The little white hatchback car pulled into the drive with bright red and orange flowers taped all over it. There was a nice bouquet on the hood and individual flowers placed around on the doors, fenders and roof like bulky polka dots. It was still decorated from the wedding.

We loaded up, five of us in the little car, and the rest in the Tata Sumo, an SUV type vehicle. We headed out for the village of Kothur about two or three hours south of Hyderabad. There was so much luggage that we had bags on our laps the entire way, shifting our feet and back sides in the cramped rear seat periodically for comfort.

Along the way we stopped at a roadside open-air restaurant for a break. As in the rest of the country, there was little concept of black tea. Always it is chai, tea with milk and spices. The milk is not generally pasteurized in this country but they boil the mixture, which makes it safe. Alex and Patti asked for the restrooms. After some confusion and the word “toilet”, the owner pointed and said, “Outside.” He meant outside anywhere. They found structures somewhere to hide behind and let it all out.

We dropped most of the gang off at the hotel in the neighboring village, the nearest place to spend the night for the camp. They had brought in all new mattresses and sheets for us. It was a comfortable place to stay, clean with bucket hot water and no bed bugs. Our view off the back balcony was of a sad, permanent tent village where we could see people going about the business of their days, carrying water in containers balanced on their heads, building fires to cook over, and corralling bare foot children. The wild boars would root around the tents and below our balconies looking for food. They ate the banana peels and apple cores we threw over.

Alex, Patti, Rao and I went to the tiny village to set up the medical camp in the three cement school buildings that were in a dirt courtyard with a cement wall around the perimeter and a black iron gate. The children had painted the walls and window frames with a fresh coat for the occasion, decorating with the alphabet in Roman numerals as well as their local language. We arranged the tables and chairs that had been brought in from a government hospital for us to use with the edict of a local politician. I found a screen curtain made of surgical green cloth stretched between metal poles and set it up beside the thin, rusted, un-sturdy exam table for privacy. I was the only woman doc and would be dealing with the female complaints. I brought speculums on loan from my hospital back home and had a microscope set up. Bethany became my lab tech and nursing assistant for the duration of the camp.

The pharmacy was placed across the little dirt road in a separate, empty, one room community building. We set up benches along the walls to use as shelves and tried to sort the medications into categories before dark. Antibiotics, analgesics, vitamins, GI meds, etc., all went into piles on the benches. We had two large suitcases full, donated from companies and individuals in the States. One of the Indian doctors brought medicines from his clinic, things we couldn’t get easily and inexpensively back home like albendazole for worms and griseofulvin for fungal infections of the scalp.

Afterwards we rejoined the others at the hotel and turned in for the night. We would have to be up early to finish setting up and to be ready before the opening ceremony scheduled at eight.