India is obviously a really diverse and complicated place that's
insanely different than America, but I've found some of the really
subtle differences to be just as interesting. For example, all the
switches flip down instead of up to turn on... The doors all push
rather than pull open... When the elevator doors are closing, they're
no joke. I've gotten knocked off my feet twice already trying to catch
it when the door was closing. Today I watched it close onto a
patient's ankle that was hanging off the end of the gurney:/ Watching
2 guys run to catch the bus (literally. The bus didn't stop). The
word for mother is slightly different depending on whether you're
Hindu, Muslim, or Christian (amma, umma, and mama respectively).

The hospital has diffent levels of rooms depending on price. The main
medical ward is one big open space with tons of beds in rows. They
cost about 100 rupees a night. That's a little over 2 dollars. There
is no insurance and if you can't pay, the hospitals won't keep you
there. Our hospital is one of the exceptions because the founder also
runs a charity that covers the bill for people that can't pay. Laura
and I are slighly freaked out at the level of worship that goes on for
this woman, but we're learning why more and more.

Every day we get to pick everyone's brain about the culture, caste
system, religion, arranged marriages... I write everything down in my
journal every day (including all my very personal thoughts)... And the
other day one of the interns took it from me and said, 'what do you
write about?!?' and proceeded to read the entire thing. She was like,
'oh, is this personal?' at which point I responded awkwardly, 'um well
no, kinda... Uh no?' how embarassing. That gives you an idea of how
personal space is perceived around here.

-Cathy

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