WEEK 9 and 10!!!!!!!!

Wow, week 9 is over and I have started week 10! This second half of the trip has gone by very quickly, like a speeding rickshaw it almost knocks you down. During the last week I observed at a clinic in the slums, or next to one. It was really amazing to see, so many people coming in being over worked, malaria, TB, general sickness, or worrying about their libido (yeah it makes the top 5). In the mornings I went to spiritual training, at the BSES hospital, run by the Brahma Kumaris, which is a religious organization. It was interesting to learn about them and some of the other religions that are here in India (every kind is here, its freaky). After learning how to meditate on a red dot with your eyes open (which was hard with the ferocity that the fans churn the air here) I was done with it, and my week was over. I promptly went to the bus station to go to Hampi, which is full of ancient ruins, only to have to wait 4 hours to get on regular bus (this means a school bus with smaller seats) for the 10hr trip to Hubli which left at 5 for a very uncomfortable trip. In Hubli I bought a 1/2 kg of cashew nuts and ate them (yumm..) and talked to some Indian kids during the 3 hr wait for my 4 hr. bus trip to Hampi. Yeah it was full of waiting, but the worst part was that on the bus from Hubli to Hampi my camera went missing, which I only realized the next day. ARGG! luckily I have been saving all my pic's to my laptop so I have them all. I don't know if I lost it or if it was stolen, but it is the first thing down on this trip and with only 6 days left, I hope the last. The weekend was good, I was able to see an amazing landscape that is around Hampi. Banana plantations and jungle pierced by huge boulder outcroppings. It was a really cool trip and it was nice to catch a sleeper-bus on the way back.

Today, after my Mumbai morning routine, I went to a foot drop surgery on a leper. This consisted of cutting a major tendon in the guys foot, splitting it in half, tying it (they used a standard knot) to two different tendons on the top of the foot and then cut the Achilles. It took 40 min. and was sweet! It basically gives me the idea that your body is a machine, that can be tinkered with, and is very flexible to being switched around with. I will be going back to the clinic by the slums during the evenings this week for my last Indian medical system observations. I hope to see some very colorful Indians due to this week being the festival of Holi, which, from what I have gathered, means everyone just throws paint on each other and most of the country either stops, or goes on tye-dyed. It seems like it will be a crazy last week here, I would expect nothing less given the last nine.