The monsoon which has been late in coming has finally arrived. Since our first week here there have been scattered showers, but they have not brought much water. Rainfall, which is essential for the crops, is off 40% or more all over India, but it is possible for that shortage to be made up if the rest of the season brings heavy rains.
We got heavy rains yesterday, starting with some short but furious thunderstorms overnight. We went to work in a torrential downpour, and had to lift a fallen low-tension pole to allow the jeep to get through. The afternoon brought some sun, and then in the evening, it poured even harder. On the ride home, the streets were flooded. When we got into the city, the motorcyles parked on the side of the road were submerged 3/4 of the way up their wheels. We saw a woman walking through the puddles on the side of the street fall into what appeared to be a waist-deep pothole. Many parts of the road had water deep enough to come up to the bottom of vehicles. Still, people rode about on their bicycles and motorcycles, and the some of rickshaw operators kept pedaling, getting soaked to the bone.
Evening rains are a part of the monsoon pattern, we are told. The doctors run some clinics in remote regions, and some people will leave early because they must cross rivers before they flood from the evening rain. As it is, the doctors will sometimes have to cross a river by foot with the gear on their heads and walk the last 2km... sometimes the last 8km if
Side note: one of the passengers making the ride back to the city with us was a man with severly elevated blood pressure (220/150) in the beginning stages of having a stroke. He was from another part of the country, and in the area for a wedding. The condition may have been caused by not taking his medecines, alcohol use, and/or chronic malnutrition - either way he was being taken to the emergency room. You could see the veins bulging in his head and the start of some asymmetries in his face. Most of the work the doctors do is done behind closed doors where we don't go, and we are only left to see the patients calmly waiting, but sometimes we get sobering reminders like this about what kind of work is being done JSS and what the doctors face daily.
We got heavy rains yesterday, starting with some short but furious thunderstorms overnight. We went to work in a torrential downpour, and had to lift a fallen low-tension pole to allow the jeep to get through. The afternoon brought some sun, and then in the evening, it poured even harder. On the ride home, the streets were flooded. When we got into the city, the motorcyles parked on the side of the road were submerged 3/4 of the way up their wheels. We saw a woman walking through the puddles on the side of the street fall into what appeared to be a waist-deep pothole. Many parts of the road had water deep enough to come up to the bottom of vehicles. Still, people rode about on their bicycles and motorcycles, and the some of rickshaw operators kept pedaling, getting soaked to the bone.
Evening rains are a part of the monsoon pattern, we are told. The doctors run some clinics in remote regions, and some people will leave early because they must cross rivers before they flood from the evening rain. As it is, the doctors will sometimes have to cross a river by foot with the gear on their heads and walk the last 2km... sometimes the last 8km if
Side note: one of the passengers making the ride back to the city with us was a man with severly elevated blood pressure (220/150) in the beginning stages of having a stroke. He was from another part of the country, and in the area for a wedding. The condition may have been caused by not taking his medecines, alcohol use, and/or chronic malnutrition - either way he was being taken to the emergency room. You could see the veins bulging in his head and the start of some asymmetries in his face. Most of the work the doctors do is done behind closed doors where we don't go, and we are only left to see the patients calmly waiting, but sometimes we get sobering reminders like this about what kind of work is being done JSS and what the doctors face daily.
