Half Time Zones... Who knew??? (India post #1)

Written Friday May 31^st at 650 pm Vijayawada time (920am EST)….  Half time zones… Who knew!!!

I won’t be able to upload this (or contact any family) until tomorrow as there is an electrical problem causing internet failure tonight. 

I wish I could have posted a pre-travel entry, but car trouble in Virginia limited my time. 

Arsen and I arrived safely at the NRI hospital tonight around 6pm local time.  I will highlight our travels below:

The flights were mostly uneventful.  We left Dulles on what I would consider a red eye (1130pm) and arrived in Istanbul after about a 10.5 hour flight.  With no time zones, you would expect that to mean a late morning arrival, but reality made it an afternoon one.  We really got our first tastes of new cultures sitting right in the airport in Virginia.  I would say that 90% of the passengers on our flight were foreigners returning to Turkey, other parts of Eastern Europe, or points further east.  The flight was Turkish Air, and I took the opportunity to enjoy my last taste of beef for the duration of the trip. 

The airport in Istanbul was easily the most unconventional one I had seen at that point of my journey.  Instead of docking the plane like I’ve been used to, the planes all park in a giant parking lot and passengers are transported to and from them using Turkish Ground Service vehicles.  Inside the terminal, we found a group of people just as diverse as those at Dulles.  There were Turks taking domestic flights, Americans returning home, and those like Arsen and myself who were continuing further east. 

The flight between Istanbul and New Delhi was easily the most responsible for my current jet lag.  We left Istanbul in the late afternoon or early evening.  We arrived in Delhi at 430am local time.  This equates to 7pm eastern, or roughly 1am Turkey.  You can see just from this how our biological clocks were thrown for a loop.  I don’t know how Arsen is functioning after the first two flights.  He was lucky enough to be one seat away from the crying baby on both the flight from VA to Turkey and the one from Turkey to New Delhi. 

The Delhi airport (and the Hyderabad one to a lesser extent) lulls you into a false sense of security regarding the economic situation in India.  These buildings are pristine.  They are also incredibly westernized.  I will have to take some pictures of them on the return flights.  I took the opportunity to pick up a charging cord for my Samsung tablet as I misplaced mine before the trip.  There were also western restaurants like McDonalds (no big mac???), Subway, and KFC.  Additionally, any view from either airport shows just the airfield and nothing else.  We couldn’t really see much of the surrounding town aside from the view from the sky as we made our descent.  

While in the airport at Delhi, we stumbled upon a pharmacy chain that operates in the airports.  We took the opportunity to ask the pharmacist a few questions about the profession in India and to snap a couple pictures.  Don’t judge my appearance.  It was 530am, but felt like it was late evening to me. 

Our very first “investment” with Indian Rupees occurred when a young airport official started escorting us through the airport.  He was really more of a nuisance than anything.  He had us rushing for a flight that wouldn’t leave for another 2 and a half hours.  I could tell exactly what was going to happen well before we hit security, and sure enough, he demanded a tip once we made it safely to our gate with 2 hours to spare. 

I was a hot mess in Hyderabad due to jet lag.  The first thing major thing I learned on this rotation is that 30 minutes is more than enough time to try to squeeze in a nap.  At one point I’m pretty sure a young Indian girl travelling with her family laughed at me for being so tired at 3 in the afternoon.  I was also able to get a few more minutes of rest on the flight to Vijayawada. 

Once we landed in Vijayawada, the economic reality of our area set in.  The poverty of this city of 1 million is intense.  This is evident even at the airport itself.  The building is only 2 or 3 rooms, and we were again driven from the plane to the building.  On our 40 minute drive from the airport to the hospital, we saw homes literally made out of mud.  Some only had 3 walls and the 4^th side facing the road was left open.  In another spot, garbage was piled the entire length of the block.  Most of the homes on the outskirts of town were nothing more than tin boxes.  As you moved closer to the city, the structures became much more sound, but still decrepit.  Those families that had money had beautiful gated homes.  They were mixed in with the plight though and not in separate developments as is typical in the states.  The visual was a lot like seeing the White House in a trailer park.

Scarier than the poverty is the driving.  The vehicles of choice are motorcycles, scooters, and small tricycle type vehicles with enclosures for the driver and passengers.  One scooter we passed had a family of 4 on it.  The dad was driving, his young son sat on the floor between his legs, and the mother and daughter rode behind him.  I also noticed one of the tricycle machines in which the driver sat on a Rubbermaid container!  There are little to no traffic control mechanisms on the roads around town.  I counted 2 stoplights on our entire trip through town.  There were officials placed at some intersections to maintain some semblance of order, but this was far from the norm, and they were largely ineffective.  The traffic lanes are treated more like general guidelines than a hard and fast rule.  Our driver often passed vehicles by creating a 3^rd lane in the middle.  At intersections where the police were able to stop motorists, they still went 7 or 8 wide in the 3 marked lanes.  The horn of vehicles is used less as a warning of imminent danger or to get someone/something to move as it is in the states.  It is really treated as a 4^th rearview mirror for drivers around your car.  It was really neat to see how the driver was so in tune with the horns that he could maneuver in traffic by focusing his eyes ahead constantly and not glancing at the mirrors like I always do.  The only apparent qualification to drive was the ability to make your chosen vehicle move forward.

After finally arriving at the hospital, Arsen and I were shown to our room up a couple of flights of steps from the floor level.  It is about the size of a college dormitory room with 2 twin beds.  I joked with Arsen that we may switch to night shift due to lack of sleep (it was 106 F here today and our mattresses probably won’t feel comfortable until we are ready to leave.)  Luckily the room has A/C.  This could be a blessing and a curse.  The cool air will be nice to sleep in, but it will be difficult to transfer from 72 degrees where we set the air to the 100+ degrees outside our room.

We were served dinner by a worker here named Deseretti (I probably butchered the spelling there) and his assistant Nambo (again, butchered spelling).  Dinner was an incredibly spicy chicken dish that was served over tortilla style bread. 

I can tell with our brief contact with staff members today that the language barrier may be a big obstacle during this experience.  They all speak English, but some are better than others.  The accent is also tough to decipher sometimes especially if you aren’t looking straight at them to attempt some lip reading. 

Arsen and I officially start our first rotation tomorrow (Saturday) at 830am with a tour of the facilities.  We are both looking forward to the challenges we will face over the next 4 weeks, and can’t wait to see the growth we will undoubtedly experience.  

Tom

P.S. Congrats on graduating high school to my brother Matt.  Sorry I couldn’t be there for the ceremony today.  I’ll find a way to make it up to you.