Adventures in Patna and Patna District

I decided to take some pictures today.. :)

On the street where I live...

Breakfast on the street!

After Patna interviews at the district offices we had some chai made the RIGHT way. Cooked on hot coals and served in clay pots. :)

Outside of Patna district office

On the way back...

खरीदारी - To Shop

Woohoo! Fun day! After a brief morning of work, we had a yummy brunch of upma and chai.

In the afternoon we set off to P&M Mall to try the delights of Cream Center… We ordered Papdi Chat for appetizer and obviously followed by the main meal of enchiladas and quesadilla (I even didn’t say anything when everyone pronounced the “L”… ) I think some tortilla instruction needs to be done in the kitchen but it was a pretty fabulous feast! :) Possibly more exciting was that the manager gave us a taste of the nachos because they had just made a new recipe for the cheese sauce… Free food!

Then we had dessert (hey, I never pass up an opportunity for ice cream as you know)… of hot fudge sundae (with flavorless maraschino cherry??) which was great and ice cream and chocolate and great.

Then we went to FabIndia to buy exciting wears… :) Got some presents so I won’t mention and two kurtas for me! Will post soon… Tried to buy a salwar but no luck… Still feel like a genie in them though they are super comfortable… :) Now back to work at the dhar…

आराम करना - To sit

Today was Saturday. Which because CARE had so many holidays
in October and will have in December it was declared a work day. Since I’m
basically working 7 days a week over here, this meant I got to sit at a desk,
have LAN internet connection for free, and office CHAI. Might be the happiest
I’ve ever been or will be for working Saturdays… J
In addition, all the district outreach officers came in for
a training session. SO, I got to see all of the outreach officers that helped
me along in the first three field visits as we interviewed officials and
healthcare workers. Woohoo!
I also learned today that if you don’t play Words With
Friends for a week people cancel your games. Patience please! I was in the
field! :(
Anyway, not much to share today except for work…
We might go do some shopping tomorrow and MAYBE even go to Ganga Ghat Pe Aarti. Ganga River is a major river in India that runs through Bihar. Especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings people gather by the river and send out flickering lamps as offerings on the river.

In any case, we WILL be going to Cream Center, a snazzy restaurant at the mall which will have delicious treats of every shape and size. We shall see how it compares to the sizzling brownie from Nirvana!

Field Visit #1: Purbi Champaran

So, everyone came back to the office on the 3^rd and we were off on the 7^th! It was hard to make sure everything was good to go but ready or not the van left on Monday morning at 5:30am!

My field visits are being coordinated to go alongside other CARE events so when a travel opportunity strikes, go we must…

There is one road to East Champaran that is a quite lovely 4 lane road full of smooth asphalt. There rest of the roads along the way were not like this and we spent much of the time bouncing around though I managed to fall asleep most of the time. When we arrived there was barely time for chai and we were off to interview some unsuspecting participants of the IFA supply chain (ok, they were suspecting... we gave advance notice!).

Checkin’ out the storeroom at the primary healthcare center.

We were only able to find 1 box of IFA… in a box full of gloves, but still…

Looks like I might even understand what everyone is saying…

You lookin’ at me? I’ll take your picture…

My interpreter, Sanobar!

Waiting for the next interview… (What? This is how I wait...)

ASHA kit!

Iron in the ASHA kit!

Pictures in the village

They run but they can’t hide!

Pahle Hafta – First Week

Highlights of the first few days with at new awesome place with new awesome friends :)

We got a fridge!

Potluck lunch with Ram!

And Ram Can Cook!

Views from terrace onto the street.

Baingan Ki Sabji, Thepla, Dahi

Breakfast at Meggha’s!! Thepla straight from Chennai… (And even more importantly from Meggha’s mom’s kitchen!!) :)

These are actually all the clothes that I arrived with… Finally some bright colors in my closet.. :)

Sahelī – friend

My time in Patna got a little brighter on November 2^nd when I moved out of the guesthouse to be roomies with Meggha! :)

Our first adventure was to P&M Mall, which is more commonly called Big Bazaar. I thought this was a large open air market to buy fruits and vegetables, etc. It’s actually a MALL. With escalators and everything. And there were a lot of people who were super excited about the escalators… and slightly nervous. Hence, the escalators were a serious place of congestion as the tentative and nervous would just stand at the start of one and about five minutes later would gain the courage to take the ride. I’m just glad no one got too nervous on the dismount.

I bought two kurtas and some biscuits (all the necessities in life!) And perused the boutiques to get up to date on the Salwar kameez and kurta fashions. (Puffed sleeves and “crushed” cloth!)