we woke up in the nursing home insanely early to start this ridiculously long day of clinic. at this point the lack of sleep was really paying a toll on all of us, but we tried to find some strength within to make it through the day. we woke up, got ready, packed our bags (except for a set of clothes that we could change into before leaving the nursing home to the train station), then began bringing all our supplies and luggage downstairs to set up for clinic. We had a delicious breakfast of upma and idlis and then we prepared to see the massive crowds we were expecting that day. The plan was that we would first evaluate and asses the residents of the nursing home in the morning, with emphasis on making sure they had good community health education before opening up clinic to the residents of nearby villages. As I was loading some things into the elevator, one old man got on with me, so I smiled and said “namaskaram andi”  to him. He immediately was caught off guard and said “Telugu pilla? Nee peru enti Amma?” (You’re a Telugu girl? What’s your name?). I told him and he asked where my parents came from. I responded  “Bheemvaram deggara, Sarepalle ani..” (my family is from the small village Sarepalle near Bheemvaram). He smiled at me and by that point we had come down to the lobby so he went on his way, and I went on mine.

We officially started clinic by doing a prayer to Ganesha (the remover of all obstacles) then began evaluating the residents of the nursing home. I was working with Colleen that morning, and we began doing vitals and getting signatures from all of the residents. These old people were so adorable, and I even ran into my good friend that I made in the elevator that morning (he recognized me and said “oh nuvva, Bheemvaram pilla” [oh you’re the girl from Bheemvaram]). We got vitals from everyone and then we made it to our last resident. She was in her late 60s and hand a stroke that paralyzed the entire right side of her body. It took us quite a long time to understand what she was trying to convey to us and why she was so emotional but hearing her story and seeing her cry broke my heart. Her husband died and ever since then, she’s been scared of her paralysis. She had seen doctors for it in the past and was hoping that these foreign doctors who came would be able to do something for her the India doctors couldn’t; like most of the people we saw they were hoping we could cure them of all their suffering. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that but I sat with her for a long time and talked to her. Because of her stroke, she had a lot of weakness in her muscles. She was eating properly and was exercising regularly which were all wonderful but she was scared that she was going to fall all the time because of the shakiness she felt in her limbs after long periods of physical activity. We had to reassure her that that shakiness would take time to go away as she built more muscle back on the side of her body that the stroke affected. She was very perceptive to all the things we said and we even showed her some stretches that could help her get more muscle strength. She was so appreciative of us, that we took the time to sit with her and hear her story. It was the first time on the trip that I felt like I had actually made a difference in someone’s life, and that was such a gratifying and humbling experience for me. I loved looking over to the community education area of our set up, because a few of our staff, along with a physiotherapist were teaching the residents some exercises to increase their range of motion. It was probably one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Old people warm my soul just as much as babies do, and you could see on their faces how excited they were and proud of themselves for doing the exercises. It was really amazing. Overall though, the residents of the nursing home were in great health. They were taking their medications for diabetes and blood pressure regularly, and did not really require much of our assistance.

After we successfully saw all the residents of the home, we started to open up the clinic to the residents of nearby villages. People were coming from all over the place, walking kilometers to see us. I was stationed in triage with Jenn, helping to translate and take vitals for patients. It was a cool experience and definitely more hands on than what I had been doing in the past. The students of the DSN were so outstanding in how efficient they were in making sure all the patients are being seen in a systematic way. But more than that, it was so inspiring to observe that even despite being exhausted, jet lagged, hungry, and dehydrated, the greet every patient with folded hands and a smile on their faces. These small gestures made a massive impact on the way the the local people received us and it was evident that it made them feel more comfortable with us to tell us what was bothering them. The team members working in community health were rockstars in keeping tour patients engaged in what we they were trying to communicate and it was evident that the villagers were really learning a lot from the presentations. After the patients got their vital signs checked and went through our triage, they were then sent inside the old age home to see providers based on their needs.  I was translating for a few hours and then I had to go change my clothes unexpectedly. Amy didn’t have any extra scrubs so I ended up having to change into the clothes I set out for the train ride; a bright yellow kurtha top and leggings (with a bottu of course). Aside from the structured process of how patients were being seen, we had some team members providing reading glasses to patients.  James, Ridhi, Alyssa and many others collaborated to provide more than 50 pairs of glasses today.   At every clinic so far, the glasses station has been one of the more difficult stations to run because of the sheer volume of people wanting them, not to mention they all were demanding our attention constantly. Alyssa was such a champion dealing with the whole situation. Despite the language barrier, she was able to get patients the glasses they needed, all with a beautiful smile on her face. But as soon as I came back downstairs, everyone was staring at me (of course the last thing I wanted to do was draw MORE attention to myself). I was about to head back outside when I heard Alyssa call me. The poor girl was working at glasses and needed a translator desperately. I guess a few of the older residents who thought they could speak some English were trying to help her and they were doing more harm than good. So I walked over there and my Thathagaru (grandfather) friend from the elevator that morning was standing there. He smiled at me and again said “oh nuvva?” (oh it’s you?) and smiled. When the other Thathagarus realized that I could speak Telugu, they began to interview me with the same questions; What’s your name? Where are you from? What are you studying? Where are your parents from?

Now some back story really quickly. So recently, the state of Andhra Pradesh split into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. People from Telangana are super proud to be Telangana and people from Andhra are super proud to be Andhra. My family is from Andhra and I really didn’t think other people cared too much which state you came from until this particular day on the mission. But when these Thathagaru’s asked me where I was from and I said “near Bheemvaram” they were like “we knew you were from the Godavari distracts by your accent” (even though I grew up in the States). They proceeded to call me their “Andhra manavaraalu” (Andhra granddaughter) the rest of the day and told all their residents friends that I was “mana pilla” (our girl). They bragged on my behalf to some of our team members, saying that I was wearing traditional Indian clothes and that I looked beautiful in them. It made me so happy to hear how proud they were to have me there. When I went to eat lunch, I literally stuffed my face with rice, because it tasted a lot like the food Amma and my Ammamma made. I enjoyed eating with Sudha Aunty and Sai, because we had some great conversations about life experiences which was nice.

We saw a lot of people that day, mostly people coming to get things double checked when they heard foreign doctors were coming. Probably one of the most unique cases I saw was a woman came in limping complaining of foot pain. When we evaluated her and saw her foot, we realized it was extremely swollen. I asked her what happened and she said that while she was working a few months ago, she dropped a boulder on her foot and ever since then it’s been hurting. She had to stop working because she couldn’t move anymore. We ended up taking her over to the sick care providers who said it was definitely broken, but since it happened a few months ago, there was not much they could do for her. They gave her some pain medication and then decided to splint her foot only because we were limited with our supplies, our team used a cardboard box and medical tape to splint her foot. The sad thing was though, was that her husband who brought her to our clinic ditched her and so she had to walk on that injured foot the 3-4 kilometers back to her home. Our outstanding dental team was nothing sort of incredible with how much care they were able to provide given the limited resources we had in the field. We saw about 200 patients that day.

And finally after an insane work day, clinic came to a close. We saw a lot of patients, and got to help a lot of people which was really nice. I also almost lost my phone (a volunteer saw it on a table, figured it was one of our members’, and gave it to Amy. When I went to check the time, it was gone and I had a mini panic attack. Luckily I was able to get it back from Amy no harm done). As we were packing up, my Thathagaru friend from the elevator that morning came over to me with a small container holding pieces of jamakai (guava) that he said he offered to God in the morning. He immediately came over to me and offered me some but I had suitcases in both of my hands. I was a little apprehensive to take because while in India I knew he was offering because he saw me like a granddaughter, in the States they always say not to take anything from patients. So I refused at first (in India when someone elder offers something, you do not say no, and you definitely do not waste). But he was so adamant he told me to open my mouth and he put one piece in my mouth. This happened like 3 or 4 times. I HATE jamakai but it made him so happy so I sucked it up and ate. We finished with some random press conferences, our closing prayer, a facilitation ceremony where the owners of the old age home honored some of our members, and then we did something cool. The nursing students and their teachers were concerned with how the nurses of the old age home were taking and recording blood pressure so they did a mini workshop on it just to make sure they were doing it right. It was fun for me because I got to double as a translator and the subject they were testing the blood pressure on (they were concerned with how high my blood pressure was but that’s not really a big deal).

Probably my favorite part of the day though was as we were waiting to load our bus with our stuff. We were waiting out on the driveway and my Thathagaru friends (they literally followed us everywhere it was adorable) came out to join us. We were casually talking when they asked what our plans were. I said we were going on the train and planning to show our team members some Indian songs. Then one of the Thathagarus said “Tali, valuki paatha paatalu vinipinchu ave baaguntai” (make them listen to old telugu songs, those are what are good). I know it’s super rare for someone my age to know those songs but I grew up on them also so I told them that. They were shocked and another Thatagaru started talking about how the songs in Maya Bazaar were the best and proceeded to sing Laahiri Laahirilo. A problem I have is once I hear a song I know, without realizing it, I’ll start singing along with them. This happened with me and somehow before I could realize it, me and these 7-8 Thathagaru’s were singing Laahiri Laahirilo together on the driveway. Everyone was staring at us but it was a moment of such bliss I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. By that point, all of our suitcases had been loaded onto the bus so as I bid them all farewell they said “you’ll always be our Andhra manavaralu, we’ll never forget about you. God bless you tali! Wishing you all a Merry X-mas and a very happy new year!” It was sooooooooo cute.

We left the nursing home and on our way to the train station to get to Puttaparthi, we drove by the historical and beautiful Charminar fort. In order to get there we went through a bazaar where we got to see street vendors selling beautiful saris, bangles, and jewelry. Then we made the trek through all the traffic to the train station where we took the overnight train to the small village.When we got there, we all hung out in this coffee shop for an hour or so while we waited for our pizza. We sat, laughed, had desserts, and we started doing statistics of the types of patients we had seen over the course of the three days of clinic we had finished to that point. Eventually it was time for us to get on the train. While conversing in the overnight train, a few of us shared a compartment with the most interesting man. He started setting his bunk using his feet and had a pretty unique laugh that filled the compartment and made us giggle. Everyone on this team has gone above and beyond what was required in order to be the best team we can be. They are all so selfless and caring and despite most of us only meeting a few days ago, we have become extremely close and comfortable with each other. It’s so clear that each and every member of the team is serving on this trip for the right reasons; not for advances in their careers or to write something down on their resume, but because they genuinely want give back to others and it’s something so beautiful to observe. Ridhi, Rohan, Sai, and I ended up staying up super late talking and giggling about all sorts of things, I was really thankful that I was able to mesh with them so well. I ended up passing out around 2 in the morning out of pure exhaustion but that was okay because we had to get up super early the next morning to get off the train at the right stop.