Day 8: visiting MSF-projects in Bihar

We were honoured to be invited by Doctors Without Borders-India to visit a project they are currently running in Bihar. Apart from the project of preventing children from malnutrition, which was unluckily to far out of the route to visit, a main project has been started in 2007 in Hajipur, Bihar: treatment of patients who are suffering from Kala Hazar. Kala what? Kala Hazar yeah, or in Hindi Kala Ajer.. In our language called Visceral Leishmaniasis. A parasite transmitted by sandflies especially in humid areas. Malnourished or immune compromised people are phrone to an infection. This leads to >2 weeks of fever, enlarged spleen and anaemia and can be deathly when not proper treated. Clinically comparible with Malaria. Good till here this medicine lesson. The important part is that Bihar is the area with worldwide the most affected patients and since MSF started here in 2007 they have set up a clinic with a whole team including 3 doctors doing diagnostics(a blind spleen aspiration!!), treatment, follow up and education for the patients and families. With a daily admission of 5-10 new patients and the writing of a new treatment protocol they have already cured thousands of patients in the past years. Now they are trying to give the management of this clinic and the regional widespread educational function back to the local goverment, which is by far the hardest part a Norwegian nurse told us during the tour we got in the hospital. It was impressive to see the professionalism of the clinic in big contrast with the chaotic country it has been built in. After the tour and conversations in our limited hindi with admitted patients and taking some harrowing pictures we had to leave again to hit the road in the direction of the beautiful destination of darjeeling!

Namasté

Note: the Rickshambulance is still doing great!!

Day 7: Hajipur

Today we entered the province of Bihar, a state which is quite poor and were we will visit our Doctors Without Borders project. People our way more curious here and the mobiel around your rickshaws grows bigger when you stop. Pim and Orestes had their share of Delhi belly and were sleeping the whole day in the back of the Shaw. We ended up at an Indian engagement party up on the roof of our hotel!

Day 6: Rooftopparty in Varanasi

While driving to the city we mastered the technique of acrobatic rickshawdriving. Varanasi: the city which never stops to amaze you. The burning ghats, the mighty Ganges river and a rooftop party to celebrate being half way to Shillong!

Day 5: Mac Allahabad

Today a beautiful day of driving trough a valley to Allahabad were DJ O.R.I. gave away his Boilerroom show. We had lunch in 'small varanasi'. After a madness night driving trough the 'la periferique' of Allahabad (cyclists and cows in the middle of the highway) we had wonderful Mac Donalds dinner. The real surprise was the fact that our French friends by total coincidence we are at the same hotel! Together with team #Foshaw we will travel to varanassi!

Day 4: Kamasutra kilometre killer

Morning post!

yesterday we made up for some lost kilometres as we rode 450km within 12hours with average speed of 36,7! We had some beautiful roads and arrived in khajuraho, a place with a 22 World Heritage temples with loads of sexual carvings: the kamasutra temples! Seems we were doing it wrong all the time.....

On to varanasi!!

Day 3: the Tiger Tagteam

Day 3: the Tiger Tagteam (290km) - Because in our childhood our cradle was too close to a wall (a French proverb: on t'a bercé trop près du mur), we drove our third day in the dark. Luckely we have a siren and some neonlights. - While every other team drove to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, as hipsters we thought is was too mainstream and ended up in the Ranthambore national park.

The big push to Pushkar

It's 01:00 right now, so here is a summary: - new personal record of 330km in one day - we got all the electrics rewired: works perfect! - we had to leave the french behind in Jodhpur because of the fantastic paper pushing machinery in the Rajasthan high court: one of them lost their passport along the way - 2,5 hours driving in the dark, but this time with siren and neon lights ;) - A rather luxurious hotel this time instead of rooftop sleaping ..

Day 1: the whole package

Finally the start with our überpimped Rickshambulance (including sirene, ambu light, neon, extra batteries, white roof and Kate Perry screaming) and a hangover; crossing a huge sandstorm in the dessert; at 100km our first breakdown due to a shutdown of electricity resulting in burned wires; being rescued by the coolest Frenchmen ever by towing our rickshaw with theirs; and now because we didnt make it to our first destination: diagnosing children and sleeping on the rooftop of a hospital/outpatient clinic (why wasn't this a challenge?)

Jaisalmer preparaten time...

Testrijden in full effect! the rickshaw works like a charm! eerste deuken zijn er al ingereden... Orrie gaat helemaal los op de aller heetste curries ever. vandaag de cricket match en morgen is ie helemaal klaar en vertrekken we richting Jodhpur!

Voor een eerste indruk van de rickshaw: check facebook hieronder!

https://www.facebook.com/events/640524102726409/

Schiphol / Amsterdam

On our way to the airport, Rickshaw Run here we come!!

Follow us on this website to see our location and read about our mechanical/emotional breakdowns!

If you don't know what this is about, watch the video down below...