February 4, 2009

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well in the U.S. We have been following some news via the internet.

I taught two courses this morning: 9-11 Health Education and 11-1 Epidemiology. The students continue to be amazing. We are learning much information from each other. We spent the entire health ed class talking about birth control methods. Very few options are available in India, so they were most interested in the US methods. In Epi, we talked about some data that they will be collecting in the extreme rural tribal villages over the next three weeks. They understand the concept of research questions, but have no knowledge of methods besides asking questions and reporting frequency data. No concept of statistics. We spent most of today talking about incidence, prevalence, sensitivity and specificity. For my sake, it is probably best that they do not know too much. I would have a hard time teaching an upper level epidemiology course. So far the course prep has provided an excellent review for me. It is truly a case of teaching what you most need to learn.

I have not talked much about our daily routine lately. Until now, we did not have much of a routine. Here is the daily schedule:

Wake-up call at 6:00 - sometimes it is at 6:00, 6:30 or not at all

Hot showers are available at this hotel and very enjoyable. I'm so glad that I brought my favorite US shampoo. Something familiar is nice in the morning.

Skype some folks in the US that are only available to talk in the evening.

7:45 eat FREE breakfast in the garden restaurant attached to the hotel; we found soy milk and US cereal at the big grocery store, so all we order is toast and tea; we receive a daily newspaper, so we read it. I'm saving lots and lots of newspaper clippings of interest. I'm not sure what I will do with the info, but folks can review as desired upon our return.

8:15: Driver picks me up in auto-rickshaw. It takes about 20 mins to get to the university depending in the traffic and number of cows in the street. Daily, I see 50+ people sweeping the streets with make-shift brooms. There is NO trash, leaves or paper in the streets or curbs. By 9:00 everything has been swept, gathered and burned. In some neighborhoods, the trash is burned as fuel to make breakfast on the open pit fire: Three big flat rocks close together, add a little wood/leaves, put pot on top of the rocks = instant stove for cooking family breakfast. The driver knows that I like to go through the neighborhoods, so he takes different routes. I see babies getting bathed and giggling, children walking to school, mothers cooking, folks carrying huge piles of wood bundles on their head, and an assortment of farm animals added to the daily mix on the street. Everything is alive and colorful.

8:45: arrive at office; check USF email; and prepare for daily classes. My schedule is now: Wed: two classes: Health Ed and Epi and Thursday: Maternity Nursing and Intro to Psych. There are the same 20 students in the Wed classes. There are the same 49 students in the Thursday classes.

When not teaching, I'm preparing classes and getting invited to an assortment of meetings, etc. Just like at USF :) !!

No lunch - just like at USF.

4:30: I try to leave. Driver knows to come at 4:30. I miss driving, but it is nice to not think about it. He is a very nice gentleman. I pay him 150 RS ($3 US) round trip.

6:00: We enter a hunting-and-gathering model for dinner. Sometimes we walk about 1/2 mile to the western grocery store and buy things for a picnic in the room. Last night, we had cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread, chips, juice, tea and fruit. We try to eat Indian food only about every 3 days. It is good, but we get tired of it. There is a nice restaurant about 3/4 mile, so the evening walk is ok, but the traffic is very dangerous after dark. There are few sidewalks and most are too broken for walking. It is "safer" to walk in the street, but the street has its own dangers. We try to get home by 7:00.

Evenings: Spent answering emails and watching a show on one of the 3 English channels. It reminds us of when we were kids and there only 3 channels. Kevin usually spends about an hour on Skype talking to his assistant regarding his business and clients.

That is a usual day in India. Not too different than in Tampa: get up, go to work, eat dinner, and go to bed. Only here you have lots of other stuff mixed into the picture.

A bit of philosophy: A question that I ask myself daily: How can there be so much extreme poverty and injustice in the world? I took a photo of a 3-day old infant yesterday. (see images below) All I could think was that this child was doomed for a life of extreme poverty living in the slum flats of Pune, India. If I had picked up this child and transported him to the US or even a better neighborhood in Pune, his life would be more just and fair. I ask myself these type of questions daily as we walk the streets and see extreme poverty, disabilities, and sadness. I'm not sure how to put this common scene into a US world view. I can see why public health folks move towards global health, because spending millions of dollars on US problems seem less important after living in India. As I have mentioned, infant mortality is 53/1000 her and 7/1000 in the US. Maybe the baby, I saw yesterday will not live to his 1st birthday. Lots of questions......with no immediate answers.

Thanks for reading. I'll write more tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Kay