Much has happened since my last post, but I've been too distracted (and let's face it, a bit too lazy) to do these blog posts! Let's be serious, I'd rather be exploring the city, eating the delicious food, or enjoying the company of my classmates than plopped in front of a computer screen typing a summary of the day. Alright - enough whining. I know I'll appreciate this when I get back! :)
So, yesterday, our class took its first field trip! We drove about a half-hour outside of Thanjavur to Alakudi, a small community of about 3,000 that houses one of ICTPH's rural micro health centers. The city also has a federally-run health clinic that provides free (and often quick, i.e., <5 minutes) appointments and prescriptions. We also got to see the local ICDS, which is a government program that offers meals to children to fight malnutrition (I think). Next to one of the schools was the city's water tower, which collects rain and also nearby groundwater (I think) and supplies it to the villagers through a few filling stations. Immediately next to the water tower was a community bathroom, which unfortunately isn't used because it was never connected to plumbing. Yay.
 |
| Apparently Allison, Nancy, and I accidentally all wore our matching kurtas on the same day. |
 |
| Random door in Alakudi |
 |
| Alakudi water tower (and non-functional community bathroom). Look at that beautiful sky! |
 |
| Dr. Raghavan and maternal/child health group students eagerly approaching a village mother |
We students also got to accompany community members who were hired by ICTPH during some visits to collect demographic and health information from other villagers. The process is so cool - these workers literally go door to door with a web-enabled cell phone and ask the mothers of the family (usually) to tell them their household size, ages of family members, etc., and the worker enters it in electronically into the phone, where the info is immediately accessible in the ICTPH database. I am so impressed by ICTPH's information collection process, as they literally collect information from an entire village in 4 days. For thousands of villagers!
Anyway, scoping out the village provided us with lots of information and new insights into the health problems facing these communities. We also got to know some of the neighborhood kids, as gaggles of energetic children followed some of us students around for the entire duration of our visit. There was even a village girl named Nancy who got her picture taken with our Nancy (I think I stole this pic from a classmate, but I don't remember who, so thank you!)!
After the village visit, I put in several hours of reading up on GI diseases plaguing southern India and efforts used around the world to combat these illnesses. Yes, believe it or not, I do have to do some real work while here!
This morning (Saturday), I accompanied Shawn, Josh, and Mukesh to a nearby basketball court to shoot some hoops. Though hot, it was nice to get out for a bit and use the ol' muscles. I learned later that Mukesh and his cousin were apparently laughing at my outfit of choice for basketball, which happened to be linen capris and a Wisconsin t-shirt. And here I thought I was being considerate and respectful of Indian traditions by 1) not wearing shorts, and 2) covering my shoulders, but apparently they thought I was strange because I was wearing "pajamas" to the court. Interesting. Now I have no idea what to wear the next time I venture out to shoot around! I guess we'll see what happens.
This afternoon, some students headed downtown to expand our wardrobe a bit and pick up some delicious fruit from the market. I also have officially started my souvenir shopping, so if anyone has any requests, speak up!
Oh, and a quick update about the thunderstorm. Since I've started writing this, the power has come on and off several times. But, what's weird is that this place seems to have several different sources of electricity, because instead of everything going out, we still have some lights that work, while the air conditioning unfortunately has been turning on and off at will, while the fan has been changing speeds on its own. It's weird. Either way, at least it's 8 PM here so the sun isn't making things worse...
Some of us are about to head out to get a post-dinner ice cream snack, beer, and/or "non-veg" snack. Hopefully our rickshaw doesn't get swallowed up by the massive puddles on our road...
Til later this week,
e
Erin -
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you are having such a good experience and learning at the same time! I'm glad there are people like you in the world who want to make a difference.
Janene