Birthday Party

Chokuli's 4th birthday!  (Random aside: everytime I hear Chokuli's name being called I think of the word chocolatey!  I can't help it!  I want her to eat chocolate always).  I have never seen a Hindi birthday before.  The birthday girl got all dressed up and basically was queen for a day!

Her aunt feeding her sugar.  5 times a female performed a little ritual that involved placing a red dot in the center of her forehead, encircling her head with a ring (clockwise and counterclockwise), throwing some puffed rice on her head, feeding her sugar and encircling her head with a small lamp.

After the Indian ritual Chokuli was sung Happy Birthday to in English and her parents Manisha and Dada helped her blow out the candles.  She got to cut the cake and feed bits of it to all of her guests.

Rural Public Health

Rural Hospital in Pawana, Maharastra.  This was my first experience with government-funded rural health care.  It had much less to offer than the missionary hospital I stayed at up north.  There was supposed to be 7 doctors, but there is only 3 and only one works per day.  They each have a 24 hour shift.  In the morning from 10-1pm they see patients and the evening is for emergencies only.  They live in Pune and commute for their shift.

The outside of the rural hospital

The hospital waiting room

Lab of the rural hospital.  They have few labs they can run.  The lab tech showed me a slide of a malaria parasite.  She also can run tests for syphilis, HIV, typhoid, hematocrit, and maybe something else.  They used to be able to run a test for dengue, but there was an outbreak last year and she ran out of tests.

  The lab tech received a bachelors in microbiology and then a 2 year certificate.  She doesn't wear gloves while obtaining a blood sample, but does for the lab tests:  I'm fairly certain this is so she doesn't get the dyes on her hands.

Where I stayed near Pawana.  It is owned by the medical director of the program.  His family used to own all of the land around the house, but when Independence came a bill was enacted that allowed people working the land to take ownership.  The doctor said this was to empower the farmers, but with each generation the land gets split up between siblings and so they are all left with a small parcel. 

A small temple in the fields.  The doctor told me a story of a place where most of the villagers would go to do their business.  He tried building them toilets, but most didn't bother using them.  Finally he decided to build a temple near the location and it when then that the villagers stopped using the area as their bathroom.

Cowherd.  He wanted me a to take a picture of him and his bull, so I did.

Water buffalo doing what water buffalo do best.

Another dude who wanted his picture taken.  I also have a picture of me and him (and so does he).

Woman who cooked our meals and her family.  This was taken in her house.  The house was mud (similar to adobe) with a mud floor.  I sat and watched her and another woman cook food for the family.  They made chutney with a metate and ground garlic, spices and herbs for at least 15 minutes.  They cooked using both gas and a wood-fired stove that was made of mud and built into the floor of the kitchen.  It didn't smoke at all.  They used wood and cow patties to cook with.  It was pretty amazing.

At a "boat club."  I think the message was a little lost in translation.  At least I hope so.

View from the rice paddies.  I spent a lot of time hiking around them in my sandals, even though the doctor thought I was nuts because I might get bitten by a snake (everyone else went around in sandals too).

Wirlwind Tour of Pune

Today I paid Rs 300 (excluding entrance fees) for a bus ride around Pune.  It went from 9-5pm and visited about 19 sites.  It was definitely the cheapest and quickest way to see everything there is to see in Pune - or almost everything. 

Aga Khan Palace build in 1892.  Gandhi was imprisoned here for two years and this is where is wife died.

The remains of Gandhi. 

War Memorial

A very pretty temple.

The inside of said very pretty temple.

Overgrown garden in Sarasbagh.  We went there to see another temple.

The Japanese Gardens.  They were built by the city of Pune and the Japanese government as a friendship garden.

More garden

Entrance to another temple.  To reach this one you had to climb a bit.

Breakfast. I'm not really sure what I ordered, but it was good!

Ganesh sitting on his alter.

Outside the Ganesh temple

The tourn bus. It says Pune Darshan in red letters ( really, I can read it, I swear!)

Shaniwar wada. Wada means place and Shaniwar means Saturday.  It was named that because the building both began and ended on Saturday.  It burned for 7 days and 7 nights a long time ago and now only the foundation, stone walls and this crazy thick wooden door remains.

The inside of Shaniwar Wada.  The stage in the back is for a sound and light show that I hope to see before I leave.

More Shaniwar Wada

Some dude I don't remember his name, who was a freedom fighter for India from the Moghuls.  The museum was a set of murals depicting key events in his life (this is typical of museums). 

Guest House In Pune

I am the only one in a small little guest house outside of Pune City.  It is set in an Indian suburb (I didn't know they existed). 

My toilet.  It has the wide seat in case you want to use it Indian style and squat.

My bedroom.

View of the front garden from my door.

View of the guesthouse from the street.

Darbar Shri Guru Ram Rai Ji Maharaj - Dehradun

This place is in the heart of Dehradun and is said to be one of the oldest building in the city.  It is an old Mughal structure and a place were the sick come to pray. I wandered around it one afternoon.  It was a peaceful get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

To learn more about this place visit:  http://sgrrdarbar.org/

From Dehradun to Pune

I made it to Pune yesterday after much traveling.  I am exhausted today!

I got up at 4am yesterday morning to catch the 510 train to Delhi, it arrived at noon.  Then it took an hour in the car to get to the guest house where most people stay.  Then I have a few hours to relax.  We went to a nearby mall, which looked exactly like a mall in the US during Christmas - it was PACKED with people!  We went there because Daniel wanted Haagen Das.  There was a hostess who seated us and a waiter who came to our table, just so we could order ice cream.  They have a menu with lots of variations of sundaes - most with chocolate ice cream and either a cookie, brownie, belgian waffle or fruit.  I just got a mango-passionfruit sorbet waffle cone with bananas on top.  I was trying to keep it tropical.  These were not cheap and many of the items on the menu were around Rs 500, which is about ten bucks for a sundae.  But it was an experience!

Then I had an hour drive to the airport, the taxi driver didn't speak much English and I don't speak much Hindi and so I'm not entirely sure what our conversation was about but I believe I told him when I come back to India I will contact him and he will be my driver.  I possibly told him he could come to America and be a driver there too, but I'm not sure.  I arrived in Pune at 8pm and had another hour drive outside of the city to where I am staying.  The room is very clean and I even have hot water (that slowly comes out of the tap).  The caretakers live an an apartment agent to my room.  Last night I sat on a bed while a whole group of girls watched Hindi TV and ate on the floor.  The couple have a 3 year old girl who speaks a fair bit of English.  She is very cute and also very demanding!  We played with some books last night and her teddy bear this morning.

Tomorrow I have an orientation and will meet the medical director and the local coordinator.  I think she is a substitute coordinator because the real coordinator is the wife of the medical director and she is currently in the US visiting her children.  The medical coordinator will be leaving on the 9th, but I think everything should still be fine.  On Tuesday we are going to a rural location.  I thought I was going to go to one for a week, but he said just overnight.  So, that should be interesting.  

The weather is actually a lot cooler here than Dehradun.  DD was in a valley near the Himalayan foothills and Pune is atop the Deccan plateau.  It's very refreshing.  I am actually staying outside of Pune.  I had someone ask me today why I am out here instead of the city center.  There are a lot of foreigners who come to the heart of Pune to get their meditation on at the Osho Meditation Resort. 

Natural Medicine in India

This week I was able to finagle my schedule to include time spent with Ayurvedic and homeopathic doctors in India.  It has been a refreshing change from the allopathic model I have been exposed to thus far.  Both Ayurveda and homeopathy have the same fundamental philosophy as naturopathic medicine and it's been a bit of fresh air hearing doctors talk about health in such a manner.

In India both Ayurveda and homeopaths are considered doctors.  The education of both is similar to allopathic medicine except for the treatment options.   They are able to order labs and imaging and Ayurvedic doctors can even perform surgeries.  Many Ayurvedic doctors prescribe allopathic and ayurvedic medicine.

In the morning we are shadowing an Ayurvedic doctor that does not prescribe allopathic medication.  Most of the patients receive panchkarma treatment, ayurvedic herbs and dietary recommendations.  Their fundamental belief is that lifestyle and diet create ill health and by redirecting the person to the proper lifestyle and diet that best suits them the person's health will improve.  Panchkarma is performed before many treatments are started in order to detox the patient.  This treatment is 8-15 days long and involves certain medications and oil massages to flush the system of toxins.  Then a regiment of herbs is designed to target the problem area of the patient.  I wish I understood what most of the herbs were so I could understand how they are used.  Yesterday we watched a doctor perform an interuterine treatment of herbs to open up a blocked uterine tube.  The doctor stated that the allopathic surgery for the same problem is only 20% effective and that she guarentees 100% effectiveness after three ayurvedic treatments.  She showed us 2 sets of xrays of a similar case where the tube was opened.

The dietary regiments are decided based on the person's dosha.  There are 3 doshas:vatta, pitta and kauffa.  A person can have one dosha dominant or be a mixture of two or all three of them.  The diets are based on the 7 tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and astringent.  Each taste has an effect on the doshas.  For example, if you eat sour it will increase your pitta and decrease your vatta.  So, if you are out of balance and have too much pitta, then you do not want to eat sour foods because it will aggrevate your symptoms.

The homeopaths in India only use homeopathic medicine and some minor lifestyle changes.  I have enjoyed hearing her tell patients who come in asking for a pill to help them lose weight.  Her response is always to "exercise!" She is very anti-allopathic.  Her intakes do not take as long as homeopathic intakes at home, and she writes down only a few lines from her interviews.  But, she spends much more time with her patients than the allopathic doctors I have shadowed.  She doesn't use a synthesis, but instead has all of the remedies memorized and prescribes from memory.  Often, she prescribes a placebo in addition to the remedy because her patients often want to take more medicine than they really need.  Occasionally patients will come back in to her feeling fine but saying that they need a refill.  In cases like this she will also prescribe a placebo.  She will only prescribe a medicine again if they come in with new symptoms.

India seems like a wonderful place to learn more about natural therapies and I hope to return in the future to enhance the skills I am learning at NCNM.