Tezpur

Today we moved yet again to another hospital in Tezpur, India.  I'm still in the region known as the Northeast, and I've noticed some really interesting things.  If you look back a few blog posts, I said I was interested in seeing the differences between north and south India.  It turns out that I wasn't far enough south to notice anything large, but there are some very obvious differences between Delhi (North India) and here in the Northeast.  For example, everyone here is more laid back than the people in crowded Delhi.  There's a lot of agricultural work, since lots (and I mean tons) of tea leaves are exported from the area.  The geography's also different- take a drive out of the hospital, and within a short period of time you're traveling through jungle.   While it's not exactly the Amazon rainforest, there are large "jungly" trees, big ferns/vines/creepers, jackals, mosquitos, big spiders, the whole nine yards.  It's an interesting effect to drive through fields for rice or tea plants, and then suddenly hit the edge of the field and start driving through this jungle.  

While the tea business is the main source of revenue for this area, many of the workers on the tea farms are slaves.  Even if they are paid, it's usually a pittance that can't really be called an income.  Working long hours for exceedingly small amounts of money, the families are very poor.  Child trafficking is unfortunately a massive problem here, and the Community Health project at the hospital has really helped the area around the hospital in terms of raising awareness and stopping the widespread issue.  

The Community Health project here also works with disabled children.  It was really neat to hear the story of Ringkhar, a small boy who came to one of the project's village clinics for help.  One year ago, he was unable to use the right side of his body.  His right arm and leg hung uselessly, and his family didn't accept him.  His father was about to abandon him.  However, after working with a physical therapist for the last year, Ringkhar is now able to live a normal life.  He walks nearly two miles unassisted to school every day.  His life has been drastically changed- now he has friends, he is accepted by the community at large, and his father even accepts him as a son now (a significant step forward in Ringkhar's life).  This is just one of the neat stories that the Community Health project here has produced.  I'll tell you about another one next time!

I know this is a large hunk of text to throw at you, but this hospital is really pretty amazing in what they do in the region here in the Northeast.  There's a lot to take in, but hopefully this is interesting enough to read ;).  I'll try to put another post up tomorrow!