Placement went pretty well today. We were able to watch the morning yoga sessions that the students at SPASTN do every morning before their classes start, which was really neat. After the yoga sessions we went inside to observe in the PT department, and then observe in the multiple disabilities unit classroom until lunch time. We spoke with Karthik about our project, and mentioned that we were unable to find any of the outcome measures that he was interested in. So he canned that idea and asked us to assess some children using the Tardieu spasticity scale, a much more doable task. We had a fairly lazy afternoon of reading in the library and then some more observation in the PT department.
Once we were done for the day at 4 pm, we headed into Thiravanmuiyr (the place we go almost every day, because it’s the only shopping area we can reach on foot) to get some more clothing and top up our cell phone, as well as use the internet café (because we STILL don’t have our own internet). Shopping in India is hilarious and frustrating at the same time. You can’t just go in and pick out what you like – you have to go up to these counters and ask for help, and then they show you stuff until you find something you like. Strangely, none of the tops that we were trying to buy had attached sleeves. They all came with extra material, and then you have to go to a tailor to get the sleeves sewn on. I found 3 kurta tops that I liked, and Priyanka found 4.
It took us a while to find the tailor, but eventually we were successful. Tailoring in India is really cheap – 20 INR per garment to add the sleeves! That comes out to about 50 Canadian cents per piece. He told us it would take half an hour to finish, so we went to top up our minutes and use the internet in the mean time. When we got back to the tailor, he showed Priyanka that one of the shirts that she had purchased was damaged and that he hadn’t put the sleeves on, in case she wanted to return it. We headed back over to Cotton House (where we’d bought the clothing) to return the shirt. Unfortunately Cotton House has a credit only policy, so we had to go back in to try and find a new top for Priyanka. At this point the ladies at the counter were getting irritated with us, and they started throwing every kurta top they had in her size onto the counter in front of her. We eventually found a nice (slightly more expensive) white one, and left to head home.
We couldn’t get the auto rickshaw to take us all the way to our door today (this guy wanted an extra 10 INR), so we had to brave the snake-walk with the security guard, since it was after dark. It wasn’t as bad as last time though, because we were able to walk down the driveway now that the water has cleared out.
The first thing I did when we got back to our place was try on my new clothing. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed…2 out of the 3 shirts that they had sold me were too small! (ACK….the power just went out…for real. The whole compound is out.) Anyways, back to my story…so we think what happened is that they were already irritated by us the first time that we were in because we asked to see so many different items and they ended up selling me stuff that wasn’t my size. And in India its not like you can take your time and try everything on…you just kind of have to take what they tell you is your size. Tomorrow we are planning on going back to Basant Nagar, the more westernized area of town, and possibly stop in at the store we were at yesterday. It is much more expensive, but you can browse leisurely on your own, and the stuff there actually fits me!
Well…I sure hope our power comes back on soon. While it is very romantic with the candles we have burning right now, the longer the power is out, the worse the mosquitos will be, and the less we can do. What can I say…its India.
No comments:
Post a Comment