The Dogs of SEARCH

This is just a fun post about the dogs I came to love at SEARCH. Before coming to India I knew there would be lots of stray dogs, but I was told at the school health clinic not to touch any of them. I still would not touch a random dog I saw on the streets, but SEARCH had a few campus dogs and after awhile I couldn't help but pet two of them. I grew very fond of a couple of them.

I kept thinking about how these dogs were born, raised, and lived in India. They look just like the dogs at home, and all over the world, but these are India dogs! I think it's cute that you can assign a nationality to a dog. Or at least my mind did. If the dogs talked human language would they speak Marathi?

The campus had six resident dogs and a few frequent visitors. The six resident dogs were two Doberman type dogs, two German Shepard type dogs (one with short hair and one fluffy) and two little white Pomeranian type dogs. The frequent visitors included one short-haired brown and white dog and a pack of brown dogs.

The four big dogs (Dobermans and German Shepards) were a pack. The rat pack is what I called them! They went everywhere together and took naps together! It was soo cute! The pack of three stray brown dogs were also always together lying around and running behind the research building in the afternoons.

I named the brown and white dog Puppy. He was the first dog I pet and took a liking too. I felt bad for him because Bhagyashree told me he was a stray and that the rat pack didn't let him hang out with them. Poor Puppy. One day I found him hiding in the back of our bathroom. He was also very scared of people, so he ran away that time. But other times I was able to get him to sit for some pictures. Here is Puppy:

The pack of brown dogs on the research building porch:

I never got any photos of the little white dogs, and I'm still not convinced that there are two of them because I never saw them together at the same time, but I've been told that one has a red dot on its forehead (yes, they gave the dog a bindi) and the other one does not. I've collectively named the white dogs Winkles.

I named the doberman dogs Tootsie and Mootsie. The non-fluffy German Shepard unfortunately never got a name from me. That is because my favorite dog of all was the fluffy German Shepard!!! When the monsoon started, I would often find him sleeping outside my door at night. He has the saddest puppy dog eyes ever. By the time I left SEARCH I really loved this dog and felt a bond with him. I named him Buddy. Sometimes Vimaltai would let me feed chapati to Buddy and the other dogs. Even when Rushina and I switched rooms he would still sleep outside our door. On our very last night at SEARCH, even though it wasn't raining, I found him there. I think he came to say goodbye because I never saw him on our last day. I will miss Buddy. Here he is staying out of the rain outside my bedroom door:

Resting in the mess hall during dinner, again trying to stay out of the rain:


On Wednesday, August 11th, Kelley and I went on a walk. The dogs were hanging around the front gate and when they saw us they decided to join us. All four of the big dogs! In fact, they led the walk. We went up to the lake that we always go to and the cutest thing happened- the dogs starting swimming in the water. Buddy was the most enthusiastic, probably because he is fluffy and gets really hot compared to the others. All the other girls thought the dogs smelled really bad, but I insisted (jokingly) that they took baths. And see, they did take baths, in the dirty lake water.

Leading us down the road:

Sniffing out the grass near the lake:

Wading into the water:
Swimming! (I recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge it and see how fun Buddy is having).


On one of our last mornings Ama told us that all the dogs actually have names. I guess Buddy's real name is Hera or Hira, or something like that. But, he will always be Buddy to me. Awww. I will miss all the SEARCH dogs.

Good Memories

As I near the end of my stay at SEARCH (only 48 hours left!) I am reflecting on all the good memories I have made. Although I have put in a fair amount of research time and working hours, the moments that will stay with me are those moments spent with all the other interns I have become friends with here and all the opportunities I took to explore the world around me, whether that be a newborn infant in the village, or haggling in town to buy some fruit, or the insects crawling in the grass after a rainstorm.

It is interesting to me that I came to SEARCH to do public health research, to learn more about India, and experience a taste of my future in global health, but in all honesty the parts that will stay with me the most are the ones spent in the evenings watching movies and doing crafts with the other interns. Is that a bad thing? Perhaps it was the nature of this particular internship or epidemiology in general, that it's not very hands-on in the field. Perhaps if I volunteered with Doctors with Borders or the Peace Corps I would have more memories of meeting the people in the villages, playing with children, and comforting those that are ill. Most of my memories from SEARCH though will be similar to those from college and grad school (except with a bit of constant amazement and the shared experience to lament about bugs, snakes, the food, and the monsoon.)

From mid to late July we had my favorite girls nights, the ones that I will remember the most, and perhaps what I will remember the most from my whole internship. Aditi is a huge fan of movies, especially romance movies, and we watched several back to back. We also watched many episodes of Friends (yay, tv!) because Aditi has every episode from every season on her computer. On some nights we would even attempt spa parties with nail polish and mud masks and even massages. It felt sooo girly! During movie watching we would knit and make bracelets and one night we even shared a bag of sour gummy worms that Rushina had brought with her. (I of course was given permission to take the largest share after I confessed my deep addiction to all things candy and gummy!) In some small way, I feel guilty that I came all the way to India to do public health, yet the most satisfying part of my trip was sitting around with a bunch of other girls (women?) my age and having girl parties before bed time.

Sometimes I think we were all just experiencing a bit of cabin fever (or rather SEARCH campus fever) and the smallest things would give us the sillies. On the Sunday evening after the field trip with Ama, huge lightening and thunderstorms occurred. Now, it's been raining pretty much every day since my second week here, and heavy rains at that. We are used to everything being wet. But on this particular night the thunder was incredible! I swear it was hitting trees within a kilometer of the SEARCH campus, at least it sounded like it. We all started screaming like little girls and huddling together outside our bedroom doors watching the rain pour down, trying to estimate how far away the lightening was, and guess at what it could be hitting. We all decided to run into Sona and Bhagyashree's room for safety. We were bored and had nothing to do so we started playing with the webcam on Sona's new laptop taking silly group photos of us making funny faces and using the backgrounds and special effect features that came with the webcam software. You would think that a bunch of mid-late 20-year-olds were above gathering around a single laptop taking dozens and dozens of silly photos, but we weren't.

The rain that started that night actually lasted for four days straight. It never let up. It rained constantly. Most afternoons and nights it rains very heavy here. But usually by the next morning, the ground will quickly absorb the rainfall because it went for months and months without seeing much water. During the four-day heavy monsoon rains though, the ground had no time to absorb the water between storms, it just kept coming. Eventually on Thursday, August 5th there were huge amounts of flooding around campus. Fortunately, the guest rooms that I stay in are elevated and protected, but it was very had to walk around campus, and unfortunately some girls that live in more permanent housing experienced flooding (several inches). Their bathrooms overflowed too. I felt so bad for them, they had to babysit their rooms all day making sure their belongings weren't damaged. It was even worse because Sona, Bhagyashree, and Jessica had just moved from the bedrooms in our guest house building to their new homes. It figures that the day after they move all their stuff into their more permanent houses, it ends up flooding. Finally, these past few days we have seen a bit of sun again (along with warmer weather).

Anyway, new friends and rain rain rain. Together, these sum up most of the memories I will take with me from SEARCH.

Day 50...and Almost Done

Wow...how did I get to this point? I can't believe I have reached this point. As I have been saying for awhile, there seemed to be a really long beginning, a very short middle, and the last few weeks have all felt like the end. Now, the days keep passing quicker and quicker.

I have had some mixed emotions about whether or not I will miss this place. I had initially imagined that I would meet people of all different ages from around the world, but most of my working day and evenings are spent with the other young American and Indian interns. I will definitely miss the girls here that I have gotten to know: Sona, Bhagyashree, and Aditi. I am happy to have had this experience at SEARCH, getting to learn about the organization, seeing the villages and the rural area, and living in a developing country. However, since we have not spent that much time in the villages interacting with the people who benefit from SEARCH, there is not much that is pulling at my heart strings. I think for the most part that I will be ready to leave at the end of this week.

This past Sunday, August 8th, I took some time to appreciate the campus and took a nice morning nature walk on my own. The photo above is from that walk.

Marie and Haley left this past Sunday and Rushina and I will be next. Kelley, another student from UNC, just arrived this past Thursday. People come and go so often at SEARCH, and each time the dynamic changes. It seems so long ago that Miriam, Kate, Brenna, and Amy were here.

I know I have written very very little about the research internship aspect of my time here but there are several explanations. First, the work that I do here is technical and statistical based. I sit at a computer and run data analysis programs. I occasionally make a chart or a table and meet with a staff member to ask a question. I haven't reached many major conclusions yet about the association between smokeless tobacco consumption and preterm birth and low birth weight. Second, we are not out in the field directly interacting with people. We are not clinicians and we are not making any direct changes. We are doing research. This is the nature of being an epidemiologist in public health. Finally, there have been a lot of organizational issues that I can discuss in another forum that have made progress on projects difficult, not just for me, but for all the interns.

As I get closer to getting home, I am thinking more and more about the things that I miss. I cannot wait to take a shower where I get to actually stand under the water. In fact, I can't wait to be in a comfortable bathroom with rugs beneath my feet and counters that are not filled with bugs and moths! Also, new addition to the lineup, I saw a rat in the bathroom last night.

I am getting really excited about the new school year, and have started to think about my class schedule and work schedule and I've done some planning for a grant writing course I will be taking.

I am looking forward to wearing whatever I want, and having a blessed laundry machine that cleans the stink and dirt out of my clothes. And my poor poor personal items. They are all getting wiped down with massive amounts of clorox wipes.

I cannot wait to see Ben! I am looking forward to sharing our apartment together and cooking together and just lounging on the couch together! I haven't sat on a couch since I left the states! And tv...tv...I miss you so much.

I am looking forward to wedding planning and all the family trips and visits that will be required this Fall! I am getting excited about wedding dress shopping!

And most of all...what I have been dreaming about more than anything...is the big Italian dinner I am having as soon as I touch down in Chapel Hill!

Field Trip with Ama

I thought we were done with field trips on Sundays, but we got lucky on Sunday, August 1st. We made a regular trip into town, had lunch at CityHeart and did some shopping. Then, Marie, Haley and I went to the ice cream store while Jessica and Bhagyashree continued shopping. We were going to meet up in a bit and all share a taxi back to SEARCH.

As Marie, Haley and I sat outside the ice cream store enjoying our snacks, a SEARCH vehicle drove up and we saw that Ama (Dr. Rani Bang) was inside. She started waving to us and calling us over. She introduced us to her sister and her sister's husband. They were going to see a temple. Ama invited us along, but we were unsure because we were supposed to meet Jessica and Bhagyashree and we felt bad leaving them behind. Ama really encouraged us to come, saying that there were only three seats in the van anyway- perfect for the three of us- and we needed to come. We left a hand written note at the ice cream store for Jessica and Bhagyashree and we went off with Ama. Before leaving, she kindly treated everyone in the car to ice cream (so we got two ice creams in the end!).

We headed South in a direction I had never been. The scenery was beautiful. In addition to the driver, Ama, her sister and husband, there were two other SEARCH staff with us. We ended up driving for at least an hour. At one point we got out to enjoy a beautiful river. We were actually at the point where two rivers meet to become one river called the Pranahita. It was really lovely to see the river because just a month or so ago most of the rivers were semi-dry and you could see the riverbeds. Now, because of the monsoon, they are flowing with water.

A photo of some goats being herded across the bridge that crosses the Pranahita:

Here is a photo of us on the river bank. I like this photo because it is one of only a few of me in India with my hair down. From left to right: me, Haley, Marie.

We got in the car and drove a little further. When we got to the location of the temple we were close to the river again so we got out of the car to take a look. It was sooo beautiful! Probably one of my favorite moments since being in India. Of course, my camera decided to lose all its battery power at that point, so I have to thank Haley who shared her camera with me and let me have the following photos.

We got there during twilight, at the end of dusk. Everything was soft blues and purples. There was a canoe boat just sitting along the shore. We got an amazing photo of the canoe and the water, but unfortunately my blog won't let me attach it despite trying for two days. (One of the reasons it took me so long to make this post). Here is a different photo in its place of us standing in front of the canoe.

Then we decided to be adventurous and get in the canoe! I wished I could stay there forever. It was so quiet and serene.

Then we walked up from the river to the temple we had come to see, Shahpur Temple. This is my favorite temple I have visited (I believe my fourth one now). We were there at night time so it was lit up and beautiful! It was also the cleanest temple I have seen. The floors were shiny and glossy.

Another reason I really liked this temple is that it had all sorts of different levels and staircases and balconies. At one point I wandered out on one of the back walkways and came to this balcony. The gray-white of the temple contrasted against the deeply blue sky and the black branches of a tree:

After awhile we headed home. Since it was a few hours since we had started out on our journey we were pretty hungry. We stopped at some road side stands and Ama (or perhaps her brother-in-law) bought us chai tea and a bunch of different kinds of Indian snacks, similar to the kind I had first had on the Air India flight. My favorite was Moohn Dal, little dried lentils, and a peanuty tasting snack mix.

We were very lucky to be at the ice cream store when Ama came by. It turned into a fabulous field trip with some of my favorite memories.

Side Note: This has happened several times, and I just want to note, the date of the blog entry is when I started writing the entry, not when I finished it and posted it. So that is why, for example, this entry says Monday, August 9th, when, if you checked yesterday, it was not up yet. Just some clarification for those readers who check my blog often enough and wonder why they don't see a post until a day or two after the date of the entry.

Chatagaon Market

This past Wednesday, July 28th, Vimal tai invited us to join her on her weekly trip to the market. Chatagaon Market is setup in a woodsy area to the east of Shodhgram. It's about a ten minute drive away. Because it had rained very badly in the morning, the market was smaller than usual, but I still really enjoyed the field trip. It felt good to accompany Vimal tai on her errand to purchase fruits, vegetables, and ingredients for all the meals she cooks for us.

Chatagaon Market is essentially a farmer's market and not all that different from the ones I've been to back at home. Each farmer setups in a tent. Fruits, vegetables, and spices are the main goods being sold, but there are also a few "plastic and junk" stands selling cheap jewelery, plastic items such as combs, mirrors, and children's toys, and some basic home goods like soap dishes and shower caddies.

Here is a photo of people milling around the market once it became crowded. You cannot see in the photo, but all the way around the market in the trees stood armed policeman in camouflage. They are there to protect the market from Naxals in the area. It was my understanding that we were completely safe while at the market- otherwise SEARCH would not have let us go- but there was some sort of three-day political "bandh" going on at the time- certain businesses in town had to shut down for a few days and there was a curfew- don't ask. We were safe.

Here is a photo of a large vegetable stand. One thing that was different about this market compared to the ones I've been to in the States, is that the farmers sit on the ground amongst their fruits and vegetables. There are no fancy chairs or benches. Also, they use balance scales with mass weights, not the kind that you would see in a supermarket with a pointer. Each time someone wanted to buy something they put all the vegetables or fruits onto one side of the balance and played around with the weights on the other side of the balance to get an approximate idea of how much there was. Sometimes young kids were given this job.

Some women picking out tomatoes. One of the things I love about India is how colorful it is. The saris worn by the women seem to come in every color imaginable. When driving along the roads, now that the rains have come, there is always so much green- the grass, the trees, the rice paddies. But always, amongst all the green, you will see the colorful dots of villagers working the land.

Vimal tai picking out some sort of green vegetable.

There was one huge spice, garlic, onion, and herb tent. Here is one of the men selling his spices; I think chili powder and the ones used to make curry.

Another man selling us garlic.

Here I am before leaving the market. You can see my beautiful, new, green outfit. At the market, I bought a pair of cheap gold earrings with green beads for five rupees, roughly 12 cents.

Shramadan Special

As mentioned in the post "The Typical Day", we have shramadan every Wednesday and Saturday morning at 6:15am. This was ok when I was jet lagged and waking up naturally at 5am, but now it's become a big pain!

Here is a photo of the plate bell they hit when it is time to wake up for shramadan. The guy in charge hits it over a dozen times; unless you are the deepest of sleepers, there is no way to avoid the sound of its ringing. It does not help that we live in the guest houses closest to the central spot of campus where the bell hangs.

Some mornings if it's raining pretty hard from the monsoon they cancel shramadan and we get to sleep in. It's like getting a snow day! I was lucky, and this happened on both Wednesdays when I was not feeling well.

For the first four weeks that I was here, every time we did shramadan we swept the paths around campus and cleared leaves to make the grounds look pretty. Then, on Wednesday July 21st we did something different. They sent all the women to weed the path that leads to the lake house. There are no lawn mowers here, at least none that I have seen. So, weeding is not just meant to clear flowerbeds, but to manually cut grass and help ensure that the paths stay wide enough and are not narrowed by encroaching grass and plants. I wasn't too excited to be doing this activity. First, it meant sticking my hands in morning-dew grass where lots of little bugs and critters live. I was also afraid of there being snakes. Second, we had to use very sharp scythes to help us cut some of the grass down and I was worried about chopping off my hand.

For the first few minutes I daintily picked at some grass and weeds, trying not to get my hands dirty. I didn't feel like I was doing much. After a while, I got more comfortable with the nature living in the grass. It really was just some small worms, ants, caterpillars, spiders, and other weird looking things I've never seen before...but you know, small stuff, that doesn't scare me much anymore. I started helping out a lot more and I found that I really enjoyed this work. It was also fun because instead of being spread out to sweep all over campus, all us girls were concentrated in one area so we could talk during shramadan. This made it sort of a chore-filled social hour. I also found that weeding one small area was less straining on the back than being bent over sweeping an entire path. All in all, it was a good shramadan.

For several weeks Naina (Dr. Abhay Bang) kept telling us that we were going to do some rice transplantation. This means moving seedlings from one rice paddy where they were initially planted and sown and are very concentrated to another rice paddy where they will complete the rest of their growth in a less dense manner. That's the simplified version. I'm sure there is a much better agricultural explanation.

Anyway, Naina said this was going to mean standing in mud up to our knees and as interns expected to participate in shramadan, this meant that if one day this rice transplantation actually happened we would have to join in. I didn't like this idea. I do not like sticking my feet into bodies of water where I cannot see the bottom. I don't like it at the ocean and I would not like it in a muddy rice paddy. I probably wouldn't even stick my feet into my own bathtub if the water was not translucent. Don't water snakes live in rice paddies? I told myself that if the morning came when we were to do rice transplanting, I wouldn't complain. I would try to help out in any way I could and if I couldn't avoid going into the mud, I would just find a way to do it, hoping it wouldn't last long.

Here is a photo of the rice paddy. I just happened to take it during sunset the evening before we did the rice transplantation. It is right across from the library, so when I leave the library most evenings, this is the view that I see. At the time I took this photo I didn't even realize this was the rice paddy.

On Friday, July 23rd, Naina announced at prayer service that we would be doing rice transplantation the next morning. "Alright, I guess it's actually going to happen," I thought. He told us that men could wear shorts, but of course, women would have to keep on their modest outfits. This was totally unfair! We would have to roll-up our pants and basically get our clothes muddy just because we are not allowed to show our knees, but the men could wear shorts!!! Everyone went to bed hoping it would rain the next morning.

On Saturday, July 24th, the shramadan bell rang. It was not raining. Some of the girls were very tired (we've been going to bed later and later) and decided they were going to skip and sleep in. Marie, Haley, and I were led by others to the rice paddy. Since it had recently rained, as always, things were pretty muddy. We stood and watched as others ventured into the muddy rice paddy. Bhagyashree was already in there planting rice grass, and us Americans stood there like we had never seen anything like it- because, well, we hadn't. What helped a lot is that I guess some of the women who live at SEARCH haven't had much experience with rice transplantation either because some of them seemed really freaked out as well. One woman yelped and shrieked with fear when her feet first sank into the mud. After watching them get into the rice paddy (which required climbing over a muddy hill), Haley was psyched up enough to go in. Honestly, if it weren't for Haley's gung-ho attitude I probably would have ran away. I decided I would just do whatever she did. We all climbed up the muddy dirt and a man helped us into the paddy. Unfortunately, Marie cut her toe on something, probably a stick, and had to get out after taking one step.

The sensation was gross and the texture at the bottom was terrifying!!! I was petrified there were going to be snakes or huge beetles or just anything that would eat my feet. We got in the paddy in a watery section so that in addition to having no idea what was below our feet, it was very sloshy, and this caused the mud to keep shifting, which kept freaking me out that something was there. Thankfully, we were not knee-deep as Naina had promised, but we were ankle-calf deep the entire time. We decided to wade over to the end where most people were working. It was less watery and just more sticky mud. I was scared the whole time that something was going to get me, but after a few minutes I decided that the mud was way to thick and dense for anything to be moving through it, let alone living in it.

Still, I had to stay within a foot of someone at all times. I had a theory that there was strength in numbers and I couldn't possibly be attacked by an imagined water snake if I was standing next to someone else. Makes sense right? It also helped that Naina, Anand, and other senior staff were helping out as well. It gave me comfort that they had done this many times before and they obviously wouldn't have us do it if it were unsafe. In fact, during the shramadan there were probably 40 people in the rice paddy! Thus, I just kept telling myself that nothing was going to happen to me because nothing seemed to be happening to anyone else.

Haley and I laughed a lot throughout the process. Everyone else looked like they had done this dozens of times, but we had no clue what to do. How far down do we stick the rice seedlings? How far apart do we plant them? Everyone else was going in nice, neat, consistent rows. In contrast, our strategy was to plant the seedlings in any way that allowed us to limit our movement and continue to cling to the spots where others were working. I spent most of the time working next to the older man who starts the music for prayer every evening. I don't know his name, but I wish I did. I think he is at least Naina's age, if not older. He seems very dignified and I always say hi to him when I see him on campus. I tried to copy his system for the rice transplantation. Naina also came over and showed us how to lean our elbow onto one knee and bend our knees so that we were in the proper position to do this for awhile. He told us that some women from the villages work in the rice paddies for 10-12 hours a day! Fortunately, shramadan only lasts 45 minutes! Here is a photo of the paddy when we were done:

When it was time to get out everyone walked over to one section of the paddy and one by one took turns climbing out of the mud. One last section was still being finished and an elderly woman who looked very experienced at rice transplantation tried to guide Haley and I over to it so we could help complete it. After a few seconds though, she made a face like we were doing everything wrong, and we got out with everyone else.

After the work, some staff brought out some chai tea for everyone to enjoy as they cleaned themselves up. We decided to not wash off quite yet because we wanted to grab a photo back at our rooms. The elderly woman and her friend stood and giggled and spoke to Naina in Marathi. We were curious to know what they were saying about us. Bhagyashree said that the elderly woman said that I was not very good at rice transplantation and that I couldn't do it! What!?!?! Haha. After everything I went through! I got in the mud and walked through sticky, watery, gooey, can't-see-my-feet rice paddy and didn't complain one bit! And I stuck my hand down into the mud over and over and put those little rice grass bundles into it. And she said I couldn't do it!? I knew that she was just making fun of us and Haley and I knew we had done our best.

Here is a photo of us (Bhagyashree, me, Haley) upon returning to our rooms:

A few hours later when I was near the rice paddies I saw the elderly woman and a few others still working. Here is a photo of them. The elderly woman is the one standing up and scowling at me for taking a photo. You can see this better if you click on the photo to enlarge it.


And finally, another shramadan that was unique: this past Saturday, July 31st, I was too tired, and I just plain skipped it!