A Day Trip to Alampur Medical Camp

While I am sure plenty of organisation goes into the planning of life at Devnar, I can't help but feel that so much is spontaneous and decided on a spur-of-the-moment basis. This is probably as Lottie and I often don't seem to understand what is going on until after it happens let alone any time before.

On Saturday afternoon we were called into the main office by the Founder Chairman of the school, Dr Goud, who wanted to know if we were interested in joining him on a trip the next day. Of course we jumped at the idea but, information-wise, we were a little clueless about what we were actually going to be doing. He had mentioned a medical camp, some town we hadn't heard of and a boat trip. We were told to be ready in the courtyard for 6am the following morning. 

So, after our 5am wakeup on Sunday morning we bounded downstairs, still with no real understanding of what our outing had in store. Padma handed us a tub with 4 boiled eggs, a jar of jam and half a pack of milk bread which we added to our only little picnic (which consisted of mango juice and Nutella). We were walked to the main road by one of the Uncles and were then greeted by Dr Goud who told us to get into a rather large Toyota parked a few cars before him. This car would have felt luxurious to me had we been in England but, having spend the last 3 weeks either crammed into Autos or Mini Buses at double capacity, this car was heavenly. The cars picked up a few more people from around Hyderabad before we headed south and out of the city. This was the first time we'd left Hyderabad since our arrival and, as a result of this, I spent most of the next few hours sat in awe as I watched the Indian countryside roll past the window. I love a good long journey, but this is will go down as one of my favourites; sat in the very back seats of the 7-seater, eating our hard boiled eggs and Nutella sandwiches while Telugu music boomed out of the radio. It was all very surreal. 

3 hours later we pulled up at a grand house in what felt like the middle of nowhere. There were a number of large cars already parked outside, their drivers standing around chatting, and a number of middle aged men (mostly dressed in white trousers and shirts) had congregated ready to greet Dr Goud.  Here, in this house that was probably owned by a local doctor of some kind, we were treated to another, more traditional breakfast of idly, chutneys, and samba before heading back onto the road again. 

It was another hour and a half before we reached Alampur which is where the medical camp was being held. There seemed to be some kind of school or training facility in which drop in clinics for those with eye problems had been made, however, do to the language barriers and the business of the doctors we never fully understood what the place was. 

After a while watching the patients have a diagnosis and prescription written onto their pink card after a swift consultation, Lottie and I decided to go outside to try and make ourselves useful. We attempted to ask a number of the helpers (who seemed to be students at the institute) what we could do to help but, because of the language barrier, each interaction ended up with them rushing about trying to get something for us meaning we were being more of a pain than a help. Abandoning our plan we turned our attention to the hundreds of people staring at us. Realising that we were going to be there for a while, many of them came up to us and asked for 'one photo, Mam' and would stand next to us like we were the next big thing in Bollywood as their friends took photos on a number of phones. Other people told their children to go and stand beside us or handed us their babies and lots of school aged children took the opportunity to test out some of their English. 

As we sat in the courtyard we were often confused as doctors and people kept bringing us their pink cards and prescriptions to sign off which was a little embarrassing but most people seemed to understand that we weren't doctors, especially when the girls we were sat talking to repeated 'English Teacher! No Doctor!' to those who had been confused. There was one man, however, who did not want to accept that I was not the right person to fill out forms. I don't know anything about anything about eye sight nor can I read a single word of Telugu. He ended up approaching me twice and, when he refused to remain calm despite my polite attempts to tell him I couldn't help him we entered a shouting match (it was more of a raised voice match on my side- I didn't want to create an even bigger scene). The people around us laughed at him which, unfortunately, only made him more angry. I could only respond to his shouting with 'I'm an English teacher not a doctor- go over that way' so many time so ended up telling him all sorts about how my GCSE Biology really wasn't enough to be giving him medicines I didn't know the names of. He only stopped when I eventually grabbed the pink card he was waving in my face and stared at him blankly in silence. This seemed to confuse him enough to cause a lull in his anger so someone else could step in and lead him to someone who was more helpful than me. I did feel very bad about the situation- it must have been confusing for us being there when we had no reason to be other than to observe how life works out here. After this uncomfortable situation, some of the people we were talking to noticed our slight discomfort due to the heat and the angry shouting match so went to buy us small pots of ice cream which we were very grateful for. 

At 2 the clinic started to close and, again, we were bundled into a large car and driven to another house on the outskirts of the town. This time it belonged to someone in a local government but, as the women ate in a separate room to the men (because the men were drinking) we were never able to find out exactly where we were. Lunch was a delicious selection of curries with roti, my favourite being an amazing fish dish. After having as much food as our bodies could handle, we waited in the room with the few female doctors that had come to the clinic while the men took another hour or so to eat their food. 

Our lunch venue 

The view from Lunch 

After lunch we were informed that the day would not be ending there and that we were headed for the boat trip on the Tungabhadra River that had been mentioned the day before. On arrival we realised that the boat trip was not quite what we expected. I guess having spent time in very fancy houses and in nice cars we expected something a little less basic than a coracle boat that was to be pulled across the river by a man stood in it's centre but that is what we got! I was a little apprehensive. It felt like there were a lot of us getting into such a small boat and I didn't quite manage to sit comfortably at any point- I was worried for my camera mainly- but it was actually really enjoyable. At points, it was nice and peaceful and at other points the group of mostly retired, serious doctors thought it would be a laugh to spin the boat around which was funny but did make me nervous. 

Our numbers being put to shame

Along the river bank there were a number of temples that we then visited. The first was a temple dedicated to one of the forms of Pavati and here we were blessed by a holy man after listening to his prayers (in Telugu). Rice was thrown at us, the smoke of burning incense was wafted in our faces and over our hair and then we were offered a mixture of herbs and water which was poured into our hands for us to drink. 

A similar blessing took place in the next temple, Jogulamba, which is a one of the 18 Shakti Peethas as legend says it is the location where a tooth of devi fell. 

 By this time it was 5.40 and, considering the trip home would inevitably involve a stop for chai, it was time to head back to the city. As I mentioned before, I really love long drives and the evening trip was as great as the morning one had been. We spent the trip listening to music and watching the beautifully lit little towns and stalls it was truly bliss. Thank you, Dr Goud, for inviting us!