Tambaram Hospital and House of Hope

Today we left Claire to play with our friends' 2-year-old son Kaia (and to be minded by their maid and driver - everyone here has domestic staff, which takes a little getting used to). We headed out to Tambaram Hospital, where Tom works, so Lyanda could see it, and especially visit the pediatrics ward. For the past several years, we have spearheaded a small project that supports the salary of a social worker, and the costs of a playroom, at this pediatric ward. ( For more details see www.TambaramKids.org).

To visit the hospital, and a small orphanage nearby, is always a humbling experience. We were met with garlands of flowers and the children danced and sung for us, and proudly showed off their coloring books. The hospital treats tens of thousands of of HIV+ patients from hundreds of miles around, and in its long open wards you come face to face with profound suffering. Families sit near their sick loved ones, feeding them a little food or just comforting them, in ward after ward across a 200 acre campus.

Since the arrival of free HIV antiretroviral medications, the wards are no longer filled to overflowing with gaunt and skeletal patients with little hope of recovery, but today the ward for new arrivals was full, as it is most Mondays, and we walked slowly through one women's HIV ward, giving each patient the customary Indian greeting, hands pressed together and a little nod of the head, and were reminded for the umpteenth time just how fortunate we are.