When It Rains, It Pours.

So the rains have come - or at least I think they have. It’s been raining all day, and although I’m glad for the cool weather that the rain brings, I’m also realizing that (a) I definitely should have invested in a good rain jacket and (b) I’m going to have to get used to water everywhere. I’ve been told that it does flood here, and, as Sarah found out a couple of days ago, our front yard floods pretty easily. 

                              Our Home

My work has kind of been picking up, but so far I’ve still been doing a bunch of different projects for various people around campus. I feel like my role as an intern is still evolving a bit, but it’s been very interesting to learn about all the different programs, like the adolescent education program (mainly sex ed.), the Deaddiction department (deals with alcohol and tobacco addictions), and hospital activities (women’s health clinics, surgery camps). 

            Cute kids at the primary school we visited in Porla. 

I actually just got back from a 2 day village stay. Sonia and I went to Porla, which is one of the villages that is part of SEARCH’s home-based newborn care program. Women are trained as health care workers and provide direct care to pregnant women and newborn babies. The impact of this program is amazing with a reduction of newborn mortality by ~70% at times. We stayed with Aruna Tai, one of the health care workers in Porla and had a chance to follow her around on her home visits for two days. It was amazing to see the respect people have for Aruna Tai. We also got to visit the local government offices, a primary school, a private practice clinic, and a temple. Sonia translated for me because I don’t speak Marathi/Hindi. It was definitely very strange and disconnected for me because I couldn't actually talk to anyone directly, but it was still a great way to see rural India first hand. 

                                with some of the other interns

RUN RUN RUN

     Apparently that is what you are supposed to do when being attacked by honeybees. Too bad none of us knew that yesterday. I don't want to ruin the story though so here's some background information first:
    So I've been in India for almost a week now but only got to Shodgram (SEARCH's campus) on Saturday. I spent the first four days with family in Hyderabad which was lots of fun. There were so many mangoes, and I also got to eat some sapotas (the fruit of sapodilla trees) and drink coconut water on the side of the road. Three new dresses, a box of fattening sweets, and several games of Uno later my aunt and I caught a train Friday night to Adilabad where my uncle works. From there we drove to Shodgram. I feel like the accurate word for what Shodgram is would be ashram (a retreat). Everything is so in sync with nature (all the building are named after trees). There is even an organic farm on the grounds. My roommate, Sarah, is an MPH student at Emory and has been here for about a week and a half. It's really hot, but it should be cooling down somewhat soon when the rains come.
    Sunday morning we had a picnic at this place in the jungle. It was a three hour ride away, and I sat with all the kids in the back of the bus. They were playing that singing game that I've always seen in bollywood movies where every song has to start with the letter that the previous song ended with. They had a massive vocabulary of Hindi and Marathi songs. Not knowing Hindi or Marathi, I kind of just sat there and smiled. They did make me sing a Telugu song though; that make have been the first time I've sung in public since the disastrous singing lessons of my youth.
    There was sort-of temple there, and we looked around a bit. I helped peel what felt like an endless stream of onions. Then, most of us went down to the valley where there were rocks to climb and a lake/waterfall. After a little bit, I start to hear yelling and people started running away back up to the upper area. Apparently some villagers who had also been down there somehow disturbed a colony of honey bees which were now attacking all of us. Long story short, I only got stung once and then escaped to the bus with about fifteen others. Some people were not so lucky and didn't make it out of the valley in time. Most of them ended up jumping in the lake and hiding in caves and were stung extensively. The entire attack lasted for more than 4 hours. I can only imagine what would have happened if we hadn't been a group with a plenty of medically trained professionals or if someone had been allergic to bee stings. Sarah and some of the others who were stung really badly are still in the hospital, but thankfully everyone is going make it out of this. It was a very eventful first day at SEARCH for me.
     And for future reference, when attacked by bees you should cover your face and run. Apparently they will tire of following you and give up. Also, next time you go hiking take a cloth/net that you can cover at least your face with. No joke.

En Route

So I am currently sitting in a cafe Amsterdam Schipol Airport using one of my two 30 minute free wifi times slots. (I got a blueberry muffin Lindsey.) I feel like I have been traveling for a while, but I still have close to five hours of waiting here, plus the plane ride to Delhi, 5ish hours of waiting there, and then to Hyderabad. My sense of time is complete off ... I think its Monday morning?

Yep. So I don't have much enlightening to blog about - mainly I'm just a little bored, but it is really cool to people watch. I guess I can do that for 5 hours? I'm starting to get more and more excited/nervous. More to come once I actually get to INDIA!

Hello!

     And so begins my first blogging adventure. I have never blogged before, but I thought that it would be nice to jump on the bandwagon. On the plus side, it will probably also be a much easier to keep everyone updated.

     This Sunday (day after tomorrow) I will be leaving for a media internship with SEARCH, a community health organizationin Maharastra, India. SEARCH stands for Society for Education, Action, and Research in Community Health, and their campus, Shodgram, is 17 km from Gadchiroli - which I believe is the closest town.

   SEARCH's aim is "to work with marginalised communities to identify their health needs, develop community empowering models of health care to meet these health needs, to test these models by way of research studies, and then to make this knowledge available to others by way of training and publications." I first read about their work in a nytimes blog entry.    

   I will find out more about what exactly my job is when arrive on June 11 (I'll be catching up with family for a bit when I first arrive) - the first week is supposed to be somewhat of an orientation. From what I have been told, it seems like I will be doing a lot of documentation/editing/classifying and other media related things. I am also really excited to observe the public health aspect of their work like surgery camps, village visits, and research. 

   Goodbye for now. I have quite a bit of packing to do. :)