Moving on to Namakkal

Monday:I woke up Monday morning feeling like I had been out heavily drinking the night before...which should really only happen if you've actually had some alcohol. So I skipped the morning clinics and stayed in to rest and rehydrate since I'm pretty sure I had just not had enough water the previous day and dehydrated myself into a hangover state. In the afternoon we went to a large poultry farm with chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, quails, etc. We got to see birds bred for meat, eggs, and some in breeding research studies. The smell was pretty bad, but not as overpowering as it could be (there was a bad odor, but the ammonia was not to the point where you thought you would pass out). We got to see tiny baby chicks that were so cute...and will soon be eaten. Some of the turkeys had been killed by rats and moongooses (mongeese?) that had found a way into their cages.

In the evening we went out shopping again, first to a very modern mall with McDonald's, KFC, Levi's, and a bunch of other stores we have at home. It was all very shiny and new and clean; while inside I could easily imagine that I had been magically transported to a mall in Northern VA. But of course this was not the kind of shopping we wanted (a whole mall with foxed price goods???). So we quickly left and went to a different mall that was more small Indian shops where you can bargain for items and had Indian artisan handicrafts.

Tuesday: Wallace's big day as we visited both the snake park and the crocodile bank! (He is one of the students here also and would like to specialize in reptiles). We went to the Snake Park first, which is part of Guindy Park (they conveniently put the Snake Park right next to the children's play area). The park was actually closed that day (it is closed every Tuesday), but since we are "special guests" we got to go in and get a tour anyways. It was really cool to be there on a closed day mainly because they had let the reticulated pythons out of their cages and they were slithering around the park. We got to see lots of snakes (some very venomous), crocodiles, turtles, and some other random reptiles. Afterwards we headed to Crocodile Bank where there are...you guessed it!...tons of crocs. The head vet there gave us a tour around the park and even behind the scenes. She was very nice and actually lives on the park property. Behind the exhibits are some houses: one is hers, one is her office, and another is a house for volunteers. It was picturesquely primitive and I wish I had a desire to work with reptiles because I think the experience of living there for a few months would be wonderful. You could tell the resident vet really loved all the animals; she knew all their names and when she would lovingly call them they would approach the enclosure wall expecting food. We got to see some of the crocs being fed whole pieces of raw chicken (I have a video I'll post when I get home). For lunch the vet recommended a restuarant that we headed to called the Blue Elephant. It was all full up, but the restuarant next to it called The Moonraker was owned by the same person, so we went there. I got coconut rice and masala vegetables, which was delicious, but literally came with about 6 cups of rice (and of course since I didn't finished it I was asked multiple times why I didn't like the food).

After lunch we headed to Mahabilapuram (sp?) which is a popular tourist town that has lots of very old monolithic carved buildings (big stone buildings carved from a single rock). They were all within a fenced-in area and the ground was covered in sand; it reminded me a children's playground. And so play is what we did! It was interesting that even though these buildings had intricate carvings and are hundreds of years old we were allowed to climb all over them. We visited several of these temples and at lastly went to Shore Temple (when we asked Dr. Subbiah what Shore Temple was he answered "It's a temple. By the shore."). We couldn't go inside Shore Temple, but it was very beautiful and afterwards we went down to the beach and relaxed a little bit.

Wednesday: This was definitely the best day of this trip so far. We headed down to the Vandalar Zoo and got a tour from both the current zoo vet and the previous zoo vet (who now works in the wildlife department of the vet school hospital). Unfortunately some of our group were not feeling very well, but we were able to get a small car/cart to drive us around the expansive zoo. We got to see beautiful sights of lakes, enjoy an enormous aviary, hold a 1.5 month old white tiger cub (!!!), and play with several baby elephants. I can now die happy. We were only supposed to be at the zoo for about an hour, but after 3 hours we were finally forced to leave as they were expecting us for lunch at the Livestock Research Station. We had a tradional Indian style lunch of rice, spiced vegetables, potato chips (they are served a lot here), and pickled mango. It was all served on a giant palm leaf and no utensils where given. I'm sure I didn't look pretty, but I am slightly more adept now at eating rice with my fingers (how the Indians can do this so efficiently, I have no idea). After lunch we were given several tours of the different parts of the Livestock Research Station; we saw sheep, goats, rabbits, cattle, and pigs. When we arrived at the goat section they had just released the mothers and the babies together and it was hilarious to see the kids prance around and literally run and fall to their knees to suckle. I am just waiting for something to top this day.

Thursday: We started the day with a long drive to the very edge of Chennai where there is a small post of the vet school hospital. It is put out there to accomidate the more rural areas and people who can't transport their large animals all the way into the center of Chennai to be treated. Although even though they were established to meet the needs of farmers, more and more small animals are brought there each year. We couldn't stay very long, but while we were there we saw a great dane with a healing maggot wound in its foot and a goat with tetanus. There are only 3 doctors there and the main doctor (who is the surgeon) gave us a tour around and specifically showed us around the surgery suite. I was amazed to see that at this little rinky-dink hospital they routinely used gas anesthesia and the students are made to fill out anesthesia reports during surgery (both good things, neither of which is done at the big fancy hospital in the middle of the city). The rest of the morning was filled with tour after tour of various biotechnology labs in the area that (as hard as the researchers tried) was mind-numbingly boring. Being our last full day in Chennai Ruby took us out shopping again, this time to a place called Victoria Techinical Institute where various artisans of the school sell their crafts. It was an amazing store and I went a little shopping crazy! (But I have a beautiful new Indian tablecloth)

Friday: The plan was to take a leisurely morning of saying goodbye to doctors in the clinics, handing out a few small gifts to those who had been most helpful, and taking pictures. But of course nothing goes to plan in India. We had seen the dog with the hole in its back the night before and it was MUCH worse. The maggots had eaten at the whole widening it up, and the dog had obviously lost some weight. Ana had made friends with the dog and found out where it lived. She made an attempt to catch it, but after putting a make-shift leash on it, it freaked out and she had to let it go. In the morning we staged a pseudo-intervention going to Dr. Subbiah and not leaving until someone came to do something about the condition of the dog. (You would think that at least a dog on vet school property would not be forced to slowly die). Apparently People for Animals (PFA) had been by several times, but had not been able to catch the dog. So Dr. Subbiah called them to told them to come now when Ana could catch the dog for them. Some workers from the hostel came with giant sticks and when Ana showed them where the dog slept they banged on the walls, yelled, and threw their sticks at it. (We found out later that their plan was to try to scare it off the property, not catch it). It was rather depressing and eventually Carrie yelled at them to stop and stay back so that we could approach the dog with food, and Ana got another leash around it. We waited with the dog until someone from the hospital came and Ana carried it out to the road and took an autorickshaw to the hospital. Wallace, Carrie, and I followed a few minutes behind her and by the time we got there the dog was already sedated and in the process of being treated. Dr. Ravi was very nice and did not charge us for any services. They pulled out about 2 dozen maggots from the wound, bandaged it up, gave him fluids and a shot of dewormer. Then Ana accompanied the dog to the PFA shelter where the dog would be able to stay and be looked after by a doctor daily. Of course a shelter in India is nothing like a shelter in the USA. When Ana arrived she was shown inside by the woman running the shelter, who then proceeded to throw a metal bowl at one dogs head because he was eating the remains of a dead puppy in the yard (all the dogs are just kept out in a yard). Ana put the dog in a shaded corner with a bowl of water and we are hoping for the best and will try to check back on him when we briefly return to Chennai. Sadly, this is the best thing we can do for him since PFA is the local animal welfare group. By the time Ana got back to the hospital we had given out most of our gifts to the doctors (we bought them bumper stickers that said "Real doctors treat more than one species") and so we all returned back to the hostel to nap and pack.

Ruby brought her friend over and together they brought us lots of silk sarees to try on. They had to help up put them on as we could not figure out the folding pattern to make them stay. We put jasmine flowers in our hair, bindis on our foreheads, bangles on our arms, and some of Ruby's necklaces around our necks. A photographer from the school came over and took many pictures of our group looking as Indian as possible. We then said goodbye to some of our friends we had made at the school and headed to the train station. The train left at 10pm (well, it actually left at 10:45, which is 10pm on India-time) and was not due into the Salem station until 5am (was more like 5:15am). Wallace and I stayed up pretty late talking and lamenting over the fact that we could not see the Indian countryside as we rode past. I was surprised by how comfortable I was on the sleeper train; they provided clean sheats, pillow, and a blanket. My bed folded down over seats, so you could either sit up or lie down. I got in about 3 hours of sleep before it was time to get up and get ready to deboard. From the Salem train station we were picked up by the Namakkal vet school van and took an hour long drive to Namakkal.

Namakkal is a rural town and reminds me in some ways of Blacksburg. The air here is so much cleaner than Chennai and their is infinitely less traffic. Our hostel room here is more primitive: the matress is worse, there is no hot water, and some of us don't have shower heads. But even though this is a step down, there is still A/C and beds that are not on the floor (before I leave here we will experiece places with neither of these).

Right now I am in the library of the Namakkal vet school using their internet (as far as we can tell so far we don't have wifi in our rooms), so I won't be online as often. And some of the other places we travel I won't have internet access at all. I can't believe this trip is already half-way over...