Rotaplast Missions

Wednesday - Day 10

Wednesday was the last day of surgeries.  Our team is starting to get a sense that our time here in Nagamangala is coming to an end.

I woke up to find a bottle of water that I had placed on the table by my bed had been knocked over in the middle of the night and short-circuited my iPhone.  With great embarrassment, I have to admit my first reaction was to feel sorry for myself.  I started thinking - how was I going to get it fixed once I got back home or live without my cell phone for a week while it was being repaired?  How would I keep in touch with my clients, family, or friends?  I was bummed.  Walking over to the hospital I kept running different scenarios in my head of how I was going to repair my phone.

I was sitting in the waiting room, working on my blog, when our first group of patients walked through the door.  Among the group waiting for surgery was Komal a chubby little two-year-old boy.  Komal is just the happiest baby and has a zest for life that would make almost anyone jealous.  He befriends anyone he meets and our team just can’t get enough of his adorable laugh.

When Komal saw me sitting in the waiting room he jumped off his mother lap and ran over to me with the biggest smile on his face.  We started playing and he had the whole waiting room cracking up.  After about fifteen minutes one of the nurses came out to get him and he happily walked back to the operating room with her.  Just before he was out of sight he turned and waved goodbye to his mother and the rest of the people in the waiting room.  And that was when it hit me … people matter not stuff.  Stuff can always be replaced … people can’t.

When you volunteer for a Rotaplast mission it changes the way you see the world.  I have had many conversations with different members of our team about the impact Rotaplast has had on their life.  Everyone person I spoke with agreed that volunteering for a mission changes your perspective on “life’s problems” and teaches you what is really important.

Losing an iPhone is not a problem.  Having a sick baby and not being able to afford the treatment is a problem.  Not being able to make enough money to feed your family is a problem.  Being shunned from society because you have a cleft lip or burn scars that cover your entire face is a problem.  My only wish for myself and the rest of the volunteers on this mission is that we are able to take the lesson learned in Nagamangala home with us and apply them to our lives.  I know that in a couple of weeks I will forget about the time I broke my iPhone but I will NEVER forget my time in India, the people I volunteered with, or the lives we touched.

Tuesday - Day 9

We arrived in India with 36 boxes, however, the contents of three of those boxes had a very special purpose on this trip – they were full of hand made quilts. Each year Rotary International quilting groups from different districts around the United States make quilts to give to the Rotaplast patients.

I can’t begin to tell you how much these quilts mean to our patients. Walking into the waiting room they all have a scared look in their eyes. They hesitantly enter the room unsure of our team or the surgery that awaits. Then a member of our team will hand them their very own handmade quilt and their whole face just lights up. Regardless of their age, both young and old, they immediately wrap themselves up in their beautiful new gift.

I really enjoy watching as one of our doctors or nurses picks out the “perfect” quilt for their patient. They dig through the box of quilts making sure they choose a quilt that matches the patients’ gender, age, and even personality. It is adorable! The quilt stays with the patient everywhere they go …. even the surgery room. It is amazing to look in on a surgery and see the quilts draped over their new owner. It is a gift that they will be able to take home and, hopefully, it will remind them of Rotaplast team and all they people who work so hard to make their surgery possible.

On behalf of our entire team I would like to thank everyone who dedicated their time to make such beautiful quilts for our patients!

Monday - Day 8

After having a fantastic day off we were all feeling refreshed and ready for another day of surgeries.  By now we are all working together like a well-oiled machine.  It has been wonderful to watch as we transform from a group of strangers at an airport into a dedicated team of volunteers who work together seamlessly.

This evening most of us were able to take a ride into town to do some much needed shopping.  We piled into “took-tooks”, just imagine a very small motorcycle taxi, and drove about a mile down a back road to get into town.  As our team split up to find the various items on their shopping list, I pulled out my camera and started snapping away at anything that caught my eye.

Within minutes I was being followed by a tiny group of children (maybe 3 or 4).  With curious little eyes they watched my every move.  Pretty soon the tiny group of children turned into twenty people.  They started asking for their photo to be taken and I happily obliged.  At first the children and adults wouldn’t smile …. they would just stare into the camera showing little emotion.  But as they warmed up to me they started smiling and even laughing.  Walking through town people were waving hello and would call me over to their cart or shop to request a photo.  It was great!

I followed our team around as they purchased soap, chocolate, fabric, cups, socks and even a volleyball.  All the items we need to make our stay here feel a little more like home.  A few members of our team went to the tailor shop and had clothing made for Thursday night’s farewell dinner.

 It was a very good day!

Sunday - Day 7

On Sunday our entire team had the day off!  We spent the day touring the countryside and visiting temples.  The first temple was about an hour away from the hospital.  The bus ride was perhaps one of the craziest bus rides I have ever been on.  First off, the cars here drive on the opposite side of the road.  I almost do a double take when I see a person sleeping in what would normally be the driver’s seat back home.  Second, the drivers here do not seem to follow any sort of traffic laws.  The lanes mean nothing and drivers try to pass each other with on coming traffic headed straight towards them.  We had a few close calls and I could tell there were moments on that bus ride that our entire team seemed to be holding on for dear life!

We had to hike up a mountain to get to the first temple - Saravan Belagln.  I want to stress the fact that it was not a large hill, it was the largest mountain in all the world (okay, maybe I exaggerated just a little but that is what it felt like as you were hiking up in the blazing sun).  Not only was the hike up intense but you had to climb the mountain barefoot for holy reasons.  You haven’t lived until you have climbed a mountain barefoot!  At one point I thought (while slightly out of breath), “Wow!  I have been climbing these stairs forever.  I must be almost to the top!”  Then I would look behind me at my progress and realize I wasn’t even half way there.

The view from the top was well worth the journey up.  You could see all of India!  I could have spent all day gazing out at the spectacular view, and not just because I was a little reluctant to hike back down in my bare feet on the slippery granite.  It was truly breath taking and made me realize just how far away I was from home.

The temple was built in honor of a saint named Gometeswara.  He was a great religious leader who guided the people of India on a spiritual journey.  In the center of the temple stood a GIANT statue of Gometeswara that had been carved out of granite.  He was easily a few hundred feet tall.  At his feet, a ceremony was taking place - people were praying, celebrating, and receiving blessing.  Some members of our team wanted to participate in the ceremony and receive a blessing too.  We found out that it would cost ten rupees to do this.  So I paid my “donation” and was blessed by the priest.  He sprinkled flowers over my head while chanting and then placed a red dot in the middle of my forehead.

Sunday marked the end of a week-long festival in India.  The celebration was in honor of the God Ganesha who symbolizes the cycle of life and death.  Often people pray to him when they are starting something new or beginning a new chapter in their life.  A clay statue of Ganesha is constructed at the beginning of the festival to symbolize birth.  The celebration concludes after a week when the clay statue is loaded up onto a cart, wheeled down to the river, and placed in the water (to symbolizes death and going back to the Earth).

They cart is beautifully decorated with flowers and bright colored fabric.  The men dance and sing as they bring the Ganesha down to the river.  Every person is covered in a brightly colored chalk like substance.  From head to toe you see men covered in fluorescent pinks, blues, and purples.  We came upon our first group celebrating in a small town.  Not knowing what to expect we all had our windows open because we wanted to take pictures.  For fun, the people in the town starting throwing the chalk like substance at our bus.  I was hit with the majority of it and was completely covered!  While it did eventually come off it I couldn’t get it off easily so I was covered in it the rest of the day.  Our entire team, including myself, had a good chuckle about it.

About thirty minutes later we came upon another group celebrating, this time in the middle of the highway.  There were so many people that we couldn't drive past them.  Our team locked the door to the bus and closed all our windows.  The crowd was insane!  The men were banging on the bus, cheering and dancing.  They wanted us to let them in but there was no way we were going to do that.  The bus driver kept trying to drive around the crowd but they would block us.  Finally, we figured out we had to pay them to let us pass.  It was a moment on this trip that had our team's pulse racing.

We then went to the second temple - Halebid.  The temple was built out of thousands upon thousands of tiny sculptures, no two sculptures are alike.  We had a wonderful guide who explained the story behind some of the sculptures.  To describe the temple as beautiful would not do it justice – it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Finally, a miracle .... our third stop we pulled up to a plush hotel and had a late lunch/early dinner!

It was fabulous.  The bathrooms were clean with warm running water and SOAP to wash our hands.  It was so funny watching everyone spend about five minutes under the running water washing our hands with the soap.  You would have thought we had died and gone to heaven.  The hotel had air conditioning and big cushy chairs to sit in while you ate.  The food was still pretty much the same as it is in the hospital but we had a very special treat .... ICE CREAM!  I noticed that our team kept going back to get seconds and even thirds of dessert.  We were happy travelers.

After we lunch we boarded the bus and headed back to the hospital.  Everyone loved that they had the opportunity to see more of India.  I think we got a good taste of the local life here.  It was a very long but wonderful day!

I posted some new photos today ....

Hi everyone!

I posted some new photos today from the last few days.  You can check them out at:

Updated Flicker Photos 

We are all doing great and I am working on a new blog to post (hopefully in the next few hours).

Enjoy the photos!!!

Saturday - Day 6

I am happy to report that we released our first patient today!  Thanushri is a six-year old girl who came to us to repair her upper lip.  She is also deaf and mute.  Thanushri has a smile that lights up the room.  She was among the first group of patients to have an operation on Wednesday.

Yesterday, I went to the Post-Op Ward to spend some time with her.  I sat on Thanushri’s bunk and colored with her for about an hour.  We brought a large supply of crayons with us to give to the children recovering from surgery.  The crayon packs have four colors: red, blue, yellow, and green.  I colored a picture of a cartoon dog, signed my name and gave it to her, it took me about eight minutes to color.  Thanushri decided to color a picture for me of a cartoon bear.  She sat on her bed, knelt over, determined to color the best picture she had ever created.  Closer and closer her little face crept towards the picture.  Her nose was running and she couldn’t stop sniffling but she wouldn’t let that hold her back.  Every five minutes she would look up at me, show me her progress, and smile.

After about thirty minutes her mother tried to take the picture away and give it to me.  Thanushri snatched the picture back from her making it fairly obvious she wasn’t finished yet.  This made me laugh!  She was coloring with such intensity and dedication that the paper started to rip a little where her crayon was rubbing it raw.  This just made Thanushri even more determined and her frustration started to show.  Her mother and I just sat there smiling and laughing.  After about an hour she had managed to color every inch of the paper.  Her mother wrote her daughter’s name on it.  With the biggest smile Thanushri handed me her heartfelt masterpiece.  I graciously accepted it!

I felt so fortunate to be one of the two team members to tell Thanushri she was well enough to go home.  It was a very proud moment for our team!  Thanushri’s picture will be a memento from this trip that will hang on my wall for a very long time.

Check out our photos at:  Flickr Photos

Friday - Day 5

A Day In The Life Of Our Team:

Today I thought I would take some time to write about our day-to-day life here in Nagamangala.

We sleep on a tiny twin mattress that is rather firm.  The best part about this situation is that the plastic the mattress came in when it was first purchased is still on.  Which means at night you can hear your every move as the plastic crinkles beneath you.  We each have one sheet to sleep on and a small blanket to cover us up at night.  The nights here are pretty warm so thankfully we do not need much else.  My sheet seems to try to run away from me at night and I wake up each morning sleeping on only the plastic covering.

Our showers are most interesting!  The  "shower" is a large bucket in the bathroom that we fill with water and then dump over ourselves.  We are fortunate enough to have hot water which takes about twenty minutes to heat up.  The trick is to fill it up with the right combination of hot and cold water, a trick which I am proud to say I have now been able to master.  At first I was a little skeptical to take my bucket shower but it is surprisingly refreshing, especially after a long day running around the hospital.  Sometimes if you are particularly lucky you will flip on the light in the bathroom and find a lizard scurrying across the wall.

Our team has started a walking club.  Each morning, at about 5am, they take an hour long walk around the town.  Typically there are about five to ten people that join the group.  The walking club concludes each walk by stopping at a “coffee shop” (a tiny shop that serves cold coffee with piping hot milk).  This has become a wonderful treat for the group.

Breakfast starts at 6am and the team usually starts to trickle in sometime between 6 and 7.  Our day at the hospital starts promptly at 7am when the fist three patients are brought to the Operating Room for surgery.

Each member of the team plays a different role on this mission.  Some team members spend the day coordinating the patients and move them from the different wards as needed.  Some non-medical volunteers work behind the scenes in the OR assisting the medical team.  We have an amazing team of doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, and an orthodontist who spend their days in the operating room treating patients.  We also, have a team of nurses in the PACU who tend to the patients after they have come out of surgery.  Our pediatricians take turns working in the operating room or tending to the patients who have already had surgery.  We even have a Medical Records Keeper, Photo Journalist (me), and our very own Recreation Therapist (who spends her days entertaining the kids).  All in all I am very impressed with our team and the amount of dedication we all have to this mission.

It has been very interesting learning how to interact with the people here.  First, I have noticed that when they are telling you "yes" they tend to shake their head in such a way that it looks like they are saying "no".  Which made communicating a little confusing on our first day here.  Back home people often greet you by asking, “How are you?” but I have noticed people here tend to ask you if you have eaten.  All day long I am stopped as I walk through the hospital – “Have you had breakfast?”, “How was lunch?”, “Did you like your dinner?”, “What did you eat?”.  The children here have a particular way that they like to shake your hand: You touch your index and pinky finger to theirs, twist your hand in a clock ways motion, touch thumbs, shake hands and then say “Friendship” at the same time.  Walking through the hospital I usually have five to ten “Friendship Handshake” requests.

Each night our team gathers at our hotel for “Happy Hour” at around 6pm.  This is our time to sit down with each other and take turns recapturing the day’s events or share stories from our lives back home.  The beer and wine are a particularly special treat at the end of a long workday.  Sounds of our laughter echo throughout the courtyard.

Often around seven-thirty Happy Hour ends, some team members decide to go back to the hospital for dinner while others choose to head to bed.  Either way we have early nights here with most people in bed asleep by 9pm.

Check out our photos here:  Flickr Photos

Thursday - Day 4

We had another long day of surgeries here in Nagamangala.  In total we had 15 successful surgeries. Yesterday I spent a good portion of the morning playing with the kids just before they were taken into the Operating Room.  The waiting room is always full of mixed emotions: hope, fear, sadness, joy, guilt, and confusion are just some of the expressions I have seen the faces of those waiting for surgery.  It is difficult to watch the kids as they separate from their parents.  Some immediately start crying and have to be pried from their mother’s arms while others put on a brave face and valiantly walk back with the doctors to the operating room (clutching their handmade quilt that is wrapped around them). The amount of courage these children have astounds me. 

It is also difficult to watch the parents after their child has been taken back into the operating room.  In general this culture seems to be very unemotional especially in front of strangers, but once their child is in the OR they tend to break down and start crying, even the fathers.  That is when I can start to feel the lump in my throat.  I usually give the parents a hug and tell them their baby will be ok. They seem to really appreciate it because as I walk through the halls of the hospital I am constantly stopped by the parents who can't stop giving me hugs or shaking my hand (giving thanks), as if I actually had something to do with their child getting better.

And on that note I am happy to report that we are local celebrities here!  Walking through the halls of the hospitals we are constantly followed by crowds of people. The first few days of our mission the people here just stared intensely at us but now as we walk around we’re stopped by people saying hello or giving us a big smile or hug in appreciation.  Some parents even practically throw their baby into our arms.

 There are three different places where they keep the patients at this hospital.

 1.  The Patient Ward - where they have over 100 families staying, waiting for their turn to have surgery.

 2.   The Pre-Op Ward - where patients and their families stay the day of their surgery and wait, typically they have about 15 families in there

 3.   The Post-Op Ward - where about 30 patients and their families stay for a few days after their surgery.  Currently, we don't have enough beds there so once a patient is strong enough we start sending them back to the Patient Ward.

The Patient Ward is a hard place to visit.  First off, because of the smell … with 100+ families staying in there you can only imagine what it smells like.  Twice a day the hospital provides the families with food.  They wheel in big tubs of rice and some sort of soup and set it up in the middle of the floor.  The families race over to the buckets to scoop up the food before it is all gone.  The young children do not wear diapers so when they go the bathroom it just falls all over the floor or on the parent that is holding them or the bed they are sitting on.  Plus, a lot of people in there are sick.

But what makes the Patient Ward particularly difficult to visit is the desperation you see in the eyes of the people there.  Every patient has been given a number.  Each night some members of our team walk around the Patient Ward letting 15 patients know they were selected for surgery the next day.  We walk up and down the ward, row after row.  As we get closer to a bunk you see the patient’s eyes start to light up thinking we have chosen them for surgery.  As we pass by them you can see the hope start to fade from their eyes.  All I tell myself as I walk through the ward is that hopefully they will be one of the ones selected for surgery tomorrow.

Today, I was asked to go to the ward to identify patients.  Amazingly it was one of the best times I have had since I’ve been here.  I brought my camera with me so I could take pictures of the ward.  We just happened to be in the ward as they brought out one of their daily meals.  So I was able to capture some of the frenzy on my camera.  We walked around to each bed identifying the patients and they all started to ask if I would take their picture.  Once I took it I would flip my camera around and show it to them.  They would have the biggest smiles on their faces and pretty soon I was swarmed with people wanting their picture too. Everyone wanted to see their baby, child, or even themselves on the camera. Then they started asking that I take the pictures with them.  So I had to get my roommate Barbara to take the pictures.  They were walking me all over the ward having me show the pictures to their families.  It was an amazing experience!

View our photos at:  Flicker Photos

Wednesday - Day 3

Today we had our first day of surgeries.  At breakfast you could sense the anticipation in the air.  By 7 a.m. our Patient Ward Coordinator and Pediatrician were in the patient ward preparing the first three patients for surgery.  Each patient was given clothes for surgery; the adults were given simple plain clothing but the children and babies, as a result of their size, were draped in gauze.   Each patient needed to walk over 500 feet to the surgery ward.  The two young patients clung to their mothers as a safe haven.  Once in the surgery ward they waited for their number to be called.

 I was fortunate enough to be one of the team members sitting in the waiting room with the patients.  Our team did their best to try and calm the fears of both the patients and their families.  Toys were handed out, games were played, and I was even able to break out my laptop and show a version of “Baby Einstein” in Hindi.  Every patient was given a handmade quilt.  It is amazing to watch as each of the doctors or nurses picked out the perfect quilt to give to their patient.  Slowly the fear in the patient’s eyes would fade and eventually we were able to get them to smile and even laugh.

Among the first group of patients was a little eight-year old girl named Harshitha.  Harshitha is here because her leg was badly burned.  In the patient ward she immediately caught my attention.  Her smile is contagious and melts your heart.  I sat with her while she was waiting for surgery.  We played games to pass the time.

 

I tapped on my chest and said “Jennifer” to let her know who I was.  She followed my lead by doing the same thing and telling me her name.  Then we would point to each other and repeat each other’s name.  The doctors came out and as they carried her back to surgery she looked back at me and waved goodbye.

After her surgery Harshitha was very frightened and she was crying her little eyes out in the PACU (Patient After Care Unit).  Her mother was able to go in and see her.  About fifteen minutes later I just happened to walk by and catch her eye.  Harshitha stopped crying.  I walked over to say hi and she lifted her tiny little hand to her chest and said “Harshitha” and then pointed to me and said “Jennifer”.  My heart melted and I had to fight back the tears.

That is a moment I will never forget.  It’s moments like the one I had with Harshitha that makes you realize the importance of our Rotaplast mission and the work we are doing here in Nagamangala. 

Tuesday - Day 2

We all woke up early excited to start our first day of clinics!  We quickly ate breakfast and started setting up the various stations in the hospital at 7am.  Within seconds, we were swarmed by a sea of people all hoping to be selected for surgery.  We had to call the guards over to help us back the crowd up so we could have enough room to set up the clinic.  An hour later we were ready to see our first patient!

 One by one the patients and their families trickled through the clinic.  Each patient first had to register and have their picture taken for identification purposes.  Once registered the patients were given a number and seen by one of the team doctors.  After their consultation and lab work the team of doctors made the final decision and selected the patients chosen for surgery.

Around noon, we were interrupted by loud drums and cheering.  The Swamiji had arrived to bless the clinic and the new CT Scan.  The Swamiji walked through the clinic blessing the babies and the children.  Then we followed the Swamiji to a ceremony in our honor.  Hundreds of people gathered to watch as each member of our team was draped in a traditional Indian shawl and lei, and presented with a gift of dried fruit.

 We didn’t have much time to spend celebrating because we still had over fifty patients to see.  So our team raced back to the clinic.  The patient’s ages ranged from a few months to 65 years old.  Most of the patients were being seen for cleft lip and/or cleft palate, however we did have a fair amount of burn victims.  At the end of a long day we had seen 98 patients and 14 were scheduled for surgery the next.  The team called it a day, some went to bed without dinner and some went into town.  Either way we all went to sleep thinking about the day ahead of us and the first round of surgeries.