5th week entry... took awhile to get it online!

First of all, Indian weddings are insane. They have on average 4 nights of festivities- often lasting until early in the morning each night. I don't know how they do it- by the actual ceremony on the 4th night I would be half asleep for the millions of pictures and definitely out during the 3 hours of prayer. We were able to attend the last two evenings, which was the brides family (only) party and then the last night was the actual wedding ceremony. Getting dressed was an event in itself. After 9 attempts of trying to correctly tie our Sari's and them still draping awkwardly or slipping off after taking a step, we asked the front desk of our hotel if any women were staying here and if they could possibly help us. 5 minutes later, theres a knock on our door and a very sweet lady walked in and saved the day. The bride's families party was so much fun- lots of music, dancing, food, talking, laughing, etc. The night of the wedding was absolutely unreal. We arrived around 8 pm to a huge party tent elegantly decorated in red, yellow, and lots of white lights. Food surrounded the whole arena- different cuisines, a fruit bar, dessert table, and full bar. There were waiters walking around in uniforms all night with delicious bite size samples that were too hard to say no to. The groom arrived, along with a full band, his whole side of the family and friends, and fireworks marking his arrival. He was wearing a cream colored,, intricately decorated suit, a special hat with white beads and traditional (Aladin) shoes. He (VERY) slowly made his way over to the fully prepared stage upon which he sat for the following ~3 hours attempting to not be blinded by the thousands of photographers capturing the moment. The bride entered absolutely decked out in a beautiful red sparkling Sari. As we are watching the scene unfold, Nicole and I are whisked away with no option of turning down the increasingly hoppin' dance floor. I don't even know how to explain what happened next, but it was probably a once in a lifetime experience and possibly one of the craziest moments in my life. First of all, the dancing is very different than back home- it's not about shaking your behind or turning another person 'on.' It's about feeling the music within yourself (I'm not making this up, a man my dad's age told me this). There were all ages on the floor- a young boy probably about 4 years old with more rhythm and moves than I've ever had, a woman who could have easily been my grandmother, and the older men outnumbered the young ones. So as we are doing our best to really feel the strong, upbeat Punjab music, money, yes money, starts raining down from above. I realize an older man has a stack of money at least 2 inches thick and he is holding his hands up in the air and is flipping through money as if it grows on trees. Everyone is gathering around watching and joining in. Then the DJ turns on the one and only Akon- Right Now which happens to be one of my favorite dancing songs, and I just remember thinking 'no way is this happening right now.' I had to leave the dance floor after that song, it was just too much! Again, I am not explaining this situation to it's fullest and maybe even sounding a little shallow but mix that along with the surroundings and just where I am in general- it was pretty surreal. I won't go into my fairly strong emotions of the extreme gap here- but briefly... one party you have money raining down while the waiters watch more money they probably make in a year get stomped on by the overweight higher class they are serving. It's just not right. The actual wedding ceremony started around 1 am and lasted till ~4 am. It involved at least 3 hours of prayers and other traditional activities. We parted 'early' around 2 am, I felt it was probably time to leave when the Sari was rubbing off layers of skin from the endless supply of food that was now sitting very happily in every nook and cranny of my bulging belly. I definitely got my fill of Indian weddings!

My last week in Northern India was spent in a mountain side town named Mussoorie at a Christian based, well funded hospital. The hour drive up the windy, narrow road in the dark was the most eventful yet. As we are passing another bus on a blind corner (really, why wait...) I look out and see a sign stating “speed thrills but kills” and am thinking I'm really not so thrilled about this! We came the closest to hitting someone yet, but at least if we did hit him we were on our way to the hospital, right? Mussoorie is beautiful; situated at 7,000 ft above sea level and looking out over the night lights of Dehra Dun. It is also very cold. The warmest I felt all week was during my first real surgery- and that wasn't from external heat but more of an overactive mind having systemic effects. While there watched I watched a tubal ligation, the most amazing birth (fast, no tear, no screaming- she was a CHAMP), insertion of a chest tube (crazy case- the man had pockets of air covering his whole face and neck from a punctured lung), a 4 hour bone graph surgery taking marrow from the hip and inserting it into a severely fractured, poorly healing arm. By the last day, while watching the bone graph, all I wanted to do was get in there and scalpel or retract something, anything more involved. What surgeons can do is amazing!
My days went basically like this: wake up at 7:25 am and go down the 2 stories to the cafeteria bundled in as many layers I can manage, eat breakfast at 7:30 and then to chapel at 8:15 am where I tried to follow along the morning teaching but often ended up doing my own reading. Rounds started at 9 am and then at 10 we had tea and sat in with a doctor for a couple hours of appointments. Lunch was at 1 pm and then after that we were free unless there were surgeries scheduled. Thursday ended up being a free afternoon and I hiked up to Landour, the small town at the highest point of the mountain. While I am meandering my way up the (paved!) road, a monkey darted out from the woods on my left and ran straight across the road jumping into a tree down below. I stop in my tracks and watch the monkey in the tree and am thinking how cool it was that I got to see him up close in his natural habitat when I look up and realize they are everywhere! In the trees, along the road to my right and in the hills to my left. One would come towards me, speed up as it passed me and jump into a tree and then settle in. I continued up the road saying 'niceeee monkey' until I passed what was pretty clearly their territory! At the top of the road was a gorgeous view of endless mountains. I sat at a cafe and enjoyed a chocolate 'pancake' that was really more a round cake with syrup! Other than never wearing less than three layers of clothes, it was a really good week and definitely the best one clinically so far!