Hello, Mrs. Salisbury's Classes!

I am sorry that I have not gotten around to doing a post dedicated to you before now.  I am leaving Vellore (the town that I have been staying at) tonight to travel to Delhi for a few days before coming home.  I wanted to do a quick post to you while still in India, and I promise to do a better post next week!  I am leaving for the airport soon, but for now I thought that I would mention the weather in India.  (I hear that you have gotten lots of snow days while I have been out of the country!)

It is currently winter in India, just like in Kansas.  However, India's winter is very different!  Just like at home people are complaining about how cold it gets in the winter.  Right now it gets up to 90 degrees during the day, but people are wearing earmuffs in the morning because the temperatures are in the 70s!  I have told them how cold Kansas gets, and they can't believe it!  Most of the people here have never seen snow, and some did not even know what it was when I talked about it.

People here have also told me that in the summer temperatures get up to 120 degrees!  I'm just glad that I came in the winter!

My Room

I keep forgetting to post the (much earlier) promised pictures of my room!

My bed is on the right.

We each have a closet and desk.

Half of the bathroom

Another view of the bathroom

The shower

Notice that the shower curtain hangs a good 8 inches from the ground, and there is a bucket available for bucket showers.  It's also a good idea to keep the bucket full since we sometimes run out of water.       

The water heater has to be turned on 10 minutes before you shower if you want hot water.

CMC towel

These monkeys are on the ramp to our building.

And some more of their friends are playing across the street.

Last Days in the Gymnasium

January 13


I continued to work with the little girls lacking ankle motion after necrotizing fasciitis, and her ROM (range of motion) is AWFUL!!!  She probably only has 10-15 degrees of motion at the ankle (plantar and dorsiflexion combined).  Even so, it seems like it's maybe moving a little bit better than it was when I met her earlier is the week, and she's working really hard to get back to walking normally. The sole of her foot has really become overly sensitive, so we've been working on desensitization along with her exercises.  She's really sensitive, and would pull away any time that I touched her foot at all.  Eventually I was able to get her to sit still, and even though she didn't say anything her face showed that she was in a lot of pain when I was working on the sole of her foot.  While there's no doubt in my mind that her pain is real, there is a huge psychological component to it as well.  When I was doing scar massage on her leg she didn't even notice that my forearm was touching the sole of her foot at the same time!  When I pointed this out to her she just smiled.

The PMR Building where the gymnasium is located

It was Lucky's last night in town, so a group of the students went to a restaurant in town called Surabi.  It ended up being a pretty small group because plans weren't announced until late, but it was still a really pleasant evening.

Clockwise from bottom left: Lucky, me, Yukio, Tim, Andy, and Devaki

January 14


This was my last day in the gymnasium.  I got to work with the same little girl lack ankle motion, and I have to say I'm a little sad that I won't get to work with her anymore and see her progress.  I am glad for a change in scenery though, since most of my time is just spent watching.

Over my lunch break I ran into Carli and Megan, and they took me up to the roof of the Asha Building on campus.  There's a really nice roof garden up on the roof with a small food stand.  There's also a great view of Vellore.

On top of the Asha Building

Another rooftop shot

Vellore

We had a mellow night at the hostel because we were leaving for Pondicherry and 6:00 in the morning the next day!