CHAD

For my last rotation at CMC, i was able to do CHAD. I can't remember what is stands for, but basically its a team the consists of either doctors or nurses with a healthcare aid. These groups travel to different towns or villages and go home to home to check up on patients. It is a wonderful cultural experience! I loved it! We walked into families homes, went up into the mountains to small villages, and walked through rice patties to get to them. It's exactly why I came to CMC. What's funny, is that nobody believes that I am not Indian. They all started to speak to me in Tamil, and when I couldnt understand, the nurse would translate to them that I am in fact, not India, not even northern Indian, to their disbelief. It's become a joke between my classmates. It was wonderful but shocking to see how people live. Some homes are made of cow dung walls and dried leaves as a cieling. The people were so friendly, even though they have barely enough money to live, they constantly offered us food or something to drink. Little kids are just running around the fields as their other family members tended to the crops or livestock. A lot of what these groups are trying to accomplish are minor checkups, prenatal care, and assesment for further care. It helps to bring healthcare to those who would most likely not be able to make the journey into town on their own. The healthcare workers are basically the connection between the villages and the hospital. From what I could gather, their is a designated healthcare worker for each village or a groups of villages, and she is responsible for documenting the births, deaths, and marriages. So because of this, she knows about all the families illnesses as well, so she is the one that take us to the homes and remembers their complaints. It was definitely a great expereince, something that I am glad I was able to have.