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Saturday, June 28, 2008

My Big, Fat Indian Wedding and Mysore Palace


Praba's Sister's Wedding


Praba, who works with me at PHRI, invited everyone to her sister's wedding. Ironically enough, this is the first wedding that I have been old enough to remember! To sum it up would be to say it was fun, crowded, and had great food.





Here is a shot of the crew at PHRI. Can you pick out Naomi?





Mysore Palace

Every Sunday evening, the Mysore Palace is illuminated with 'no less than 1000 bulbs'. This palace was built by the Wodeyars, and one of them still lives here!


Interesting to note that the rest of the city has rather unreliable electricity, but this event happens like clockwork.



Here is a light and dark picture from one of the corners.




I think this is the spot to be on a Sunday evening. Families and couples came in numbers, and even brought dinner to eat while sitting on the lawn. Gave off a feeling of a 'county fair'.



The Palace is made through a mixture of Hindu and Muslim architectures. The temple was not very big, but impressive when lit up.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

More outreach and a lot of pictures

I realize that I have been a little slow on the blog updates, so I will attempt to give a quick picture overview of my last week or so.

More HPV outreach

Most of the outreach groups are aimed at women, but lately I have been going to some outreach programs catered for fathers. The fathers group presentations are always given by Satthya, otherwise known as 'The Man'. He is such an awesome guy and commands a lot of respect in these settings. I think we are looking at a future, local politician. You can see him below.....


Sometimes when we are talking with the mothers and fathers, the kids get a little rowdy. Since I do not speak the language, and am of no use for answering questions, I get 'stuck' with the job of amusing the children. Of course, they really like the camera, but one of these times, it is going to get destroyed in the numerous little hands.




I was setting up the computer and projector for the presentation, when this huge, black, unidentified flying insect flew right onto my mouth. Naturally, it bit/stung the hell out of the corner of lips. Everyone is worried at first, but then they all think it is really funny. H-A-H-A (sarcasm). My lip starts to swell up, like a bee sting, and they insist on taking pictures. It is in the shadows on this picture, but the good pics are on the other camera. Easy to tell that I am enjoying this.



TBA outreach

This project is actually going pretty well so far. I am working on developing a guide for a focus group discussion among 10 traditional birth attendants. It needs to be done very quickly, because the project needs to progress. We realized that we do not know very much about the practices and beliefs of these groups. A detailed questionnaire is going to be developed, but we need to know what kinds of questions to ask.

A picture of the beautiful scenery that is part of the rural region outside of Mysore City.



Seema (middle), Rani (right), and I are interviewing a TBA. This woman was very knowledgeable about current practices, and even handwashing! She said that her brother is a OB/GYN in a nearby city, and he has given her some training.




I like this picture, but I don't really. Thought some people may enjoy it.



There was a pack (4) of monkeys that paid me a visit early one morning. The little guys jumped up on the porch while I was on the phone and scared the hell out of me. Selvi, the driver, told me they were dangerous, so I ran inside like a scared little kid. They then proceeded to jump on my coffee mug, flip the cup over, jump all over Selvi's bike, then run up onto the roof (which is where the picture is taken).



Here is the 30 foot Louis Vuitton purse at the new Bengaluru International Airport. It is a pretty incredible form of advertising.


Thursday, June 12, 2008

Outreach Projects

Tuesday was Tom's last day in India. He is now de-toxing in Paris and London, before he heads back to the states. We all went to a nice lunch for his last day. Tom and I both forgot to tell Naomi, and we did not have her phone number. Unfortunately, she is not pictured with the rest of PHRI. Well, I guess we are missing Purnima, the director, and Karl, who comes in about a week.



Looking through the seemingly endless charts at Vikram has not been the most exhilarating experience. To supplement my week with something more palatable, I have been going on outreach trips with the members of PHRI. There are several opportunities to get involved with the multiple projects that are going on. In addition to these outreach projects, the organization provides reproductive health supplies and offers free medical service for women in their clinic. The clinic is a part of the CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital in Mysore.

One of the outreach programs is aimed at TBA's. These can be either trained or traditional birth attendants. In India, about 60% of births occur outside hospital settings. Therefore, it is imperative that the birth attendants be well trained, offer accurate information, and have full access to life-saving medications. I have been doing some reading to learn more about this project, and I am completely engrossed. However, we can save that discussion for another time. I went out with the group to interview a few TBA's in different villages surrounding Mysore city. We listened to their opinion about how the government has failed women in their profession and gained valuable information about their resources. The organization (namely Tom, Naomi, and I) has bought a hefty load of birthing kits to distribute to these TBA's. The kit contains a thick plastic sheet to create a clean environment for the delivery, a pair of latex gloves, a bar of soap, some gauze and absorbent pads, and a sterile blade for the umbilical cord.



The picture is of the group giving a TBA some birthing kits. On the right they are Selvi, Seema, and Reni. This project is incredible and has the potential to have a significant, tangible impact for women, and families, in these rural areas. Maternal mortality rates are high in the rural parts of India, and this program is working on saving the lives of these women and subsequently, their children.

Side note: We were driving into this village in the Prerana van, when a big (7 ft???), black snake crossed the road ahead of us. The driver slammed the brakes real hard and all the girls (present company included) screamed. Ok. It was a snake on the road. We are in a car. No big deal? The car was silent for a minute. I was asking them if they were ok. No response. Silence. After about two minutes of complete silence (despite my attempts to break the silence with stupid questions wondering why everyone was quiet), Seema turned around to explain to me the reason for the silence. In their religion, some snakes are revered as deities. It is bad luck to have one cross your path when you are coming into an unfamiliar environment, like this village. I am assuming it is the equivalent of a black cat crossing your path, except it is not superstition to them. When this happens, you must silently pray to Naga Devata so that bad luck will not follow. Ok, now I see the reason for the silence, this makes sense. So you have to do this everytime a snake crosses your path? No. Wrong. Only when COBRAS cross your path. What? Are you effing kidding me? That was a cobra? Now I am the one in the car freaking out, while the rest of the group is calm. That is not cool. I hate all snakes in general, but especially big, black, deadly cobras. I keep thinking about that stupid program I watched on Discovery about the world's deadliest Cobras, 3 of the top 5 being in southern India. Great. If I ever see one, I will assume that it wants to, and is trying to kill me.

The other outreach program is about HPV and cervical cancer. These are aimed at women in defined communities around Mysore. The women congregate in a communal (usually very small and hot) room to view a slide presentation. These meetings are set up in advance by Sattya and Praba, with the help of a local community organizer.


The women seem to really enjoy these presentations, and the questions are usually pretty good. Most, if not all, of these events are in the local language, Kannada. Therefore, I can not contribute, or get as much out of the events as I would like. I do offer some comic relief for everyone. They give the women who organizes the event a small, gift wrapped present. Yashoda insists that I hand the present to the women, while butchering something in Kannada. I have become accustomed to uninhibited laughter that follows. Nevertheless, the meetings are fun and offer a welcomed break from the medical charts.

True to form, I make friends with all the kids that follow me around. The camera is always a big time hit and I find myself taking picture after picture of these kids. They never seem to get tired of posing, and will often call out to other kids. I feel like I am back in the daycare.



These events are always followed with some chai, which I am now officially addicted to. They put so much cream and sugar in it that I'm a little worried I won't be able to drink black coffee when I come back home.



The living conditions in some of these areas are dismal. Forgetting medicine for right now, there are so many public health interventions that need to happen. Open sewers, cows, chickens, feral dogs and cats, and cooking indoors with cow-patty fuel are just some of the areas I would focus on. Being in an unclean environment, with such close proximity to cows and other mammals is a great way to contribute to the spread of disease. The government (or maybe not considering how they have operated thus far) needs to step up and tackle these public health problems. There should be a social marketing campaign getting people to change some of their behaviors. Open sewers and lack of clean water are not the fault of the people and they often do not have enough of a political voice to bring about necessary change.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Coorg and The Golden Temple- May 31st - June 1st

Coorg

Early Saturday morning Tom and I headed West to the forest region known as Coorg, right next to Sidapur on the map below. The people there are known as 'Coorgies' and are mostly made up of tribal people that have inhabited the region for hundreds of years. They are skilled farmers and expert honey-finders. Apparently they are best known for being able to follow a flying honeybee back to its hive. They then make a fire to smoke out the bees and sell the honey at the market. Pretty cool.


We met up with Viju, a friend of Dr. Vara's, and he was really excited to show us around his hometown. He took us on a 1.5 Km hike up a huge hill, which would not been so bad of a walk had I not been wearing Rainbows. We saw a huge, blue-ish-green scorpion on the trail and a wild elephant from far away. There was a Shiva temple on the top of the hill, as well as some pretty amazing views of the forest below.


(Note: All these pictures came out blurry and I could not figure out why. Literally 45 seconds ago, I checked my camera lens and found that it had a big grease smudge across it. Sucks.)

You can't tell by the pictures, but it was pretty hot and muggy the whole day.
The trail was scattered with small temples for Shiva, and Viju described the different Hindu gods and Hinduism beliefs for us. It is a fascinating religion that dominates this region, more than its usual dominance in the Southern part of India.


That night we stayed at a house on a coffee plantation. I have never seen coffee trees before but they are really pretty when they are blooming. The farm was really shady, and offered a nice break from the hot weather, but the mosquitoes were out in herds. The house was also butt up against a tropical forest, so there were plenty of exotic bugs sleeping with me that night. The food was amazing and the coffee was spectacular.

Karnataka State Park

The following morning, after some delicious egg curry, we headed to a wildlife park owned by the state of Karnataka. We mainly went to see some elephants, which there were plenty. We rode a small boat, packed twice too full of people, across a small river to get into the park. The Mahut (elephant shepherd) was washing a mom, dad, and baby elephant when we pulled up in the boat. The little guy was a crowd favorite and was fooling around the whole time. I am not sure how old it was, but it looks pretty young. I wonder how heavy elephants are when they are born? It was a little sad to see some of the other elephants, who were giving rides, chained around the ankles. Not fun to see animals in chains.
We also walked through a conservation part of the forest, where they try to show all the bad things humans do to plants and animals. After this, ironically enough, we came to a ton of white spotted deer that were in a fenced-in area. We fed them cucumbers, and they posed for pictures.
Every car ride feels like a roll of the dice determines whether we are going to come out alive. Cars passing into oncoming traffic, monsoon rains, and not to mention the cows, goats, bikers, buses, and dogs in the road. We tried to pass by a bus coming the other way on a narrow road and almost got hit. The picture only tells some of the story, but suffice it to say that it was more than a little scary.


The Golden Temple

On the way back to Mysore, we stopped at the largest Tibetan settlement outside of Tibet. Most live in commune-style living and I believe there are approximately 8,000 Tibetan monks there. The temples were amazingly large and seemed out of place next to the flat farmland that surrounds them. Each temple is decorated with intricately designed murals that cover the walls. Some of the paintings were extremely racy, especially considering the audience. A lot different from the paintings the Catholic church would allow. I would have posted them here, but I am afraid to get flagged by Blogspot for having obscene pictures. There were monks everywhere and all were adorned in the traditional attire. There were about 250 monks (in training I think) reciting prayers and playing drums in a massive prayer hall. It was pretty cool to walk around this town and be able to hear masses of people praying in unison.


The most amazing site in this community was the Golden Temple. It contains three massive statues of Buddhas. One is 60 feet tall, while the other two are 58 feet tall, and each is made from copper, but plated with pure gold. I can't remember how much they weighed, but I am pretty sure it was a whole lot. It is so strange to see these incredible temples when the grounds are surrounded by crushing poverty. The town was one of the most impoverished sections of human society I have ever seen.



Leaving the temple grounds, we passed scores of beggars, many of whom were small children. There was a small baby lying on a towel on the ground who looked to be a textbook case of malnourishment with a large, oddly shaped head, big eyes, and bony arms and legs. We are always advised not to give money, but I couldn't resist this time. I gave the mother only 20 Rupees (about 50 cents), and she was very thankful. Before I had realized what happened I was surrounded by children asking me for money. They were touching their hands to my feet, which is an ultimate sign of respect in India. I could not give money to everyone, and that killed me. Some followed us to our car, despite my insistence that I was not going to give them money. As we were pulling away, I could resist the sadness and desperation on their faces no more, and I caved. I did not give them much, by our standards, but enough to buy them a couple of meals and maybe some other comfort. Who knows. The driver scolded me about this, telling me that these people are simply lazy. For some reason I just can't buy that they would rather sit on a corner, completely emaciated and begging for change, rather than work. Needless to say, I felt sick to my stomach for the remainder of the car ride, as these sort of things weigh heavy on my mind. It is something that I don't think (and hope) I will ever get accustomed to.