In the hospital with Kristen

So the outreach is about over and our team is battleing with some stomach issues. Kristen, one of our students, was admitted to the hospital. She and I spent a nice 43 hours in a little hospital room. This is an entry from my journal on the first day….

 

Indian hospitals are extremely different from American hospitals. I say this as two cockroaches race across the white marble floor. My sweet Kristen is attempting to read her book with her IV still in her arm. I’m sweating and feeling a bit psycho from being confined to our hospital cell; and that’s what it feels like… a cell. Our friends came to visit, bringing us great treats. We now have a smorgasbord of rice, daal, gobi, bread, jam and an array or beverages like orange juice, apple juice, Gatorade and chilled water. All of this and  I’m not craving a single item. I have this vision of a Taco Bell burrito ple-aing through my mind. I can almost taste the ice cold sweet carbonation of a long desired fountain coca-cola on my tongue. Agh! I need to snap out of it. I think the cabin fever has gotten to my senses.

I asked the nurse if there was a TV we could watch… she just laughed, so I assume that was a no. All I wanted was to find out what the giant explosion we saw from our roof top tonight was. It was so big and so powerful that it shook our whole apartment complex. People were in a frenzy. I heard it was a chemical plant. I ventured out of our cell in attempts to find a news paper. I asked one nurse to we had been working with. She didn’t speak English so our communication was centered on a game of charades. I pretended to read a paper and threw out several paper names I knew of in Hyderabad. The nurse perked up and went into the office and came out with a paper in hand. Yes! I had successfully communicated with her! But much to my disappointment not only was the news paper a month old and ripped, it was also in the Telugu script. Hadn’t the past few hours of us not understanding each other tell her that I couldn’t speak a lick of Telugu let alone read the script? To my rescue came a sweet elderly man who had witnessed my unsuccessful attempt in getting what I wanted. He went out and bought me a paper. I was excited to actually have something to do. I’m not much of a news paper reader, but today I became a pro. I started off by reading the front page article about the giant explosion. No one was killed, praise Jesus, but two men were wounded. To my entertainment and to one of the wounded men’s embarrassment was a picture of this man laying with burns on a hospital bed in nothing but his blue underwear. Right on the front page for all the world to see. How embarrassing. I went on to read literally EVERY particle in the paper. Some stories were funny, others I had no clue what they were talking about. There was one article about 20 peacocks found dead and another that was a warning to young couples on Valentines Day to not be found displaying PDA or they will be forced to be married right on site (no lie… it’s true!). I found a soduko that I conquered in no time, too. After there was nothing else to read I had the brilliant idea to make Kristen a princess hat out of the paper. Krystal made a wand and we made Kristen the Princess of Shreyas Hospital. Three of our nurse friends came in and wanted in on the action. So we placed the crown of glory on each nurse and took endless pictures with Kristen. The doctor paged the nurses and then we were left bored, once again.

So as I conclude this journal entry… Kristen is acting loopy from all the drugs in her system and I am yearning for AC, a television and that delicious burrito that is still on my mind.