Well we managed to escape Bhubaneswar last weekend for a
trip to the National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Rourkela for their
International Student’s Meet (ISM). It
was essentially a weekend festival at NIT for international students studying
in India. And so it was that our
entourage of 7 Afghanis and 2 Americans from KIIT University left for Rourkela
last Thursday night.
Although Rourkela is in the same state as Bhubaneswar, the
bus trip took well over 7 hours. The bus
itself looked like a psychedelic hippie transportation machine straight out of
the 1960’s, with neon flashing lights all over the outside and bright green
lights illuminating the interior. Since
there aren’t many U.S. type expressways in India the majority of the ride was
spent bouncing around as we drove over speed bumps, potholes, and who knows
what else. We finally arrived at 6:00 AM
Friday morning after a sleepless night and were greeted by a group of NIT
students who had arranged for our transportation back to their guesthouse.
After finally catching up on some sleep in the guesthouse at
NIT, I woke up around noon and stepped outside…and promptly threw up. Now this should have been a sign that I
wasn’t alright, but I figured it was only something temporary so I shrugged it
off, chugged some water, and went back to sleep. Later on that day we decided to move to a new
hostel under construction inside the NIT campus. When I say it was under construction, I mean
we were literally living in a construction site with piles of cement, random
holes, and dust everywhere. During the
walk there I felt progressively worse and agreed to get some medication from
the university pharmacy. Feeling much
better after the medication, I went out with our group for the evening
activities, which included some of the best Bollywood music I’ve ever heard as
well as the shortest DJ session I’ve ever heard (around 20 minutes).
After finally registering ourselves for ISM on Saturday
morning, we could start partaking in the weekend’s activities. First up was paintball, and my team
definitely kicked ass! Unfortunately
after that, the day got progressively hotter and my condition worsened with
equal pace. I tried another trip to the
pharmacy for new medication before I resigned myself to the hostel for the
night. I remained in the hostel
shivering under blankets until about midnight when we decided I should go the
hospital. Within minutes several ISM
organizers showed up on mopeds and motorbikes to pick me up.
By the time I was admitted to the hospital, my temperature
was around 104F. After hooking me up to
an IV, I was put in the semi-ICU for the night since it was the only room in
the hospital with AC. That night I was
kept up by regular trips to the bathroom, random groans coming from the
patients beside me as well as those out the hallways, and feral dogs fighting
each other outside…a very eerie experience.
My fever (or whatever it was) finally broke the next day and
I was let out around 8:00 PM, just in time for another long, bumpy, cramped,
7-hour bus ride back home in our flower-power bus. We arrived back in Bhubaneswar around 5:30 AM
on Monday. After being awake for two
nights my sleep cycle was pretty much screwed.
I spent the majority of Monday sleeping and woke up around 4:00 AM this
morning!
The positive from this whole ordeal was the care I received
from everyone around me this weekend.
Both the Indian students and staff at NIT as well as my Afghani friends
made sure I was never alone and accompanied me everywhere. They always insisted on paying for my
medication or anything else I might need.
Everyone seemed to be willing to drop whatever they were doing to help
me when I was feeling unwell. I owe a
huge thank-you to all of them for taking such excellent care of me!
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