This week has gone so quickly! We became much more familiar with the area and it is starting to feel like my second home. With that said, I am still trying to adjust to the number of stares we get every day. It is not uncommon for people to take photos of us or blatantly stare. Yesterday we went to dinner and were waited on by the owner of the restaurant. Today, we were asked if we would take a photo with a group of students from the local university. While none of this seems malicious it is very unusual and has contributed to some culture shock.
Reflecting on this week of rotations: Both the emergency medicine and pediatric rotation sites were private practices. In India, the government allocates very little funding to healthcare so many patients in urban settings go to private practices if they can. While some patients have insurance, many are self-pay. Even with insurance, companies will typically try very hard not to cover anything. Next week we will be living in the town of Mussoorie and our rotation site is in a public hospital. I will be interested to compare the two settings. Another interesting thing I learned is that there are so called “quacks” that practice medicine without a license. I asked how patients can tell the difference and one of the doctors mentioned that many patients do not know, especially if they are illiterate or do not know who to ask.
This morning we woke up early to hike at a place called Forest Research Institute (pictured above). It is one of the most beautiful views I have seen in Dehradun so far. It was very quiet and surrounded by green space. In the afternoon, we went with our coordinator and his entire family (wife, son, and mother and law) to a spring festival of flowers at the governor’s house. We were able to walk around and enjoy all the flowers grown locally and taste some rice pudding made of rice specifically grown in this state. To finish off the afternoon, we went to a small coffee shop that overlooked the mountains. Our coordinator shared that even within the city of Dehradun only about 10% of the population knows about this coffee shop or could ever afford to ever visit. This really put into perspective what a privilege it was to be there and to be able to travel to this beautiful county.
Tomorrow we will travel to a city called Rishikesh. The city is known as a place to study yoga and meditation and a 2000 mile long holy river, the Ganges River, flows through it. Stay tuned for more pictures 🙂
Exploring Medicine and Culture in Northern India 