the glory and the horror

We’ve had the last week essentially off, and it’s been both a blessing and a curse. We spent the first few days in a nice hotel, right in the thick of downtown Bangalore, and it was a wonderful few days. The service was great, and it was a lot of fun to explore downtown. We did a lot of walking, and while the weather was mostly cooperative, I really didn’t realize that we would be putting ourselves at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning by walking everywhere. The exhaust fumes are as thick as the surgery texts on the bookshelves here in the hospital library. Only when the rain beats down the particulate matter do the streets not smell like the inside of an old repair shop with the doors and windows closed.

We have discovered many good restaurants (including one fantastic Chinese restaurant, one great steak place, and a stellar north Indian joint), and several not-so-good restaurants. We’ve found a couple Baskin-Robbins, but no McDonald’s yet (thank goodness). We’ve been harrassed by beggar kids, cheated by auto-rickshaw drivers, learned how to deal with both, bought several more books to read, went to see the palace in Mysore (which is amazing!), saw white tigers in the Mysore zoo, listened to some great trauma lectures, most of which were given my one of our own professors from back in the US, intubated mannequins of several sizes, and performed FASTs on volunteers.

That last bit was very cool, because it helped slide us into our rotation. There was an elementary “trauma” workshop put on by one of our professors here in India, and she taught basic trauma prinicples (ABCDE, basic burn management, etc.), FAST techniques, along with ventilation and intubation practice. It was brand new to many of the residents here in Bangalore, but it was a good review, with opportunities to practice unlike anything we probably could have gotten in the states for $2.50.

Our GI systems have also had a little bit of a rough time adjusting lately, and I’ll spare you the details. However, I mention this because we were doing so well before we got to Bangalore, and then one day, it just went downhill. We were hoping we would be able to prove our Indian friends wrong, since they warned us, but I guess our forays into the local cuisine (nice restaurants, mind you, and not street-side stands or anything truly adventurous like that) have made an impact. Not exactly the best for medical students, and definitely not so great for standing in the OR (or the OT, operating theatre, as it is known here).

We have had quite the day. First, we started off with church at Bangalore Bible Church, where I was asked to pray in the middle of the service for several parts of the church’s ministry. We ate Chinese food for lunch, were hounded by some beggars, got some Indian clothes for Kathleen, had steaks for dinner, watched the Fantastic Four in an Indian theater, which was a cultural experience in and of itself, and ran into a guy who works in a Microsoft call center.

And for the record, it’s midnight local time here.

CNN.com – Vanderbilt dropping court fight over dorm name – Jul 12, 2005

So here’s something I’ve always wondered, especially about the South and the Confederacy.

First off, I don’t buy the argument that the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression was about states’ rights, at least not in any broad sense. If anything, it was about a single right. I’m not a historian, but it seems to be that the war was about the Southern states’ right to continue a system of slavery based entirely on racist grounds.

As such, why is it good to honor people who died to protect the right to continue a blatant sin?

Although I’m sure most of my regular readers already know this, I’d like to post this for everyone’s edification, as I still get forwards about Dr. James Dobson and petition 2493, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and so on.

Before you forward any email that asks you to sign some petition, and then forward it, even if it sounds like a good cause, or just something easy to get something free out of it (a trip to Disneyland from Micro$oft? Seriously!), please please PLEASE check it out first.

How, you ask?

Well, my best on-line friend, Google, is an irreplaceable resource. Just type in a couple keywords from the email, like Dobson, petition 2493, and hoax, and you’re bound to come up with some good hits, especially if it actually IS a hoax. Look for hits from snopes.com or urbanlegends.about.com. Look for other hits that may also be reputable, such as the American Cancer Society trying to tell people that forwarding emails doesn’t help them raise money.

Anyway, just trying to do my bit to increase awareness and educate blog readers everywhere. Since I’m sure I get tens of thousands of hits a day here.

On a much happier note, I am now in Wyoming at my in-laws’ place (how weird is it to say that!) to visit. My parents and sister were also here, and they just took off for the Grand Tetons. I am very jealous, but we’re headed back to Dallas tomorrow, and then off to India for our big trip on Friday. We’re very excited, but there’s much to be done. I’m slowly working on my residency application, and I’m hoping to get as much done as possible before we leave the country. You can be praying for that, if only because we’ll be busy, and may not have as regular internet access as we do back in the States.

Updated, just for Avery’s sake.

We’ve been running around quite busily the last few days. It will continue throughout today as well. Many errands to be run.

The deep south of Texas, that is. We’re almost as far south as geographically possible for the continental 48. I’m posting this from South Padre Island, where we’re spending the 4th of July weekend for a friend’s wedding and our 6 month anniversary. It’s been a wonderful 6 months being married to the most wonderful Kathleen. I’ve learned a lot about myself and her that I don’t think I was aware of beforehand.

The weather has been great, although a little windy. It destroyed a friend’s beach umbrella today. It also blew a lot of sand into various bags, towels, etc. The wedding was a small beach wedding, with wonderful latin music and salsa dancing afterwards for hours. Our friends are Cuban and Mexican, and their families really know how to throw a party with lots of great music, food, and dancing. The entire ceremony was in spanish, and officiated by another friend of ours, which was a little unusual. It was one of those experiences that I may not have the opportunity to repeat, kinda like Onnie’s wedding several years ago. Another type of Southern experience.

We’ve been listening to a Da Vinci Code-esque book on tape (we picked it up for the drive down), The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. It’s actually quite a fun mystery/suspense story about a rare Renaissance book, and the secrets contained therein. This could be a pretty good escape fiction piece if anyone is looking for anything.

I can hear the fireworks outside. I guess people figure it’s after midnight, so it must be ok to set them off.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July, and I hope churches remember that we are citizens of heaven, first and foremost.