Hey everyone,
I really appreciate you following my stories and my bull. If there is something that you would like me to elaborate on more, drop me a line or a comment and I'll see what I can do. The following is the email I sent out a while ago to keep everyone in the loop while I was in the hospital in Benares, and I thought I could 'store' it here for future use.
I hope this finds you well,
Craig Leon Koller
क्रैग लीआन कोल्लर
Hey everyone,
I just though I would send out an all encompassing email that covers my trip thus far. Let me tell you, it has been quite an adventure. Having arrived in New Delhi two weeks ago today, I was jet-lagged but positive. I was staying in a nice hotel, in a community known as the Defence Colony. Delhi, if I may say so, with out any filtering, is an absolute shit-hole. There are people living in the streets next to cattle, swine, and dogs. The living conditions are quite atrocious. Yet, right next to these people's ramshackle housing is a skyscraper for some multinational corporation, with security guards and Landrovers. The polarity here is very obvious. I walked to a Bahai Temple (very interesting faith, everyone should at least take a gander at their message) and in going there, you see that India's people have no care for their trash or their waste. The streets are littered with trash. They assume that it will be taken care of for them, but I do not know why they assume this, (maybe I should use that as a field research project). You ride in an auto-rickshaw, and you see men lined up on the side of the street pissing. That same auto-rickshaw stops at a light, (kind of rare in Indian traffic), and two young girls, maybe 6 or 7 years of age come up begging for money for food. I had to look away, as I saw the tattoo on their hand. This is no ordinary tattoo, but a brand. a brand used by their "boss" or street pimp to squeeze money from foreign tourists by using their pity. I cannot support a trade like that, even if it hurts my soul.
We stayed in New Delhi for 5 days, waiting for everyone to arrive and get over the jet-lag. We then arrived took an overnight train, quite an experience, to the city where I'd be staying for the next 8-9 months. The mysterious and spiritual "Benares." We arrive, greeted by my hindi Instructor who puts some style of Indian leis. The temperature was only about 94ºF, but the humidity was about the same. If you can imagine walking through water, then you have a general idea. Me, be the human-packhorse that I am, was carrying a few peoples bags, so that we didn't have to drop money on porters (they tend to be hard bargainers, and you never know if you'll get all of your stuff back). We stayed in a hotel for the next few days getting our home-stays organized, and also getting acquainted with our Program house. This program house has one room with AC in it, and we all pretty much just stayed in that room for the week, trying to stay hydrated and not get diarrhea from the food. We took a few tours through the city, seeing some of the infamous ghats and other market places. I've even found weekly cricket and soccer matches that I can play in (THANK GOD!!!) at the local college campus.
I found a "home-stay." It is in a house with an older Brahmin lady from Delhi. She has family that lives in the US and has been housing UW-Madison students for many years. Her mother is 101 years old and is living with us, in the house that she has her entire life, why change now? I live with a few other students from the program. I don't know why, but I've really pulled myself back from the Islamic studies aspect. Something about it didn't seem right once I arrived, I couldn't tell you what, but it was something spiritual, I feel. I have been recently pulled in many different directions regarding my field studies, and I don't know what to follow. I will just live here for a while, before I make any serious decisions.
On Tuesday night, this last week, I went to an Indian dance show. Quite an amazing experience. I had been feeling good up to this point and I was ready to start my Hindi instruction the next day, as well as a yoga course. After the dancing was done, a few of us sat down for dinner at a nice local restaurant. I needed some food that wasn't so spicy, so I ordered some basic noodles. After about halfway through the meal, my stomach started getting upset, and I had to excuse myself from the table. I went to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit up all that I had just eaten. When that food was up, I started puking up blood. This really scared me at first, but the nausea went away after a few minutes, and I got up and went back to the table. I told my friends what happened, a few said I should go to the doctor, and a few said that it should be okay, as long as I didn't keep throwing up. I did feel much better after sicking up, but I wasn't really up for finishing the meal, so I went home and went to bed. At this point in the trip every single student had been sick in one way shape or form.
The next day I got up and still felt a little queazy, but not too bad, so I went to my yoga instruction and felt much better. I had breakfast at the Program house and went to my class. I started feeling ill again, and after about two hours of class, I went a laid down in one the side rooms of the house. I slept for three hours. After this I got up and went down stairs to get some water. I sat down in the AC'd room and my stomach started feeling sick again. I went to the bathroom and sicked-up all of the porridge, with a lot of blood this time. This really startled me, and I told my professor to call a doctor. They called an auto-rickshaw instead....lmao. Throughout this, I still maintained my jolly spirit, even though I felt terrible (nothing can bring this guy down). I went to a local private hospital (at the the recommendation of my Professor), and had some tests done. They took some blood, only after I made sure they were using new needles, and said that the results would be ready by the evening. They tested me for malaria, they tested my liver for problems, the tested my white blood cells, and they tested me for Dengue Fever. I returned to the hospital later that evening, still feeling quite ill, but with high spirits, it had to be the Norwegian heritage, laughing in the face of danger and death. I had to wait for the doctor to arrive about an hour later... This is INDIA everything runs late! The doctor took a look through my results [which I took a look through earlier at the clerks desk. I saw that I was negative for Malaria and Dengue, but that some of my other numbers were outside of the normal boundaries.... Spending as much time in a doctor's office/hospital as I have you begin to be able to read tests/diagnostics and things]. The doctor then took my temperature (102ºF), for the first time, and told me that my Blood Platelets were low and that we wanted to admit me to the hospital. He told me that I most likely had some strain of Dengue fever and I had some hemorrhaging somewhere. He said I would need to be hospitalized for 3 days to be monitored. This was Wednesday evening.
I spent Thursday and Friday in the hospital reading some books, thanks to some friends from the program who brought them over for me. They were pumping me full of Electrolytes and Anti-Viral antibodies. I could tell that my fever had come down on Thursday, but I still felt relatively tired and week. The Doctor visited me later that night and said I could most likely get out of the hospital by Friday afternoon. This entire time, people from all over the hospital wing were coming in and out, poking their head in or just staring from the behind the curtains. They had to come and look at the foreigner in the Indian hospital. The hospital was quite clean, my India's standards, and the staff were as helpful as could be. (The first night for dinner they brought me Lays potato chips and orange cream cookies, only in India). All in all, I had quite a little adventure, and I got to checkout of the hospital Friday night without any major obstacles. The entire bill totaled about 12,000 rupees, which in USD is only about $300. If I were in a US hospital it would have most likely cost $12,000!!!! I told this to some of the patrons and staff in the hospital and they were flabbergasted (If you are interested in the price differentiation, look into the what is known as "Medical-Tourism" in India).
So here I sit in "Open Hand Cafe" run by a lady from South Africa, very sweet. They have western coffee, food, and wifi. This will be my little escape from India, for the next few months. I leave, a week from Monday for an old British Hill Station, known as Masoori. I will be up there for two weeks, and I don't know what kind of contact I'll have but it might be limited. I feel good, I have high spirits and am staying positive. Thank you for all of the well wishing and the love. Please feel free to email me anytime with questions or concerns, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Love always,
Craig
P.S. Feel free to pass this on...
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