More Jamkhed Pictures

too lazy to write but most pics have captions explaining things.

Link 1

Link 2

Jamkhed 2

May 11th, 11:45 pm

A village health worker (VHW) is the backbone of the CRHP (comprehensive rural health project) model and one of the main reasons I'm here which is to learn from them.  A VHW as defined by me is essentially a nurse practitioner level of worker who serves her village from multiple angles including health as well as social/financial levels to help better their lives.  They still maintain their families, work in the home, and in the fields or their dhanda, but are VHWs in addition to everything else. They are trained most importantly in prenatal care, obstetrical care (perform deliveries, up to 500 for some), post natal care, and they possess knowledge on many diseases including TB and leprosy in the old days, and now more diabetes, hypertension, and even mental health.  They come every 7 to 15 days to CRHP to get trained in the various areas and they also help collect data that helps to see the program's effect.  They educate their villages using various methods including dedicated visits to pregnant patients, talking about health while picking crops, and by being consulted for their knowledge. 

These ladies have amazing personal stories as far as how they have become a village health worker.  This is very lengthy to share, but I will try to summarize a few.  The overall goal of CRHP is for the village to choose those that are not necessarily educated, but those that are representative of the poor with a comparable literacy level of the women they will serve.  Some were natural leaders and some grew into this role with the help of other VHWs.  The following stories are from the VHW in their own words.  

VHW1 told us that since she was one of the eldest in her family, she had to take care of others and never went to school.  She was married at age 9 to a 23 year old.  Once she began to menstruate, she went to her husband's home, however he already had remarried.  She was eventually taken in by him, however, she was treated very harshly and she couldn't handle the daily 7 km walks for water. She left her husband and went back to her home however they were unwilling to take her in as well.  Under the direction of a VHW in her village, she was brought to CRHP where she slowly gained confidence, self-worth, and in her words, she was made a statue out of stone.  She recently received a reward from the government for her service for 1.5 lakhs - she's not exactly sure what she is going to do with the money, but she does want to donate some to orphans. 

VHW2 is an 8th grade level educated woman who was married at the age of 14.  Like her father, her husband was also an alcoholic.  She was mentally and physically abused. This led her to attempted suicide by jumping into a well however a passerby rescued her. She went back to that husband and became pregnant twice and gave birth to two girls. Her husband reasoned that since his wife's mother only gave birth to girls, that so will his wife and therefore left her after trying to kill both her and one of her babies.  The people from the village defended her and kicked out this guy from the village and he hasn't been seen since. She was shaken up by all of this, and lost it mentally therefore she was taken to a hospital. It took her time after this to realize her self worth, but she was able to do this and was eventually selected by her village to be their VHW.  In addition to being a VHW now, she is a successful businesswomen and has both a wedding business as well as a stationary shop. 

The concept is simple - put health in the hands of the people.  Basic health knowledge like the signs of diabetes, as well as complicated knowledge and skills such as delivering a baby can be taught to anyone with the desire to learn regardless of their previous education, caste, or social situation.  It was very inspiring to meet all of these individuals and humbling to know how much of an impact they have made.  When I asked a lady what she feels about us coming from far lands to learn from them, she told me, that whatever you learn, just make sure you do something about it.  

Link to Pictures

Jamkhed part I

May 7th, 11:42 am

The trip from mumbai to jamkhed was a relatively simple though it was long (about 7 hours).  My first morning, I was chatting with some of the staff when I was pulled into an adolescent girls program.  

The purposes of these groups are to bring girls at still an impressionable age for morale building, health / life instruction, and socializing with others from their village in an outside setting (CRHP campus).  The day's topic was gender roles.  During the course of the 7 hour day, they have approx 6 - 8 activity/lesson plan with the goal of getting the point across.  One activity involved bringing an "alien" to the group called Jadoo who comes to earth wanting to learn, "What are males?" and "What are females" and what do each respective group do? The girl running the course thought this would be a good time to bring me in, so she gave me some big sunglasses and headphones (think hipster jadoo) and sent me in.  There were some snickers, but i honestly think the girls were more scared as i probably look close to jadoo anyways.  They then role played what each gender did therefore some of the girls were males and were miming farming and playing cricket, while others were females and were sweeping, cooking, and cutting crops.  The class went on and the girls were essentially challenged whether doing this traditional roles was the only option for them. 

They were then provided stories of strong women in history including Chand Bibi and Ahilyabai Holkar.  (worth looking up as I had no idea of their stories)

One exercise involved the girls closing their eyes and thinking, if I were a boy, what would I play?  What would I be when I grow up?  To the first question, most girls provided sports such as tennis, cricket, field hockey, basketball, soccer, etc.  Essentially any and all sports as girls commonly don't play any sport here. Regarding future plans, a mixture of answers were given including police, doctor, lawyer, etc.  

To cap it off, the girls sang a song together.  The essential gist of the song provided to me by one of the social workers, was that a girl was singing to her mother, and telling her the special relationship they have and that boys and girls are the same, and if anything, girls are even better because they maintain the home AND work in the fields.  Wise words indeed. 

There are more stories than space to tell about all of them right now, but I'll go ahead and put up the pictures.  Most won't make sense, but I'll try explaining with captions.  

Link to Pictures

Bombay days 2 and 3

May 4th, 11: 34 pm

I'll try not to bore you too much and give you a quick recap of days 2 and 3 in Mumbai.  I am now in Jamkhed but will share more about that later. 

Day 2, i ventured onto Mumbai's famous commuter train system.  I was a little scared in the context of hearing of terrorist attacks years ago, khair it ended up being safe and friendly.  The only thing getting attacked was my nose from the up close and personal body odor.  I was able to right on the foot board for the first time, "even though mummy said never to do so".  I wasn't hanging off or anything, but it sure was nicer to be close to the open door than to be jammed in the middle.  It ended up being extremely simple train system to use.  

I initially tried to venture into the famous Dharavi slum but then after walking "within it" for 3 minutes, I realized that was a dumb idea on many levels and simply went back to the train station.  One thing that was interesting though was that every mud thatched or aluminum roof had a satellite dish attached to it.  I then went briefly to see "Dhobi Gaat" from this one bridge which was entertaining to be honest.  I would've stayed and watched longer where it not for the heat pelting down on me, It  is amusing to watch 20 some odd people washing clothes the desi way.  

Haji Ali was what I expected, nothing too drastic or crazy especially compared to Ajmer Sharif.  I did take a picture of someone cooking kerayla in a huge wok pot though. 

Maybe the highlight of my Bombay tourist romp was Mani Bhavan.  This the house that Gandhi stayed at whenever he visited Bombay.  It is on this one street in Mumbai that honsetly looked like a street in DC with great trees lining the road and a peaceful/well to do crowd walking the streets. Gandhi launched several campaigns from here including Satyagraha.  They converted it into a small museum with his room preserved, quotes abound, some books from his personal library, correspondence with various people including einstein, hitler, roosevelt, and tolstoy.  Truly amazing to see and learn even more about how great he was.  It's one thing to have touched Shah Rukh Khan, but another to have been in the same house, the same steps, and same balcony as a modern day saint. 

Last couple of pictures are from two adjoining parks.  

Day 3, I started having a horrible cold but still made it out.  Took a scary looking ferry out to Elephanta Island where Hindus from approx 5th century AD had carved a shrine essentially into the mountain.  Though much of it isn't preserved, it was impressive to see the size and the layout of this religious group so long ago.  One can appreciate the importance of religion to such an extent to carve out of a mountain such an ornate shrine with many different idols.  

Following that, I went to the prince of wales museum, which really wasn't that impressive.  Random mix of many different artifacts.  It's really sad considering India has such rich history.  The most impressive part was convincing the ticket guy that i was from delhi and therefore paying 5% of the Foreigner fee. 

I capped it all off by spending time on Chowpatty Beach, the epicenter of evenings in Mumbai (atleast for love birds and common folk).  It looked much like a fair was just plopped down onto a beach with vendors galore, music, etc.  Entertaining to see but definitely didn't go into the water.  I then walked along the bay on this very nice walkway.  This area was dominated by couples watching the sunset so I felt a little awkward sitting single between two couples.  A couple of Hijre made their rounds, tapping everyone on the head to give dua's, but you in return having to give money.  I started to argue but then just gave the money within 5 seconds.  

Link to pictures

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan...

5/1/12 - 6:10 pm

Coming to India this time is the least daunting it has ever been to me.  Or the least foreign.  Maybe since this is the third time i've come in 4 years, everything is less shocking and just feels more comfortable.  Getting off the plane, the smell hits you right away - this time a camphor like cleaning compound mixed with body odor.  The overly aggressive machchar gave their welcome  at the baggage claim.  Since the flight came at 3 in the morning, customs and immigration took about 10 minutes total.  When coming out of the airport here, they have a tented type area - much like in the prophet's masjid - with people lined on either side.  I looked to the left as the driver had told me where he'd be holding my name on a placard, but I walked by and didn't see it.  It ended up being that he thought my name was "Ahvinaan" which is why I didn't recognize it.

I ended up finally getting to bed after 24 hours of traveling at 5 in the morning.  I think being on call as a resident helps with traveling as I don't feel the jet lag much and as long as I could get a block of sleep, i didn't feel the need to catch up.  I woke up to uncle looking for his clothes in the closet in my room but acted like I was asleep while he was doing this. 

The apartment is extremely comfortable.  The shower head is impressive as it is the humongous rain shower type head.  Uncle and auntie are very nice and hospitable.  They seem to be like the friendly Christian family you see in a Bollywood movie shot in Goa.  They are extremely stressed these days in the setting of them planning their daughter's wedding, so I'm trying to be as least of a nuisance as possible. 

Mumbai has a lot of ways to get around, but I chose taxi.  It's the costliest, but the most comfortable and easiest.  I'm finally starting to realize that contrary to what many of my family members do, you SHOULD convert rupees into dollars sometimes and realize that a 3 dollar cab ride really isn't that bad compared to a 1 dollar train ride.  You can see the pictures, but my day was composed of a multitude of old Mumbai sites including Victoria Terminus, Oval Maidaan, the High Court, Bombay University, an old synagogue (interesting Jewish presence in old Mumbai area), Gateway of India, and Taj Mahal Palace.  I feel like I've hit the high points and now I'm going to try to get into more of the cultural sites.  There are a couple of pictures at the end for Abu - a new suspension bridge built that circumnavigates traffic to go straight from the South Side into the posh area where I'm staying.

A quick note on Indian hospitality.  Though I've been warned by Mammi and Pappa 38 times to be wary of strangers, I've already had experiences showing the opposite.  While eating lunch in "Gulshan-e-Iran", I sat in the "singles" area where you share a table with other "singles".  I started the conversation off by asking him "what's good here?" and he recommended the Karahi Chicken.  We ended up talking during our lunch while there, he shared some of his amazing veg pulao with me, bought me a cold drink, and bought me custard for dessert.  I was still apprehensive that he'd want something else from me at the end, but he ended up leaving before me, gave his salam and he was gone.  It's amazing how nice strangers can be to each other in the mother land -  I always leave with a multitude of good experiences, but rarely bad apples to ruin the bunch.  

Link to pictures

Rep. King Hearings Unjustified

On March 10th, Rep. Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee led a hearing on Muslim "radicalization" in America. Though his goal was to further examine the causes of "homegrown terrorism" and "inform", he couldn't have been further off target to achieve his goals of a safer nation. He effectively took us back to the days of McCarthy and his cronies, singling out the religion of millions of Americans based on the acts of a few. If the goal was truly to find the roots of home grown terrorism, he would have also paid attention to a study published less than two weeks ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center showing an explosive growth of right-wing anti-government and hate groups. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should stand as a reminder that home grown terrorism is more diverse than one religion.

As the vitriol and political shenanigans continue on the Hill, I urge those that have hate and mistrust towards certain groups of people to check themselves. Learn about those people from different sources, and better yet, befriend them, learning that individuals are much too unique and diverse to be typecast into the broad brushstrokes political leaders and those in power want us to think.

Bollywood Revival

I've recently ignored my bollywood needs. Thanks to a friend's great link, www.bombayproduction.com , I am hooked again. I am feeding my soul and Mohit Chauhan is bringin' the hits.