Vavar

I just spent 3 days in one of the tribal villages outside of Dharampur. It was incredibly green and beautiful! It reminded me of the rainforest..less foresty, but WAY more greener than the rest of Gujarat, which can often be desert looking. Daxa auntie has established a homebase in Vavar , and I stayed with one of her friends Vinayak Bhai. He had a little home with a clinic in the front. There was a kitchen and a proper bathroom (sqatting toliet of course) but no running water. There are hand pumps scattered throughout the village, so before going to bed every night, we would have to go down to the hand pump and stock up for the next day. In a way, I was grateful! It was good physical training for Ladakh!

The children are sweet and generally very well behaved but incredibly shy. They eventually open up, but for the few days I was there it was so frustrating!They refused to ask me my name, and in front of me they keep telling V-bhai to ask me. I even extended my hand a few times but they refused it. What a change from the kids in the Dominican Republic!

In the morning we saw patients. V-Bhai is not a doctor but he can provide basic primary care and knows how to recognize cases that should be sent to a doctor. One patient came in saying that he went to a private hospital for malaria treatment but he only had a few tablets with him. We realized that there wasn't enough so Vinayak Bhai gave him the remainder medication for his course. He told me that many doctors in the rural areas do that (and get away with it) so that patients keep coming back with the same problem, and thus keep paying the medical fees. Clearly, the problem with this is that it is causing serious drug resistance. I'm still having trouble comprehending how they could do such a thing!

The next adventure of the afternoon was a drunk mute man that came in asking for (motioning for) money. I admit, I was a little freaked out--especially when he took a moment to pet my head. I was 1% concerned that things would become violent. Luckily, when V-bhai escorted him out, he did not resist.

After my nap we hiked up the hill to a beautiful viewpoint he calls Little Kashmir. As we hiked up, a whole batch of children joined us. As we sat at the top overlooking the valley, the younger kids played and the older ones sat and talked to v-bhai. Again, out of shyness, they pretty much ignored me. V-bhai sang song with the kids and then we played memory games, going around in a circle trying to remember the chain of fruits and vegetables we were calling out.

At night we went back to make dinner. Vavar is famous for Agna--big lightning bugs that come out before the rain falls. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen! There must have been thousands! They lit the trees like little christmas lights!

A note on the education system here...it's ridiculous. The classes are all taught in Gujarati (the state language), the teachers speak only Gujarati, and the students speak only Kokani--a dialect. As result, students have no idea what's going on, and not only do they miss out on crucial academic development, they also just plain loose interest in the concept of education. Their minds remain unstimulated and it only compounded by their minimal exposure. Now to be fair, this is not true EVERYWHERE, but it DOES happen and that makes it enough of a problem. It makes me want to overhaul the entire bloody education system here.