Week Posts

Thursday The night before, the caretaker of our building brought a woman before Michael, making sweeping gestures with his hand saying “clean for you?” The next morning the woman came back, not knowing a word of English, and managed to convey pretty clearly she couldn’t clean if we didn’t have things for her to clean with. Woops. We are still so young in so many ways. This city gets me kind of crazy. Drivers have a switch on their dashboard to blow the car horn constantly so their fingers don’t get tired. Everyone and everything is so dirty and pissed off looking. I miss the village. We have this one calculator in lab. Its very small and solar powered, with a push pad not buttons. When working with light sensitive chemicals, we turn the light off. Then we have no calculator. We have to take the calculator out in the hall to use it. Something really disturbing has been going on in lab. I have noticed people dumping out their vibrio cholerae cultures right into the sink, which leads right into the lake. It’s shocking. Not wanting to disrespect the older students, (which is everyone—I’m at LEAST 4 years younger than everyone in the lab) I’ll tell them that I can wash their dishes and make a big flourish of adding Lysol and letting the flasks sit first. Maybe they’ll learn? If I see it again, I will say something. As I previously mentioned, I added a second project to my workload. Now I don’t have a single second in lab to think or eat or breathe. It’s so fun. However that means my blog updating, and GRE studying have been suffering. Oh well. Instead, I’m running around the lab isolating RNA at the same time as I am making bile concentrations. Doing an RT PCR at the same as I am making up new cultures. Doing a PCR from the results at same time I am running the gel from another PCR. All while watching and taking notes as Moumita does the fusion PCR. It’s delicious. My taxi driver asked me to take him to America. “I love Jesus,” he promised. Many people have asked me “Is India changing your life?” It really is. But not in a “Eureka!” type way. It’s been slow and beneath the surface. But I’ll never be the same. Friday Instead of talking to Sir about traveling, I went to ask if I could have time off to go help those in South India devastated from Hurricane Isla. A team (unbeknownst to me) from the institute went 2 weeks ago and maybe next time I could join them. While repeating he really appreciated the thought and motivation, I would never in a million years be allowed to go on a relief trip—I am way too young. However, I definitely need to travel and told me to take off a whole week of lab! He then proceeded to plan the entire trip, revolving around Delhi. I do not want to go to Delhi to see an even bigger city with even more “sites.” I do not care to go to Agara to see the Taj Mahal. No interest. I want to go somewhere completely different. Where like the village, I’ll be able to absorb the culture from the people, not from the attractions. And have decided to go to Rajasthan. I haven’t told Sir. The other students in the lab collectively decided I was a very fast and efficient scientist. They can’t believe how much I get done in a day. Every time anyone mentions doing a task, they’ll say, “you better have Chelsea help you, she’s faster than you.” They’re so blunt. I was told by two people “Michael has acclimated to India so much better than you.” What does that EVEN mean? I’ve had a growing revelation that I want to become an OBGYN. Women have been such an integral part of my life—they’ve raised me, taught me, understood me. And I understand them. The women I’ve met here have taught me more about India than weeks of living here. They’re full of pain and neglect. They give up every part of themselves for their children. Their looks and body language are universal. Child perched on swaying hips, eyes wary, feet hardened. There are very few gynecologists in Kolkata and they’re all men and only treat severe cases because of the shortage. Neurology has always fascinated me, but it never ignited a passion or felt like a purpose. I need/want/need to help these women.