One of the days I worked in the Department, I brought some Easy Mac (microwavable macaroni and cheese…could I be any more American?) to make for lunch (yes, I packed Easy Mac in my luggage). Everyone stops whatever they’re doing and joins together at 1:00pm for lunch either in the classroom or the conference room. It’s a very nice practice, considering a lot people in the U.S. just scarf down their lunch alone at their desk. So everyone sits around, and all the food everyone brought from home for their lunch comes out in containers and everyone passes in around and shares. It’s wonderful because I get to try all sorts of delicious homemade foods. I love it! Sharing food here is the norm, everyone shares whatever they have to eat and is always offering. I get the impression that if you didn’t try at least a little bit, it would be rude. Sharing water is also common. Indians don’t put their mouth to the bottle, they just pour it in. Obviously they’ve been doing this their whole lives so they are good at it, but every time I try, I just spill water all down my shirt and look like an idiot (fail).
Monday night I had a Skype meeting with my epidemiology advisor, Dr. Borenstein. We really needed this meeting to go over the details of my special project, which is a requirement of my graduation. It was quite a stressful conversation as I realized just how much work I have to do in the next few weeks. It’s part of the reason I decided not to go on any trips this coming weekend (6/11-12). The project is very extensive and I’ll have to do some calculations to project incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in China in the next 30 years. I’m just taking things day by day and setting goals for my progress.
My spring 2010 semester at USF I had to take a class called Database Management for Public Health Researchers, and Dr. Rajaram taught the class. I have to say that he had some influence in me wanting to go to India for my field experience. When I started my Master’s program, I knew that in two years I would have to decide where I would want to go for two months, and many places crossed my mind—Australia, Geneva (Switzerland), Costa Rica, and in the back of my mind—India. Since learning about global public health in college, I’ve had this desire to see Asia and more specifically India, which is the second most populous country in the world. From everything I’ve heard, India was so vastly different all across the country (both in geography and people). Considering how short my attention span is, I thought this would be a great fit for me. I distinctly remember googling St. John’s in Dr. Raj’s class and thinking, “wow, this might be a great place for my IFE!” I then approached Dr. Raj after class and told him I was interested in going there, to which he replied, “I am from Bangalore!” He put me in touch with Dr. Wagner in the Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health, who has a relationship with the faculty here in the Dept. of Community Health at St. John’s, and the rest is history.
As luck would have it, Dr. Rajaram travels extensively to teach classes and happened to be in Bangalore for part of my trip. Tuesday evening I went out to dinner with him! His family’s driver picked me up and we went to the Forum Mall, very close by. There is an awesome restaurant in the mall and it’s got an actual train car inside, with tables and chairs in the car. The restaurant is very fancy for Bangalore and American standards. We got a bottle of Indian merlot (with a twist-off cap of course; India is not very well known for its wine…) and had delicious appetizers of tandoori baby corn and sweet potatoes, and paneer and vegetable kebab. (Side note: tandoori is a type of oven used to cook all sorts of things in—veggies, naan bread, chicken, etc., and paneer is cheese but to me it tastes more like tofu) For dinner we had a palak dish (spinach) and chicken biryani. It was so great to catch up with him and hang out with someone from home so far away from home. I hope to see him again during my trip.
On Thursday I traveled with two doctors from the Department to a small rural village outside of Bangalore. It’s one of the 13 villages that will be participating in the PREPARE cardiovascular disease clinical trial, which is just getting underway. The meeting was to inform the community and village leaders of how the program will work, and to build trust and rapport with the people. We took a taxi and made several stops first (in true Indian fashion), so it took us about 2 hours to get there. The meeting was held in a small pre-school room an lasted about half an hour. Of course after the meeting we had two requests for consultations. Whenever a doctor comes to a small village like that, the people use this opportunity to ask their medical questions. I guess doctors all over the world get this. “Oh, you’re a doctor? What do you think about this pain in my side I’ve been having? What could that be?” Anyway, there was one woman with a thyroid issue and another woman who approached us asking about her daughter, who was mentally retarded. The daughter was about 18 years old. The parents were requesting that she get a hysterectomy for hygiene and safety issues. If she were to be raped and get pregnant, that would be a whole host of problems. The doctors informed her that they need to go to NIMHANS, which is India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-sciences. There is a special commission there tasked with examining cases of women just like this, who are mentally handicapped and the families want hysterectomies. They would first need to get approval there. I never thought about this issue..how do we handle it in the U.S.? If a mentally handicapped woman’s family wanted her to get a hysterectomy, would that be allowed to happen? There are such huge ethical questions surrounding the issue.
Here are some pictures from the village meeting:
Note the little kids lined up against the wall on the right; This room is used as a preschool
Thursday night was Katinka’s birthday! About 15 of us went to Rendez Vous, a bar/restaurant that has grown to be one of our favorites. Some of the guys surprised Katinka with a chocolate fudge cake, her favorite. It was such a nice evening and I’m glad Katinka could have a great birthday celebration while abroad.
Friday I turned in my 20 page long mid-point IFE report to Dr. Wagner, my IFE advisor back at USF. It’s pretty dry but if any of you are interested in reading it….just let me know. We also had a mid-point Skype meeting with my supervisor here, Dr. Avita. It went very well and I think he’s pleased with my progress thus far. It’s nice to have gotten that out of the way!
Janine and Katinka left Friday night to go back to Germany. It was bittersweet—sad because they have become good friends to me and happy because they finally get to go home. I think they had some great times in India but were getting increasingly annoyed with all the ridiculous rules, so I think they will be somewhat happy to get home. I imagine there will be some reverse culture shock when they reach Germany. Things are just so, so different in the Western world. They were kind enough to donate lots of items to me as they packed up- an electric hot water heater (I can make tea and coffee all the time now!), a bunch of maps, bowls, plates, cutting board, hangers, soaps, food, etc. I’m sure when I leave in a month, I’ll pass these items onto others. Such a great little system here J After a fun dinner and some farewell drinks at Legends of Rock, we waved goodbye as their cab drove off. Whatever will I do without them!?! With my new friends Vanita and Corinne (new French girl!), I think I’ll be OK. I’m sure others will come too.
This morning, Saturday morning, I decided to come into the Department for a few hours to get some quality free internet time. I need to download some articles for my special project. I just got to talking to one of the women in my office, Andre, and she invited me to go to wedding reception with her tonight. I GET TO GO TO AN INDIAN WEDDING!!!!! This is very exciting news. There’s 3 things I think of when I think of traveling to India: going to the Taj Mahal, going to to an ashram, and going to an Indian wedding. Since the Taj is extremely far away and most likely out of the question, and I don’t think I have the patience for an ashram, I am so happy to be going to the wedding and crossing one thing off my list of Indian to-dos. No idea what I’ll wear yet though, but Andre (roll your R when you say her name!) has assured not to care what I wear, that people will be so excited to see a foreigner that they won’t care what I wear (hah!). Can’t wait to go and don’t worry- I’ll post lots of pictures!
Sunday I plan to go with Vanita and Corinne to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens and then get something to eat at MTR, a famous Bangalorean restaurant everyone assures us we must trust. Afterwards, Andre has invited me to her home to have a home-cooked lunch with her and to meet her husband. She is so sweet; she told me she’s very excited to be receiving me as her first foreign guest. She has asked me several times what I want to eat but I really don’t know what to tell her—I’m sure anything will be delicious!
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend!
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