[Marisa] Weeks 1 and 2

I’ve finally arrived in India! My housing troubled me a bit in my first few days as the apartment I intended on staying in for the duration of my stay in India proved to be unsafe. I have since moved to a new apartment, however I lack air conditioning and Internet in this apartment. More than the air conditioning, I am finding it extremely difficult adjusting to life without readily available Internet. I am unquestionably learning the value of many things here that are taken for granted in other parts of the world.

My first week of work consisted of meeting nearly thirty mentally ill homeless women in the shelter at Adalaikam. Unfortunate for me, none of the women understand English and only speak Tamil. One of the women kept following me around the shelter and speaking Tamil to me. With the language barrier, all I could do was smile and nod to her. Only after an hour or so, my boss translated the women’s Tamil to me and told me she was saying I remind her of an actress. This made me laugh and wish even more that I could converse with the women.

Another time when the language barrier worked against me at work was during my visit to the outpatient clinic on Thursday, when I observed the psychiatrist’s appointments for the day. I was given the opportunity of copying medicine prescriptions into each patient’s notebook and handing it over to a woman who assembled the medications for each patient. Though this was my favorite experience with my NGO so far, every patient spoke in Tamil to the doctor so I didn’t understand what the problem was. Luckily, the doctor spoke perfect English and explained everything back to me.

What surprised me most about the outpatient clinic was the system in place. First, each patient describes the problem to a social worker and only if the social worker deems it appropriate, the patient waits to see the psychiatrist. After talking with the psychiatrist, the patient must hand over a personal notebook, which serves as a dated record of the past medications prescribed to them. This is the notebook I copied the medications into and handed to the woman packaging the medications. To my surprise, each patient had a notebook when the doctor requested it! The team I am working with at my NGO visits this outpatient center every Thursday and I am really looking forward to going back in a few days.

Yesterday, I rode a motorcycle for the first time ever! However, I rode it in Indian traffic, which proved to be one of the scariest experiences of my life. The autos, buses, and three-wheelers were inches away from me! Needless to say, I was praying praise to God when I made it home safely.

Until next time!