Independence day

Today is indian independence day, celebrating 66 years of freedom from british colonial rule. This morning the hospital put on a special service around the flag pole at the main hospital building. The nursing students we standing facing the flag in a semi circle under the shade of a tree with the nursing staff standing opposite in a little patch of shade adjacent to the hospital entrance and the doctors, lab staff, groundsmen and general onlookers standing behind then students. It was very warm this morning and the students would shuffle every so often to stay in the shade. The service itself was of a fair lengh and in bengali of course. It involved singing the national anthem, saluting the flag, some singing by a small choir of the students accompanied by a harmonium, a speech by the local minister and a prayer. Once finished we all went into the antenatal clinic where breakfast was waiting for us. This consisted of 5 fried bread type things (not like bread back home but indian bread similar to a fried tatty scone but less thick), some spicy potato and then some sweet orange and pink balls (I have no idea what these we made of but were very tasty). This was washed down with the smallest cup of sweet tea ever (the cup contained about 2 slurps). It was nice to see the unifying effect of the food on the hospital staff.

Independence day is a national holiday so no clinics were on today. It has been an extremely quiet day for medicine. We have been hoping to get some practice delivering babies but in the last few days every time we sit with a woman she has needed to go for c section. Currently there is no one even close to delivering on the ward. This has given us lots of time to collect data for our audit on births here. Currently we have information on over 1300!

Neil's sandals are karap (broken) so we went to the shoe shop to get some new ones. The largest size they had is 10 (a size smaller than neil). He is now sporting a beautiful new pair with his toes poking slightly over the sole. He can't really complain-they were less than 4 pounds. Apparently he should be able to get his old ones fixed for 30p so they are off to the cobbler tomorrow.

I've attached some pictures from independence day but also the sign from a school on the road to the hospital. We imagine that it is filled with pin ball machines!

Jx