Sloooooow choo choo

Hello everyone,
I miss you all, but love the trip.

Before we left New Delhi, Kara gave us a presentation about what to expect and how to behave appropriately according to Indians. Here in India we must not look too long at men or smile at them because it is considered flirtacious. I am doing my best not to smile much. Also Kara has been told that men think white women sleep with everyone. You cant blame them because that's what they see in our movies. (considering that they never kiss in bollywood movies). Kara also told us that some of the nurses that work here think that some male volunteers go back home to ask permission from their parents to marry them. All the men were doing was being polite according to our standard.

We are not able to post photos yet because the computers we are using don't have a SD card thingy!

We left to get on the train Saturday afternoon. When we got to the station, our driver got someone to carry our luggage. He carried our most heavy suitcases on his head. He was a small man and the place was CROWED and dirty! Feces were in the train tracks for example. so what we did was follow the suitcases to the train. We bought a chain there to tie our suitcases together because the only place for them was under the seat. I will (hopefully soon) post a video of the compartment we stayed in. It is meant for 8 people. However we ended up being 11 because we were with families. We were traveling with 3 kids, a girl who was one, a boy who was 14 months and another boy of 4 yrs. The oldest boy knew how to count up to ten in English and sang jingle bell. So funny! The train was very noisy. we didn't know how we would sleep. (we didn't really) The man above my bunk had a cell phone that rang through the night. It never woke him up. At first the train ride seemed sketchy. it seemed already full and more people kept coming on when stopped. at first i tried really hard not to look at men. but Leah and I befriended the kids and so funny things started happening and couldn't keep ourselves from laughing. For example, the 14 month old boy was sitting on the top bunk, his feet were hanging, and all of a sudden he started peeing on me (since i was directly under him) the mother was sorry. I have a picture of his feet hanging and other pictures of these beautiful kids. At the end of the day we were all sharing food. 26 hour later, we said bye to everyone. I hope to bump into them at some point.

At the train station, no one came to pick us up. rickshaw drivers were around us trying to sell us a ride. finally they left and we decided we shouldn't wait any longer (after a few attempts at calling the hospital). so the man who agreed to bring us had a bike with a SMALL bench attached behind. We barely fit. I actually don't now how we did it. the man was skinny but strong to pull us and cycle.

The lonely planet travel guide did not joke when it said that Raxaul was dirty and crowed. Picture dirty and then times it by 10! However the place where we are staying at is clean, basic and the people are nice. We arrived at the hospital and someone found us and brought us to the guest house. We had our meal and then took a shower! I felt so so dirty! Soon after I dropped dead on my bed and slept a good night.

This morning we had a tour of the hospital. The place is a maze. Leah is the one that found the computers again. There is no air conditioning (except in the ICU). Most of the ppl in the ICU are patients suffering from poisoning after a suicide attempt (that is what I understood at least). We also saw 3 abandoned children, all differently able. They have been here for months and months. in the NICU, the babies are so so so small.
We are planning on going to the market to buy toilet paper, cooling powder and laundry detergent today. I don"t think I will work today. I just want to get oriented and organized.
Keep cool
Lyanne :)