you are only one?

Hey everyone, if you are wondering why there have been no posts yet it is because this is the first I have reached internet since I have been gone as I spent the last week in Lalimonirhat.

Often when I am introduced to people, they have seen the previous group of 5 U of M girls go through and ask, suprised, if I am alone. A lot of things have been different this time being alone - good and bad. It gives me a lot more time to reflect by myself...and read and play solitaire also. And because this is my second time around, there is no longer a shock and awe feeling for all of the things I see around me. I switch from being completely at ease with what I see, and probably not reacting enough, to being to see past the fact that yes, there are crazy things around me, but I expect that. Instead I think I ask why things are happening instead of just noticing they are happening. Like I wonder why people are going places, and whether people on the side of the road are homeless and begging, or are field workers on a break.

There is a huge bridge being built (currently all traffic crosses on the rail bridge) literally brick by brick by hand. I imagine the pyramids being built the same way.

Anyways, I had a lot of downtime in Lalimonirhat, but when I did get a chance to observe surgeries I saw several C-sections. Many women do not seek out obstetrics care until there are complications. As well, I saw a really sad case of a woman who had been slashed by her lover who attempted to murder her. She had extremely deep cuts all over her head and torso and because she had eaten in the morning, they used only local anesthetic to stitch her back together, so she was screaming in pain. It was awful. Her head was so swollen, with blood everywhere, and her finger had been cut off. It was all because her lover had lost his job, but she was working. And her mother refused to let the lover marry the woman if he did not have a job. It was an awful glimpse into the social problems faced by women in this country daily, and the medical limits in this country as clearly in Canada she would be getting a CT, MRI and much better pain control at the very least.