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Published: July 25th 2014
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"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein
Karunalayam Care & Support Centre: July 21-24, 2014 It still shocks me to think sometimes that I am in India right now. I am currently sitting on a balcony, surrounded by flies and listening to the daily business of locals from Karunalayam. I hear ladies laughing as they clean up after afternoon tea in the dining area of the guest house we are staying at. I see a woman holding her baby and she hangs laundry and talks with an elderly man in Telugu, the local language. Men zip by on the motorcycles heading this way and that as a little boy strolls along riding a peddle bike that is much too big for his little size. I am surrounded by skinny bodies, bright coloured clothing, luscious green trees, cement block buildings, strange birds and bugs and critters....I am in India.
Today I am sick so I have been laying pretty low. However, I can't even compare my ailments to those that we saw at
Men's Ward
This is a view of the men's ward during the TB clinic the Tuberculosis clinic today. At 8am sharp, local people with TB came in for a regular check up at the Karunalayam Care & Support Centre. They had their blood pressure, weight and temperature taken by nurses before being administered any prescribed medications and intravenous fluids. I felt lost using the old liquid mercury BP scales and thermometers after the luxuries we are provided with in Canada. I could feel the nurses getting frustrated over our ignorance and we were quickly pushed aside so they could work at the rate they were used to. There are only 7 nurses working at the 30 bed clinic. Rotating in shifts of 8 hours, is it obvious that they have a pretty good routine in place.
Both male and female patients at the clinic looked frail and thin. You could see the effort and exhaustion in their faces travelling from one station to the next. One man, in his baggy white shirt and dirty green and blue sheet wrapped around his waist was obviously tachypneic as he slumped over in the plastic chair. Old fraying hospital beds lined the walls in the separated male's and female's quarters where those that were too sick
Observing
Canadian nurses observing the TB clinic to return home stayed. The patient's carried around necessary medicines purchased with their limited incomes in the hope of relief from TB and waited patiently for their turn to see the nurse. When they did see the nurse, I noticed how little emphasis was spent on antiseptic techniques and sterile equipment. It is interesting to see what steps are skipped due to limitations on funding and staff. Also, although the nurses knew all the patients by name, there was very little time spent caring for therapeutic needs or pain management. Time and time again the patients would cry out during a venipuncture or the flushing of a line and nothing would be done to comfort them. Granted, the nurses were very busy treating the large quantity of patients but it was still difficult to solely be an "observer" during this time. At one point, Maria stepped over to simply hold the hand of a patient as she was getting a venipuncture. The gratitude in the patient's face was obvious.
In the evenings, we have been going to visit the children and orphans who live at the Karunalayam Care & Support Centre. It's hard to look at the smiling face
Back again
Taking the train on our way back to Hyderabad of a small, dirty child and know that they were undesired, neglected and deserted because they are living with HIV. There are approximately 100 beautiful faces who, separated by gender, live together, play together and go to school together. The girls, aged 2 to 18 years, quickly pulled us over to dance and sing with them. After discovering that Ting Ting could draw, many ambushed her asking for portraits of themselves. By the end of the evening I had henna painted up my arm, a bindi stuck on my forehead and a candy in my pocket. I could not be happier to play clapping games with the younger girls or share stories with the older girls. These children have built a family of 100. They are so happy and free despite their diagnosis of HIV, reminding me of the resilience of the human spirit. There is much that we can learn from their ability to love unconditionally and live playfully despite an uncertain future.
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Mark
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Beautiful words.