Our last group picture before leaving Mysore and moving to our individual project locations.
L to R: Marko, Ruby, Shannon, Aminatta, Prabu (the man who ran the powerpoint presentations in each of our lectures and taught us incredibly fun children's games every day at tea time), Kevin, Aarti, Henry, Chelsea, Sam and Me.
Last Saturday afternoon, I arrived in Kenchenahalli and moved into my new "home away from home" in SVYM's Vivekananda Memorial Hospital compound. I am living with three other students - all of which are graduate students (dentistry, nursing, pharmacy) from the University of Iowa. They are going to be here with me until the end of June, so it is really nice having other primarily English-speaking people around as I adjust to this new location.
The campus itself is adorable - it is nestled in the Indian "countryside" (that's not the correct word to describe this region, but I'm not sure how else to explain it... It's very hilly, lush, full of fields and exotic plants, lots of insects and wildlife) and it's absolutely beautiful. The view behind my little house is incredible in the evening near sunset... we have a field immediately behind with a large pond to the right and a very large banyan tree to the left. Oh, and speaking of wildlife, I have acquired two new pets since my arrival. I am now the proud surrogate mother of the small pink lizard that lives in my room who I affectionately refer to as George, and the large-ish spider that lives in my bathroom... I don't have a name for him yet, but I'm working on it.
My backyard.
The hospital has two parts: the traditional medicine (Ayurveda) component and the western medicine component. Ultimately, their philosophy is to treat people, not just their illnesses and symptoms. This hospital is blessed to have three medical doctors that work here full time (which is 6 days a week here) and each is trained in both Ayurvedic and western medicine. It is the needs of the patient that dictate the type of treatment they will receive. I will be living and working here for the next six weeks, spending most of my time in the Ayurveda department, but basically will work wherever they need me. One of the biggest lessons that I've learned in India: Patience. It's okay to not always know exactly what I'll be doing at every minute of every day... having a little room for the unexpected - and an open mind to embrace it - is all part of the fun.
This past Tuesday, I spent the day at SVYM's tribal school in a village named Hosahalli ("hoh-sah-lee"). The tribal children are so adorable. Dr. Dennis (one of the doctors from Kenchenahalli) and I went together, and he was saying that the children were all staring at me because I am "like alien" here. I laughed so hard because it is entirely true. Being so much taller and paler, I definitely stick out like a sore thumb. That day, we measured the BMI (body-mass index) of over 260 elementary school children as a basic indicator of their nutrition and overall health. Dr. Dennis visits the school every week to conduct basic health checks and to measure BMI of the students. The tribal school is incredible. I loved it there. The organization provides everything for those children (grades 1-10) from notebooks and uniforms to backpacks and meals to housing and field trips as long as the children will dedicate their time to learning diligently and to the best of their abilities. Never have I been in a school where all the children seem so happy to be able to go to school. The children all appeared to be so happy... here, in India, education is still not a right, but rather is a privilege. Something that, unfortunately, tribal children are not always able to access.
Some of the younger boys playing on the slide outside of the dining hall.
The work that SVYM does for the tribal people in this region is both remarkable and commendable. They do their best to ensure the tribals are involved and comfortable in order to maximize compliance. In fact, at the hospital in Kenchenahalli, treatment is so greatly discounted (thanks to the goodness of many people), but is never free. SVYM has discovered very poor compliance when something is given for free, as there is no incentive or sense of ownership to follow-up or to complete the prescribed regimen. Furthermore, the tribals assume that if a medication is given to them for free, it is a faulty drug with minimal efficacy and they will not use it at all. Despite their poor socioeconomic status, they will not accept what we would call "hand-outs" when it comes to receiving healthcare. It's very interesting.
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