Hello,
Just got back from my first day at school. We started shadowing the teachers whose classes we will be taking over. Instead of calling them grades, they call them classes (class 4 = 4th grade) and each grade is split into two sections, A and B. The children are placed in their section in class 3, and stay with them up through class 8. They also stay in the same class all day, and the teachers rotate instead. I’ll be teaching Class 4A Science, Class 4B Science and English, Class 7 A/B Populations and Environments, and Class 6A Library. I’ve got a pretty nice schedule with plenty of time for planning. The kids were all great, just like they were that first day we visited a few weeks ago. I’ll be spending most of my time with Class 4B, and they seem like a great bunch of kids. There are about 45 in each class, and today they asked me questions so they could get to know me. They’re all so respectful and polite, and they say Sir every five seconds. By Friday I should start fading in as their full time teacher. I’m looking forward to it, but it’s definitely going to be a different pace which I need to get used to, since these past three weeks have pretty much been void of responsibility and have been more touristy/vacation like as opposed to feeling like we’re working. The routine of everything will be a nice change though, and it will be challenging, but nice to finally get in the class.
So the surgery went well. Weird to say, but I actually had a good time. I checked myself in at around 8:40 last Tuesday, and was given a room in the far corner of the hospital. They gave me new clothes to wear, and it was basically a long skirt and a blouse looking thing. What a sight! My room had a great view, looking down on houses, rice fields, and the hills far off in the distance. The clouds were covering the Himalayas, so that was a little disappointing. A while later a man came in to shave my leg from mid-thigh to mid-calf, all the way around. That was weird, and the hair doesn’t seem to be growing back that fast, so my legs will probably be two toned for a while. After that, all the doctors and some students came in after that to meet me and tell me we were going to get started soon. Dr. Banskota, the doctor who would be performing the surgery (apparently he’s Asia renowned) saw my video camera sitting next to me and asked me what I was going to do with that, and I told him I was going to film the surgery from my vantage point. He seemed to think that was pretty weird, but then said alright.
I was wheeled into the operating section of the hospital, and it was pretty impressive. It all felt very clean and modern, and didn’t seem too much different than an American hospital. But then I realized I’d never been operated on in the states, so my comparison really meant nothing. After waiting a while an anesthesiologist came in and injected some juice in my spine, and after a while everything below my belly button was warm, and then numb. They put up a little shield mid chest so I couldn’t see what they were doing, and at one point I was thinking how my legs weren’t numb yet and how I hoped they don’t start anything yet cause I’d still feel it. Then I looked up and saw my leg sticking straight up and resting on someone’s shoulder. I guess I was ready.
They then shaved my left forearm, a few inches up from my wrist, and stuck in IV in it. So I was basically lying on this operating table in a crucified sort of position, tubes coming out of my left arm, camera wrapped around my right hand, and everything below totally useless.
When all the doctors came in sterilized and everything, they all introduced themselves and were all excited to be stars in my movie. They all introduced themselves on camera, and proceed with the operation. It was kind of funny, cause it really didn’t seem like I was having surgery. I was talking with doctors and other people on the team who weren’t operating about my camera and California and just carrying on with random conversations. Since it was arthroscopy, we were all able to watch the inside of my leg on a television screen, and Banskota would basically give me the play my play as the time went by. “There’s the back of your knee cap,” “There’s the torn meniscus,” and “There’s the part that came up on the MRI as a cyst, but just looks like swollen Meniscus. We’ll cut that out.” I filmed the surgery as best I could, given my limited mobility. I also gave the camera to one of the visiting students and asked him if he’d pick up some extra angles for me, from different sides of the operating room. That footage, mixed with the footage of the inside of my knee (they gave me a VHS copy) should all look pretty cool when edited together.
The surgery was over in less than an hour and before I was brought back to my room I had a chance to practice my Nepali with the orderlies who were getting me ready to leave. That was fun. It took me quite a long time for the anesthesia to wear off, and that was pretty annoying. My knee was padded with cotton and I had an ace bandage wrapping around my entire leg, so it looked a lot worse than it did. Molly, Geraldine, Colleen and Mary all came and visited me after I had taken a nap, and we had a pretty good time joking around and going on as if we weren’t in a hospital and as if I didn’t just have surgery. Mary stayed the night with me, and when I was finally able to eat at 9pm we ordered food from the canteen and chowed. Oh man it tasted so good. Watched a little Discovery Channel and went to bed.
I was discharged the next morning after a physiotherapist had come in to teach me some exercises I would need to do for the next few weeks. With this man I was already walking around the room, which surprised me a little. I was glad though that I had some mobility. I have to go next week to get the stiches out…two little holes on either side of the knee are the only war wounds I have, so that’s cool.
Since then my knee has been getting better and I’ve been able to walk and go pretty much everywhere I need to go. Stairs are slow, but I can do them, and I’m getting better on them. Overall though, the knee just feels extremely weak and a little sore. It’s kind of topped off the past few days though, and hasn’t felt like it’s made any broad jumps towards improvement. That probably won’t happen come to think of it. A lot of people were telling me that I’d be fine within a week, so my hopes regarding recovery were a little raised, cause now it feels like it will be at least a month or so before I can do anything interesting on it other than walking.
What else…yesterday were the finals of a big basketball tournament that has been going on for the past few weeks. It’s in memory of a priest who died a few years back, and all the Jesuit schools and organizations, like Alumni clubs, participate. Godavari staff made it to the finals so we all went to the college for the finals against the college team. They were huge and Godavari is not, so we pretty much got spanked. It was on an outdoor court in the middle of the campus’ quad, and it started right after classes got out. All the students were lining the court while we sat courtside with the team. It was so frustrating not being able to play…I felt like Chris Webber in last years first round playoffs. Man it sucked…next year. They had a medal ceremony at the end, and the team walked up to receive their awards one by one. To my surprise they called my name and I was given a medal and a certificate. We all had a pretty good laugh about that one as I turned around, kissing the silver, pretending like I had worked so hard for it. Later on the principal approached me and told me they had replaced me when they found out I couldn’t play, and that I had to give me medal back. I got to keep the certificate though. It had my name on it, what were they going to do?
As for the rest of last week, I was just recovering and finishing up language class. Instead of 4 hours a day, I’ll be going for 1 before school to keep it going. I missed most of it last week, so I have some catching up to do. Got a hair cut over the weekend, and the only reason I mention that is because for an hour or more, I got a haircut, shave, and a head/face/arm/back/chest massage for a whopping 100 rupees. That converts to a little more than a $1, and I think he even over-charged me! I thought that was pretty funny. Oh, and speaking of hair, as I was inspecting my shaven arm after the surgery, I discovered the reason why I have so much hair on my arms. Out of every pore that a hair grows I actually have three hairs. Isn’t that weird? I moved my eyes towards my leg, and sure enough, 2-3 hairs per pore. I guess now I have an answer to why the hair on my head is so thick!
Other than that things have been fine. Definitely feeling a bit more comfortable here as I learn new patterns and how to get around and such. Last week was good, but my thoughts were definitely pointed west more so than they have been since we got here. Every day is so different than my days were just one month ago, and I can’t help but think about everything and everyone that was/is familiar to me as I try to turn the unfamiliarity of here around. Last week really felt like any other week though, and was void of any kind of vacation high or touristy excitement. I’m sure my knee had a lot to do with that, but more importantly I think the realization that I live here now and will be living here as opposed to just visiting is finally settling in. It’s interesting (it seems so trivial), that in such a majestic and distant land, you still have a good day, a bad day, day’s of frustration, day’s of sheer happiness, day’s of confusion, and day’s of confidence, and every other day in between. I guess life, no matter where lived, never feels too unfamiliar, because at some point you always get back to feeling the way you would have in any other place.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures…won’t be too many for the next month or so as my camera is back in the states being repaired.
Take care, and thanks for writing back.
Love Kvin