As the hospital is small and so are the buses, we could only take 15 to 20 kids at a time, making our medical camp three days long to accommodate the 60 students. I must say, I was expecting a relatively large sized bus. But no, it was, as every car in India, a very small “Ambulance” which would have maybe fit 6 people respectively. I have never seen so many kids packed to a van before. It was quite amazing. And I and another teacher had to fit in too! (See the picture below).
We saw three doctors in total: one optometrist, one dentist and one pediatrician. One thing I would have never even thought about was the trouble of testing your eyes when you can’t read. Even when I was little, I never remember having any problem reading the letters on the Eye Chart. The kids here had an extremely hard time reading the letters, especially when they were tiny. So, we changed it to the chart where you point which way the letter is going. It was hard to explain, but the kids eventually got it. Three out of the fifteen children had problems, all requiring glasses.
Almost all the kids had teeth problems. Ranging from 7 to 14 years old, it was either eruption with too little calcium, so the child’s teeth were having trouble coming in, or cavaties. Some were serious and had to be removed because the tooth was so bad, and others just required fillings.
In the general checkup, every single child had early vitamin A deficiency. Many had Anemia and a couple had advanced, stage two Anemia. All the children were underweight and under height. One girl had advancing Hepatitis, soon to become Jaundice. That was pretty scary. And the thing was, she is one of the kids that is always happy and excited. It was very surprising to me that she was seriously ill. These kids have to cope with things, by themselves, at such a young age. I was so fortunate to be a healthy child, with parents that care so much about me, with regular doctor’s and dentist’s appointments. What a news flash! And that was only 15 of the kids!
The pediatrician was telling me that there is a law in India that says that every child under 6 has to take pills twice annually against stomach worms. And these are the kids that can’t afford it. I just can’t imagine having to go to school, hungry, tired and sick every day. These kids are troopers. I think my going away present to them all is going to be toothbrushes and vitamin A pills!
We’re going to the hospital again tomorrow. Today there was a strike because of conflicts in Kashmir. The police weren’t allowing vehicles on the roads from 9:00 to 11:00, so we couldn’t access the bus. And by the time the strike was over, the driver and all of the doctors either had gone home or were unavailable. Hopefully we can get through all the kids, because we don’t have Friday as an option. It is the 15th, India’s Independence Day, and most work places get the day off. Schools have a one hour celebration where the students sing songs and hoist the Flag, which we will be doing for my last day at the school. I can’t believe I only have two more days. My trip went by so fast!
