Day 1

Last night’s drive was about two and a half hours from the airport to the clinic. I arrived late at night and unfortunately missed out on the scenic drive. This is the only place in India I’ve been so far where no city lights can be seen for miles and the stars are visible at night. This is the beginning of monsoon season and a storm had hit earlier that day so the hospital and rest of the town had no electricity. I woke up this morning from a sweaty slumber and practically ran to my window to get a glimpse of Dhenkanal. Yet another beautiful side of India! (Pics coming soon... I hope!)

Breakfast is at eight o’clock and I met the other volunteers here: Allie, Susan, and Peter. They have already been here a week and have gotten to know each other, so they introduced themselves to me. They are all sophomore pre-med/pre-op students. They are friendly and tell me what work they have been doing the past week. Allie and Susan have been designing and editing brochures, flyers, and pamphlets for Kalinga Eye Hospital and Research Centre and Peter has been doing some grant writing (including one to the European Union!). I talked with the medical director yesterday, Sunil, and he gave me a tour of the clinic and told me some ideas he had for me. They are hoping I can take pictures of the new hospital, its rooms/facilities, and machines and medical equipment so that they can show these pictures to corporate companies and for grant writing. A second project they are hoping I can do during my short stay here is take pictures of the whole screening process from start to finish and turn this into a video/slideshow. Many of the patients brought in from the outreach camps (rural areas) are very fearful of the clinic (some believe the hospital is going to take their eyes) and this video will be shown to them while they wait in the lobby. This video is a great way to do this because many of the outreach patients are illiterate, so pamphlets and brochures are not helpful to them.

The power and a/c was out all day and night again, and with the previous day’s heavy rain, the mosquitoes have come to life with a vengeance. 48C (~120F?), very high humidity, and evil mosquitoes that make me understand why malaria is such a huge problem here. This is also India 

Hope the power a/c comes back soon!

Arrival in Orissa

It’s funny how some days you get a fresh new perspective on life. This was one of them.

As I was sipping chai in the Delhi airport, I reflected on my past month in India and thought about the week ahead of me. For the past four weeks I traveled all over India with a group of eleven other students and a professor from Hope College studying Indian religion and culture. I enjoyed my time with the group traveling and learning, but I have been looking forward towards this week since I arrived in India: the week I will volunteer at Kalinga Eye Hospital and Research Centre in Orissa with Unite For Sight.

I collected my luggage and was greeted by a man holding a sign “UNITE FOR SIGHT: KALLIE E. WALKER.” He smiled, introduced himself and told me we had “veddy more distance.” On the long ride to the hospital we stopped at a roadside stand and I was offered some Gulab Jamun (Indian sweet). Boy do they know how to make me feel right at home!

I knew this was the beginning of the end, my last week in India, so I sat in the backseat of the van with my eyes closed trying to soak up my surroundings with my remaining senses: the hot wind blowing in my face, the dusty air filling my lungs, the honking of rickshaws and loud drumming of Oriyan music while the van gracefully weaved in and out of traffic.

This is India.
This is India.
This is India.