Not exactly an American business trip

Today we went on a full day tour to another Aravind Hospital in Teni. I had planned to go before I left, and I was glad to find out that they had no problem with Steph coming along. We were to join a group of about 20 men and two women from six other hospitals throughout India who were in for a week’s worth of training to learn about the Aravind model. Teni is about two hours outside of Madurai, and so at 8am we all piled in a bus and headed off. We visited a vision center, another eye camp, and the hospital. I was so glad that Steph was able to see it all because although I’ve tried to describe what Aravind does, you really do have to see it to believe it. It was funny to see that business trips among Indians weren’t that different than U.S. ones. There was the smart ass guy that they called “the captain” who was constantly cracking jokes. And a lively group that included one man who had ridden on motorcycle from Calcutta to London in 1979. They were all very friendly though, and curious about why Steph and I were along. The Aravind staff later let us know that it’s great for them to have international people also interested in the model. There was one major occurence, though, that Steph and I could never imagine happening in the U.S. which was that on the way home, they all sang songs to each other. Since they were each from different states in India – Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal, as well as the Aravind staff from Tamil Nadu - they each had different native languages and so went back and forth singing and shouting. It was hilarious, and Steph and I talked about their enjoyment in the simple pleasures here. I mean, can you imagine 20 men singing to each other in the U.S. on a business trip, and sober, no less?