The land of the Hathis

Yesterday, I touched an elephant. And by touched I mean hugged her trunk, pet her, and fed her way too much sugarcane. Her name is Maaya, shes 40, has beautiful eyes and is  incredibly sweet. I might be in love. 

For whatever reason Juila, Charles and I had the miraculous luck of running into Salim, a rickshaw driver who drove his famed "Chapatti Express" around Jaipur claiming to show some of the most original and unseen sights in the city. Boy was he right. Salim was the one who took us to the underground location of the elephants that travel all around Jaipur, either walking up to the Amber Fort or carrying newly weds around on their wedding day. I'm not really sure how he knew about this place, but I will be eternally grateful. Where can you just hang out with elephants for the afternoon, for the equivalent of $1? Only in India. 

This past week has been work filled, but I feel like my ISP is coming along nicely. I currently have 7 solid non-double spaced pages (HUGE steps for me people, HUGE) and I am taking a break from writing to update the avid readers on my ever so interesting life in India. Hopefully later this week I will have the opportunity to interview a few Rajasthani Government Officials on the current policies and schemes for disabled populations, as well as the original doctors and engineers associated with the Jaipur Foot technologies. Not a bad work week schedule if you ask me. 

I ventured outside the boundaries of the Main BMVSS Malviya Nagar site last Wednesday, and took a trip to the original location in the SMS Hospital Complex. Reference: The SMS Hospital just happens to be the largest government run hospital in all of Rajasthan, and I went over by suggestion of the Director of BMVSS, without any real directions. Recipe for true adventure. I decided to travel via auto-rickshaw (my love/hate relationship with this form of transportation continues..) and was dropped off at the front door because naturally, he had no idea where the BMVSS campus was. So, I walked into the front gates and was clearly the ONLY white person there. Also, there was literally nothing in English. Good thing I've been learning Hindi, right? I found my way to the front door and tried my best to ask for directions to the BMVSS site in Hindi. I landed in the hospital commissioners office. (why do these things always happen?!) Once given the opportunity to explain myself, the commissioner turned out to be very helpful, and was also able to give me a short interview about the hospitals relationship... and he spoke English! He directed me to what I thought was the BMVSS campus... but turned out to be the Orthopaedic OPD (Out patient department). I strolled in, and naturally, once again got many, MANY looks. Oops, wrong place, once again. I was then led to yet another wrong location, and finally made my way into the surprisingly small BMVSS section of the hospital. 

This branch of BMVSS is the one that houses all of the patients travelling to Jaipur for new limbs. I found myself smack in the middle of the living space allotted for around 80 people per day by accident when I was looking for the main office, which I soon found out was not much of an office at all. Everything that is nice about the Malviya Nagar site is what the SMS Hospital Site is lacking. There is a pretty non-existent workspace, a shared office and training area, and of course, 80 odd beds scattered throughout all of the rooms in the building, which seemed to be set up like a hostel. Needless to say, eye opening experience. 

... buuut anyways, its late, I'm procrastinating, and my paper is calling my name. More to come though, promise!