Get me out of Goa!

The monsoon has finally really caught up with us. After showing up at the train station last night at 10pm to find out that our 16 hour train to Kerala was canceled, and wouldn’t be running again for at least another three days from now, we’ve spent the last 12 hours figuring out a way to get the hell out of Goa. We showed up at the internet café this morning at 9 only to have the shop not open until 12 to look at flights on-line. Of course, none of them left before 3 so we headed to the bus station to be told that we’d have to take a 14 hour bus to Bangalore at 6pm, which meant another day of waiting in Goa – No Thanks!. We decided to try our luck at the airport and vowed on our way there that we would only leave by plane. We arrived at the airport to be told by Jet Airways that there not taking anymore new reservations – even to Bangalore – which is retarded since everyone is trying to get to Bombay and they’re almost the opposite direction. I think this is also why people tell you to take at least a month to travel through India, bc these delays seriously impact our week long vacation. Oh well, Steph and I have remained optimistic, and smiled most of our way through this, recognizing that if we were a couple, we’d probably be yelling at each other by now. Again we’re just lucky that we never had any real plans to go through Bombay because they’re still not flying in there today – which means there’s been a backup for about five days. It looks like our dreams of Kerela backwaters and ayurvedic massages are over though as we’ve run out of time to get there, and so have decided to head to Mysore outside of Bangalore instead.

Goa Beaches

We had a most perfect first day in Goa, even with the monsoon coming in and out every few hours, which has made the humidity ridiculous. After breakfast, we inquired about renting a scooter, which is supposedly the only way to travel in Goa. I stretched the truth a bit when I said that I had driven one before – okay so I way only on the back of one that Kirby was driving in Portugal last summer. After I wobbled the way down the road on my trial run, Steph and I agreed that now was probably not the time for me to learn - what with the sometimes torrential rain, enormous potholes, water buffalo, and left side of the road business. Although I’m sure with a little practice, I would have been fine, but Steph later let me know that our normally extra-smiley innkeeper Nelson had turned to her glumly and said,”but my bike’s not insured…”.

As everyone who’s anyone gets around Goa on two wheels, we felt like quite the losers starting off walking. I can’t even tell you how hot it was, though, so after about 1km of 10km we gave in and said yes to the Indian man offering us a ride on the back of his motorcycle. We climbed on to the back and took off (yes three adults on one – but I did see three adults and two kids on the back of one in Hyderabad). After just a few minutes the driver stopped at a house and started honking for someone to come out, he was also fiddling with his cell phone and telling us that it would be just a few minutes. I had a feeling that he wanted to show us off to some of his friends, but he proved me wrong when after a few minutes, he filled us in that he wanted to let his wife know that he was taking us into town. It certainly made me feel better about the straddling I was doing in the middle spot that seemed to worsen with every bump. My spot was still better than Steph’s though since she had no foot rest but had to hold her legs up using her inner thigh strength for the 15 minute ride into Calangute.

Calangute and Baga were cute, but sleepy little towns. We stumbled onto some incredible shopping deals, although they didn’t offer much. Steph and I picked up some sandals that she swore would cost me $60 in NYC for $5, some great jewelry and a few other things. We wandered down to the beach and posed in a few Indian tour groups photos as the token “foreigner” before heading to lunch – which consisted of a great mushroom pizza (okay, maybe it wasn’t that good, but after a month of Indian food – anything else tastes better!)

We wandered around town for a while longer, profusely sweating, as the humidity must have been at 99% and eventually found our way to the Ayurvedic Health Center. We signed up for an ayurvedic massage. These ones were much better than the last one I had – far less oil and no trying to shower it off at the end. The treatment ended with me climbing into a steam box (yes, one of those things where you sit down and only your head pops out) – it’s supposed to cause the oil to absorb into your skin. The lady sat and chatted with me explaining how wild the place was during the season and how the beaches are wall to wall chairs and people, and you can barely walk down the road. I’m pretty glad that we missed that time of year. It was hard to imagine though as our limited time on the beach was less than great. It was very dirty and again, everyone wanted to take pictures with us with our clothes on. I couldn’t very well imagine being in my bathing suit.

We had a really nice dinner at an upstairs reggae bar type place that you could tell was probably quite the scene in the on-season, but for us consisted of one other foursome of travelers and some weird Indian guy who offered us some of his joint halfway through our meal. We politely declined and were glad to see him move to the other side of the restaurant. We decided that we’d had enough of the unexciting Goa beach scene (at least for this time of year) and planned to go to Panaji (the capital of Goa) the following day.

Not a whole lot to report about Panaji, it was almost too hot and sticky to do anything, the highlight for me was probably getting to watch a good old Hollywood blockbuster – The Island. Not exactly a great movie, but I’ll take whatever American media I can get at this point. If the other 7 movies playing hadn’t been Hindi, I’d have been happy to sit for a double feature. Also the banana pancakes at the adorable inn we stayed at should get mention. I had them two days in a row - I’m just glad to not be eating idlys and dhal again. Ahhh, the simple pleasures...

Hyderabad

Ahh Hyderabad, I can’t say I’m too sorry to see it go. Although it’s a beautiful city, my experience ever these last four days has been less than perfect.

The trip started out okay, and I was very much looking forward to a break from Madurai. We arrived on Saturday night, and I immediately felt the effects of a larger Indian city. Hyderabad has 5.5 million which is nothing in camparison to Bombay’s 16 million, but is much larger than Madurai’s 1.2. The traffic and pollution were incredible and it’s become a serious problem for Hyderabad as they estimate as additional 10,000 cars are being added to the streets each month! Also, the proverty was much more appalling and at every street light, beggars are at the window. I realized that I have been incredibly spoiled by the Aravind guesthouse, as LV Prasad’s was musty and inhabited with cockroaches.

We turned in early as Mr Nagarajan had planned an early and long day of sightseeing on Sunday. Mr Nagarajan sits on the board of LV Prasad which is another hospital system offering eye care in India. He is also a board member for Seva and so very connected with both Aravind, as well. He lives in Hyderabad so he was very much looking forward to showing us all around. Since his wife was out of town, he stayed with us at the guesthouse, too, which is actually part of the hospital and so you have to walk through the outpatient clinic to get there. I think that the guesthouse is mostly used for doctors.

Sunday morning we got up early to have breakfast at the house of a former Aravind employee who’s now working at LVP. After that we set out on our tour. Unfortunately, it was raining, but we were well equipped with our own personal driver and tour guide (Nagarajan). We first went to the Golcanda Fort. A beautiful 16th century fort that was incredibly impressive. We were initially thrilled to find out that there was a festival going on that day, and there were people all over the fort, even though it was raining. It didn’t take us long to figure out, though, that almost every group had a goat with them, and that sacrificing that goat was part of the celebration. There was goat blood all the way up the steps to the top of the fort. Watching one goat with its half severed head and legs kicking violently, I decided to reconsider my vegetarianism. It was very hard to watch, I’ll admit, and the image is still with me.

After the fort, we ventured to the Salar Jung Museum which although by Western standards was average did have a notable collection of wood and ivory carvings. The biggest draw was a large grandfather clock that had a miniature woodchopper and with each hour a miniature person would come out of a little door at the top of the clock to ring the bell. We went for the 12 o’clock showing and I would say that there was at least a crowd of a 500. It was pretty funny – there were big screens to show the action going on at the top of the clock and with each ring the crowd oohed and ahhed. Kristi, Sandra, and I kind of just looked at each other wondering what the big deal was – but it was very cute.

After the museum we headed to the Charminar, which is the most famous landmark in Hyderabad, and it literally means the four minarets. It’s next to a huge bazaar which after our morning was a bit difficult to navigate. We almost got run over twice as we tried to cross the roundabout of the Charminar to access different parts of the bazaar (people will not stop for you! – and they have made at least 8 lanes out of two), and the numbers of people yelling “Madam, Madam” and shh’ing at us to look at their goods were incredibly disconcerting. A few minutes of it was all we could stand and we headed home for nap time. I ended up sleeping 2.5 hours, and so I already had a feeling that I might be coming down with something, but we had a lovely dinner on the side of the lake, Hussain Sagar. There’s a 17m Buddha statue in the middle, that during transport to the middle of the lake in 1990 sunk killing 8 people. It was salvaged and restored to its place in 1992.

I spent most of the rest of the night my bathroom deathly ill. It was horrible, and I spent the entire next day in bed. Fortunately, Kristi, Sandra, and Nagarajan were there to take care of me. They were able to send up toast, and water, and even a doctor. Of course, within minitues of food being in my room – the cockroaches reappeared. Well, I had a feeling that it would happen sooner or later. I could tell that they were all really worried about me, and hoping that I would be much better before they had to leave the following day. After the day of rest I felt much better and Tuesday I joined Sandra and Kristi for a couple of hours of shopping before their plane. Of course, with all of the traffic in Hyderabad, we spent about 30 min shopping and 1.5 hours driving. We only got to spend 10 min at our favorite stop – Kalanjali – which has all kinds of the handicrafts and clothing with none of the hassle.

Another thing that I noticed about Hyderabad were there were so many women in burka’s as they have a much larger Muslim population than farther south. They were on motorcycles, shopping at Kalanjali, paying a few rupees to have their weight estimated at the museum, and eating ice cream at the boardwalk.

I'm sorry to see Sandra and Kristi go, we had a lot of fun, and it was great getting to know them better. I'm pretty excited to have Steph come tomorrow, though, and I'm looking forward to getting to Goa.

A Busy Week

I knew that it would get busy this week with Kristi and Sandra here, but it’s really amazing how much has been squeezed into their short visit. Everyday has involved numerous meetings, we’re shuttled from one to the next, providing input on curriculums, orientations, training programs, and the new consulting project. Every night has been filled with activities as well.

Tues. night was one of my favorite evenings. Dr. Natchier took us out to the organic farm that she started last year. It’s on 5 acres of 80 acres that Aravind owns 6km from the hospital. The manufacturing lab, Aurolab, is building a new building there that will open in a year. The farm, though, is amazing. In just a year, they’re growning 60% of the vegetables that are fed to us at the guesthouse, as well as the hundreds of students that stay in the hostel across the street from the hospital. She’s really sliced a little piece of heaven for herself out there, and she said that she’s spending more and more time there. (She’s Dr. V.’s sister, and her retirement can’t be too far away.) There was a huge rainstorm rolling in and so one side of the immense horizon we watched the lightening storm while on the other side we watched the sunset through palm trees. On our way home the two combined and we had a huge, complete double rainbow. It was breathtaking, and as I stared out the window on my drive back into town, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I loved this country.

Wednesday night, Nagarajan took this visiting German prof and me to the Meenakshi temple for a tour. He knows a lot about the Hindu faith and so he was able to explain give a lot more background on the temple. There are so many different gods and goddesses! The prof brought up that Hinduism is one of the only world religions where you see almost equal representation between males and females. That night we had dinner at Dr. Kim and Dr. Usha’s house with at least ten other family members. Unfortunately, Dr.V. has been very sick this week, with a fever and cold. It makes everyone a little nervous with his 88th bday coming up this fall.

Thursday night we went to dinner at one of the hotels. There were about 20 of us, and it was a delicious meal. One thing it very different here, which is that out of all of those people, only three drank beer – Kristi, Nagarajan and the German. It’s just such a different culture here where it’s really almost unacceptable. It’s quite different from some of the work dinners that we experience in the US. Last night was the first time that alcohol was even offered in the three weeks that I’ve been here. The dinner ended with a short performance by Sanil singing two songs. He’s got a really nice voice, and he and Murali are writing a song about Aravind that will be recorded for Dr. V’s upcoming birthday.

Last night, the HR team took us out to dinner at the Sangam hotel that had more traditional Indian food - it was delicious. Before we went out we went to Kheerti and Preethi's house to see their young children and their new apartment. Kheerti had gotten us some lychee ice cream of the same brand (Amul) that I had had earlier. I had been raving about the fig ice cream to him the night before, so he went and got us a new flavor. The restaurant was wonderful and I got to sit next to Dr. Natchiar, and I found out that she did some of her medical training at Harvard in the early 70's. She is quite a character. The restaurant was outside and there were four musicians playing traditional music which was the first that I had heard outside of the temple.

It's been great to spend time with Kristi and Sandra this week. I've certainly been able to accomplish one of my business school goals which was to get to know my professors - something that I did not do in my undergraduate experiences. They seem to have so much fun together and they've had some incredibly interesting experiences, both in India and otherwise. Kristi spent four years in Africa with the peace corps, and Sandra's filled me in on although she loves India, China is her favorite. (Well, I'll have to add that country to the list!). I think that they're got really great lives with being profs, traveling internationally to work on public health projects and great marriages. Kristi also manages to balance her family life, as she has three young sons. They just get an amazing reception here at Aravind, and everyone really appreciates the time that they donate. Of course, they seem to thoroughly enjoy the experience, too. It's really nice to see professional women who have been able to "have it all.” I feel very lucky that they have intivted me to be a part of these relationships that they've created. They admitted today that they were a little nervous about sending me out on my own to India, but they let me know today that I've done a great job and only improved their standing with the people at Aravind - it was great to hear.

Tomorrow Kristi, Sandra, Nagarajan, and I leave for Hyderabad for four days, before I join Steph in Goa, so I think that my writing will only get more sporadic. I’m looking forward to getting out of Madurai, but I’m sad to think that I’ll only have a week left when I return to Madurai. I can’t believe how fast that my time has gone. In some respects, I feel like I’m just getting started!

Sandra, Kristi and Mr. Nagarajan arrived this morning and we spent most of the day in meetings. My presentation on Hospital Contract Management went over well. There were probably 10-15 people, including Dr. V. When we re-grouped in the afternoon, Dr. V. even said, “Katherine, that was a good presentation that you gave this morning,” and asked for a copy. Sandra turned to me and mouthed, wow! That was as much as I could have hoped for, but I was glad to know that they found it interesting and helpful as they’re looking to develop their own consulting services. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week – working out the details of the fellowship and paramedic curriculum, developing a model for the consulting services, and getting management to agree on an organizational structure. We did sneak out tonight for about an hour of shopping which was fun, though.

Kristi asked whether my experience so far had had any affect on my career plans, and I had to admit that it had. It’s so hard to know what I’ll be thinking when I get back to the U.S., and I’m just starting to think about it. But it’s incredible how far services and money go here in India, and how many people you can help. There is just so much need for qualified management people in healthcare, but even more so in the developing world. Imagine if I could incorporate international travel into my healthcare work? It could be a dream come true. I’ll have to think about it some more - good thing that I’ve got another internship to help figure it out.

What do I have to complain about?

I was right the pity party is over, maybe because my own troubles were put into perspective. This morning I slept in until 8am, enjoying the lack of music and no yoga classes. Pavi came to pick Suchitra and I up at 9:30 to head over to the organization that Zoe started. It’s pretty incredible, in her three years here, she’s been able to set up an NGO that provides counseling, training, and English classes for young women, an organization called Sudar. Today we were helping in a workshop that was being held for other NGO’s in Madurai. The workshop focused on creating brochures for their organizations that could be distributed to potential donors as well as help build awareness in the community. I worked with two women who volunteered with the YWCA, which like in the US, provides services to women and children – such as education, counseling, vocational training, and housing. They were very sweet but had not ever done marketing work, and they needed a lot of help with the English writing. We worked on it for three or four hours, though, and I think we made a lot of progress. Of course, this is all done on paper with pencial, but no erasers – so progress is a lot slower than if we were to work on a computer. They told me about some horrible stories of abuse that some of the women they worked with had suffered, and one of the women let me know that she, too, had endured an abusive husband. Although she no longer lived with him, she was still in a legal battle to keep her inheritance from her parents. Fortunately, the YWCA had an on-site attorney to help with such problems.

After the work, we broke for lunch. After all of the participants had eaten, there was still a lot of food left over (it had been donated by a local hotel) so Suchitra, Pavi, Zoe and I sat on the floor and used our hands to scoop food off of banana leafs. The food was delicious!

After getting home - I worked a little bit more on my presentation, did some travel research, and then got ready for the Sunday family meeting. Twelve children performed – about half of them doing traditional songs, and the other half speaking on great leaders of India. Then we all ate an enormous meal and celebrated two birthdays with a very sugary pink cake. I had two of the doctors ask me – “where do you go at 5:30am?” and I let them know to yoga - I don’t think that you can get away with much in this town that someone from the family doesn’t see.

Suchitra and I watched a really interesting documentary tonight called Fierce Grace. It’s about Ram Dass, this Harvard professor who got kicked out for researching the effects of psychedelic drugs in the 60’s (he was also taking a lot of them!). He then took a long trip to India and became a spiritual guru. Apparently, he had quite a following, but recently he suffered a stroke and his recovery has given him a whole new perspective. He interacted with and affected some really interesting people in his lifetime. Dr. V. and Ram Dass were two of the founders of Seva – the Berkeley organization that I’m also working with this summer.

As we started to watch the movie, the window behind me slid open and Andrew (the caretaker) stuck his head in, putting a cloth on the window sill to rest his head on his arms. He watched the entire movie standing up from outside (he’s got to be in his 70’s!). Apparently, he never steps foot into the house. He even sleeps on a cot outside. Suchitra thinks that it’s self-imposed and that he still holds on to strict caste definitions. I wanted so badly for him to come inside and sit and watch with us – this is another thing that I probably won’t get used to.

A Week in Review

Well, it’s nice to hear that people have been reading, hopefully, this entry will make up for the week long absence. I’ve actually gotten pretty busy at work – the fellowship program has started, and I had set up some interviews for the week, plus planning for Sandra and Kristi’s arrival and my presentation on Mon. My evening writing time has been replaced with sleep, as I’ve begun taking yoga classes from 6-7:30 every morning, and I’ve been reading up on travel plans for the week I’ll have off with Steph.

Yoga has really been a great way to get my days started this week, even if it is at 6am. It’s just me and one other guy in a 12 day beginner class where we can learn each of the postures. The fees are $8 for a month of classes. I’ve been everyday this week so far, except for Friday, not bad, thankfully, they give us Sunday off. It’s beautiful out in the morning, though, very peaceful and cool. Although, the mosquitoes are out in full force, so I’ve taken to dousing myself with bug spray before going anywhere.

The fellowship program started this week at LAICO, and I’ve been attending a lot of their classes. The fellows are great – 3 women, 4 men all ages 22-24 – all very intelligent and inquisitive. They bring a new energy into the organization, as it is primarily made up of PhD faculty and generally older staff. I spent most of Monday with them touring the free hospital, camp hospital, sitting in on an overview of LAICO activities and we had tea. I was able to share some of my knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system in some of the meetings, and otherwise, they asked me a lot of questions about life in the U.S. Where I live, what I did for work, what I think of Bush, am I married – people seem to love that question here. Most of their questions, I easily answered, but they really stumped me with one – Who are your spiritual leaders? I asked living? And from the U.S.? I couldn’t come up with one. “You know like…” and they listed off about five in India that they knew, but I was totally stumped.

My favorite lecture of the week was by Dr. Natchier on the Cultures and Vision of Aravind. She ran the class of 35 students (they combined the students of a number of on-going programs) just like an MBA class, except with more wit and humor than a lot of our professors. She passed around folded up pieces of paper and had each person draw one and go to the front of the class to answer questions like – What is the vision of Aravind? and what will you contribute to the organization?. If people gave canned answers she let them have it. Fortunately, as I was in the back, they ran out of paper before it got to me. All of the class was conducted in English, even though I would guess that I was the only native English speaker in the classroom. There were people from Pakistan, Kenya, and Malawi, in addition to the numerous Indians. Also adding to the pressure was the bikram-like temperatures of the classroom as the AC and fans were down and 35 people were crammed into a meeting room meant for 10. What I found most interesting about her lecture was her emphasis on spirituality. It seems that people in the U.S. have become so politically correct that it's been eliminated entirely from the workplace. She (and Aravind) doesn't prosletyze, but there's always that underlying element to the work that they do. She talked about self managemnt being the key to life management and without both inner and outer discipline, nothing can be achieved in life, spiritually or materially.

Well, I’ve finally figured out what the evening chanting was all about. It’s evening prayers coming from the temple across the street, and this week the music was ten-fold to what it’s been. Everyday this week it went from 5AM to 11pm. It was unreal, like a nightclub was downstairs, even with the AC and fan on, there was no way to sleep through it. Oh well, I was planning to be up at 5:30 for yoga anyway. Apparently I was lucky because they have a festival in December that runs 21 days! There certainly was a lot of noise for the little festivities that I witnessed. They set up some light displays in the empty lot, and set off firecrackers every night. One night they had a procession where the temple community of about 200 people processed in single file line around the neighborhood, including right post our gate. Each person was holding a huge potted plant on their head, a rice plant that they had grown for a month, that would be devoted to the goddess ?. The pots were huge terracotta ones, bigger than their heads and the pot and plant was at least two feet high. Some people are talented enough to even dance with the pots on their heads. Anyway, that was very quiet, the next night was a little more raucous as they walked around the neighborhood with a large statue. The priests carried metal dishes of fire and they put ash and red powder on bystanders’ foreheads. The final night of festivities was postponed to the following night because of the rain, but they didn’t stop the music (lucky us!). I was told that the dancing happened from 10-2 which was past my bedtime and inside the village where I probably wouldn’t venture on my own.

I lunched today with an Indian woman visiting from Harvard. She moved to the U.S. in the sixties and was at Berkeley as a student and professor at the same time as my parents. She also lives on the same street as Suchitra in Boston – it is such a small world! We got on the topic of Indian clothes, and she was lamenting the popularity of the salwar kameez, the pants and tunic,(exactly what Suchitra and I were wearing) in Tamil Nadu (the state in which Madurai is located). She finds the sari so much more graceful and versatile. I have to agree with her, but I think it takes some practice to get there. She told us a funny story of being on a plane to India from the U.S. years ago and the plane used to stop through Pakistan. She was cold during the layover and so she was using the end of the sari usually thrown over the shoulder as a shawl (ah, the many uses) A Pakistani man got on and sat next to her and started telling her what a good Indian woman she was for covering her arms and midriff unlike all of the other Indian women that he had seen. Well, she stood up and threw back the shawl exposing her arms and midriff and saying “what, what do you mean, I’m like all of the others!” She had been quite offended by his statement, but he was absolutely horrified. He called over the flight attendants and told them that he had to move, he couldn’t sit next to this indecent, immoral woman. She was a very entertaining woman. She’s in for just two days to get to know Aravind. I asked how her visit had been so far and she mentioned that it seemed more of a spiritual calling and then she felt that she was not visiting as much as she had been brought here. I really liked her way of thinking…

Glorious rain came this week after two weeks of temperatures hovering just under 100. I think that the rain has probably reduced the temp to at least 90. Hopefully, that will last at least a day or two. The first rainstorm really was a monsoon, sheets of rain came out of nowhere and then continued for hours. Of course that was the night that we decided to go out to dinner, so we were drenched on our way out since there wasn't autorickshaw in sight.

Suchitra, and I met two other Americans for dinner on Thursday night. We went to a local hotel – Northgate- that was very good. I saw more foreigners in that one room than I’ve seen in two weeks (including or table, I think 8)– I think that it’s a popular spot for travelers. Zoe and Chubnum were the two other women that we met. Chubnum is a law student at NYU here for the summer working for a non-profit and Zoe has lived here for three years and has started her own organization to help women.

Tonight, I’ve hit a lowpoint - the third weekend in a row of fairly little social activity. After working until 7.00pm, it’s Saturday night and I’m updating my blog. Compounding it is the fact that I talked to my mom, sister, and brother today and they’re spending a nice weekend together. And Devin’s wedding is tonight which is sure to be a fun and lively gathering of Haas friends. The real clincher was Suchitra and Pavi leaving me sitting and eating by myself to go out to dinner with the guest from Harvard and Dr. Aravind. I really feel like I’m giving my best both in work – working 9-7 on a Sat! and with my attitude – trying to stay positive, but tonight is more than I can take. I guess that I’ve just hit a low point, it was bound to happen. Sandra and Kristi arrive on Monday and Steph gets here the day that they leave, so hopefully, I think it will be short-lived.

Things that I love about India
the vibrant colors
the food
head shaking which means – yes, go on, I understand
saris – so many colors and ways to wear them
bicycles
A family of four fitting on a motorcycle
men constantly adjusting their dhotis (?) (basically sarongs wrapped around the waist, then pulled up from the bottom, folded in half, and tucked in to look like a skirt)
spirituality and sense of a higher purpose
smell of jasmine
hospitality and generosity
never knowing what I’ll see on my way to work
eating with my hands


Things that I don’t like so much about India
children having to use the empty lot across the street every morning to go to the bathroom
men going to the bathroom EVERYWHERE
the dust
wet floor and toilet seat in the bathroom at work bc they don’t use t.p. but rather water which ends up everywhere (also most of the women prefer the squatter toilet!)
smell and sight of garbage and/or manure
wondering if the old man lying on the sidewalk every day this week is still alive
mosquitoes
feeling dependent
the smell of food on my hands after eating with my hands

A Day of Rest, Well Sort of

It’s Sunday and finally a day off so I woke up early for breakfast (it’s only served from 7-8 and the only meal on Sundays) but then got back in bed until 11. My object of the day was to check out the local high class hotels to see what kind of services they offer. When I say high class, they’re not exactly what I’m used to at home, but some of them were nice. A couple of them had pools. One beautiful and empty, but it was relatively close to the street (I could just see waking up from a nap with a crowd) and the other one was more secluded, but all of the swimmers were Indian and the women wore clothes. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I’ll be putting on a bathing suit in Madurai. They did all have restaurants which may be a nice change of pace from the guesthouse while quieter and AC’d versus the restaurants in town. One of the hotels had a “spa” so I had to check out what that consisted of.

They explained the concept of “Ayervedic” massage which basically sounded like the massages we’re used to at home. Being the adventurer (or sucker for pampering) that I am, I said okay. The technique was very similar to what I’m used to except that they used about 100 times the oil, including in my hair, and on my face. By the end of the hour, I was practically swimming on the wooden table that had curved edges to keep the oil from dripping on the floor. As she led me into the bathroom that had a bucket full of water and explained that she was next going to rub me down with a bar of soap, I had to cut the treatment short. Upon finding out that the shower worked, I let her know that I would take it from here. Overall, it was nice during, but afterwards pretty gross – and it was a huge hassle wash it all off. I’m not sure I’ll do it again, but it was $12 well spent.

I got back from my massage to find 10 people gathered in the living room of the guesthouse. Thulsi had warned me that there might be a meeting, but I didn’t realize that it would be here. With my skin slicked in oil and my hair matted flat, I sat down to listen to a visitor from the U.S., although originally from India, talk about his franchising success with Hiltons and Marriots in the southeast U.S. He owns 50 hotels and Aravind is very interested in learning about franchises as a possibility in the future. After he talked about franchises, he talked about a potential joint venture with Aravind. He wants to develop a 250 acres in Saret, Gujarat (where he’s from) and put in a big complex with an education piece, entertainment, and a hospital. He mentioned that a diamond polishing business that’s partnered with DeBeers was already building and would be bringing in jobs.

I’m sure that Aravind gets this all of the time, but it sounded ridiculous to me – that’s nothing of what Aravind is about – and I was thankful that he was not Caucasian because it just seemed so cliché that this successful American would try to come in, take the Aravind model and try to make it more “succesful” -ie. profitable. Anyway the room listened patiently, and the only question was whether he thought the hospital would be able to meet their requirement of bringing in at lease 40% charity patients. I’d imagine that not only would the “free” patients not want to go to the hospital surrounded by high class restaurants and services, but I also wondered about the “paying” patients used to new supreme facilities would want “free” patients bused into their hospital. Anyway, I’d be interested to see how far that idea gets. Two hours later, I was totally beat.

R.J. stopped through the guesthouse tonight before heading back to Bangalore so we went to dinner at Hotel Rajeswaram and had a roof top dinner before he got on his night train. It was a beautiful view and very different from the one I’m used to at ground level. A bit of writing, and then to bed – I’ve got yoga at 6am tomorrow.

The Eye Camp

It’s Saturday, but Aravind works on Saturday so at 7:30 I arrive at the hospital to spend my day at an Eye Camp. This one was in Tirumangalam, and was being sponsored by The Lions Club. Three doctors, 9 paramedics, the camp organizer, the driver and I set off on an hour drive outside of town. We arrived at 9 and about a 100 people were already lined up. The paramedics started setting up the various stations – refraction/the eye test/cashier/doctor/etc.

The best analogy that I can think of for how each of the stations worked was like we experience trying to get a drink at a really crowded bar. Everyone’s kind of pushing and shoving and standing really close to one another. People hold out money (or in this case patient files the size of index cards) and waive them around. The most aggressive get served first, and some others wait until there’s a lull in the chaos. Like the bartender, the doctor/cashier/paramedic treats the next person in front of them with little regard of “who is next”. I guess that lines might just be too orderly – the patients wouldn’t follow them and the doctors’ valuable time would be wasted if the next person wasn’t ready. The three doctors sat around a card table with stools on either side of them, so that when they finished with a patient on the left, they could turn to the patient on the right while the spot on the left was being filled by the next patient.

So the 3 doctors saw more than 300 patients today (this was a small camp, sometimes they’ll see 1000 patients in a day). About 100 were patients that had already had surgery and were coming in for a 1 month check-up and another 200 were new. Of the new patients, about half were loaded on a bus at 3 to go to Aravind to have their cataract surgery, rest overnight, and then be bused back to the town the next day.
I talked to the camp sponsor from Lions Club, Kathiresan – which literally means the son of Katherine. You can imagine his surprise when I let him know that that was my name. He hosts a camp every month of some kind – pediatrics, diabetes, etc. – it’s basically the way that rural people receive any kind of healthcare. While Aravind provides all of the services free of cost, the sponsor is responsible for transportation for the patients to the hospital and back, food, etc. He let me know that this camp cost them $120 – can you imagine diagnosing 300 patients for that amount?

Eye camps have been an incredibly successful way to service these people that would otherwise not seek out the hospital in the city. It insures that Aravind’s services are utilized and by doing 100 people from the same village at once, it creates a real support system for many people who would otherwise be terrified of the process. It’s pretty funny to watch a group of four or five women that all seem to be friends helping each other through the process, having social hour for the day until they are loaded onto the bus, explaining each step to each other, and modeling their eye patches. It must be comforting for them to know that their friends are going through it, too.

As for my role today, I mostly observed quietly from the background. It was frustrating because I had so many questions for the patients, but they only speak Tamil. I learned a lot, though, and it was an unbelievable experience. It’s interesting because when I looked at my pictures later, I don’t think that they capture the poverty of the people there. They were so thin, and many of them appeared to not have bathed in weeks. The beautifully colored sari’s hide a lot and the frequent smiling and laughter, don’t quite fit the image of poor people that I have from the United States.

On our way home, we stopped for lunch in a restaurant – my first meal out! Everyone washed their hands in the giant sinks in the back and then we sat down. The “waiter” rolled out a palm leaf in front of each person and then began dolling out portions of rice, curries, chutneys, etc. into little individual piles. You’re then meant to use your right hand to combine the piles and lift a bite at a time into your mouth. I rather enjoyed process (after all of those years of "don't play with your food!") and might start using it at all of my meals.

Tonight, I had a wonderful dinner at Thulsi’s house. As usual, it was a very interesting crowd – Thulsi, and his wife, Dr. Aravind (he got his MBA at Michigan), his wife and daughter, Natra, an opthamologist from China and an older couple from Eugene, Oregon who are members of the Lions Club, a U.S. organization that tries to brings the right services to the communities that need them. Lions Clubs are very prevalent in India where they have the second highest member population to that of the U.S. Now that the husband had retired, they spend time travel the world checking in on Lions projects, and they’re always hosted by the project organizers – sounds like a cool retirement to me! Again I was frustrated to find that when it came time to sit for dinner, Thusi’s and Aravind’s, Priya and Chictra – both opthamologists at the hospital– did not sit and eat with us, but rather served and then ate when we were finished. I don’t know if I’ll ever adjust to that practice.

I had interesting conversations with both Sanil and Venkatesh this morning. They’re both recent arrivals to LAICO, Sanil’s developing the Fellowship program and Venkatesh is working on the consulting piece. They’re both very friendly guys, and it will be nice to get to know them over the next weeks. Sanil even invited me to tea (LAICO has it every day at 11 and 4) so we went downstairs to the dining hall and talked about languages. He was the first one to ask me if I understood everything he was saying, and I admitted that I didn’t always. We talked about Indians’ tendency to speak somewhat fast, and pronunciate their words less than Americans. He actually speaks four languages Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and English – very impressive.

At lunch there were four men from Bangalore in for the day visiting Aravind which was a welcome change. It was nice to talk to them and hear about the work that they do for Phillips and a few of them had spent time in the US – they were very interested to hear my impressions of India and about the work that I’m doing at Aravind.

After lunch I set out for my task of the day which was to visit the tourist office downtown. It’s only open from 10-5 M-F so I wanted to get there today. I hailed an auto rickshaw, negotiated a price of 40 rupees (he started with 100) and was on my way It was a lot farther than it looked on the map, and it took us almost 20 min to get there. We first stopped at a gas station. The driver got out, and literally three people jumped into the rickshaw and started firing questions. “what is your name?” “where are you from?”, I really started to wonder if heading out by myself was not such a good idea, but they turned out to be just friendly inquiries and soon enough we were on our way. We took the road that runs along the Vaigai River which cuts through the center of Madurai. The river is mostly dried up right now, but the few ponds that exist in the riverbed were full of activity. First of all there were huge water buffaloes cooling themselves in the afternoon heat. In the evenings these animals are wandering the streets. There were also people bathing, and a lot of cows – many of their ribs were terribly visible. Most interesting were all of the dhobi-wallahs (washerpeople). So this is where my laundry goes everyday! They were doing just huge leads of laundry, by rinsing them in the water, belting out the dirt and then hanging them to dry in the sun. Apparently, they then get pressed before coming back to me. But there were just clothes lines, after clothes lines, of brilliantly colored clothing and sheets(?) laid out over areas that looked close to an acre.

Along the river, though, was also the worst poverty that I’ve seen so far. I realized as I rode along seeing homes made partially of palm fronds and cardboard that this was my first trip downtown during the daytime. There were so many more people and the living conditions were much more appalling than the area that I’m seeing on a daily basis.

The tourist office was not as helpful as I had hoped. The woman sat behind an old wooden desk piled high with papers that had yellowed with time. She handed me a map (from 1997) and pointed out a few of the sights that were written on the back. I asked if there were other services that they provided. No. What about travel agents, can you recommend one? No. At least she could give me change to be able to pay for my ride home.

Our dinner conversation started over the horrible events that had happened in London yesterday. It was the first that anyone had mentioned of it all day. Eventually, our talk turned to Bush. I was disappointed to hear Tejas say that many Indians support Bush for a couple of reasons. First of all bc of his pro-outsourcing policies and second of all because of his anti-Muslim ones. I’m just now understanding the depth of the terrible Muslim-Hindi dischord that has affected this country for hundreds of years and continues to this day. He said that a Hindi man had recently been hacked to death in Madurai for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. Anyway since the majority of Indians are Hindu (about 80%) they are strong supporters of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions. He said that the say is also true for many Indian Americans.

Mary gave me jasmine for my hair again tonight – she’s so sweet. She’d been to the Hindu temple across the street (that’s where the chanting’s been coming from), and she let me know that they’ll have a festival next Tuesday – should be interesting.

BTW – I take back what I said about the bugs – there was a cockroach almost two inches long in my bathroom tonight. I guess what India lacks in number compared to Mexico, it makes up for in size.

One of those days

Do you ever have those days, when you just feel dumb? Today was one of those days for me. It started with my first email of the morning when I was meaning to reprimand Megan for not finding time to write me when she had posted an email to our class yahoo group. Instead, though, when I hit reply, my email went out to the entire class of 240 people. Why, when you hit reply to something that one person wrote, it responds to the group, I’ll never know. I told Marcy when I talked to her later that maybe I could tell everyone that I did it on purpose just so people would email me, even if it was to make fun of me.

Second, on my way home, one of the temple elephants, was heading down the street. Originally, it was on the other side of the road, but I think as they saw me coming, the handlers crossed to try and intercept me. I shook my head and said no thank you as I passed by, having already experienced the tradition at the temple. As I approached the guesthouse, Andreas, the kind of doorman, (a very sweet man, he’s been at the guesthouse for 25 years, and he must be in his 70’s) explained what it was, and I told him that I had already been to Meenakshi and gotten the blessing there. Although I couldn’t understand exactly what he responded, it was along the lines of - if you know, then you should donate. I don’t have any problem donating and I would have done it again today, but will I have to endure the elephant snot in my hand and on my forehead every time I see one? I may have to investigate an alternative…

The next thing happened when I got back to the guesthouse and found sheets on my bed. This may not sound unusual to you, but you see, for the last five nights, I’ve slept without them. Yes, I thought it was unusual that I would sleep directly on the futon mattress (it only has a few stains!). I’d even wrapped the pillow in my sarong. But I guess that I didn’t want to offend anyone by asking. I assumed that if there were sheets, they would already be on the bed. I think that the other time that my room was cleaned the thin overthrow must have hidden it. Oh well, I should sleep well tonight!

The next, and thankfully, last thing happened as I braved my adventure for the day (I’m trying to assign myself something new everyday). I walked a few blocks from the guesthouse in the opposite direction from my office (a first) to check out the four or five “stores” a few blocks down with the intention of buying mangoes. I had one a few nights ago, and it was amazing – so much better than the ones we get from Mexico. You can’t even cut it up because it’s so soft, you pretty much just cut it open and dig in with your mouth. The juice was literally dripping down my arms. Anyway, so I say “stores” because they consist of three walls and a roof, each sell something different, grains, sweets, a kind of pharmacy?, and a fruit stand. I had heard that I should bargain hard everywhere I go so I asked how much for two, and I could swear the vender (a boy of about 10) said 15 for each, well, I was told to pay 25 rupees for a kilo (like I know what that is - but this was definitely not even close). I said “no, no, no I’ll give you 10 for two”, which is about $.20. He kept saying “wait, wait”, and I kept saying “no, 10 for two”. I was about to walk away when he took the mangoes out of my hand and took them over to the scale – Oh, “weight”, was what he was saying. He said 7, and I said “for each?”, “no I’ll pay 10”. He nodded his head at me, actually, he shook it. People here have an interesting way of their shaking their heads when they talk (and listen) that looks like no, but means yes. My guidebook describes it “as if Indians have an extra bone in their necks which allows the head to glide in a sinuous back and forth and up and down at the same time motion”. I can’t even do it if I try (and I’ve tried - in the privacy of my own room, of course). I should probably make sure that my nodding doesn’t look like no to them. Anyway, he said “weight” again, and I wondered now what, but he came back from behind the counter and gave me my three rupees change. Okay, so I was ready to overpay, and my mangoes are about half of the size of the other one I had, but it was another first (shopping on my own).

Some good things did happen today, too. Like I mentioned earlier, I got to talk to Marcy in Budapest. Skype really is an amazing thing. I can sit in the privacy of my AC’d office and make a phone call to Budapest for free! It sure beats the public phone on the dusty road, with the traffic rumbling by and impatient crowd waiting (and staring!). Also, I took a tour of the “paying” hospital, as opposed to the “free” hospital that I’ll see tomorrow or next week. It’s an incredible system. It has 280 beds and they see 1000-2000 patients per day. Although it looks very chaotic, with every waiting room and hallway filled with people, it’s unbelievably efficient. There are no appointments, but they get many patients through in an hour. Those that need to can come back the following day for surgery, staying over night if necessary. The price for any procedure (some including a two night stay) is under $300, and the paying patient’s fees cover all of their services, as well as the services of the two-thirds of patients that can pay nothing. It was great to finally see it. Although, walking around the hospital, sometimes I felt like it was more me who was on display, with entire waiting rooms of about 100 people staring, some pointing me out to their children, while my guide explained the system. I think that I’m starting to adjust - just trying to smile and say hello.

Well, it looks like my embarrassing day was not over after all. I had a delicious dinner on my own (Tejas was catching his Hindi soap). I did talk to Mary, for a bit. She’s the caretaker of the guesthouse, and serves us all of our meals. She’s very nice and patient, always answering my questions and smiling a lot. She even seemed to be able to tell that it had been a long day, and offered me a string of jasmine to put in my hair. I’ve seen a lot of women do it, and the wonderful smell is very strong (I wonder if it’s often used to cover up some not so wonderful smells). I finished my meal, and headed up to my room, only to realize that before going down to dinner, I had managed to tuck the back of my kameez (knee length tunic) into my salwar (pants) – which might be the Indian equivalent of tucking the back of your skirt into your pantyhose. Fortunately, I experienced the possibility of this happening before suffering the humiliation in public. I can’t even imagine if I had walked out onto the street. Thank goodness this day has come to an end!

On a side note –I don’t think that my entries will always be this long. My guess is that they’ll be inversely proportional to the number of other people staying at the guesthouse, and right now that’s only one.

This morning, it wasn’t the animals or the mosquitoes that woke me up at 5am, but rather the constant cooing of pigeons. I could hear them fluttering outside of my window and after pounding on the glass three or four times at 20 minute intervals, I realized that my efforts were hopeless. I opened the window to see what was so great about this ledge that they kept returning to. There were three eggs in a nest – it looks like I’d better get used to these early hours. Are baby pigeons any cuter then adult ones?

Today, I sat in on a really interesting meeting with the head LAICO staff about the fellowship program starting up next week. I’m planning to sit in on a number of their orientation classes and I’m hoping to get to know some of the nine fellows, too. They’re all about 22-24 and will be in the program for a year. The plan is that they would eventually provide the human capacity for the management consulting program that my project focuses on developing. Anyway, there was a lot of good information in the meeting, and I was again impressed with Aravind’s ability to pull the program together so quickly, having initially conceived the idea this spring. I think that it took us about twice as long to get through the material as it should have, though. To start with, one person has the remote mouse for the presentation, while another one had the keyboard which led to the cursor on the big screen being all over the place. Second, the curriculum we were reviewing was a chart three pages long presented as a Word document. Every time we looked at a new row, we had to scroll up a page or two to revisit the column headings. This was, of course, complicated by the two dueling controllers. It took a lot of self-restraint to not grab the keyboard and move the entire document into excel so that I could freeze panes – am I an MBA student, or what?

I forgot to mention earlier that I saw the Prime Minister of India the day I arrived (oops!). I didn’t really find it out until the next day, though. From my window seat on the Madurai runway, I could see a crowd, including a band, and a man in a white suit with a turban, little did I know at the time who he was, but he did look important. Manmohan Singh is the first Sikh to be elected, and he was sworn in May of 2004. Again, it’s so interesting that a man who’s faith represents such a minority (less than 2%) in the country could be elected. I suppose that would be like the U.S. electing a Jewish president – and we can’t even get over the idea of a woman or any minority in office. He was only in Madurai for the afternoon, so I consider myself lucky to have spotted him.

As usual, tonight there is the sound of chanting and singing coming from the loudspeakers outside. They’re going every night from about 8-9, although last night, the tone sounded more like someone was giving a political speech. It’s in Tamil so I have no idea what they’re saying, but I’ll have to ask Mary or Tejas tomorrow.

I woke up with my first mosquito bites, but boy did he get me good, I’ve identified at least six bites – good thing that I started those malaria pills. Generally, I've been pleasantly surprised at the lack of large bugs and insects. I had expected much worse, although R.J. did tell be that he almost stepped on a cobra walking next to an open lot in Bangalore. I hope that there aren't any living across the street from me.

I had an interesting breakfast conversation with Tejas (he initially apologized for not wishing me Happy July 4th yesterday – it was July 4th yesterday?) about the paradoxes of women in the U.S. and India. He wondered about the U.S.’s inability to elect a woman president. India’s second prime minister was a woman – although she was later assassinated. I asked about all of the equal education opportunities for women in India, but as soon as they marry, everything changes - they may be forced to follow their husband to a new city and many times their husbands and/or families encourage them to stop working. After breakfast, I headed out in my new Indian clothes. I can’t say that it led to any more “blending in” than before, but at least hopefully, people can see that I’m trying. I’m told that in another week or so the people along my three block walk might start getting used to me. The clothes are still not any cooler than my t-shirts and pants from before, and I really have no idea about what to do with this stiff scarf that goes around the front and then to my knees in the back. How do Indian women always make it look so easy?

Unfortunately, I think that it will be really quiet for the next week as R.J. and Sonesh have left Madurai for good today, and Suchitra will be gone until Monday. At least they were here for my first few days. I think this week will be more like I was expecting it to be. Rumor is that there will be more visitors to the guesthouse next week, and Suchitra will be back on Mon. Well, it’s a good thing I’ve brought 6 books with me, and then there’s always my blog…

My first day at work

Today was my first day at the office, and I’ll have to admit that it’s been a bit disappointing. It doesn’t really seem like anyone knows what to do with me, and the extent of human interaction was a half hour meeting with Veni about what I hope to accomplish and a half hour with Thulsi (my supposed preceptor (advisor) in India). Basically, I reassured them that I had plenty to keep me busy, as long as they could go ahead and set up the tours, visits to the eye camps, observing surgery, etc. – basically all of the orientation to the organization. I think between those things, the fellowship program starting next week (a lot of which I’ll sit in on), and my own research, I can keep busy until Sandra and Kristi (my 2 prof’s from Berkeley) arrive on 7/18. In the meantime, I think that I’ll just have to be patient, but forward and in the right place at the right time for meetings, workshops, and interviews.

I can’t really complain too much, though, at least I’ve got my own office with internet access and AC. Okay so the chair has the faint smell of B.O. and is missing two wheels so that every time I move, it screeches across the floor. Also, I have to take my own t.p. to the bathroom, but at least one of the stalls actually has a toilet as opposed to the squatters in the other stalls – I really don’t understand how women wearing full sari’s do it – that’s a lot of cloth to keep off of the floor.

After work, Sugitra and I went shopping for some Indian clothes, we found four kurti's (long tunics), 2 pairs of pants, and 4 scarves – all costing about $35. We did it all in about an hour and a half – not bad – but what do I know about Indian fashion? While we were in the store I saw the fourth and fifth white person since I’ve arrived in Madurai. I know that I shouldn’t be paying such close attention to these things, but it’s so strange to be in such the minority - my real first experience. I’m lucky, though, that at least a lot of people I’m interacting with speak English. I can’t even imagine not speaking the language at all, although most people in Madurai only speak Tamil.

We took an auto rickshaw home, and I think that I’ve found a new way to travel, not as much to avoid walking, but more because the little cover it provides allows me to watch my surroundings without everyone being able to watch me.

July 3

This morning, I woke up to the cows mooing and roosters crowing in the empty lot across from the guesthouse. I went out to the balcony of my room with intentions of continuing a really good book that I’m reading about India called A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Instead of reading, though, I mostly found myself trying to adjust to the idea again that I was actually in India, and I watched the traffic passing by on the street outside. It’s mostly pedestrians, bicycles, and rickshaws, but also a lot of animals and the occasional truck that honks its way all the way down the street.

I was happy to find Sugitra at breakfast and she invited me to lunch at Pavi’s (Dr. V’s niece that’s helping her write the book) family’s house later that day. Pavi’s family is pretty typical of all of the relatives of Dr. V. – her dad is the head of Aurolab the manufacturing lab, her mom is a chief surgeon and a her younger sister is entering the fellowship program at Aravind next week. Along with R.J and Sonesh we spent the afternoon at their house discussing our backgrounds, literature and politics, and then we enjoyed an amazing meal prepared by Pavi and her mom. It included many different kinds of curries and rice, cabbage salad, and fried potatoes, but dessert was my favorite – fig ice cream with a piece of homemade carrot cake. The best of both that I’ve ever had! It was strange for me, though, because Pavi and her mom waited until after the guests and their father had eaten before eating themselves, even though they are both incredibly successful. Her mom is a doctor, and Pavi’s short documentary film about Aravind and Dr. V. received recognition from the New York International Independent Video and Film Festival for Fall 2004. They say that India is a country of paradoxes, and I’ve certainly already identified some of my own.

After stuffing myself silly, I went home for a rest and then we all went over to another family member’s house for the recently revived Sunday family meetings. There were at least 40 family members there – about 12 of them children. Apparently Dr. V. had started the tradition years ago and it was an opportunity for the family to get together every week, and the children were always responsible for some kind of entertainment. Seven years had passed since the last one, but since the next generation was of the right age, they decided to start them up again. I felt very fortunate to be included, and again was very impressed everyone’s generosity and willingness to include a stranger in the intimate family event. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of the family on a social level and it was a lot of fun to see all of the children perform songs and/or read essays that they had written for the audience. What a talented family!

After the meeting, Sonesh, R.J., Sugitra and I walked downtown and went to the Meenakshi temple, one of the largest in India, with up to 10,000 visitors in one day. You have to take your shoes off before entering we spent about an hour walking barefoot on the dirt and stone floors through the temple. My feet could barely take it, and I now take a lot more notice of all of the people in town that don’t wear shoes. The temple was beautiful, though, it smelled wonderfully of incense and gardenias, and it was filled with people – many of them families on a Sunday outing. There were also a number of holy men giving out blessings and many poverty stricken people – sometimes it was hard for me to tell the difference. There were thousands of oil candles, and chanting was coming from all parts of the temple. It was all very overwhelming and surreal, and at one point I explained to Sugitra that I still felt like I was dreaming that I was in India. While we were there, I paid a rupee (about $.02) to get a blessing on the head from one of the temple elephants after it used its trunk to pick up a coin out of my hand.

We stopped for coconuts on the street before climbing into a bicycle rickshaw and each paying the driver $.75 to take us the 4 km back to the guesthouse. I was glad that we were able to do a bit of sightseeing together because I’ve come to realize that, like many people have told me, it’s going to be very difficult for venture out by myself. Apparently, at night an Indian woman would probably not do it, and even during the day, it seems that it would be best to have a destination in mind, and that using a rickshaw to get there might be the best bet. (Although I can be okay with that since it’s so freaking hot here). It’s definitely hard to give up my independence, though, but braving the three blocks back and forth to work sometimes seems like enough for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find some other people to explore with me along the way, or maybe I’ll eventually get more comfortable – I’ll just take it a little bit at a time.

As this is my first trip to a developing country outside of Central America, I am certainly struck by the poverty, as many people had warned that I would be. I guess, though, that in some respects, I thought that it would be even worse. I'm told, though, that Madurai, is nowhere near as bad as the large cities in the north, and it's also partly to do with the incredible populations of those cities. I also don't feel the "sea of humanity" and overwhelming sense of people that I was told to expect. I think that this has a lot to do with being in a smaller city. The poverty is terrible, though, I don't mean to discount it, there are people on the streets everywhere I go, and the lot across from the guesthouse while occupied by animals also sometimes serves as a latrine for some of the people that live in the shacks nearby. I also think when I'm out walking that I'm also focusing a lot of my energies on not getting run over, and not standing out too much, that with time I'll spend more time observing my surroundings.

Journey to the other side of the world

Well, it took me three days, but I’ve finally arrived in Madurai. I left at 2pm on Thursday and got here at 2pm on Saturday, a total of about 40 hours of traveling. Five plane rides (SFO-LA-Frankfurt-Mumbai-Chennai-Madurai), a bus, car and a van and I’m finally here. (Just in case you're wondering, I'm exactly 12.5 hours ahead of California time - not quite sure where the 1/2 comes from). The plane rides were surprisingly not that bad, although as it was my first time on India Air I was disappointed to find on my two long flights of 8 hours and 10 ½ hours that the movies consisted of one English movie, one Hindi, and one Hindi movie with English subtitles. The food was delicious, though, all Indian – definitely the best plane food that I’ve ever had. The most difficult part of my journey was probably the 5 hour layover in Mumbai. I arrived at 3:45 in the morning, and had to pick up my luggage, move to another airport and re-check it. Although I eventually got over the stares of being one of four white people that I saw during that time and the squatter toilets in the floor (fortunately, I have my own t.p.), I could not get over the numerous women in burkas that must have arrived on a flight from the Middle East. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a women in a burka before, and I guess I naively believed that they were not that common. I think that it especially affected me after just finishing The Bookseller of Kabul – a great book about life in Afghanistan after the Taliban. It was just so strange to see their families – husband and children – in modern clothes and their being entirely covered except for their eyes. It was especially strange to see the young girls in modern clothes now, but I wondered if they would also be expected to wear a burka.

The most exciting part of the adventure was definitely the van ride from the airport. At first I was unable to locate the Aravind driver upon arriving in Madurai so I followed the crowd down the dirt road to the parking lot where I waited and had a number of taxi drivers approach me offering their cars. I finally found that van with Aravind written across the windshield and climbed inside. I’ve experienced some crazy drivers in my time (Argentina – where at night they don’t use headlights to conserve energy – but instead flash their lights at any intersection, Rome – where you fear at any moment that they’re going to mow down a moped and Costa Rica, where without a seatbelt, you’re bound to hit your head because the potholes are more like craters), but this definitely takes the cake. First of all, I’ll start with the traffic, which is comprised of anything that moves – numerous pedestrians, bicycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, old cars, vans, trucks carrying you name it – hay piled 15 feet high, mangoes, people – the most surreal though are the animals, and I’m not talking cats and dogs - cattle, oxen, goats, pigs, water buffalo, and elephants! Many of which are not harnessed but roaming the streets freely, crossing the road at will. Then there is the technique that the traffic uses, basically it seems to be a free for all, and although the roads are only two laned at any given time, the lanes can be going both ways or only one way. At times we were passing a car/cart/cow and faced a sea of bicycles and pedestrians that I was sure we were going to hit, only at the last minute to have the sea of bicycles part so that we could get through. Of course, my driver maintained a steady of pace of about 30 miles an hour through all of this, merrily honking his horn every minute or so to remind everyone of his presence.

I was quite relieved to finally arrive at the guesthouse, settle into my room (w/ AC), and take my first shower in days. Not ready yet to succumb to my jetlag for fear of being up at 3am, I headed over to the LAICO office which is three blocks away. The Indian work week is six days so even though it’s Saturday, everyone is there. I got an opportunity to meet Veni (the managing director). She’ll be doing a lot of my scheduling for the next two weeks, in terms of eye camps, tours, etc. LAICO (Lions Aravind Institute of Community Opthalmology) is a branch of the Aravind Eye Hospital System and I’ll be working in their offices for the next six weeks. They focus on training and education support for all of the Aravind hospitals, as well as other hospitals in India and the rest of the world. My project focuses on developing a model for outside consulting services as they have been approached by a number of hospitals and communities that would like to replicate the Aravind model. As their mission focuses on eradicating needless blindness, they are only more than willing to share the knowledge that they have gained. Aravind is a non-profit family owned business, started by Dr. Venkataswamy or Dr. V., in 1976. Today there are more than 30 family members that work at Aravind and their one hospital has grown to five in India, as well, as a manufacturing lab for lenses, LAICO, and other partner hospitals across the world.

Upon returning to the guesthouse for dinner (they prepare three meals a day for the guests), I was pleasantly surprised to find two UC Berkeley PhD students, R.J. and Sonesh. There are also two other people who were staying here. Sugitra is helping one of Dr V’s nieces write a book on the story of Aravind and has been at the guesthouse for two months and will be here another month before returning to Boston (she moved from Hyderabad, India for college). She’s about my age so I’m looking forward to getting to know her better. Also, Tejas is a visiting professor from Delhi, and he is establishing a model to identify the number of eye surgeons needed for a certain population. After a delicious meal of two kinds of curries, three kinds of rice, yogurt, and (I even followed the group and ate it all with my hand (right hand-that is!), I fell into bed at 8:30.