What would I have done without them? They braided my hair and put a tika on my forehead, and probably tried to put some bright red lipstick on me, too.

Admiring sari while didi braids my hair. Ginny, a professor on a Fulbright in Nepal, brought me the matress pad, which helped buffer the rock hard hospital mattress problem. The doctors didn't believe I could get a bedsore, but they were wrong.

Here you can see my didis keeping me company and trying to cheer me up (though it was hard to forget about that tube coming out of my side or the oxygen tube thingy attached to my nose and hanging over my ears). They bought new saris that day.

With a cleaning nurse who liked to talk to me and tried to convert me to Christianity based on miracle stories. Happy because my dad is there taking a picture.