Pictures February 21st

 My new Indian Family. No but seriously, I don't know them, they just wanted to take my picture.

 View of the very large temple in Murudeshwar

 On the beach in Gokarna

Immunizing the children

Ceremonial stuffing of the birthday girls' face.

February 21st

Another week has flown by. I honestly cannot believe how fast the time is passing here. I can feel myself starting to think and act more like I belong too. When I get into a rickshaw I tell them how much I will pay instead of asking, I now pick and choose which breakfasts to get in the mess hall depending on the day (Tomorrow is banana buns! My personal fave), and most notably, every time I see another white person on campus I automatically ask myself ‘what are they doing here?’ and I find myself staring for no reason at all. I quickly realize that I am doing exactly what I wished others would stop doing to me but I’m realizing it’s very hard not to be a little bit curious

                Classes last week were pretty time consuming. Between my 5 classes here, one online course for Arcadia, our Hindi lessons, our Bharatnatym dance class, and our 6:30 am yoga, our days are always full and the homework piles up quickly. Other than a typical student complaint about homework, I can’t say a bad thing about anything pertaining to the program so far. Well, there are a total of 9 mosquito bites on my right arm alone but I take my malaria meds daily so they should be fine… right?? :/

                Yesterday (Sunday), was a national polio eradication day here in India. We got to visit a lot of the vaccination sites that were set up all over each town. The program is primarily sponsored by WHO (world health organization) and the Gates foundation (as in Bill Gates of Microsoft). It has proven to be really effective and last year was the first year since it began that there were absolutely no new cases of polio recorded in India! woohoo :) It was nice to hear that it really was making a difference since it’s a fact that most projects and public health missions in India only receive $.15 out of every dollar given. There is a lot of corruption and bribing that goes on behind the scenes in India so a lot of programs don’t receive half of the money that has been given to them. Anyways,  I got to immunize some of the children so that was really cool and surprisingly really easy.  All it consists of is two drops from a vile containing about 20 full doses of polio boosters. The booths were set up in bus stands, in health centers, even in half of a store that the owner donated for the day. The next day after almost every family came on their own to get their children vaccinated, were door to door checking to see if the families had received the service.

And today marked the beginning of my birthday celebrations! Tonight we went out to a Hookah Bar and had some delicious Oreo milkshakes and Pan Masala Hookah. My roommate and her friends came and surprised me with a birthday cake that read “happy birthday Tmily”. Apparently Priyanka’s Es look more like Ts. Fun fact about birthdays in India: when they buy you a cake, they expect you to eat most of it… like half of the whole freakin’ cake. Everyone takes turns feeding the birthday girl/boy and most times smearing it all over their face (I avoided this part very tactfully). And then later on when back in the hostel. A few of the girls came in and gave me some birthday bumps which is when you’re grabbed by your legs and arms and hurled in the air the same number as how old you are turning. I can definitely say I had a typical Indian Birthday though and that makes me happy. We were invited last minute to go onto Manipal’s Chancellor’s personal boat tomorrow night so that will be a very fun end to my birthday I believe and will keep my mind off of the fact that I miss everyone back home terribly and I wish I could have them all here with me.

Photos - February 11th

 Adorable little girl at the Daycare

On our way to Sringeri Temple and Agumbe Rainforest earlier today. Both were way up in the western Ghatts.

At the Sringeri Temple

Monkey Family just chillin in the tree, but don't be fooled, they are viscious creatures who steal cameras.

February 11th

I cannot believe I’ve been here for three weeks already! Time is going fast here, but I guess that’s a good thing. And if this past week is any indication of what to expect down the line, I doubt it’ll ever get boring here. I started out the week in a very Zen mood after having our first yoga class and Ayurvedic practical class all before 10 am. Yoga is about a 20 minute walk away at 6:30 in the morning. It’s held in the living room of our professors house which is so cool and very academic with books everywhere and a whiteboard with philosophical fleeting thoughts scribbled all over it. The class itself is a lot of philosophy and explanation of the reasoning behind the movements which I prefer that early as opposed to power yoga. In Ayurveda we were taught about a certain type of massage that is very therapeutic and since we are serious students in that class and need to fully understand the material, I was forced into receiving a full body hot oil massage free of charge.

Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of classes and trying to figure out exactly what’s expected of us. A lot of information is getting lost in translation but that’s just something we’ll have to figure out as we go.

Thursday was another visit to the Maternal and Child health care center where we observed some more and learned from the workers who were on staff. Some of the kids remembered us from the adjoining daycare and this time they found my camera and I discovered that they love to have their picture taken. Later that day we had our first Hindi lesson but the only thing I remember is ‘Meranam Emily Hai’ which means my name is Emily. There is nothing familiar about Hindi at all and I can tell I will struggle with it already.

Friday’s field visit was really awesome.  Instead of going back to the health care center, Dr. Shastry took us to meet Lakshmi, a mulit-purpose health worker that went door to door to her patients’ houses (sound familiar mom?), and let us listen and learn from the services she was providing. We went to several different houses all of which were of different economic standing. There was one house which compared with others looked like a mansion and belonged to a family of engineers. The women who we visited here was 9 months pregnant and had returned home to her mother’s house to have her baby. This is common practice in India and very rarely is the father there for the birth or the first month  following. We also saw rural families living in very poorly built huts that would surely wash away during the monsoon season or at least flood the place with mud which was of course upsetting but reality. There were also homes that were not BPL (below the poverty line; 17000 rupees/year) but still had 8-9 people living under one roof who all had an issue of their own. I found I learned a lot more from this trip from any other so far and every house we visited was so kind to us even though we felt as if we were invading. I have an idea that if Lakshmi will allow me to accompany her weekly on these visits that this may be the source of my research project I need to complete by the end of the program here. I could take down the basic data in each home (name, age, condition, complications…) and create a report based on what I find. I haven’t gotten this approved yet but I will work on making this possible tomorrow since we don’t have class.

On a less nerdy and academic note, today we went to a rainforest reservation and another temple way up in the beautiful western ghatts. We saw elephants and giant fish and monkeys and flying lizards and flying squirls. The rainforest is one of the wetests spots in India and is one of the top Biodiversity hotspots in the world. We got blessed fruit from a guru whose name is too long for me to even try to remember and ate a soupy meal of rice, dal, and sweet with just our bare hands while sitting cross-legged on the floor.

February 6th

6:30 am yoga, 9 am full body ayurvedic massage, 11 am cat nap, 12 pm chocolate croissant, 2 pm lecture on Indian philosophy, 5 pm Bharatnatym Dance. I told you all India would be awesome.

 At End Point, a garden that overlooks all of Manipal

 Outside of the Primary Health Care Center

On St. Mary's Island just before the sun went down.

February 5th

India has been keeping me busy since the last time I blogged. We went on our first field visits on Thursday and Friday, and the rest of the weekend was quite an adventure. Homework is already pilling up and its 9:30 pm and im ready for bed. Such a loser.

On Thursday morning we met with Dr. Sanjay, our Maternal and Child Health professor, and he briefed us on what to expect in the class. The words live birth, crying babies and vaccinations were the main points of conversation and although the majority of these things terrify me I think I’ll really have a lot of cool experiences in this class. After the briefing, we were sent by bus to one of the Maternal and Child health centers a little ways outside of Manipal. We witnessed some polio vaccinations and a lot of babies coming in for their checkups. Most babies were accompanied by their mothers and their grandmothers. We only saw a few fathers but there was one grandfather who was so proud of his granddaughter that he wanted us to hold her and show her off which is so cute to see. Since we were there for a while, and we had to take turns going into the small rooms where everything was going on, I took the opportunity to play with some of the kids who were at a daycare center in the same building. Although they couldn’t speak English, playing is a universal kid concept so we had a great time regardless.

On Friday, we had our second field visit of the semester to a primary health care center. This time our teacher was able to come with us so it ended up being more informative than the trip the day before. He gave us a tour and lectured us the basics of India’s health care which is that the government pays for almost everything. No one is ever turned away if they can’t pay the nominal fees for drugs and surgeries, but the spending on the center itself is very low. The doctor who we were introduced to couldn’t stop seeing his patients while we talked because the center was incredibly understaffed. We watched him pay bills, take a man’s blood pressure, record all of the data and then clean up because he was one of two people on duty for a center that served an area of 30,000 people. He then told us he was in charge of 4 sub-centers also.

Friday evening we were invited to the Annual Day celebration for the Hospitality and Restaurant college on campus. After sitting through a lot of awards we were treated to a performance that featured a mix of hip-hop, traditional Indian dances, a lady gaga-esque fashion show and some fire jugglers. Then we were served a meal that consisted of over 27 different dishes. Too much decision making for me.

Then finally on Saturday we left for St. Mary’s Island. It took us two buses and a ferry to get there but after asking for a lot of directions and getting lost in a fishing yard we finally made it to the Spring Zouk Festival. It wasn’t what we thought it would be to say the least. There were a lot of foreigners there looking extra grungy with their backpacks and dreads. And we made a few acquaintances but for the most part we just enjoyed being on a beach for the sunset. The music was non-existent until around 8 or 9 which was a bummer but we made the most of it and left shortly after to go back to our nice clean beds. So no camp out under the stars for us but still it was an interesting adventure.

Today, Sunday, we went back to Mangalore to do a little more shopping. Ok a lot more shopping but it’s worth it once you consider the exchange rate (50 rupees for every dollar) and how beautiful all of the clothes here are!! Plus I found a few gifts to bring back home for my family that I think they'll love. 

February 1st

So I’ve had two very full days of class already and my brain is completely fried. It’s not necessarily harder concepts or thoughts (except my philosophy course which sometimes makes me feel like I can’t even speak my own language), but the amount of work that they are expecting us to do has become a little daunting. I have a feeling that sleep is going to become a strange foreign concept very soon.

I don’t want to bore anyone too much but I actually thing my classes are kind of awesome so I’ll give an overview of each of them; feel free to skip to the end if you just want to hear what we’ll be doing this weekend!

Starting next week I will start my mornings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with a 6:30 am yoga class. Yeah I know, me wake up at 6:30? It won’t be pretty but I’m determined to try! Dr. Meera will be teaching it and she has told us that she gives a lot of yoga history and philosophy along with our classes so it will be interesting to compare it with the classes I’ve been to in America.

After yoga all of my classes begin at 8, except for Friday and Saturday when the times for our field visits change weekly. On Mondays and Thursdays I have a 3 total hours of Ayurveda, which is a class focusing on the traditional form of health care of the same name that is holistic and preventative in nature. The really fun part about this class is that there is an hour of practicals each week which are when we get to either experience or observe the treatments we are studying which basically means FREE MASSAGES!! Let’s just hope I don’t fall asleep and drool on their special treatment table! On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have 3 hours total of Global Health Problems which is a basic public health class, nothing too exciting or extraordinary there but it also one of the courses I’m taking which counts towards my major back home so that’s good. Indian Intellectual Traditions is the philosophy course that I mentioned earlier when I said I felt a little over my head. I’ve never taken a philosophy course and I’m not even sure why the heck Dr. Meera (same lady that does yoga) let me into that course. Yesterday’s course was all about trying to decipher what we mean when we talk about our ‘self’. Is it purely a name or identity? Is it our mind? Our body? Or our soul? Is it eternal? Is it an accumulation of experiences or is our ‘self’ predetermined? All of these questions and no answers. So. Frustrating. But the hardest part is that it is dealing with Indian philosophy and I know even less about that than western philosophy. We’ll see how that ends up but needless to say I’m skeptical of my capabilities here. Maternal and Child Health meets every Thursday from 8 to 12:30, so tomorrow will be my first class. From what I’ve heard, after an hour of lecture, discussion and theory, we will be doing field visits every week to different clinics, schools, and women’s shelters to see firsthand what we are learning. Seriously, so cool. There is also the class that Ginny is teaching called Contemporary Indian Studies which is basically an all-encompassing course on Indian history, politics, and culture. This class also does a lot of field visits on friday mornings to various places.

On top of all this I have an online reflection course for Arcadia University, I’m taking an optional Hindi language course to learn the basics, and I may or may not take the bharatanatyam dance class. Goodbye sleep and hello Indian culture.

In other news. I’ve found nutella and ritz crackers, yummmm :))))) and four of us girls bought tickets to go to a music festival this weekend on St. Mary’s Island. A lot of people camp out so we may decide to join them but for now we are planning on coming back to campus to sleep on our hard but clean beds. Also even though Manipal in the day time is completely safe for girls to be alone, we all agreed that as four pasty white american girls at a trippy music festival on a seclueded island, it may not be the smartest decision to stay overnight on a used tent by the beach. Just a thought.