To the Great Outdoors

Yesterday I finally submitted my IRB application! Hooray! I'm not sure what's going to happen now, but at some point this month it's going to get reviewed, and hopefully it'll be approved. Now I'm working on the questionnaire that my fieldworkers will be using to interview my subjects. I'm really excited about my project, and I can't wait to get things going!

Today I decided to take things easy since I had been staying up late every night working on the IRB application. So I did some laundry, went to the pool, and joined the church choir at CMC campus. They practice every Sunday from 4pm until 6pm when service starts. I hadn't sung in choir since college (wow, that's 4 years ago...), but I still remembered how to sing and read notes (I definitely felt a lot sloppier though). It was a lot of fun singing in choir again.

RUHSA

Tomorrow I'm going to RUHSA (Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs), which is a department of CMC that is located about 30-min drive from the main hospital. As the name implies, RUHSA serves the surrounding rural areas. (More info on RUHSA here). Lucy and I went to RUHSA about 3 weeks ago and got a brief orientation there. This time we're going with all the 1st-year (soon to be 2nd-year) CMC medical students and OT/PT students for a 2-week long Community Orientation Program (COP).

Basically, we'll be spending the next two weeks in a small village called Kavanur near RUHSA. In groups of 3-4, we'll be going door-to-door to collect their demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related information, while learning to build rapport with the people in the community. It sounds like a great learning experience. I'm really excited because this will be very similar to how my research project will be done (although it will be done by fieldworkers that I hire).

The boys will be staying at the village throughout the week, while the girls will be staying at a hostel in RUHSA. I'm guessing I won't be having much internet connection while I'm out there, so you probably won't be hearing from me for the next couple weeks.

So just to entertain you while I'm gone, here are some random pictures:

Everyday, a herd of goats are brought to a patch of land by the main road that is piled up with garbage. It appears that goats clean up all the edible garbage (e.g. paper), while people burn the rest. Hmm... doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it does make a lot of scent (it smells pretty bad—another good reason to have a bike, so I can zip past it while holding my breath)

A sign in the computer room at CMC campus library. Looks like the Lord isn't the only one who sees what you do there.

A mantis at the pool. This crazy insect attacked me while I was in the pool. It fell into the water, so I saved it. Then it kept following me... it must have thought I was its mate.

Traveling On a Two-Wheeler

Ever since I decided that I would be frequenting the swimming pool (about 15-minute walk from my apartment), I had been on a quest to find a bicycle. I looked around the market near the hospital, and found out that new ones cost at least Rs2500-2800 ($55-60), which is a bit much considering I'll only be using it for a year.

Then one day I saw a bicycle under the stairs at the apartment, and I thought, "Surely our landlady (who is 93 years old) couldn't use that bike..." So I asked her who's bike it was, and she told me I could use it!

My "new" bike!

The next day I took the bike to a bike shop near the pool. I got the tires pumped, the bell fixed, and the brake pads replaced. The bike mechanic here is quite amazing. He replaced the brake pads in no time, and I was really impressed when he fixed the bell with a hammer and pliers. And he charged me a very nominal fee for everything. My bike is still a bit rusty here and there, so I'll probably be taking it back to the shop soon.

Traveling by bike here is quite dangerous, or so it seems, with all the traffic and crazy drivers. But so far I haven't felt too dangerous riding my bike around. Everyone here honks their horns superfluously, so I always I know when they are right behind me and about to pass by (although I'm really glad I have a reliable break). Now with the working bell on my bike, I can join in on the "honking" fun and warn the pedestrians when I pass them by (although so far no one has turned around when I ring the bell).

It's definitely nice having a bike. I can now go to the pool or campus in couple minutes. I could even go to the pool just to take a shower there so I could save water at my apartment (of course I wouldn't do that, but I've been taking a shower there every time I use the pool).

This evening I went to the pool, and afterwards stopped by the campus canteen and ate dinner with a bunch of international students. You can actually order food from Darling Residency, and have it delivered to the canteen every night, so a lot of the students eat at the canteen at 8PM. I'll probably be visiting the canteen quite a bit now that it's a lot more accessible.

I probably sound like I'm just socializing, going to the pool, and not getting any work done... which isn't too far from the truth, but I am starting to get some really good ideas for a research project. I've been reading some articles and meeting with people, which I'll probably be doing for the next... 10 months or so. Everything's still up in the air, so I won't write about it until things start to take some shape.

In any case, praise God for a bike!

And here's one of my favorites:

From icanhascheezburger.com

Urban Slums

Riding in the back of a motorcycle... without a helmet!

Most of the morning today was spent in one of the urban slum areas where the two cohort studies on cryptococcal diarrhea are done. Lucy and I had to each ride on the back of a motorcycle to get there because apparently it's very difficult to get around the area by car. We visited homes where children are enrolled in the studies. It was quite interesting to see the environments where people live. Even within the same area, there were big contrasts in living conditions among homes.

We also spent some time at one of the pediatric clinics, and observed a local pediatrician while she saw some patients. Most of the kids seemed to have upper respiratory infections.

Lucy on a motorcycle.

In the afternoon, we went to the Low Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU), and met with Dr. Sushil John, who is one of the family medicine doctors there. LCECU provides care to the poor in the local urban slum at very low cost, and if they need a costly procedure or therapy, patients pay whatever they can, and the clinic helps find funding for them. Dr. Sushil gave us a little powerpoint presentation about LCECU which got me really excited, because it was all about what I want to do as a physician in the future. So I hope to learn as much as I can from LCECU this year, and apply it to my future practice wherever I may be.

After the presentation, we walked around the area near the LCECU, and met some of Dr. Sushil's patients at their homes. As we walked, he said things like "That man there has hypertension... this lady walking towards us had a baby with myelomeningocele... the man who lives here is an alcoholic... this boy has seizure disorder..." It was as if he knew everyone in the area, and it seemed everyone knew him too. People came up to him left and right with their charts just to update him on how they were doing, and he explained to us what were the issues with each of them.

The Low Cost Effective Care Unit.

Interestingly, patients at LCECU keep their charts with them at their homes, so when doctors from LCECU do home visits they would have their charts right there. It also saves the clinic a lot of money by not having to keep medical records. Dr. Sushil admitted that there maybe legal issues elsewhere, but here, having charts at patient's home is a very cost effective way that puts patient's care first. I definitely want to spend more time at LCECU during my year in India.

The long day was completed with a quick dip in the pool and meeting with some more international med students.

Praise God for another exciting day!

Europe in Vellore

Sundays are our days off, so Lucy and I spent couple hours at the swimming pool in the afternoon. It costs Rs200* to use the pool for a day, but we both got a 1-year membership, so we can go there everyday if we had time.

The pool is one of the main hubs for the many foreigners that come to Vellore (mostly med students rotating at CMC). So I got to meet several people from the UK, France, and Denmark. It was nice and refreshing to meet a bunch of people from various places. The place is well isolated from the outside world that, with all these Europeans, it almost felt like I wasn't in India any more. It's definitely a nice little getaway (and it's only a 15-minute walk from our apartment!).

Since we haven't started our research projects yet, I feel like I've been on an extended vacation... haha. I'm sure I'll get busy with work soon enough. I should enjoy this free time while I can.

After the pool I went to church service on CMC Campus. I came in couple minutes late because I thought the service was at another place, and when I sat down, I noticed that everyone around me were female. So for a second I thought I must have sat in the female section (not that I knew if there was one, but recently I found out that the seats on the left side of public buses are reserved for women). After a quick look-around, I realized that about 85% of the congregation were female. So I figured I was in the right place. It turns out all the nursing students were there, and they usually attend chapel at the CMC Hospital (which is different from Campus).

After chapel Lucy and I went to Dr. Kang's house, which is on CMC campus, for dinner. It was really nice getting to know her and her husband in a casual setting.

It was definitely a nice relaxing Sunday.




------------------

*Rs = rupees; Rs200 is about $4.35.

Glasses

Somehow I've had the worst luck with glasses in the past few weeks... (actually I should say worst luck in general, considering my horrible travel experience and the incident at the Potomac River).

Last month I lost my pair of glasses (along with my camera) in the Potomac while kayaking, so my mom sent me one of my older pairs with weaker prescription while I was in Oklahoma.

Yesterday after getting out of the swimming pool, my glasses slipped out of my bag onto the floor (only about 2ft below), and one of the arms snapped off. I have no idea how that could happen, but it did.

So after meeting with our PI Dr. Gagandeep Kang this morning, I went to the CMC Eye Hospital, got an eye exam, and ordered a new pair of glasses. It should be ready by Monday. Until then I'll have to wear my broken glasses without one of its arms.

I was actually planning to get a new pair of glasses in India, and now that my backup pair is broken, I was able to get a new pair urgently. So perhaps the glasses braking was a blessing in disguise.