Tessa [Week 4]

Hello friends and fellow voyagers!

I am so sorry for the delay in my postings. As you know, India suffered a slight hit in the power grid, and the Hope Project has not had internet and some days power. I have been really impressed at how the staff has managed to pull together and keep the clinic and school going.  They haven’t missed a beat.

Last Friday I went to Jama Masjid, the biggest and arguably most beautiful mosque in India. I climbed to the top of the minaret with my friend Gautam in order to get a great view of the city. Get this, women and children are not allowed to go up there unaccompanied because it is so dangerous. It was one of the more precarious climbs I have made, but the view was 100% worth it. You could see the whole city: the ruins of old Delhi, the winding streets of Chandni Chowk, the forts that remind me of ancient Rome. As I looked out onto the horizon, a hand tapped me on my shoulder and I turned to see two of my students from the Hope Project, Happy and Meheboob! At best I only recognize 100 people out of the 16 million in this city, so I found it unbelievable that I saw two of these 100 on the top of the world in Delhi! Their smiles were incredible and their punk-prep 16-year-old selves made me want to squeeze them: they reminded me of my younger brother, who will be sixteen at the end of the month.

The last week was a flurry of interviews with the staff, observation in the pre-school, and shadowing doctors. I am in the constant process of constructing a Venn Diagram in my head on the similarities between resource-limited health clinics in the states and the Hope Project. Seeing patients in the waiting room here in Delhi really reminds me of watching mothers and children in the free Hope Clinic in Ypsilanti.

Happy Ramadan!

Tessa