January 19, 2008 Kohlapur

We moved to our new hosts’ homes in Kohlapur this morning. My host here is Prasad Mantri for 3 days and then he has to leave town so I will be moving to another host’s home. Prasad and his family own several factories that make car parts.
I was up half of the night with a fever and chills again. Today I am feeling a little better but coughing like bronchitis. Ugh! The rest of today is a rest day until 1730 at which time the Team is going to meet and revise our presentation for tonight. There are eight Rotary Clubs in Kohlapur and we’ll be presenting to all of them at one big meeting tonight. I must say, I am really getting over my stage fright with all these presentations; especially since I’m giving a presentation to a bunch of strangers who don’t really seem interested in EMS.
Most of the ambulances here are hospital based and go out from the hospital if there is an emergency. In Belgaum, one person told me that there is the unfortunate situation in India that if an accident happens, no one from the public will stop to help because of the extreme complications of doing so. In America it is expected that you would help a person in need to the best of your ability and you are covering from lawsuit by the Good Samaritan Act. Here in India, if you stop to help, the police will question you as to why you were there, why did you stop, why did you help, and may detain you for further questioning. I almost got the impression it was semi-illegal to stop and help at a car crash. I was told that most people want to help but can’t because of this.
Last night, after our presentation, we celebrated Jennifer’s birthday. The last slide of our presentation said Happy Birthday on it and the Rotarians had made a birthday cake that was almost like an American one. She was so happy!
Update at 2330: We moved to Kolhapur and my new host seems nice. His wife and two year old daughter are away at her brother’s wedding so I won’t get to meet them.
We did our presentation for the Kolhapur RCIs and it was interesting. Every few minutes the power turned off and left us in the dark. Apparently this is a common occurrence and they do turn the power off two hours everyday. Our presentation went okay considering.
I was taken to a Rotarian doctor and diagnosed with pharyngitis. Ugh! He prescribed 5 different meds including an antibiotic, decongestant, gargle, Ibuprofin, and probiotics. I took all but the gargle so far and feel slightly better. He also prescribed two days rest. Thank goodness tomorrow is a scheduled rest day anyway. We’ll have to see about Monday.