ASSA - The First 5 Days

On Monday, June 25, we officially arrived at ASSA.  We packed a lot into the first 5 days, including, for most of us, our first bouts of Indian food poisoning.  They call it 'Delhi belly', although Delhi is now a world away from us.  Tamil Nadu was literally a blast of fresh air from the second we stepped off the plane at Madurai.  The breezes were a cool relief from the heat of Delhi, and palm trees in the distance hinted that we had arrived in the tropical south.  

Ram, a physiotherapist at ASSA, was nice enough to pick us up at the airport in Madurai, a 3-hour drive each way.  This was my first sight of rural India and it was a different experience from the city, although still busy and with equally aggressive traffic.   On

Tuesday, we were given our welcoming tour of the ASSA grounds, and were very impressed with the diversity of facilities offered to the disabled here.  There is a medical treatment unit for spinal cord patients, a home for children with developmental issues, an integrated school at which these children participate with other kids from the community, a vocational training centre, and early intervention program.  We were also impressed by the workshop in which calipers are fashioned for residents.  Clearly ASSA, which thrives entirely on donor money, has built something special out of the resources they have.

We met some kids from the school and were swarmed immediately.  I literally had a boy on each arm and one crawling up my torso.  These kids want little more than to trade a few words in English and maybe a photo, and they are ecstatic.  We are also lucky to have Brooke and Andrea here, a couple of physiotherapy students from UBC who are showing us the ropes so that we can learn a lot of things the easy way.  We're all very excited to be spending the next few weeks here.

Delhi Meet

How many official government tourist offices are there in Delhi?  We now know there are about 15 fake official government tourist offices, at least that is how many we saw, and one real one.  Often they are tucked beside shops with signs proclaiming "Money changers - Full fledged!" and offering alternatives to the tours we request.  Sometimes you have to step over piles of scaffold pipe and street dogs to enter them.  How do we know this?  On Saturday night, after two 8-hour flights, the IHI team of 2013 landed in Delhi!

We immediately embarked on what was the most alarming car ride of my life.  Courtney, Sonika, and Jenn, having travelled through big, developing-world cities, were less phased by the honking deluge of vehicles cramming into some of the world's most competitive streets, careening through markets within inches of pedestrians, sometimes cows, and motorcyclists carrying entire families complete with sari'd women and newborn babies.  The quirks of driving in Delhi could easily fill an entire blog post, but that wouldn't leave room for 36-degree night-time temperatures, ancient temples, or market haggling.

Nor would it leave room for scam artists.  On Sunday morning, there were very few tourists in Connaught Place, the commercial heart of Delhi.  That made us conspicuous targets of smooth-talking scammers who attempted to appear helpful as they tried to direct us to various tourist scams that they were connected to.  Eventually, we got our bearings (after our first Indian pit-stop….Starbucks) and found the Hop On Hop Off tour bus, which took us to some of Delhi's historic forts and temples.  Having survived the 40 degree heat, adjusted to the hyper-pace of India, and even practiced a little bit of market haggling for jewelry and souvenirs, we boarded a plane for the cooler, breezier airs of Tamil Nadu…

More than $7000!

That is how much money was raised for the India Health Initiative through Evening in India on Friday!  We’d like to thank everyone who came out for our event.  The performers and the audience both brought enormous energy to the show.  Some of us still have the music echoing in our heads, and the joy that the dancers ignited for us.

The money we raised will go towards the 3 NGO’s we visit, and covering the vital expenses that make this trip possible for us.  Thank you again to everyone for their support. 

A special thanks is due to those people who volunteered the time to make the show possible, including our decorators, ticket sellers, food vendors, and stagehands.  Also, to everyone who put in countless hours of preparation to make this event possible, including Dr. Bhooma Bhayana, Dr. Chitra Prasad, and Dr. Bo Venkatesan.

This year's Evening in India is scheduled for Friday, April 5, 2013!  Email indiahealth@gmail.com or call Jenn at 226-980-8806 to reserve tickets.

Introducing the 2013 Team

We are an interdisciplinary team of Western University healthcare students, who will be travelling to three sites in India in the summer of 2013 to share our knowledge and the financial assistance made possible by our donors at home.  

We are, clockwise from left:  Randy is a first year occupational therapy student, Sonika is a second-year medical student, Courtney and Jen are in the final year of the nursing program, and Jody is a first year occupational therapy student.  

We are very excited to meet the people who run and live at the NGO sites in India.  We are grateful to the IHI 2012 team who made this possible for us, and set a great example of how to make a program like this work.   We will be posting regular updates about our travels here.  Stay tuned