Episode 13

On Monday and Tuesday we went to Michael’s Care Home, which is a center for HIV+ patients to receive care and counseling. We spend most of the time with the HIV specialist and he gave us a detailed lecture on HIV in India. We learned all about the different drugs they are using, how long they have been available, and what the government is doing about HIV. We also shadowed the doc and spoke with a few of the patients and heard their stories. Most of them were truckers, and one in particular told us how AIDS had already killed three of his friends. It was really nice to speak with the patients about their treatment and hear about the stigma and discrimination that they face. After watching the doctor, it became very apparent that as a doctor dealing with HIV patients, you cant just be a medical practitioner, but you have to be a healer, repairing all kinds of emotional and physical wounds that manifest from the disease.

On Tuesday afternoon, after leaving Michael’s Care Home, we visited one of the worst slums I have seen yet. We started our visit at what they call “Chicken Street”, where the slum dwellers collect scrap chicken skin, eyes, and carcasses to boil down into something they sell for dirt-cheap. This chicken “meat” is used in cheap street food like kebabs and momos. Needless to say, I will be sticking to veg momos for the rest of my stay… As we walked into the slum, the smell of rotting carcasses filled my nostrils, and I came very close to passing out. Numerous little children came to greet us, treading over the mountains of chicken skin and feathers (barefoot of course), while their parents manually shredded the chicken bits and threw them into pot. I couldn’t believe that people actually live like this. The structures were much dirtier and smaller than the ones we had seen before, and the sewers were essentially open trenches that ran throughout the tiny passageways. This was by far the most difficult site yet, the scent and image of this place is seared forever into my brain.