THUNDERSTORM!

Exciting news: we're currently in the midst of a thunderstorm!  It's the first one I've experienced since arriving in India.  Of course it resulted in temporary power losses, but we seem to have that happen at least once per day, so it's nothing we're not used to!

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

I think I'm in love...

It's official:  I think I'm in love with Thanjavur.  From the cows wandering the streets to the music that plays when cars are reversing (yeah, they personalize their back up beeping noises!), I am so mesmerized by this city and its people.  

Despite the random power outages and loss of water that plague our new dwelling, the people that run this place make up for it with their friendliness, curiosity, and generosity.  A woman named Thandrel runs our pseudo-dormitory and her nurturing mannerisms have led us students to dub her our house-mother!  Her 14-year-old son, Mukesh, quickly has become a member of our group.  He speaks English amazingly well and has thoroughly enjoyed teaching us basic Tamil phrases.  Mukesh absolutely idolizes a member of our class, Josh, though I think us girls are growing on him, as earlier tonight, he finally gave in to our invitations to play Bananagrams!  He's even allowing our rowdy crew to come watch him play cricket!

One of my favorite things about our new place is our common room, which is actually a giant balcony on the third floor.  Our group members can frequently be found sitting up there doing homework, eating meals, watching the cows and pedestrians walk down our street, catching a glimpse of the greenbirds flying around the open field across the street, and watching the sunset.  This outdoor room offers both protection from the sun and a prime location to catch the breeze, which are both necessities in this Indian summer.  Actually, I feel like the weather is much more bearable here than in Chennai, as temps are only in the upper 90s instead of the low 110s, though I guess it's possible this is because the "end of the hot season" happened to be this past weekend!  Either way, I'm happier to be a bit cooler!

We also had our first lecture today at the ICTPH building.  I'm guessing the locals had quite the interesting views this morning, as all 14 of us 20 and 30 somethings lined up outside of our building, with backpacks, waiting to be picked up for school by our cars.  At school, we talked about methods of data collection (e.g., surveys, focus groups, etc.) and met with the ICTPH members assigned to work with our five groups.  Not only did we get some insights into ICTPH's viewpoints on our health issues, but... we also got our saris today!  Earlier this afternoon, Megan and I tried to tie her up in her sari, but failed miserably.  Luckily, I think some of the ICTPH members are planning on giving us a crash course in sari-tying!

Alright, I guess that's all for now!  Tomorrow ought to bring interesting stories, as we get to visit our first health clinic, so stay tuned!

So, what am I actually doing in India?

I just realized that I never actually explained why I'm living in India for the summer. Basically, as part of my master's program at Washington University in St. Louis, I decided to take a course entitled "Transdisciplinary Problem Solving: Implementing Public Health Interventions in Developing Countries." As the title of the class suggests, we are working with a local organization (ICTPH, mentioned in an earlier post) to develop public health interventions that can be implemented in rural communities that ICTPH works with. Our class is responsible for developing feasible and sustainable interventions for five different areas of health: heart health, gastrointestinal health, maternal and child health, oral health, and cancer.  For those of you who know me, I'm sure you it will take you only one guess to figure out which of those areas I'm lucky enough to work on... I literally could not be more excited to be devoting my summer to addressing gastrointestinal health and water sanitation issues, as I'm currently planning on devoting my career to infectious diseases and tropical medicine.

Anyway, this summer, I'm going to be joining my classmates and ICTPH employees for tours of primary health care centers, assessing the current status of gastrointestinal distress on rural communities, and developing an intervention to improve this health concern.  All-in-all, I'm pretty pumped for such a fun experience!

Thanjavur!

After a long, sleepless (for me, anyway) night on the train, we've arrived in Thanjavur!!  The train ride was certainly an interesting experience, as we were warned to use our own sheets and wrap up in a cocoon to avoid the roaches.  I was probably overly freaked out about this type of roach because I've been hearing horror stories about the little roaches that climb into your ears and get stuck...  Luckily, nothing like this happened on the train (though I did spot a few crawling around on the floor).

Although I've barely been in Thanjavur for 12 hours, I can tell I'm going to like it!  It's much less hectic here, as only 250,000 Indians call this place home (in comparison to more than 6.5 million in Chennai).  There is a lot of vegetation and many, many cows wandering the streets.

ICTPH Building (where we'll have class)

Fruit stand at City Center

View from our balcony

View from our balcony

COW!  One of the many that roam the street outside our dormitory.

Our new apartment

Our room Part 2 - so colorful

After a quick nap at the new digs (because we got back to the new place before 8 AM), we met at ICTPH's building for lunch and to get a tour of where we'll have class.  Some of the group then decided to explore the City Center, where we picked up some fresh fruit.

Mahabalipuram

Sorry for the lapse in posts, but we've been quite busy here in India. I'll try to give a quick recap:

Yesterday (our last day in Chennai area before Thanjavur) we ventured more than an hour south of Chennai to visit the village of Mahabalipuram, which houses groups of monuments that are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although it was a long drive, it was totally worth it, as the community has about 16 sites with temples and monuments made of rock.

We started out the morning with a surprise gift from Ravi -- coconuts, which apparently have perfect isotonic properties to keep you hydrated!

Fisherman outside of the Shore Temple in Mahabalipuram.

The Shore Temple

Crazy giant rock balancing on other rock formation.  Walking up the stone to check out the balancing rock took a lot more effort than it looks!  Little kids actually created a little track on the rock hill to slide down. 

The Leather Bar

Yeah, you read the title right.  We closed down The Leather Bar.  I think this might sound more impressive had they not stopped serving drinks at 10:30 PM. This bar was located within a pretty fancy hotel: The Park Hotel.  I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I didn't think it would be as westernized as it was.  Either way, it was fun to go out as a group!  We also learned that although tipping at restaurants is not recommended, you're apparently supposed to tip about 10% at bars.  Too bad I didn't know that before we left the place...  Oops. This discovery has led me to come up with a new motto for tipping: if the place has toilet paper in the bathroom, they're getting a tip from me.

Oops. Sorry friends, but I'm too lazy to rotate.  View from the leather bar into the hotel lobby.

Some of the crew.

Again, too lazy to rotate.  This was the sweet bathroom sink --  slanted etched glass, where the water collects in the back trough-like contraption.  Pretty cool.

First day of class! (And some shopping. And ice cream.)

Today was our first day of class! Our group headed out early this morning (via minivan today!) to Industrial Knowledge Partners (IKP), the parent organization to ICTPH (mentioned in an earlier post), where we received introductory information and logistical explanations about our course and its goals. We were also treated to lunch at the cafeteria, where I enjoyed a deliciously huge masala dosa with several chutney sauces. Why I am in love with India: this meal cost about 30 Rupees; the current conversion rate is approximately 40 Rus. per US dollar. Yes, you calculated that right – I ate an incredibly fantastic lunch for under $1.

Half of our class heading out to class (L to R: Sonia, Shawn, Megan, Nancy, Allison, Whitney).

View of Chennai from IKP - 10th floor

Interesting washroom (and drinking water)

Lunch was our final classroom activity of the day, and we were permitted to spend the afternoon as we liked. At the recommendation of our professor, our entire class decided to stop at Cottage Industries, a government-run store selling ornaments, furniture, fabrics, clothing, and accessories. Though most of you know that I tend to avoid shopping at all costs, I continually find myself fascinated by all of the amazing fabrics, clothes, and trinkets they have available over here!

Shopping at Cottage Industries

After resisting the urge to purchase everything in the store, we headed back to the hostel for a little break. While there, we discovered that the hostel staff had been filling the water cooler that we all used to fill our water bottles with water from the hoses. Now, I find this absolutely hilarious because we have all been overly cautious to avoid any water that didn't come from a packaged bottle, even refusing to eat foods that have been washed in tap water (e.g., fruits and vegetables), use ice (you have no idea how much I already miss ice – in fact, the first thing that I am going to do when I land back in the States is have an ice cold soda), and use tap water to brush our teeth. Somehow, no one has gotten sick yet (except me – this morning, actually – but that was probably brought on by taking lots of pills on an empty stomach).

Earlier in the day, one of my classmates suggested we go on an adventure to find some ice cream, which is exactly what we did this afternoon. Google maps informed us that the nearest ice cream parlor was approximately 1.2 km (0.75 mi), so we decided to try to find it by foot. Unfortunately, we ended up taking several wrong turns (I'm going to blame the lack of street signs for this!) and had to fight the traffic (which is a dangerous feat here in Chennai, especially during rush hour) because of the lack of adequate sidewalks, but our determination paid off and we made it to Creamy-Inn! Let's just say that we were very delighted to finally make it and the soft-serve totally hit the spot!

WE MADE IT!

Tonight, our last night in Chennai before we head down to Thanjavur, our group is going to attempt to visit a bar!  This ought to be interesting, considering women traditionally don't go to bars (and 12/14 of our group members are female) and there is supposedly a 11:30 PM curfew! I'm sure there will be stories to share tomorrow!

And as always, today's temp was about 104, but I think the humidity was a bit lower. I heard that the hot season is officially over (as of yesterday) and it should begin to get a little bit cooler (read: high nineties with heat indexes of low 100s). I'm so thrilled for this "break" in the heat...

Oh Chennai, how you make me feel like a movie star.

Some of our group decided we wanted to stick a foot in the Bay of Bengal and get an idea of what swimwear is acceptable in India, which lead us to venture down to Marina Beach, the longest urban beach in India (approximately 14 kms). Though this was a great idea in theory, we neglected to realize just how hot the temperatures in India really are. Today's peak heat index was around 119 F, which made the near a half-a-mile in length trek through the molten sand incredibly difficult. We thought our Keen sandals and cheapo Old Navy flip flops might have actually started melting under our feet!

While exploring the beach, enjoying the refreshing laps of waves and views of catamarans and fishing nets, our group of six girls certainly drew a lot of attention. Kids stopped to point and stare at the white women, and we had several people take pictures and videos of us! One adorable little girl wearing a beautiful orange sari was so excited when she saw us that a giant grin broke across her face, she waved, and warmly called out, “Hello, welcome to India” in our direction. Although some of these encounters were pretty adorable and we were aware that we would probably get heckled, we did not expect what happened next. While enjoying a much-needed moment in the shade, our presence began drawing several local beggar children and vendors trying to get us to take a picture with their ear-pierced, pacifier-wearing monkeys. Although we repeatedly declined and began moving away, one of the monkeys was encouraged to leap up on the leg of one of the girls in our group. Poor Nancy literally had a monkey death-gripping her pants! Luckily, we all escaped without any monkey-related injuries!

After the beach, we decided to rickshaw it over to the National Art Gallery in Chennai. We saw some incredible architecture, sculptures, paintings, and coins, but most importantly got to enjoy the air conditioning! I'd love to share some photographs of the things we saw, but apparently we needed to purchase 

All-in-all, it made for an interesting day!