Only I get cold in India

Today we started off with orientation at the ICTPH offices, which, I might say, are pretty posh. And very air conditioned. Hence, I was very cold, even though the heat index was 116 today. Wah wah.

Anyways, the offices are located on the IIT campus, which is, as I understand, the "Harvard of India." Impressive. We got to know ICTPH a bit better as an organization (the LDWpF, for the Coros reading this). Basically, ICTPH partners with local providers, and in some cases helps clinics to get started. As in many rural areas the nearest clinic (not even hospital) is up to 3 hours away, many communities greatest health need is just to have a provider. ICTPH provides guidance (local demographic data, evidence regarding appropriate interventions, etc, and the local providers, well, provide.

ICTPH staff also highlighted a few interesting points on the nuances of working in rural areas. We were told that people in rural India (and yes, this seems like a huge generalization) tend to value the "grandmother's opinion," i.e. traditional remedies. So the key to working with this is building trust with local community members, which can happen in a few ways. One that we focused on was doing home visits and accepting (very small) tastes of foods and beverages when they are offered to you. Over the course of these relationships, public health workers are encouraged to offer modern (although basic) treatments in addition to the traditional treatments that are valued by the patient. Can't just tell someone they're wrong and force them to take some new fangled medicine. The process is slow, but that's what makes it sustainable.

We took a break for lunch and enjoyed the food court. My tummy has been a grade-A wuss when it comes to spice. Even after all that building up to eating hot sauce almost every day over the past few months!! So I was boring and had pasta with cream sauce. The pasta is prepared in front of you and the chef kept trying to sneak red pepper flakes into the mix. I literally had to beg him not to spice it up...I think he just felt bad for my bland little dish. I've heard that I can homemake some plain yogurt in the hostel, which should definitely help with the esophagus burning. Ugh. Although the yogurt making does sound pretty awesome. I guess I'm just not used to white rice, white bread and hot stuff for every meal (even breakfast). It's just so good I want to eat it all!! In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes open for ice cream...

On the way back to the hostel we stopped at Cottage Industries, which is a fancy shop specializing in Indian crafts, cloths, silks, etc. The artwork was impressive. So many colors, shapes and textures. Organized chaos, just like the streets.

After getting back to the hostel and running out for water (see Audra carrying it on her head like a champ), we're getting organized for a night out tonight and our departure to Thanjavur tomorrow!