Everything is a production in India

Every little task you try to do around here becomes a big production. For example, we were in line for checkout at Big Baazar the other day, and there was some kind of problem with an item that the person in front of us was trying to buy. About 10 employees, a literal swarm, buzzed around the item trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, the other four checkout lanes remained closed and the boys and I waited for another 10 minutes before giving up and checking out downstairs.

So like that, our work on our project has progressed in a similar slow roundabout fashion. But we are progressing, and things are slowly but surely picking up speed.

Our first big step was meeting with a man who is conducting a very similar project in conjunction with the Deshpande foundation. With his help, we've parsed out the various steps we need to take in order to get formal approval to give presentations to school children. He set us up with contacts and seems really excited about what we're doing. Our entire process would have been far more arduous, had he not been there to guide us.

We've also met with a local doctor who has been advising us on how to conduct the clinical aspect of our project. We met him at his hospital, and he showed us the Operating Room in his 30-bed clinic. Words cannot adequately characterize the difference between an American OR and the one we saw here. Let me put it this way. We were required to walk barefoot into the OR. It was more similar to one of our regular physician examination rooms than our sealed off, sterile ORs. It's amazing how people must make do here. Or amazing how much excess we have in the US.

At any rate, after four days here, we have much more of a schedule and we have specific goals to accomplish. It's definitely going to be helpful to have the other two fellows here. Unfortunately, they were delayed in shanghai, so they won't get here until at least tomorrow. But really, our days have been full with work and we pass out usually between 10pm and midnight, so we're doing as well as can be expected, I suppose.

- Mairin

* pics courtesy of Jeff