Work and Play

Today is Day 2 of training for district officers to learn about maternal health. It’s actually quite a fun meeting to attend. I’ve learned most of this information through classes at Emory but definitely not all and it has been quite interesting to review the background information and think about how these different concepts and strategies are applied to the context of rural Bihar. The whole reason why I am hear is to tell them about a survey that I’m doing and will need their assistance so I hope they are not all tired out by the time it’s my turn!

In more interesting events, on Friday I was able to go Kapil’s Eleven. So far one of the nicest restaurants I’ve been to here. It’s owned by Kapil Dev, a famous Indian cricket player who was the captain of the national team when they won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. I got the honey crispy chicken which was delicious… In addition, there were no bones or gristle, which added to the deliciousness… :)

On Sunday, I got to explore the Ganges (Ganga) river. We went down to the banks and found a guy with a motorboat who took us on a 20 minute ride up and down the river (I promise it’s less sketchy than it sounds!) Afterwards, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant that overlooked the river. PS - Upon siting down, the waiters immediately attempted to block the river view with shades on the windows. I assume this was to block us from the sun but we managed to stop them before the whole view was obstructed.  I had a masala Uttapam which is sort of like a pancake with spicy potatoes/veggies in it. I also tried to order a sweet lassi but I got a Limca. Oh well, it was good too.

On the way back, we visited and climbed the Golghar, a grain silo near the Ganga River and Gandhi Maidan. In response to a great famine in 1770, Captain John Garstin (British) built a great silo (golghar) to store food grains for the British army. It also has two staircases that wind up to the top and it appears that on a Sunday, it is fun for the whole family to climb the 145 steps to the top and back down. (And it was fun for me too!) 

Resource for Kapil Dev Information

Resource for Patna Golghar Information

Random Pictures

  So, I know that you all look forward to reading my rambling stories with long, obnoxious blocks of text in your spare time... But today you will just have to suffice with various pictures of my week. :) Enjoy!

Nothing like some Veg Jambalaya in the Patna! 

Pilot testing small bowls so that health workers can show mothers that you need to feed your child THIS much.. :)

Views from the health center in Patna District.

Bottle gourd, anyone?

Would anyone like a small packet? Of.... anything?!?

As we were going back to the office, we passed a drainage ditch (and trash dump). It was rank and long and never really seemed to end. In some places they were covering it up so people could walk over it, etc. (see below) but in many other places kids were playing, business were nearby, and life went on. :(

Cycle rickshaws

Jaspreet and I! Tired after a long day... :)

Weekend Fun

This weekend I had TWO days of fun... It's like it was an actual weekend or something.. :)

Day 1:  I went to Maurya Lok with Jaspreet and we went to all the hot spots: Bihar Emporium (for madhubani!), Jaipur Emporium (for leggings!), 2 gift stores (for windchimes!), and various clothing stores with names I've forgotten (to look at fabrics!) At the end of the day we went to Mausam Munch.. which means Weather Munch... which means I'm probably translating something wrong... There we had ginger lemonade. I don't know why but I had visions of some Leon's concoction with fresh squeezed lemons and a touch of ginger. I was quite mistaken... It tasted like an entire piece of ginger had somehow made its way into my beverage, along with some salt, and other assorted mystery flavors. Now, I finished it... and enjoyed it... just a jolt at the beginning. Especially since it was brown. That’s another interesting fact.

Day 2: Meggha called me and asked if I wanted to go to a movie. I said yes. She said it's called, "Adventures" and I can look it up online. I thought, "I just want to do something... it really doesn't matter what the movie is about." Well, exciting times, it was AVENGERS in 3D. That's right ya'll before it came out in the states the Bihar population got to witness a 3D Hollywood fun fest for Rs. 210 ($4.20). Bam.

And it turns out there are no cameras allowed in the movie theater. This makes sense because of the whole rampant pirated movie thing in India (and much of the world) but I didn't know so I had a camera. I was told to put it at the baggage counter so Meggha ran off and checked it in there (hindi, hindi, hindi) and we sat. They even took our order in the theater which was cool, and flashed flashlights in everybody’s eyes while seating people and taking their orders until about 20 minutes into the movie and at various other times, which was less cool. I also learned that here it is A-OK to text your way through a movie. But aside from the little white lights around me, it was a pretty awesome time... :)

After the movie was done we were handing our 3D glasses back to the movie attendant (who I'd not seen before) he looked at me and enthusiastically said, "Camera hai?" Is your camera here? Why yes. I guess word travels fast at PM Mall Cineplex because now apparently all movie attendants had been notified that the blonde had brought a camera... even though only the lady checking my bag saw this ('cause Meggha turned it in to the counter.)

So anyway, fun weekend shopping, movie going, and watching people get excited / nervous about the escalator at the mall. All in all, a good time was had Patna mein.. :)

Playing with Picassa settings.. Picture of my kurta pattern

Two nights this week I've gotten serenaded by the nearest wedding band.. :)

Lizard on the ceiling!

Madhubani art from Bihar Emporium

More Madhubani.

Ok, last one.

Ho Hum

                After an exciting few days of getting work done and planning the beginnings of my AMAZING research it’s been one of those days where no one is around and I’m left trying to keep up the motivation of getting all those things done that have been left behind or will be left behind once things pick up again. I ran out of DVDs to watch (in 6 days, like a champ) and so have now started the epic journey once more of learning Hindi and even reading (gasp!) books for those times when a break from work must be had.

                I happened upon another insight last night as I sat staring at the ceiling (sans internet & electricity). This is: I do not like living by myself. I like people around me. Even if I can’t understand them, as long as they make enthusiastic attempts to talk with me. :) Right now I’m trying to find another place to live, hopefully renting out a room with a family. Then I don’t have to buy furniture and it will probably give my poor Hindi skills a boost trying to communicate more… :)

Woohoo! Wish me luck!

My room!

My neighbors!

What I do when I'm bored!

Banana Day!

So there was some pretty exciting business yesterday. Last night as I was walking home I decided to try to purchase some bananas… in Hindi! No philosophical discussion of bananas and life were attempted but I was actually able to communicate how many I wanted, what I wanted, ask how much (and understand the answer), pay, and say no, I don’t want grapes.

WOOHOO!!!

No, not my photo... it was taken in Jaipur... other photos here

CARE Office Day

Good afternoon!

This is the first “normal” day I’ve had here in Patna. Well, if normal is going to the CARE office at some point. The past two days have been packed 9am-6pm meetings with all of the heads of the organizations involved in this Bihar project. There were representatives from at least eight different organizations doing large scale projects as part of the Gates funded project, Ananya (more information here). 

Even though I felt I knew so much about what CARE was doing here in Bihar, it’s really just a fraction of what all of these groups are doing around different aspects of maternal and child care.

Group breakout sessions about field experiences... Booya.

I also got to try out one of the Patna highlights… a rotating restaurant! That’s right, I tried out the Patna circular restaurant before the Sun Dial restaurant in Atlanta… :-O This one is called Pind Balluchi. We also learned that you can’t take the stairs up to the 17^th floor because there are no lights and they are very steep so sometimes people get stuck part way up. Hmm… 

Round Two Begins...

Wow, it looked like this day might never come but I made it back to Patna, Bihar today! Now for round two of Indian escapades including more exciting blog entries... :) And a promise to be more consistent about my updates!

I flew into India last night, actually. This was different from my last arrival, when I flew straight into Delhi from Chicago and on to Patna in the same day. This was because when I bought the tickets, there was a large strike pending from Air India (more about this here) and the odds of being stuck indefinitely in Chicago were actually pretty high.

But, all worked out and in the meantime, I got to have a 12 hour New Delhi adventure at the Jaypee Vasant Continental! (website here) This was kind of a crazy fancy place with telephones in the bathrooms and hard wood floors (two hallmarks of nice hotels...) :)

Fancy pictures of the fancy digs at the VPC...

Fancy pic #2. Shower looks into bedroom (?) but no worries, there's a remote control blind that comes down to separate block visibility... :)

Besides Delhi being over 7 times bigger than Patna, another way you can tell this was taken in Delhi is the Mickey D's. None of those in Bihar! Guess I'll have to wait a little longer to try the Majaraja Mac (article about this here).

While the service was pretty darn awesome, I was reminded about a trait I've found in India among those in the customer service industry. They will almost always accommodate your requests... But no one tells me what they actually do...

I'll explain...

Maybe this is only in the US but I feel like when you check in to a hotel, they tell you what amenities there are. Talking to an airport attendant, they might volunteer instructions on how to pay your fees (walk over five kiosks to line "G", stand in line, pay, take receipt back to same attendant -- simple enough to explain, but something your average foreigner strolling through India would probably not know).

I know that one could say, "They probably assume you know that." But really?? I am clearly not from here and look confused most of the time. You might say, "They don't know English that well." Which is probably true in Patna... But fancy 5 star Delhi hotel? Nope. I'm thinking this is an India (or rest of the world except the USA) thing.

But, this time, I picked up on that nuance right away and didn't worry about making 2 phone calls and a trip down to the concierge (after they hung up on me) to figure out why internet was not working. Or asking, then dropping by, then looking up hotel literature (where I discovered I should say "health club" and not "gym,") then a phone call to find if the hotel gym a. existed and b. was complimentary.

Today I was handsomely rewarded twice!

1) I went to the hotel gym! There IS one. AND it was free. :) AND it was awesome. The added endorphins have been serving me well all day!

2) I had to stop and ask four different people where the vodaphone store was but I found it and got a SIM card even though I am not an Indian national. How did that work? I did not want to ask that question. And therefore, as per the rule of no extra information, do not know the answer... :)

By 3:30pm I had made it safely to Patna to hang with my bad self at the guesthouse. Tomorrow is busy meeting day and hopefully awesome meeting up with other Emory folk day as the CARE stakeholder meeting is going on and I will get to attend. WOOHOO! Bonus meeting! :)