All our bags are packed

We have our backpack ready to go! Leaving for India tomorrow afternoon from newark. We were very surprised we were able to fit all of our stuff into that one bag.

Some special items we are taking
-extra passport photos: apparently passport photos function as a type of extraneous currency. In order to obtain certain items or services, such as a sim card for a phone, one needs to produce an extra passport photo. Go figure.
-lollipops: not for us, but to give to children. Big shout out to or friend mike for that idea.
-really nerdy wallets to wear around our necks: I guess it is safer, and thankfully neither of us is looking for a date because I'm sure these things would serve as a very effective repellant of the opposite sex.
-uv pen: space age technology! Wave this uv pen through your water and whamo, it kills all the bugs.
- 3 movies on the iPad: because neither of us had seen more than one movie nominated for an Oscar this year (i saw moneyball but couldn't convince moriah to go) we rented young adult, tinker tailor soldier spy and the descendants, for the 114 hour flight

We will let you know when we get to chennai safely,

Dave

Some more background on our trip

A little birdy told me that there will be some Kunkler children reading our blog, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to do some geography! (Kunklers, can you find all of the places I talk about on the map?)

India is in the southeast part of Asia, and Chennai—our port of entry-- is about 8,383 miles from New York City. 

  We will land in Chennai  and spend a few days there before the 3 hour drive to Vellore.  Both of these places are in the state of Tamil Nadu, which is in southern India. There are many differences between southern India and northern India, one of which being the language. Most people who think of Indian language think of Hindi, which is the main language other than English that is spoken in the North. However in the South, they do not speak Hindi, and this is due to the different histories of the regions. The main language in the South other than English is called Tamil (tuh-ml). This is what Tamil sounds like (and this phrase of course means “my hovercraft is full of eels”).  A lot of the sounds used in the language are hard to pronounce, so we will just have to do our best. Luckily almost everyone will speak English!

 

We will be spending most of our time in the South. Our hospital rotation lasts four weeks. In this time, we will be able to do traveling and exploring on the weekends, but will stay put for the most part. We are really looking forward to seeing some of the beautiful Hindu temples of the south, and there are some beautiful ones right in Vellore! One of the newest temples, Sripuram, is also called the “Golden temple” because its entire façade is plated in gold. This temple is semi controversial; there is some argument among Hindus that the 65 million USD it cost to build the temple could have been better used elsewhere. Makes sense, though I am looking forward to seeing it. We also hope to visit some of the surrounding cities, especially Pondicherry.  Pondicherry was a French colony, so many of the names in the town are French and French is still widely spoken. I hear there are also some lovely patisseries, which we will have to try! I have never been known to turn down a croissant. 

After our four weeks in Vellore, we will travel for two weeks. First we will fly to Delhi. This will be our only time in the North, and unfortunately we can only be there for a few days. One of our days there will be spent on a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal   (I feel like you can’t go to India and NOT see the Taj Mahal). From Delhi we will fly back South to the state of Kerala to spend some time in Kochi (as a side note, the capital of Kerala is Trivandrum, which used to be called Thiruvananthapuram. Say THAT three times fast). Kochi was a center of trade for a very long time as it is situated on the water. One of the things we are most excited about doing is spending three days on a houseboat in the backwaters 

in Kerala! We will definitely have to be good about mosquito protection while we are there. We are also looking forward to our accommodation on land, which is a small homestay in Kochi. This is sort of like a B&B, except you can also have lunch and dinner. Our hosts pride themselves on their south Indian cuisine and offer cooking classes to all their guests. I’m game!-- and will hopefully be making delicious dosa for all of you upon our return. After Kochi we will fly to the state of Goa, which is the old Portuguese colony. Now it is famous for its beaches and resorts. We will be recharging there for five days before our long journey home (and back to reality!).

 

Looking forward to sharing our adventures with you!

Moriah

T minus 2 weeks

Vanakkam, Hello! Welcome to our blog. David and I are about to set off on a 6-week journey to India where we will be studying at the Christian Medical College, Vellore (Read the CMC wikipedia article here). The hospital is one of the largest in the world and was founded by the Weill Cornell Medical College graduate, Ida Scudder. David will be doing a medicine rotation at the hospital, which will be a great opportunity for him to see how patients are cared for without the expenses we see in the US. I will be shadowing on the oncology service, which will allow me to see how cancer is treated in a developing country. There was a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding the hurdles developing countries face granting patients access to morphine and other palliative care medications ("Painful Inequities- Palliative Care in Developing Countries"). I am really interested to see how CMC deals with these problems and what role palliation plays in cancer treatment in India.

We have just over two weeks until our departure, but most of our logistical preparations are done. We managed to survive the visa process, which included scrambling together passport pictures at 5:30 am the day of our appointment, as well as our immunizations: Hep A, tetanus, polio booster and typhoid. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of a typhoid vaccine, imagine your arm being bludgeoned by a Hagrid-sized troll with a club the size of a tree trunk. It's sort of like that. Except then you get three more shots in the same arm.

We will try to update our blog as much as possible, which will depend on our internet connection as well as our ability to find creative things to say. Some posts will be medical or educational in nature, some will be about our experiences, and I am sure some will be delirious ramblings of our "Delhi belly"- infected selves.

We will post again before we leave, but in the meantime here is a short clip about the hospital and its mission: 

Cheers!

Moriah