School's Out for Summer!

Today I completed my third of four online classes in the long term healthcare graduate certificate program that I am working on through the University of South Dakota. Administration of Long Term Care, Advanced Topics in Human Resource Management, and Strategic Planning in Healthcare are all completed. At the end of August I start Financial Management in Healthcare and by mid December I will be finished with the 4 course program.

What are you going to do with a graduate certificate in Long term care? Excellent question. During my five years selling meat at John Morrell I realized that maybe corporate America is not the right place for me. I have always enjoyed older people and interacting with them. I think it is due to all those crazy whist parties my parents had when I was a kid. Playing cards with the legends of Spink County Cecil Blume, Harvey Blume, Howard Harmening, Bernice Polak, Eleanor Frankenstein, and Velda Schroeder taught me how to communicate. I started researching Healthcare Administration as a career and was not sure if I wanted to dive into a full masters program, but found these four classes to be very interesting and exactly what I was looking for to gain additional knowledge in long term care (assisted living, home health, nursing home, etc.). These four courses also happened to fit perfectly into our 18 month timeframe in India. If anyone has any questions on Medicare, Medicaid, organizing your companies strategic plan, or which long term care setting is best for your loved one just send me an email.

Water Boy (s)

Water Boy was a popular 1998 movie with Adam Sandler, but in Delhi we are seeing the real water boys of India. Once again another tradition that I had never heard about is happening in Delhi. "This is an ultramarathon of a different type. Every year in July, come Monsoons or not, hundreds of thousands of Kavadi (or Kaavadi) bearers walk from Haridwar to their respective Shiva temples. They carry the holy water of Ganges in pitchers mounted on shoulder slung bamboo carriers. A vast majority of them are young men between the ages of 20-30 from small villages or slums.
They wear orange garb – t-shirts and shorts, or traditional kurtas and dhotis, sometimes carrying a backpack or waist pouch, and rarely sporting sunglasses or shoes. A deep rooted religious belief combined with a sense of bravado motivates them to undertake this 200 km (124.27 miles) walk – often barefoot or in thong slippers. Although temples provide roadside rest areas and free food, this walk is arduous in the burning heat of Indian summers. By the time they reach Delhi, most of the bearers have bandages on their feet.
During this time, they also jam the national highway between Haridwar and Delhi and all other major roads. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that touching a kavadi bearer, renders the Ganges water impure. And invariably every year, there are a few roadside riots – a few buses and cars get burned, and a few drivers get beaten up – all in the name of Lord Shiva, the destroyer."

SOURCE:
http://locomotoring.net/2009/07/27/holy-walk-on-hot-asphalt-from-haridwar-to-delhi/

Corrupt Common Wealth Games

Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games October 3-14th. Great Britain and all its former colonies together in one location to compete in sport. A mini Olympics with athletes from Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, and many other countries. It has been a hot topic since we arrived last year as they are frantically trying to finish building stadiums, clean up Delhi, launch a new International terminal, and get the Subway up and running. A very large task for such a poor and unorganized country that is known for having corrupt government and police officials. Well, the Common Wealth Games are no different than anything else they try to do. It is a disaster! The front page of The Times of India has documented the last three days exactly how corrupt and how unorganized the CWG committee and organizers have taken this event. In the last week the seating at the tennis stadium collapsed due to poor concrete, an athlete injured themselves at the newly opened swimming facility, and the list goes on and on. They are now finding that contractors for the games did not use proper building materials and there are serious risks of improper wiring and structural problems. Thankfully Ben and I made the decision to forgo the Commonwealth Games. While I'm sure the opening ceremonies will be magical the traffic to get to the venue will be far from magical. The games are currently 17 times more expensive than what was originally planned. In 2003 they estimated Rupees 655 crore and currently they have spent Rupees 11,494 crore. The games start in 63 days and they are expecting 71 countries of 80,000 people coming to Delhi. Time will tell if these games even happen.