and International health in general.  It was very invigorating to share thoughts, ideas and experiences with others who are interested in travel and making a difference in the world.

Today we had our first visit to Sivananda, which was absolutely amazing.  I am so impressed with the work that is being done at this facility.  After researching and giving a talk on leprosy, it was very interesting to hear about the disease from an expert and see pts first-hand.  Based on the pt’s eagerness to participate, it is obvious that they have created a very supportive and accepting environment in which leprosy pt’s can undergo treatment and rehabilitation.  The results they are acheiving with the reconstructive surgeries is impressive.  I am looking forward to our next couple of days there, especially our time tomorrow with the orphan children.

Mint Mischief

Being back in Hyderabad is fantastic. I understand what is being said around me and the plans are mine and not someone else’s. We all got to meet Shobha face-to-face, finally, and anticipate that it’s going to be a great 2 weeks here. The folks at SRH, as usual, delivered the goods today; I will leave it to the team to expound on that. They also were pleased with the rest of the medical equipment we brought over from Medwish.

As Brooke mentioned, we made a trip to the local supermarket. I tried to get things with exotic names/flavors. Mango tic tacs. Clove gum (which I don’t really like in the US but am hoping will be different here). Two bags of chips, the first of which is called Mint Mischief and the second, which Tim will probably mention. Mint Mischief is the early winner, thus far, in my opinion. I will leave it to my companions to reveal what the competition was.

Tomorrow, I hope to check in on my research collaboration at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. Also, we will be having Indo-Chinese.