The Desert and Dessert

To explain the witty title, I will first discuss our trip to the rural desert town of Kolayat on the outskirts of India near the border of Pakistan. Although we reached Kolayat in about an hour, the patchy and sand-covered roads made it seem like we were driving for almost twice that time before we reached our destination. We first met with an award-winning ANM who we spoke to about her skills, training and our device. Once again, there was a mouse running amuck during our meeting, which made the three of us a bit nervous (I was probably the most nervous of us).

Josh in the CHC.

Desert town of Kolayat

More desert in Kolayat, giving a sample of the roads.

After this, we embarked on another lengthy trip through the town to the Kolayat Community Health Center. Before reaching the destination, we encountered a pond full of dazzling lotus flowers adjacent to a row of temples. This was certainly a sight for sore, desert-filled eyes. When we reached the hospital, we spoke to a doctor about ANC screening and our device while receiving cups of the delicious Maaza Mango Juice.

Lotus Pond- a hidden beauty!

On Wednesday, we made a visit to a Primary Health Center just outside of Bikaner where we spoke to Dr. Priti Agharwal who had incredibly good English. Dr. Agharwal was very helpful in providing a potential novel surveillance idea for our device. After visiting the PHC's lab, we drove across Bikaner to a district hospital, thus completing our survey of Rajasthan's health care hierarchy. There, we met with a pathologist and some General Nurse Midwives who were very passionate about our device.

Primary Health Center

Dr. Pankaj and GNMs.

The other half of our title comes from the fact that that afternoon, the three of us were severely craving chocolate. Thus, we drove to the center of Bikaner to try to find some. We ended up buying 5, 4-month overdue chocolate bars that were stored in the refrigerator with drinks. Nevertheless, we bought the chocolates and devoured them.

At night, we met with a block officer, Dr. Anil Verma, and spoke more about our device and surveillance. He was so interested in our device that he wanted to purchase our prototype for 6000 rupees before we informed him that it was just that, a prototype!

Blurry Picture with Dr. Verma

Today, we made the return drive back to Jaipur. We only made one stop on the way back: a break for tea, which Kevin and I owed to our driver Ram for falling asleep during the ride. When we reached our hotel, we said our last goodbye to our beloved driver and hooked him up with a limited edition Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering water bottle.

Ram Singh and the Team i.e. the Team

After a quick rest, we headed to a shopping area where we enjoyed some Domino's pizza and some bargaining. One horrifying auto-ricksaw ride later, we were back at our hotel and debriefing on our last few days' experiences in Bikaner. We just want to thank Dr. Pankaj Suthar for being an awesome guide and translating our conversations to the very best of his abilities. We also want to thank Dr. Manish Gehani and Dr. Kailash Saran for helping facilitate our trip in the very beautiful and very rural city of Bikaner.