Around town and back

Kannada patient survey translations and scale smiley chart

How may I summarize the study's progress so far? In between waiting for random selection of patients, to waiting for patients to finish their lunch in order to be interviewed, to waiting for patients' discharge so we don't miss the survey data, I've come to accept that much of the global health research style is waiting for what-have-yous to transpire in its due time. Of course, waiting for others with no set timeline, is something to be viewed with normalcy here because it's much of the pace of health care of resource-low areas. A Dr. Dan from Canada, who is completing a global health elective here, was well-versed to reassure me that this is a part of the global health package.

Another aspect of having a translator interview patients? I absolutely love observing natives' body language--with their free-flowing bobbing heads beaming their tranquil and hearty smiles. I feel that despite some of the native's rural, impoverished lifestyles, many people exude just as much vitality, if not more than people I meet in America.

Apart from appreciating the subtleties of body language, there are myriads of exciting subtleties of the nearby town. I got a first grand tour of how to reach the local bus station from Dr. Dan, replete with avoiding stepping in what makes the zoo smell like the zoo, interspersed with returned smiles from passersby. Below are the images culminating from the trip from my camera:




Ganesha atop an awning to a shrine








Credited to Dan

Enjoying a refreshing slice near the fruit stand
(Credited to Dan for having the audacity to snap pictures of other people's children!)

Vendor arranging his fruit into mini-pyramids













Mid-afternoon street scene

Cart driver with two emaciated cattle!
(didn't notice his large smile until after uploading the pictures!)

Man herding sheep and running to his bike
(Credited to Dan, this picture was taken around the time when a herd of wayward blue-painted horned cows, each four times my size, stampeded around us! I was so scared, but these cows are pretty docile.)

The man above reunited with his bike and smiling for us!
(Credited to Dan)

On a sidenote, I also had my first food poisoning in India yesterday (with the hospital canteen's food!) Oh my gosh, what an experience! On the brighter side, my mentor for the study, Dr. Bindu Balasubramaniam, invited me to her house and offered to make a light dinner for me, some oatmeal or light dosa the next morning, and gave me some pantoprazole to take. It's great that I'm only a 2 minute walk away, and Dr. Padmaja, freely entering Dr. Bindu's house, asks me how I'm feeling and pats her palm lovingly on my head. Dr. Bindu asks how old I am, and I respond, "I'm twenty-three," and I almost sense something in her eyes become motherly toward me. To be honest, I was a little embarassed having to be taken care of, but I get the feeling that hospitality is second nature here.