Whoa for all of us :):):)

Below: SWOT Team at SAHARA Transgender Center

Below: It rained as soon as we stepped out :(

Below: Five people rickshaw ride---goodtimes :):):)

Well what a day...this morn as we were peacefully talking and waiting to leave in the little front entrance of Bapu Nature a massive lizard flies down from the wall and hits the ground only a little away from us!!! YUCK!!! So the gang headed out today at 7:30 in the morn with Shalini who is our 'guardian'/guide here for our first site visit at St. Stephen's Hospital (the oldest hospital in Delhi---and doing the best work)...where after a video orientation w/the director's secretary John we did rounds w/a very nice Dr. Jain. I don't think I can sit here and describe what we saw and experienced as we walked through the various wards. St. Stephen's is a private missionary run hospital that does some great work. Just so many people and such (absolute) substandard conditions and yet the docs and nurses work so hard and manage. Our system in the US is leagues ahead in terms of technology etc but personally I feel docs/nurses/HCP need to be commended here for managing to provide just as effective if not more effective tx to pts...pts from the slums...pts from very low incomes...pts w/chronic diseases...pts w/whatever u can imagine. Unlike the US it is not uncommon to find pts w/typhoid, polio and TB. What surprised me was seeing multiple pts admitted w/RA...definitely something I didn't think ppl were commonly admitted for. HIV tx here is free but only for the standard protocol retro-virals...for the secondary types pts are still required to pay...except they just cannot afford it and therefore they cannot receive it!!! Viral loads and CD4 counts are quite often done only once a year for HIV+ pts if even that---as one viral load test costs 4000 Rs. (close to a $100). How can they afford that??? We are talking abt individuals who are living in the slums and who just don't have the resources.

That was just the morning. We had a delicious lunch at the hospital staff mess (there was yum fresh mango pickle that Farah and I devoured) and then headed off to the SAHARA Transgender project which is also established in Old Delhi. That again was quite an experience...up till now we had only read about sex-workers and what not in the scholarly articles but to be able to meet them personally and ask questions was just something else...hijra's...MSM...etc...such nice people who are greatly unjusted by society and the ridiculous cultural norms. Just imagine being beat by a cop on the road or even worse selling yourself to a client for 500 Rs. (roughly $10) and going into a room w/him to find that you have to 'serve' five people not one. Rates charged for services (read sex-work) are anywhere between 100 Rs. to 1000 Rs. (which is approx. $2.50-$25). The SAHARA Project is set up in locations across Delhi and each location is designated to provide different services including medical services, health educator counselling and most importantly a safe haven. These individuals (the transgender population) work from the evening to the morning hours...in the day time they often go to these SAHARA centers to hang around w/others...where they have available food...medical care...condoms...peer sessions...what not. Just being there and interacting w/them was SUCH an enlightening experience and I should be writing a lot more on this but just cannot put it into words right now. We have pictures that we will load up later. (We had a little side-drama as Emma was bit by something but luckily nothing too harmful.)

From there we headed out to go home and but of course found a downpour on us as soon as we stepped out...after some waiting and what not the five of us were squeezed into a rickshaw driving home...again can this experience be incomplete w/out some drama??? Abt half-way through our ride home some dude on a scooter touched (sorta hit) the side of our rickshaw but decided to instead blame (read yell foul language) our driver and stalk us for quite some time bfr we finally lost him...Shalini concluded he was insane...and I concluded he must have left home having fought w/his wife or work having fought w/his boss...

And here we are now...and it's still only 5:30 in the evening...who knows what can happen in the next few hours :):):) Such a quiet and peaceful day eh?