I'm here!

After a 20 + hour plane ride, I got into Chennai yesterday around 1 AM. The flight was made bearable by the man sitting next to me, a 31-year-old Chennaiker who was delighted to give me lists of things to do and see around Chennai, the names of a few good vegetarian restaurants, and teach me a few words of Tamil. He was on a 3 week vacation to visit family, and possibly get married. He gave me his phone number and said that if he does, indeed, pick a wife in the next few weeks, I should come to the wedding celebration.

The past two days since my arrival have been an absolute blur-- I spent yesterday morning in an eye camp in the slums of Chennai, distributing some of those 300 pairs of eyeglasses I brought. The ophthalmologist and optometrists saw over 150 patients in 4 hours. In the afternoon, I learned how to eat thali with my hands, toured the Uma Eye Clinic (where I'll be shadowing doctors at evening office hours) and tried to adjust to the time difference with a 2 1/2 hour nap...

This morning I spent at Hande Hospital, where I saw four cataract surgeries and a hemorrhoid surgery. The cataract surgeries were amazing-- just an amazingly delicate technique, and really cool technology. The hemorrhoid surgery was... stomach turning. But interesting, nonetheless.

Chennai itself is an amazing city... hot as Hades, and really dirty, but beautiful at the same time, with the barefoot women in colorful saris, and toothless old men selling papayas and coconuts along the street. The road is shared by autorickshaws, cars, buses, bicycles, steer-drawn wagons, and stray dogs. There are some traffic lights which are pretty consistently ignored. I would die if I tried to drive here. I'll stick to autorickshaw rides, and the occasional bumpy ride on the back of a motorbike belonging to a new friend's uncle.

My time on the computer is up (I'm at an internet cafe) so that's all for now. Stay tuned.