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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Heavy Rains



I started "working" on Monday after a weekend spent sleeping off the jet-lag. My main contact is Dr. Anjali, Chief Pathologist at Vikram Hospital, which is one of the fanciest hospitals in all of Mysore. It also happens to be about 4 blocks, up the hill shown above, from the house. The hospital functions surprisingly well, especially considering the conditions. There are masses of people sleeping, eating, grooming in the halls and an overwhelming, unmistakable smell of bleach that hits you as you walk into the hospital. At least we know it is clean and I suppose it is not too different from county hospitals in the States.


So far this week, I have spent my time split between Vikram and Mission hospital. The Prerana Project (the women's health initiative) runs out of Mission hospital. It is here that I will be working to implement a protocol for culturing Lactobacillus from possible cases of Bacterial Vaginosis. The staff is extremely knowledgeable, though the facilities lack technology normally found in labs back home. In fact, I feel stupid a lot of times because I don't understand some of their methods. I have relied heavily on technologies and products that are readily available in the states, but do not get used out here. The most striking thing about Mission hospital is that almost all the wards, including the lab, are open air. It is very interesting to see this stark contrast to modern hospitals in the US. With such a large population that is still growing, and the very recent economic growth, it is easy to understand the lapse in health care resources. I think many things will change in the next few years, especially if India continues to enjoy the economic successes it has experienced as of late.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tom, Yashoda, and I went to the More! store (picture a Indian style Wal-Mart, but 5 stories tall) to get some groceries and supplies for the kitchen. Walking into the store, there were a few clouds in the sky and it was about 88 degrees. After 45 minutes in the store, the sky was covered in clouds that were darker than any I have seen before. I am talking the deepest purply-black clouds you can imgine. We just made it back to the house, when the sky opened up and really let it rip. It rained like I have never seen it rain before. Lightning, thunder, pounding rain.....the whole works. Just to make sure everyone knew I was a foreigner, I tried to take some pictures, but they did not come out very well. The video came a little better, although it is still hard to recapture the complete show put on by the sky gods.


Recurrent power outages directly followed the storm. So shocking to see that 15 minutes after the rains ended, the sky was almost entirely clear again. I guess the storms and the outages are just par for the course in southern India. Everyone keeps reminding me that monsoon season has not even started yet. Can't wait.

With the power being out for most of the evening, Ranja, Ramya, (the security guards little kids) and I decided to play around on my computer for a little while. They really got a kick out of the Photobooth application, even though they were a little scared of the effects at first. Ranja had to keep touching his head and face, just to make sure it wasn't actually being distrorted. It has been a long time since I have laughed so hard.



The rest of the work week will be spent trying to make progress on my project. Things seem to move on a completely different scale. I have a meeting at 10, but it doesn't happen until 1130. I need to meet someone at 2, they finally see me at 245. I am told that something will take 2 minutes, but it always turns out to be 30 minutes. It is amazing anything gets done here, but it does. I just need to integrate myself into the system. Everybody waits because everybody is late, and everybody is late because everybody waits. I must say that it is thrilling to work in this new environment, as it provides ample time to work on my patience and my incessant need to over-achieve.

Monday, May 26, 2008

May 25th - Sri Rangapatna and Brindavan Gardens

Tom and I met up with a friend of one of the ladies we work with. His name is Raj, and he agreed to show us around a little bit. We caught a bus to the town of Srirangapatna, which is about 15 km from Mysore. The bus was not really the experience I thought, or dreaded, it would be, and it was rather uneventful. The town is known for its large temple, ruins of the late Tipu Sultan, and holy rivers.
The temple was first, and this tested our guts a little bit. Temples are a very big deal here and there was a long line to get in. We decided to stick it out and wait in line. This was around 10am and the temperature was already in mid 90s. Of course this was compounded by the 400 hundred other people standing close enough to feel the breathing in every direction. I was separated from the other two because I am not as good at shoving and pushing women and small children. I was getting shoved and yelled at by old women, not to mention getting stared at by everyone from about 2 inches away. Imagine hot, sweaty, stagnant air.....for an hour. It was cool to see the statue of Vishnu, but I just wanted to get out at that point.

Next we headed to the death place and prison of the Tipu Sultan. I am not entirely sure who that was, but I think he was a king around the 18th century. The next thing we did was head to one of the rivers, which was one of the coolest experiences I have had so far.



Swarms of people (see a theme developing here?) come to the river to escape the heat, play, do laundry, bathe, or cleanse themselves in the holy water before entering the temple. It was nice and cool in the water so we spent a good hour or two killing time. We all waded out to a rock and watched the crowd from afar.



The final stop here was at the tomb of the Tipu Sultan. The tomb was gorgeous and its architecture is undeniably Muslim.

Walking up to the tomb was a beautiful stroll, though the heat was getting to be unbearable. Scores of people were camped out in the shade of the trees eating food they prepared at home. At this point I realize that I haven't drank any water since we left this morning, nor have I gone to the bathroom. I decide I need to rehydrate, right before my dehydration headache kicks in. Eh.

I recovered on the bus ride back into town, and some food, water, and tea helped the process. Back to the bus stop for our trip to KRS, the dam and gardens. The scene at the bus stop is almost indescribable. We waited for our bus for almost 45 minutes, while the bus crowd grew exponentially every 10 minutes. Apparently this is a huge site for domestic tourists, especially on Sundays.


One bus pulls up and in an instant, half the crowd is mobbing the bus trying to get on. Pushing, shoving, and screaming like I have never seen before. Some get on by passing their babies through the window and following them in. People are standing and the children sit on the lap of the parents. Next bus comes, with the same incident repeating itself. Finally, third bus comes and we brave the crowd. After some good elbowing and pushing action, we make our way onto the bus only to find that Tom's camera had been lifted from his pocket. He was showing us pictures while we were waiting, and they must have seen exactly where he put it in his pocket.

Finally, my full bus experience in India. It was all I hoped for and more. Actually, I am getting used to the lack of personal space and don't mind it so much now. Getting off the bus at KRS, we are at the base of a massive dam. It is cool, but a little unnerving at the same time. Good thing Indians make good dam engineers. The Brindavan gardens were very pretty even though the site was a mecca for mosquitoes. We waited for nightfall and watched a pretty neat water/light show.


The camera wouldn't pick this up too well due to the lighting, but the video came out pretty good. We left early to avoid the mad rush out, but turns out we confronted a mad rush into the venue. All in all, it was a good day and we had some great experiences in Indian culture.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

May 24th- Temple and Devaraja Market



Wanting to see a little bit of Mysore, Tom and I decided to head out of the compound. We took a rickshaw to a small temple downtown. This was an interesting experience, but we both know very little about the temple culture. We took off our shoes and entered, with a large number of other people. There was a long line that wrapped around a center room. We could not see into the room, but there must have been something important inside. Beating drums and singing could be heard from inside. I was worried about doing something that may be taken as offensive, so I did not wish to enter. Outside there was a small altar where people were throwing incense and oil into a fire. Behind this was another small altar. There was a bare-chested man giving patrons rose-water and oil. They would walk around the altar several times, ringing a bell each time, then would kneel down to pray.




Next we decided to take another rickshaw to Devaraja Market. This is the Mysore's famous outdoor market. After being dropped off we crossed the four 'lanes' of traffic, which was no simple feat, and had trouble figuring out how to enter the market. I found a way that we could walk around, but this may have been a little bit of a mistake. This was the 'back-way', a muddy road with vendors swiping at flies as they tried to sell us chicken and pork hanging from hooks and an overwhelming smell of human feces mixed with rotting vegetables and meat. Once inside, however, the market was fairly pleasant. There was a great sea of humanity in the aisles, but that is to be expected anywhere in urban India. Each aisle was about 60-70m long, and usually sold only one type of item, e.g. a banana aisle, mango aisle, incense aisle, vegetable aisle. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures, as the environment did not seem too safe. My ass was constantly grabbed as I'm guessing people were attempting to pick-pocket. Joke is on them, seeing as though my ATM card has not worked, and I actually have 0 money right now. I'm sure I will be going back to the market though, so pictures will come. Tom bought some bananas, which turned out to be pretty good.

We headed across the street to a fabric shop. This place was pretty upscale, although relatively inexpensive. Mysore is also famous for silk-woven garments and this shop had a wide variety to choose from. They also had tailor made linen pants for about $20, so another trip is definitely happening. After that shop we had lunch at the restaurant we get our meals from. This was my first meal eating with my fingers in about a decade. It also may have been the spiciest meal I have ever experienced. Good, but incredibly spicy with no suitable water to drink. My nose was like a faucet after the meal was done.



We came back to the house, and I read on the porch for a while. The little boy joined me, with his new coloring book and crayons my grandma gave me. The book has a paint-by-number page with all the children having blond hair and pink skin. In his coloring book, all the people have brown skin and black hair, and all the trees are green (they have a lot of palm trees and their trunks are rather green). He also wanted to take one of me....thanks for the close-up little one. Anyway, it was fun, as always, to interact with the kid.



I had parota for dinner, which were the best thing I have eaten thus far. Reminded me of a Salvadoran Papusa. After dinner, I played with the kids a little bit because they were getting a kick out of the coloring books. They insisted that I color the pages, but they wouldn't let me choose the colors. The family also enjoyed my camera and we engaged in a little photo shoot. It was pretty fun, but I'm still not used to the time and I needed to go to bed around 9pm.