Nandri Sankara and India!

On 08 Mar 2012, we've successfully completed our project and delivered final presentation for board members and department managers in Sanakara hospital.
We couldn't believe 1 month has gone past already...

I would like to Thank You all the staffs and Dr. Ramani for giving us a great opportunity and experience.

We learned a lot from people working in Sankara hospital, giving and kindness. People in Sankara lough and smile so much that it creates such a warm atmosphere in the hospital.
 
The memories of our time in Sankara will stay with us forever.

Nandri!!

Medical Camp

On Saturday 03 Mar 2012, we visited a medical camp held in Salem.

So, what is the medical camp?
Sankara hospital where I've been working for last 3 weeks is running a medical camp every weekend to rural area of India, proving free eye cares and consultations to locals who are unable to afford medical treatment.

Camp was set up in a temple. We took our shoes off and walked in the temple. First thing I saw was about 100 people sitting on a bench waiting.
   








Male and female had different queues. The picture on right side is a female queue waiting for a registration.

After the registration, patients are sent to vision testing. Girls wearing sky blue saree are aged between 16 and 18. They are doing internship program to be a nurse specialized for eye care.

Patient and Doctor

I was very impressed of the camp as it was well organized. All  the patients will go through Registration -> Vision Testing -> Eye Doctor -> General Fitness ->  Consultation.

Today, over 100 people visited the camp.
67 people including 1 child were identified as a surgery case.
Those people who identified as a surgery case will be sent to a Sankara hospital for free of cost and will be operated in few days time.

There was only one doctor in the camp. He was 24 years old looking after all the patients. The young  doctor was telling me, it is not a easy job but it's also been a great experience for him. He will come across very rare conditions he doesn't normally see working in a city.

 Sai Baba volunteer group was helping to set up a camp.

I met a 18 years girl from Sai Baba group. She was telling me, she grew up in Baba's school and that's how she learned speaking English. Now she wants to help as much as she can just like she was helped by the Baba's group to be able to go to a school.

She was really passionate about philosophy of Baba and wanted to give me her Baba's book which means everything to her life.

It was so nice of her but I couldn't accept the book. I know there will be other people who really need that book. I try to explain politely, hope she understood what I mean and I didn't make her feel bad.

Some of the patients are very friendly, even I couldn't speak Tamil, they wanted to talk to me.

It was another memorable day that I will never forget. Something I don't see and feel in my normal life.

Hoping for all the patients that after having a surgery, they can see the light.

3rd weekend - Trip to Kochi

We decided to explore Kerala and Kochi area over a weekend. After 5 hours of bumpy bus ride, we finally arrived in Kochi. We were all tired as it took a lot longer than we thought it would be, but, guess what? It was worse the visit!

I took a Yoga and Meditation class on Sunday morning. Healing power of Yoga is unbelievable, it was such a magic I felt so relaxed after the class. 

This is how washing gets done if you take your cloth to a cleaner. There is no machines, all the washing is done by hand.

Wow, such a large washing field! I never seen anything like this before!!

Beautiful catholic church. I was surprised that many Indians are catholic.

Colorful spices

Beach side town of Kochi

Soft textile carpets

Colorful souvenir shop

Local kids were asking me to take photos. They love seeing their picture. Very cute.

Famous river cruise of Kerala backwater.

It was just like the pictures I saw. Calm water and green trees.

Go go girls!
Australia/Japan, Colombia, Korea, USA, Philippine

Sunset mediation. Shanti~ Shanti~

It was the most relaxing and quite 2 hours we had in India. Watching beautiful sunset and I was in a deep thought about family, friends, home, past, future. Local ladies living by the river were having a bath and washing their cloth in the river. I wonder how they think of us cruising on a sight seeing boat. One thing very clear is, we are very lucky to be here.

Cherai Beach in Kochi. Warm water, hot weather, many tourists.

Mountain view from the bus on the way home to Coimbatore.

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Half way through the CSC project

It is our 3rd week in India. We've worked very hard last week and now I am confident to say we are in a good position of the project.

Despite the fact that non of us were familiar with PHP coding, we've completed developing main structure of the web system and KMS(Knowledge Management System) is up and running!


This week, we are moving on to security configurations and modification of miner modules. We will have a mid project meeting with executives from Sankara hospital on Wednesday, fingers crossed!!

Managing number of patients from villages

Villages where Sankara held a medical camp in the past

Here are some photos I took on my way to work and on my why home from work. India is a interesting place that I could never be bored just watching the traffic.　

Life is not easy in India. But, people are full of energy and living hard each day. 

Don't be surprised. Having a kid on front of the bike, having 4 passengers on a bike is normal in India.

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