Hospital Visit and Kids Are Gone!

Today was the last day students were on campus. This morning Emily invited Megan and me to the elementary school Santa Breakfast (technically we do not teach elementary kids, but Emily needed “help with the music” and by help with the music, I mean she needed two people to make sure she still got all of the good food…). I did a very nice job of making sure she had scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, fruit, croissants and cinnamon rolls on her plate! The Santa Breakfast was the elementary school’s final assembly of the semester. All the children were dressed up in Christmas colors and the fifth graders were wearing elf costumes, because they were the servers. Santa even made an appearance! After each class had sung a song, Santa gave each student a little present. After Santa Breakfast, the middle and high schools had their final assemblies (which were not as much fun or delicious…). Now it is about 4:30 in the afternoon and almost all of the students have gone down the mountain, either with their parents or on the bus to Delhi. The campus is eerily quiet…

Yesterday I had the exciting experience of going to the Landour Community Hospital! It’s not too dramatic, I have just been sick/lost my voice for over a week and so the health center nurse recommended that I see the doctor at the hospital.
At 10:00 Monday morning, I went to the health center to hitch a jeep ride to LCH. It turned out I got to travel with a little third grade boy, Reuel ( I think) who had a big bump on his head from a fall the day before. Well, after our lovely jeep ride to LCH, we followed the employee from Woodstock, who appeared to know what was going on, into the hospital. I am extremely grateful that we had a Hindi speaking adult with us, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on! He took our records (which are basically a little notebook, where I had written allergic to sulfa drugs on it) and told us to sit in the “waiting area”. The waiting area was full of plastic deck chairs and quite a few people -including a mother with two young children, wearing matching sparkly sweaters that kept playing games and running around in circles. I thought it was kind of funny, but the mom kept yelling at them in Hindi. Reuel and I talked about Christmas and how he hoped all his presents were soccer related to keep from getting too bored. After a long time, we were told we could move into the hallway that was right next to the waiting room. There looked to be four doctor’s offices in the hallway. Reuel’s doctor was towards the end, so he went to sit on a bench farther down. My doctor’s door was right across from the billing window, so the hallway was crowded with people. Again I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There were some benches lining the hallway and after a spot opened up I decided to sit down. But about a minute after I sat down next to a rather frail looking Indian woman, another woman squeezed her way onto the bench which pretty much just pushed me off. I decided standing against the wall was better.

Now normally when I have gone to the doctor in Minnesota, you go to the front desk and sign in and give them your insurance information. Then you go to the next desk and sign your name and they call you in an orderly fashion. Well, apparently in India, it is not first come first serve, the amount of time you have to wait is directly correlated to how many times you open the doctor’s office door and bug them. I think I spent a total of about 3 hours at the hospital, and while waiting in that hallway, there were 3 or 4 men and women that kept opening the doctor’s door and trying to get the doctor to see him or her sooner (I think – because everyone was always speaking in Hindi), no matter if the doctor was in the middle of seeing a patient or not! Well, I really didn’t know if I was supposed to do that, but luckily the Woodstock employee was still around and he would periodically poke his head in the door and then relay to me how much longer I should have to wait. Finally, he told me that I would be next. So, once the next person came out of the doctor’s office, I went in, but I was followed by an eager Indian woman, who was speaking rapid Hindi to the doctor. The doctor said something to her and she left. The actual doctor visit was fine, she spoke English and it didn’t take very long. She ended up telling me that I just needed to rest my voice and then I might need some antibiotics, but they should do a blood test first to find out. Then I had to get my bill stamped and find the lab. I could go into detail about this too, but it’s pretty much along the same lines of you have to be pushy to get what you want. I was still not prepared to be pushy; especially since I cannot speak Hindi (I think I’ve only had 3 lessons…). Luckily I also ran into Bunti – one of the cab company owners in Mussoorie – who I knew, so he was pretty helpful. And the Woodstock employee was still there, so he knew what to do as well.
Anyway, it all turned out fine; I got my antibiotics and went back to school in time for lunch. But I can say that I will not go to the hospital again, unless I am very, very sick.