We went to the Rotary Club of Sangli and were introduced to their Jaipur foot project. I was so moved by the experience that I started to cry. They have made over 550 prosthetic limbs for the disabled people of India including feet, legs, arms, and hands. We were witness to 4 impoverished people received their free-of-cost limbs for the first time. I gave a leg to a man and helped him to put it on and he got up and started to walk. As he walked, his gait went from jerky to a mild limp as he adjusted. It was an incredible and very emotional experience that you would have to experience to understand! The Rotary Club of Sangli is doing an enormous benefit to their people that most people in America can’t even begin to realize.
We then went to the Bharati Hospital, another teaching hospital, where Dr. Shailbala Patil (a woman who is the Medical Superintendant of the hospital) gave us a tour. She latched onto me and quickly recognized my interests in emergency medicine. She was able to answer most of the questions I had and she asked me to send her some literature on EMS in America. I finally got to see inside of two ambulances and the emergency (“casualty”) department! There basically is no EMS in this area of India. All ambulances are owned by the hospitals and are used for inter-facility transports. They are staffed by either an “attendant” for stable patients or a physician for critical patients. Most seem to be stocked with a stretcher and oxygen and perhaps very basic equipment as I carry in my first aid kit in my car. It looks bare when you look inside. We saw an ambulance like this on the road later and it had a patient, attendant or doctor, and 3 family members stuffed into the back. A Ford Expedition is bigger than these ambulances and Blairstown Ambulance Corps’ 1960 ambulance was better stocked! She also showed us their newest ambulance which was not yet in service but seemed more on the level with a typical American ambulance. It had the oxygen, suction, cabinets for a variety of medications (I didn’t have the chance to ask what but will e-mail her in the future), and proudly will have a Lifepak 12 monitor installed in it. The doctor did say that there were a few cities far away that were just starting to develop EMS systems and a 108 (911) system and she was familiar with the concepts. She expressed strongly the need for such systems in this area and seemed to really want to talk with me about it as I did but unfortunately, due to time, we will have to wait. Ray, Bill, Scott, someone…….I want to send her some really good brochures that explain American EMS, a current EMT-B text and if possible, a paramedic text as well. I’ll pay for them and the shipping!
We then went to visit Ganapati Mandir, another old temple. This one was either 250 or 400 years old, depending on whom you asked. It looked almost as old as the 11th century one we visited the other day and just as beautiful. The people are extremely proud of their temples and enjoy showing them. There are temples everywhere! Every Hindi home has a room that is a small temple, there are miniature temples along the roads and in the fields, and full sized one for every religion (but mostly Hindu and Jain) more commonly than churches in America.
Somewhere in there we had lunch and visited a grape garden (vineyard) that is famous. I did not taste the wine but it smelled okay and I put the glass to my lips and pretended to sip. I think they understood that I don’t drink since some religions here don’t drink either. Bernie drank my wine in the end. I was still floating from my morning experiences and don’t really remember much of the vineyard since it wasn’t of interest to me as much. The raw grapes were really tasty though and the vats were huge. In a nearby village, we visited a deceivingly small cool storage place that stores raisins and distributes them throughout all of India. I really didn’t like walking on the floor upstairs as it was made of wood like a grate and even though it was solid, I couldn’t look down!
We finally went back to Rotary of Sangli’s facility were they have a large outdoor pool (very unusual for here), a gym, and a running trail. There we did our presentation. I modified mine part drastically since I now have an understanding that they don’t know anything about EMS and people seemed more interested. The presentation went much better today than last time. After we were done, we watched a presentation of traditional dance that was really beautiful. I could have sat and watched all night! More dinner, at 2200, then back to Kolhapur for the night. I excused myself as it was a long day and I came straight here to type before going to bed.
I talked with my host, Prasad Mantri, about my pet-sitting business and it was an entirely new concept for him. Here there is almost always someone home and few have pets. There is the occasional purebred dog, like the Golden Retriever, Jeni, at Elizabeth’s host’s home, but otherwise pets are rare (besides fish). He kind of took to the idea but I suspect he thought it was rather lowly work to care for animals though he didn’t say so and I tried to emphasize that there is a national certification for pet-sitting and that it is a growing luxury business. He didn’t comprehend how I house-sit or farm-sit. To him, all he knows is a woman either stays home all day as a housewife which means she would have time to stay all day at someone else’s house too, or she is in a career and again wouldn’t have time. Besides, no one ever goes away and leaves a house empty of servants to do everything that needs to be done. [Servants are another topic for another day!]
We then went to the Bharati Hospital, another teaching hospital, where Dr. Shailbala Patil (a woman who is the Medical Superintendant of the hospital) gave us a tour. She latched onto me and quickly recognized my interests in emergency medicine. She was able to answer most of the questions I had and she asked me to send her some literature on EMS in America. I finally got to see inside of two ambulances and the emergency (“casualty”) department! There basically is no EMS in this area of India. All ambulances are owned by the hospitals and are used for inter-facility transports. They are staffed by either an “attendant” for stable patients or a physician for critical patients. Most seem to be stocked with a stretcher and oxygen and perhaps very basic equipment as I carry in my first aid kit in my car. It looks bare when you look inside. We saw an ambulance like this on the road later and it had a patient, attendant or doctor, and 3 family members stuffed into the back. A Ford Expedition is bigger than these ambulances and Blairstown Ambulance Corps’ 1960 ambulance was better stocked! She also showed us their newest ambulance which was not yet in service but seemed more on the level with a typical American ambulance. It had the oxygen, suction, cabinets for a variety of medications (I didn’t have the chance to ask what but will e-mail her in the future), and proudly will have a Lifepak 12 monitor installed in it. The doctor did say that there were a few cities far away that were just starting to develop EMS systems and a 108 (911) system and she was familiar with the concepts. She expressed strongly the need for such systems in this area and seemed to really want to talk with me about it as I did but unfortunately, due to time, we will have to wait. Ray, Bill, Scott, someone…….I want to send her some really good brochures that explain American EMS, a current EMT-B text and if possible, a paramedic text as well. I’ll pay for them and the shipping!
We then went to visit Ganapati Mandir, another old temple. This one was either 250 or 400 years old, depending on whom you asked. It looked almost as old as the 11th century one we visited the other day and just as beautiful. The people are extremely proud of their temples and enjoy showing them. There are temples everywhere! Every Hindi home has a room that is a small temple, there are miniature temples along the roads and in the fields, and full sized one for every religion (but mostly Hindu and Jain) more commonly than churches in America.
Somewhere in there we had lunch and visited a grape garden (vineyard) that is famous. I did not taste the wine but it smelled okay and I put the glass to my lips and pretended to sip. I think they understood that I don’t drink since some religions here don’t drink either. Bernie drank my wine in the end. I was still floating from my morning experiences and don’t really remember much of the vineyard since it wasn’t of interest to me as much. The raw grapes were really tasty though and the vats were huge. In a nearby village, we visited a deceivingly small cool storage place that stores raisins and distributes them throughout all of India. I really didn’t like walking on the floor upstairs as it was made of wood like a grate and even though it was solid, I couldn’t look down!
We finally went back to Rotary of Sangli’s facility were they have a large outdoor pool (very unusual for here), a gym, and a running trail. There we did our presentation. I modified mine part drastically since I now have an understanding that they don’t know anything about EMS and people seemed more interested. The presentation went much better today than last time. After we were done, we watched a presentation of traditional dance that was really beautiful. I could have sat and watched all night! More dinner, at 2200, then back to Kolhapur for the night. I excused myself as it was a long day and I came straight here to type before going to bed.
I talked with my host, Prasad Mantri, about my pet-sitting business and it was an entirely new concept for him. Here there is almost always someone home and few have pets. There is the occasional purebred dog, like the Golden Retriever, Jeni, at Elizabeth’s host’s home, but otherwise pets are rare (besides fish). He kind of took to the idea but I suspect he thought it was rather lowly work to care for animals though he didn’t say so and I tried to emphasize that there is a national certification for pet-sitting and that it is a growing luxury business. He didn’t comprehend how I house-sit or farm-sit. To him, all he knows is a woman either stays home all day as a housewife which means she would have time to stay all day at someone else’s house too, or she is in a career and again wouldn’t have time. Besides, no one ever goes away and leaves a house empty of servants to do everything that needs to be done. [Servants are another topic for another day!]
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