Today Katie and I made another visit to Dehradun and went a little further into the city this time. Now that I'm about to leave, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of a few things around here. For example, today on our way to Dehradun an auto rickshaw wanted to charge us 150 rupees for a ride that I know should have cost about 10. I'm sorry, I'm white but I'm not stupid.
I found a bank that would cash my traveler's checks (that was way more of a hassle than I expected it to be), then found a nice restaurant for lunch. Still, even a nice restaurant only ended up costing us the equivalent of about $7 each. It was just refreshing to have something besides rice, dal, and roti.
After lunch, we found a McDonald's and just had to check it out. If you had told me that we live in a world where there exists a McDonald's that doesn't serve hamburgers I might not have believed you before today. Not a single hamburger on the entire menu. Their "Big Mac" is called a "McVeggie," and it's a veggie burger. I'm not making this up. There was also something called a "Veggie Surprise," but I had no desire to discover what the surprise is. Since we weren't feeling adventurous enough to try anything else on the menu, we each just got an ice cream cone and I can thankfully say that it tasted just like home.
We did a little more shopping, browsed the bazaar for a while, and headed back to Herbertpur. Public transportation in India is always an adventure. To get to Dehradun from Herbertpur, you have to first take a bus for about an hour, then a vikram for about half an hour. A vikram is similar to an auto rickshaw in that it only has 3 wheels and no door on one side, but it's a little bit bigger and functions more like a bus than a taxi, having a specified route it travels and people jumping on and off. A vikram really seats 6 people, but 8 and sometimes 9 are routinely crammed in. I was the 8th person to squeeze into our vikram today, 9th if you count the child on her mother's lap, and I had to sit sideways and hang an arm out the window to fit. The buses are equally crowded. At one point the bus was so full that there was one person hanging out the open door, holding on only through an open window. Fortunately, there were always a couple of gentlemen around to offer us their seats so we never had to stand too long. We always attract conversation on the buses, people asking where we're from, what we're doing here, wanting to practice their English. I tell all kinds of lies like "yes, I've been here quite a while... yes, my husband's here, too... yes, Katie's also married... My last name? Simpson..." I'm sure no one means any harm, but you never know. The high school kids are always the most fun because they seem to be the most unashamedly fascinated and enthralled by us. One girl told me today that I look like Maria Sharapova. I don't know, we're both white and blonde...?
Tomorrow will be my last day in the hospital. I'll work through the morning, then I'll leave for the train station in Dehradun at about 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. I have so many mixed feelings about leaving. On the one hand, I can't wait to get home and see Ryan, and take hot showers and sleep in my own comfortable bed and eat my normal food. But on the other hand I feel like it's too soon to leave. I just got here and I feel like I haven't done enough yet, haven't really made a difference yet. There's so much need here, not only among the people we treat but also within the hospital itself; the doctors being so overworked, the facilities being so limited, so underfunded. I feel like there's so much left to do. I really hope that I was able to be of some help.
As tonight is my last night in the hospital, it will be my last blog post before I return home. I'll arrive in Delhi late Tuesday night, then spend Wednesday on a trip to the Taj Mahal, then head to the airport late Wednesday night. Once I get home I'll post my final adventures and reflections and finally upload some pictures. Thank you so much for your prayers for my safe return. I'll see you Stateside...
I found a bank that would cash my traveler's checks (that was way more of a hassle than I expected it to be), then found a nice restaurant for lunch. Still, even a nice restaurant only ended up costing us the equivalent of about $7 each. It was just refreshing to have something besides rice, dal, and roti.
After lunch, we found a McDonald's and just had to check it out. If you had told me that we live in a world where there exists a McDonald's that doesn't serve hamburgers I might not have believed you before today. Not a single hamburger on the entire menu. Their "Big Mac" is called a "McVeggie," and it's a veggie burger. I'm not making this up. There was also something called a "Veggie Surprise," but I had no desire to discover what the surprise is. Since we weren't feeling adventurous enough to try anything else on the menu, we each just got an ice cream cone and I can thankfully say that it tasted just like home.
We did a little more shopping, browsed the bazaar for a while, and headed back to Herbertpur. Public transportation in India is always an adventure. To get to Dehradun from Herbertpur, you have to first take a bus for about an hour, then a vikram for about half an hour. A vikram is similar to an auto rickshaw in that it only has 3 wheels and no door on one side, but it's a little bit bigger and functions more like a bus than a taxi, having a specified route it travels and people jumping on and off. A vikram really seats 6 people, but 8 and sometimes 9 are routinely crammed in. I was the 8th person to squeeze into our vikram today, 9th if you count the child on her mother's lap, and I had to sit sideways and hang an arm out the window to fit. The buses are equally crowded. At one point the bus was so full that there was one person hanging out the open door, holding on only through an open window. Fortunately, there were always a couple of gentlemen around to offer us their seats so we never had to stand too long. We always attract conversation on the buses, people asking where we're from, what we're doing here, wanting to practice their English. I tell all kinds of lies like "yes, I've been here quite a while... yes, my husband's here, too... yes, Katie's also married... My last name? Simpson..." I'm sure no one means any harm, but you never know. The high school kids are always the most fun because they seem to be the most unashamedly fascinated and enthralled by us. One girl told me today that I look like Maria Sharapova. I don't know, we're both white and blonde...?
Tomorrow will be my last day in the hospital. I'll work through the morning, then I'll leave for the train station in Dehradun at about 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. I have so many mixed feelings about leaving. On the one hand, I can't wait to get home and see Ryan, and take hot showers and sleep in my own comfortable bed and eat my normal food. But on the other hand I feel like it's too soon to leave. I just got here and I feel like I haven't done enough yet, haven't really made a difference yet. There's so much need here, not only among the people we treat but also within the hospital itself; the doctors being so overworked, the facilities being so limited, so underfunded. I feel like there's so much left to do. I really hope that I was able to be of some help.
As tonight is my last night in the hospital, it will be my last blog post before I return home. I'll arrive in Delhi late Tuesday night, then spend Wednesday on a trip to the Taj Mahal, then head to the airport late Wednesday night. Once I get home I'll post my final adventures and reflections and finally upload some pictures. Thank you so much for your prayers for my safe return. I'll see you Stateside...
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