Updates from Jodhpur's finest

Hello from the second member of the India team, Amy. I will be entering my 3rd year at the Atlantic Veterinary College in PEI this September, and grew up in Halifax, NS. I haven’t been more than half an hour from an ocean for any extended amount of time in my entire life, so spending the summer in the desert is a little bit of a change for me!

June 17th marked mine and Melissa’s first month in India (Carson arrived a little earlier) and it feels very much like home here in Jodhpur for all of us! We have been making sure to fit in many side trips through the huge state of Rajasthan on our days off from MAPT, and our guest house is always a welcome sight to return to. Travelling in the desert heat can be exhausting, and the constant “Where from?”, “Which country?” and plain out double takes we experience as tourists only adds to this.

We were very excited to spend a night in Bikaner last week, where Dr. Kalpat and Ishrats’ vet school is located. Kalpat accompanied us on the 6 hour bus ride there (the 4 of us were cramped into a double sleeper cot), and we were treated to some Indian hospitality while staying at his relatives house, including a late night supper sitting cross legged on the floor and of course, chai! We travelled to the vet school in the morning and explored the huge campus. The architecture in India is worlds apart from Canada, and we were surprised to see that most of the buildings look like palaces. We were taken through the library which we were told houses about 36000 books.

While walking across the campus we jokingly said we should have brought signs saying “Canadian vet students”, so we could have avoided answering the question every time a group of students noticed us. It is a requirement for veterinary students to learn English, and most have spoken strictly Hindi until their first day on campus. We were very impressed when we learned Kalpat and Ishrat have only been speaking English for about 5 years. It was nice to be able to actually converse with everyone around us, as we are usually completely surrounded by Hindi (Our Hindi vocabulary consists of about 10 words, including one we hear more than any other: Khutta (dog – pronounced coota)).

All of the usual departments could be found there: Anatomy, Histology, Microbiology, Nutrition, etc; and some we would not find at a Canadian vet school – ie, the camel operation theatre.

After reaching the surgery clinics, we were very excited to be introduced to the world famous camel surgeon, Dr. T.K. Gahlot. He walked us through the building showing us pictures on the walls of surgeries that he has performed (apparently he has performed over 1000 types of surgeries), most of which were familiar to us and some we had not heard of before. We ended in the camel operation theatre, which houses a huge area filled with dune sand for the camels to stand on comfortably during operations.

We felt very welcome on the campus, and were told by the other vet students we met that no matter where you are from, vets and vet students are always family!

We spent the rest of the day doing what any vet student in Bikaner would do – we headed to the Karni Mata temple (the rat temple – google it!) located just outside of the city. Basically just a big building filled with thousands of rats and of course, lots of rat feces. Like all temples in India, you must remove your shoes before entering. It is supposed to be good luck if a rat runs over your feet, but if you step on one you must pay its weight in gold. So needless to say, we were very careful when putting our feet down!

The next stop on our trip was Jaisalmer, where we joined a camel safari and spent a night in the Great Thar desert. We had lots of time to get up close and personal with the camels, which are very strange animals to look at up close! We were very impressed with the camels’ welfare; they were given lots of food, water and treats when we arrived and obviously had a strong bond with their drivers. Saying “Je, Je” makes the camels sit (going from 8 feet high to ground level in 3 seconds is an experience in itself), and after completely ignoring us saying it many times, it only takes once for them to listen to their drivers.

So, we made it back to Jodhpur safely, where we have been continuing our work at MAPT that Carson has described previously. We will keep you updated on our progress!