American Snacks

June 8, 2015

            I have been in India for more than a week and my body still refuses to adjust to the time change. Every day I wake up around 3 or 4 am and remain awake until 8 am, but by that time I have to wake up and eat breakfast. I recommend to anyone traveling abroad, to bring sleeping pills, it will make life much easier. It’s hard for me to enjoy my time here in Trichy when I’m running on less than 4 hours of sleep per day. I’m surprised I haven’t fainted yet. Besides the sleeping problem I am thankful that I haven’t gotten ill yet and I am praying that I remain healthy.

            Today was the nursing students last day at Janet Nursing Home. To thank them for befriending me, I brought them some snacks that I had brought with me from home. At first they refused to take it, but I wasn’t taking no for an answer and they finally gave up and took the snacks. I had brought a lot of snacks with me, so I also gave some to the staff members. A terrible mistake. I have planted a craving for American snacks, as the nurses like to call it, within them and they will probably continue asking me for more. I feel like I have introduced them to an addicting drug and I have become their dealer. Indu, the head nurse in the labor room, has already made a request for me to bring in more American snacks tomorrow. I guess I have to say goodbye to my junk food stash.

            In return for the American snacks, the student nurses gifted me with a Fruit and Nut Dairy Silk Chocolate bar, it is by far the best chocolate bar I have ever had. It’s sad they are already moving to a new location, even though I just got to meet them, but I know the new girls coming in tomorrow will be awesome as well. The two elder staff members in the labor room keep trying to feed me their lunch. I appreciated the nice gesture but I didn’t want to take the chance. I kept refusing her offer for food but the lady ended up shoving a baked good into my hand, so I really didn’t have any choice but to eat it. I don’t know what it was, it had the appearance of a cookie mixed with spinach, but it tasted like wheat bread. Overall, it wasn’t my favorite. Afterwards, she gave me a slice of mango. I didn’t want to be rude, so I accepted but I knew that I was going to regret my decision later. Today has been full of bad eating decisions. Earlier, our driver Raaj gave me a something called Sweet Bada. It was wrapped in a banana leaf and it had something inside of it. I was told that it was sweet but it wasn’t and I almost threw up trying to swallow it. It makes me happy to know that people here want to feed me and I don’t want to reject their kindness, so I guess I might just have to get sick.

Day 9 in Trichy and I am sad to see my new friends go.