My Manali Story

Blogs I understand are written in the order of new-to-old. It took some work to reverse this one to tell you a story. The first post that follows is an email that I sent out after my first week. Then, the story continues through my return home. With this post, I am also introducing the cast of characters.

From left to right - me with Sunny, our Manali coordinator; Judy Stone, MD, adjunct instructor for the study abroad program and mother of Heather Stone; Heather Stone, MPH student and course creator and instructor.

Mili Duggal, Maternal and Child Health PhD student in the Department of Family Science. Mili has been working with me on a USDA grant to develop health messages for low-income rural mothers and their families.

Drs. Alexander from Lady Willingdon Hospital with their baby boy. Both doctors earned great respect from the students. Dr. Philip Alexander, known as "Sir" is the lead doctor who performs many surgeries a day.

A snapshot of Hotel Kanchan Grey with many of the students. Front and center are the hotel staff, including Shroven (in white) who made great effort to learn English and teach Hindi, much appreciated by all. Behind him is the head cook who prepared three meals a day for our group.

 One day trek from Manali to the Jogni Waterfall near Vashisht

Did I mention that one of the students invited a snake charmer to the hotel one morning? 

Can't resist sharing a monkey shot. No, I didn't zoom to capture this guy right outside Sanjay, Madhu, and Tanmay's dining table window while we ate breakfast in Varanasi.

There are more people, and I don't mean to leave people out (the doctors and social workers from the hospital, Himani and Ann--researchers who worked hard with our students and are continuing to work with Heather, Tanmay--Sanjay and Madhu's 11 year old son, my most prolific facebook friend who was almost as scared as I was, but also sported a snake on his head for a brief moment, etc...)