life and death in Bhopal

So after somehow avoiding it for almost 2 weeks, I seem to have come down with "Delhi belly".. or I guess Bhopal belly but anyway luckily it's not too bad, just bad enough to keep me low-energy and mostly in bed all day. But what better time to update what's been going on here at Sambhavna?

I got here on Sunday afternoon, introduced myself to Sathyu (who manages the clinic) and found my way to the girls' dormitory. Met Tomoko, a 57 year old nurse from Japan who doesn't speak much English but was really nice about showing me around a bit, helping w/laundry, etc until the Chihiro (also Japanese) and Nirupa (South Indian family but from Toronto) arrived. It was a little overwhelming at first, as no one directly monitors the volunteers' activities--you sort of have to set your own schedule and figure out the work on your own. But Nirupa and the others were awesome about helping me get settled, and I found a bit of a routine for the work days (the clinic is open from 8:30-2:30, so that's basically the hours most of the volunteers work, too.. when the staff are around and everything).

I've been getting up around 7:30, earlier the first few days when I was woken by the Muslim prayer call that's broadcast from some nearby speaker at dawn; I generally get up, have some breakfast (we supply our own breakfast food), and watch the neighborhood wake up.. the clinic is in the middle of a pretty poor area, kind of this little bubble of a nice brick building w/electricity, plumbing, and a big garden surrounded by really basic apartment-type house (so hard to describe, hopefully I'll get pictures up soon). Then at 8:30 I go down to the clinic and do some yoga, and head over to the gardening/medicine making complex where we have lemongrass and basil tea. This week I've been spending most of my mornings tackling a vine that covers the back fence of the clinic property, cutting it and hauling it back to the medicine making area where we cut it up for patients (I'm still working out what exactly it does, but I think people chew the green part inside of the bark). Lunch is at 12:30, generally in the clinic canteen where they serve rice, roti, curry, and dahl; then back to work at 1. Besides the vine project I've helped the yoga teacher make a poster to teach the community health workers yoga poses for a research study, done some planting in the garden, and helped make little black medicine balls from an herbal compound. My general goal is just to do whatever I can to help out all around the clinic, and get a feel for the sort of care they give just by being here.. I may get involved in some library stuff, computerizing the archives they have on the disaster and working on some sort of timeline display for an exhibition.

The last few days after the clinic closes, we've gone to visit various people's homes and been treated to some amazing experiences and hospitality. One night we went around to a bunch of family's rooms across the street, painted our faces yellow with turmeric in preparation for an upcoming wedding, and ended up dancing on the rooftop with all the kids; another day we took an auto rickshaw past a field full of trash and pigs and cows out to the home of one of the medicine-makers, where she made delicious food for us; yesterday at the home of one of the gardeners, we were kissed and embraced by her 70+ year old mother and watched a three-hour classic Hindi film.

But of course I'm getting to see all these amazing lives because of a clinic that treats survivors of the worst industrial disaster in history, and many who have become ill since then because of still-contaminated land and water. I've spent most of today reading Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, which tells what happened in the years leading up to the disaster and the stories of all the people affected, from the plant workers, to the slum residents, to the medical students who became doctors in one horrific night. It's pretty sobering to read about the suffering at Hamidia Hospital, just down the road, and the thousands of people running for help and stumbling across bodies on Berisia Road, about a five minute walk away. And then today, as we were getting ready to go the wedding of one of the girls who lives across the street, we heard that a baby in the room next door had died. Liver and kidney disease, brain damage.. who knows if she was affected by poisoned water or milk from a mother who inhaled the toxic gas; I'm waiting to hear the details, but it's very sobering and of course tragic news nonetheless.

All in all I just feel incredibly lucky to be here, not only for my relative health and for that of my family and friends, but to have seen so many incredible things so far and to get this chance to see a little bit of these peoples' everyday reality. Not to sound too preachy or corny or anything, but yeah. In other news, I'm making steady progress on eating with my (right) hand, we passed three Hindu wedding processions last night, I'm getting a salwar kameez tailor made for $4, two new volunteers just arrived from England (one with the goal of building a playground, which I could end up helping with), I'm trying to learn some Hindi but mostly refreshing my Japanese, and of course I miss everyone. xoxo