Our last couple days <3 Ashley

I can't believe we leave Mota Fofalia in less than 2 days. The work Ami's uncles have done is incredible and the education the students are offered here is extraordinary. The kids are extremely disciplined and educated. They love playing with us and are fascinated with how us Americans look. Its pretty funny. Today we went to some of the classes and the kids in kindergarden sang rhymes in English and showed us their cursive, which is amazing that they learn at such a young age. I absolutely adore the children here, and love playing with them. As Wendy said we learned how to play field hokey with them and played kickball last night (we got into trouble for being loud), but they had a blast. Its going to be hard to say goodbye.

The hospital is pretty busy today which is exciting, we might get to ride in the ambulance (called 108 here instead of 911). Also we will shadow some doctors as we work on post=op checkups. Yesterday we got to see a circumcision and hernia removal. We did some post op work as well. Tomorrow an ENT and dermatologist are coming in and we may get to see a historectomy. Although the hospital here is not as busy at times it has been an amazing experience to view different cultural aspects of India. Yesterday it was interesting to see the difference between the way the male and female medical students were treated. The education in India is also at a much faster pace because they enter medical school right after high school. Their admission depends on how well they do on an exam in 10th grade. The doctors expected us to know much more about the surgeries so it was hard for them to understand why we didnt know certain terms. But we dealt with it :) They also explained a lot of it to us so it was a really good learning experience.

I absolutely LOVE Indian weddings! Yesterday was so exciting and the Indian dancing was beautiful. Wendy and I were pulled into the circle and we learned the simple Indian dance but we had a lot of fun. Also we got to dress up in the "choli" which is the dress most women wear to weddings along with bangles and the "bindi" (the little jewel dot placed in the middle of the forehead). At first it was awkward walking around with everyone staring but we kind of got use to it and had a blast. On Saturday we also got to experience some culture when we went to watch an Indian comedy called "3 idiots" without subtitles but we kind of understood. :)

I can't wait to see the lady tomorrow who we saw give birth and how she lives. We probably will go to an orphanage by Varodra as well. It feels like this week has past by so quickly and the people here are so nice, I'm going to miss it! But i'm excited to spend the New year with family and friends and enjoy the rest of Christmas break! See you guys soon!

LOVE Ashley <3