Drained....

It has been a busy week thus far and  I think that I am getting a little bit worn down on account of a number of factors.

I share a small bed with my roommate in a room on the second floor of our home stay family's house. It has a little bathroom that contains a faucet, two buckets for showering and a squat toilet. Our room is over run with ants and I have just gotten used to sleeping with them all over my bed every night (thank God for my sleepsack!) Our room does not have any real place to put our belonging so we ended up unpacking some of our clothing on the lone table in the room. This means that we also don't really have a space to read or do work, so most of our work is done from our bed.

After living here for over two weeks, I sincerely appreciate everything I have left behind at home and at Swarthmore. Simple things like a hot shower or even having a sink are not available to me here. I had never previously imagined my life without these things that I had always labeled as "basic". While I have mostly gotten used to living without these relative luxuries by now, it is still exceedingly difficult to live without a place to study. That is something that I had definitely always taken as an absolute given, especially within any academic context. I don't really have access to any defined study spaces, either at home or in the city. I will definitely appreciate "McCage"- as Swarthmore's library is affectionately known - when I get back in the spring.

One more thing that I didn't realize how much I would appreciate is alone time. I probably get about one hour of alone time, of any sort, per WEEK. I am constantly forced to be around people all the time which is getting old quickly. This is sort of a revelation for me because I would normally consider myself to be a very social person. I love being around and interacting with people most of the time. However, I usually also have the option of being alone if need be and without this escape route, I feel trapped.

Luckily, this week, we began our case studies which may help to give me some more time alone.For our case studies, all the students were divided into groups of five and given a topic that they will examine for the entirety of the trip. I was placed in the Occupational and Environmental Health case study group and we have spent today and most of yesterday conducting interviews and going on site visits in order to give us enough data to write a case study report. Our report will investigate the health implications of working in the waste collection sector in Trivandrum. We have gotten great data thus far and we will conduct our last site visit tomorrow, hopefully at the trash processing plant in the suburbs of Trivandrum. Because we only have interviews and visits for part of the day, I have been able to be on my own for much of the day which has been a god-send.

Another thing that has been lightening my mood is the fact that I am going to an Indian wedding tomorrow evening. I am so excited!! I already bought and got fitted for my sari and I will be able to pick it up from the tailor today! I will post photos as soon as I can.

Speaking of photos - I got some of my photos onto my Tumblr and Flickr accounts! You can reach both by going to http://mnnyc.tumblr.com/. When you click on any of the photos, you will be redirected to my Flickr account where you will be able to see all of the photos that I have uploaded so far. Uploading photos here has been a really long and difficult process so the photos will continue to roll in whenever I can access a reliable WI-FI connection, which will hopefully be later on this week so stay tuned

Also in case anyone wants to send me a letter or two (hint, hint), my address is:

Marjani Nairne
IHP c/o Dr. K Vijayakumar
Health Action by People, TC 1/ 1706, 'Chemmanam'
Opp.3rd Men's Hostel, Navarangam Lane
Medical College PO, Trivandrum, 695011
India

Pollution and Protest

A lot has happened since I last posted. My roommate, Lais, and I decided to stay with our homestay family despite the lack of language. I don't think I realized, until I was thinking about leaving, how quickly I had bonded with them. I honestly couldn't see myself being as close with any other family. I really do care about them and they care about me and Lais just as much, if not more. I think we made the right decision to stay, even if it will take some time to get used to the squat toilet and cold bucket showers.

Yesterday, Lais, three guys from our program and their host brother, Amal, visted the famous Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum. It was recently discovered that this temple is the richest in the world, after they discovered almost $27 million worth of gold and other assets this past June. We were not permitted to enter the temple because we are not Hindu, but the temple is absolutely stunning from the outside. The entire thing is intricately carved and painted so that it looks like carved ivory.

After the trip to the temple, Amal and his friend brought us to a crumbling bridge at the shore of the Indian Ocean. He told us that the bridge was built by the British about a hundred years ago. When we visited yesterday, there were people lining the edge of the bridge with fishing lines and nets, trying to catch a couple tr fish for dinner. Amal told me that these were not commercial fisherman and pointed to the colorful wooden boats that were out on the ocean, catching fish to sell at the market. The view from on top of the bridge was spectacular and revealed the colorful huts that lined the shore as far as the eye could see. Amal then took us on a walk along the shore. While he insisted the walk would be short, it felt to me that it took an eternity. I think it was all made worse after I saw a disemboweled cat, followed by the largest dead rat I have ever witnessed in my life. The shore was incredibly polluted to say the least, with dead fish and feces scattered about everwhere. The people who lived along the shore resided in houses with thatched, palm leaf roofs. Considering how much it rains here, they must have constant flooding. The entire sight was incredibly dismaying.

The pollution and litter here is pretty severe. I think this really hit home when, after that long walk, I needed to throw out my coke can and Amal told me to throw it on the ground. I asked him if there was a garbage can anywhere and he simply pointed at the ground. I refused to throw my can on the ground, not convinced that there was no way I could properly dispose of the can. Eventually Amal snatached the can out of my hand and just tossed away on the ground. This made me realize one of two things: the first is that I no longer wanted to consume items here that are non-reusable because I would just be adding to the pollution. The second is that this place is in desperate need of a proper recycling system. I was just told that in the Malaylam news a few days ago was a report that the dumps here are officially at capacity and there is no place to put all the trash. I don't know what the ultimate solution will be but I did watch something really awesome on BBC International today. Its called "Litre of Light" and its the coolest idea ever. It's a sustainable lightbulb that uses only a discarded plastic bottle filled with water and a little piece of tin. Check it out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14967535?asid=27e38aba


We also didn't have class today because there have been gas strikes because the cost of fuel here is too high and people are demanding that the government subsidize it further. This was the second strike in three days so hopefully they will reach some sort of an agreement soon.

That's all for now because I have to get home! Namaskaram.

Namaskaram

This place has quickly gotten overwhelming. I've officially just ended my first week of classes in India and I am worn out, both physically and emotionally. We moved into our home stays on Friday and unfortunately I ran into some issues. My home stay family has been absolutely lovely and accommodating but there is just one issue - they don't really speak any English. While I know that language problems come with the territory of this sort of trip, the problem is that we are supposed to be using our home stay families as an extension of our investigation into the cultural and political issues that effect health in the countries we are visiting. While I must say my Malaylam has gotten pretty sharp since being here, my communication with my family wasn't enough to allow for any real interactions (let alone instructions on how to get to the bus stop, or even what the word "bus stop" means.) For that reason, I am being switched to a different home stay. This has caused a ton of stress and anxiety because my current home stay was notified before they even found a place for me to live. Let's just say that last night there were a lot of tears and sadness but hopefully I will move forward from this positively. We also get 3 yoga lessons a week which have been a god-send thus far and have probably gotten me through this situation a little more sanely.

On another note, the food here is BOMB and you eat everything with your bare hands which is tricky at first but you quickly adjust to it. I'm scared I'm going to forget to use silverware when I return home! I will list out some of my favorite dishes that I have sampled thus far:

• Appam - this is like a fluffy rice pancake with a thick middle and a thin crispy ring going around it. This is used to dip in sauces.
• Papperdam - This is a fried, crispy, puffy bread that is also used to dip in sauces. Probably my favorite bread.
• Iddly - This is similar to the appam, except that it doesn't have the crispy edges and it is slightly fermented.
• A bunch of curries that I don't know that names of but most are made with coconut (probably the most popular food here) and are really spicy and delicious.

I have to cut this post short because apparently my home stay family is on a hunt to find me (I am in an internet cafe and they get really nervous if you are out past 7pm.) But I will update more as soon as I can!

Welcome to Thiruvananthapuram! (Say that 10 times fast)

I would first just like to apologize for not updating more frequently. The internet in the hostel in Basel was terrible and I only had an iPad and I figured that people really wanted to hear about the other countries I am visiting anyway. The rest of Basel was good. We ate a lot of cheese, a lot of chocolate and a lot of bread. We also learned a lot about a field of alternative medicine called Anthroposophy. We first visited an anthroposophic hospital which was actually really nice and interesting. People would go to this hospital to be treated for everything from depression to heart trouble and would even go there to give birth. It was shocking that something so nice actually was paid for by the public Swiss health insurance. The second anthroposophic place, called the Goetheanum, was built by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s. It is a massive building, built in such a way that it does not have corners (similar to Gaudi but more imposing and less attractive.) The whole experience was bizarre. There were clearly Christian religious idols scattered about the building, yet our tour guide kept insisting that nothing was religious. After I saw a painting of Jesus surrounded by the seven disciples painted on the ceiling and the tour guide proceeded to claim that it was a Native American man surround by some of his followers, I had had enough. It was an interesting experience but probably not one I will repeat anytime soon.

I am currently sitting in Kovalam Beach which is one of the most famous beaches in India, about 35 minutes from where we are staying in Trivandrum (or as it is traditionally known in India, Thiruvananthapuram.) I seriously cannot believe I am sitting in a tiny internet cafe in INDIA right now! This is all so surreal.

All of us had the great fortune to arrive in Trivandrum at the beginning of one of the biggest festivals here, called Onam. The festival is ten days long and began on Friday, the day before we arrived. Yesterday, despite the rain (we are also here in the middle of monsoon season), we went to the center of all the festivities. There were huge masses of people there, some going on rides, some staring at the beautiful elephants adorned with gold head plates, and some staring at us because we stuck out like sore thumbs. The staring might be a little hard to get used to since people are staring at us constantly and shamelessly. But I guess I would stare at a huge group of weird looking foreigners too, so who can blame them. Right before the end of the festival, some of us watched a group of dancers with incredibly elaborate and large headdresses dance to some drums in a little area sheltered from the rain. It was amazing that they could stand up straight with such big head pieces on!

Right now, we are all staying a Christian center, kind of far from the main part of the city but we move into our homestays on Tuesday and I am really looking forward to that! I seriously love it here and I will put my pictures up ASAP so everyone can share in some of the sites of the festival and the city!