Last Post

These are the last pictures I have to share (they are a summary of the things I haven't posted about).  Also, the trip is over and I am back in the US :-)

The Hampi Trip, 4 days in a few pictures (all the monuments are between four and six hundred years old):

Farmers harvesting rice (all women).

Eight hundred steps up to Hanuman Temple, but worth it for the view.

Statue of Ganesh

Beautiful Engravings

What remains of a public bath.

Kate, Me, and Vania in front of a statue.

The city was razed to the ground in the 16th century (a lot of the temples survived).

What remains of the King's Palace.

Big chariot, small elephants.

Ahhh…. Good bye my shower...

And Goodbye to all the people I met and worked with this summer.

A small layover in London:

The White Tower of the Tower of London, and back to the US.

Two Weeks

Sorry for the long delay, but let me recap the last two weeks:

The weekend of June 21:

Dubare Forrest, Abe falls, and a Tibetan Settlement:

A river to cross...

with friends...

to see elephants being ridden 

                                                                           To see them eat

And finally to ride them :-)  (also those trunks are incredibly versatile.  And slimy)

Entrance to the Tibetan temple

Main Temple Outside

Inside

Disciples Mural

Other temple

More Buddhas

Waterfall

Sunday we attended a Nameday ceremony for one of our coworkers, which started as a gameshow complete with cameras and a host.

And then we had a traditional feast on a leaf.

Julien, Me, and Vania

That week we also went to the J.S.S Ayurvedic hospital to see how that kind of medical practice takes place.  The hospital itself is in a secluded peaceful place, with most of the facilities dedicated to restoring wellbeing (retreats for yoga, massage, meditation, purging).  But doctors were also diagnosing and giving herbal medicines to patients.

The Weekend of June 28th

Mysore Palace

St. Philomena's Cathedral (yes we're still in India, although the palace also had some British inspired architecture and was made of cast Iron painted to look like wood, since the old one burned down in like, half an hour)

Brindavan gardens behind the dam

Ditto.

Off to Hampi tomorrow, to bike through the ruins of Vijayanagara, ancient capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.

School Trip

I had some artist apply henna to my hands yesterday, and it turned out beautifully (after about four hours of painting, drying, and peeling).  Traditionally henna is done for weddings but I've been wanting to try it for a while.  Oh, and I have IRB approval pending another piece of signed paper I also got yesterday.  I swear, it's taking me longer to get approval for this project than actually doing it is going to.

Today Vania, Julien, and I accompanied the Prenana staff to Dota Ejur (the spelling is phonetic) village for individualized counseling session, history taking, blood draws, vaginal swabs, and urine samples to test for kidney problems, infectious disease, and encourage agency in their own health, and the health of their babies.  They also give out antenatal supplements.  This time the camp was help in an elementary school (all the kids were there, in class).

These are some of the braver ones, who came to say hello :-)

Children (Obviously)

                       

The set up for all the lab work (I actually did some blood typing today).

Us three in front of the school.

At the end we were invited for lunch by the teachers.  It was really good, dol with rice and a crispy piece of bread. 

The First Weekend

Hello, sorry for the radio silence this weekend.  Saturday was a lab day, we observed testing for bacterial vaginosis (not exactly picturesque) and I decided to take the weekend off for blogging.  Sunday was really fun though, we went to Chandani Hills and walked up the 1008 steps to the temple. We woke up really early to avoid the heat of the day, but by the end I was apparently melting. Then we went to see the silk at the Devaraja Market and the outside of the Mysore Palace.  We'll go in another day, and go see it illuminated at night.  Yesterday (monday) was just more IRB prep and ELISA lab work observation.

The View from the Bottom. (Chandani Hills)

Monkeys!

Steps, steps, and more steps.  (The colors a from people marking each step all the way to the top to get their prayers fulfilled)

The Bull (midway to the top), the biggest statue ever carved out of one piece of stone.

The View from the Top. (Chandani Hills over Mysore)

Chandani Temple

Chandani Temple

Chandani Temple

Chandani Temple 

Outside Mysore Palace

The Tribe

Today I went with the mobile van to the village of Nagapura, which sprang into existence when the Indian government incentivized a forest tribe into a different way of life (i.e. asked them to leave the forest) about eight years ago.  Aside from the incredible shift in environment the tribe has had to deal with discrimination and a significant change in health care systems.  The government provides a stipend of food, land, money and social workers to help integrate these new comers into society.  Prenana and PHRII try to begin the transition into hospital based antenatal and general health care, but the cultural divide and discrimination faced in certain communities present a significant barrier.  Today I observed ten women getting group and individual counseling about their pregnancies and blood, urine, and self administered vagina swab tests to test for diabetes, kidney disease, and various infections.  I hope to be able to do more than observe soon.  I also heard troubling stories of two month old infants dying in their second month since they have moved to the village, maybe because of yellow foul smelling breast milk, but no one really knows why.  Overall though I think Prenana is doing a good job of bringing health resources to a community that has difficulty understanding and accessing them on its own.

Here's the group counseling session.

This is the testing station (I'm in the orange leggings)

 Later that night we went to a good restaurant to say farewell to Dwijavanthi, who is leaving for Bangalore tomorrow.  We had a lot of fun.

Left to Right:  Me, Dwijavanthi, Vania, Julien