Field Visits in Dumka

Monday Night:

I just arrived in Dumka about an hour ago. I generally find that it's no fun to get to a destination after dark. Everything seems scary and dirty (at least to me). In this case, those things are compounded by the humidity, my own exhaustion, and, unfortunately, by the bathroom.

Anand warned me that the bathroom was a squat toilet and I told him that was fine. And really, it is. It's not ideal, but for a few days, it's not a problem. I can hold it. (Just kidding! But I don't mind squat toilets that much in general.) What I was not prepared for was that 1) the bathroom is jam-packed with mosquitoes. In my view, there are few things worse than squatting over a mosquito-swarmed pit. And, 2) there is no sink. There are all kinds of taps, but since they are not very easily controlled, and since the drains are pretty large, I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to try to wear my contact lenses here. I wear hard lenses that need to be thoroughly rinsed under running water before each time I wear them. Since they are quite pricey, it seems like a bad idea to take the risk of dropping a contact lens and never seeing it again. However, I did not bring my glasses (stupid, I know), so not wearing my contacts means three days of very fuzzy field visits.

Anyways, I'll backtrack a bit. The drive here was 6 hours, and it was fairly pleasant--

Hold that thought. Cockroach in my room. FML.

Ugh. I'll continue this post later. I'm overwhelmed right now.

Tuesday Morning:
Okay, I'm feeling much better now. I just woke up, read in bed for a while, and then took a shower. I got over my skittishness last night. After my shower this morning, I dried off and then promptly poured mosquito repellent all over myself (that is an exaggeration, don't worry), so now I'm surrounded by mosquitoes, but they're ignoring me.

I slept pretty well last night. It's much cooler here than in Hazaribag, and the ceiling fan was on, so I actually slept under a sheet, which was very nice. I think the bed here has about 1/2" thicker padding than mine, which makes a huge difference (even though it is still not comfortable).

Last night the program directors here fed us a huge dinner. Anand and I were not really hungry after snacking in the car and traveling 6 hours, so we had to keep begging them not to give us more food. Everything I eat here is great, but I'm starting to really miss simple, familiar foods.

The drive yesterday, like I was saying before, was pretty nice. The road was awful, and getting jostled around for hours on end is tiring, but I napped briefly, read until it got dark, and then chatted with Anand the rest of the way. I'm glad he invited me along. It's nice to spend some time with someone near my age.

Today I'll be visiting an eye hospital and a resource center for disabled children, I think. Anand will be doing other things, so I'm a little nervous about being with people I don't know well. But I guess that's part of the experience. I'm learning a lot about being independent here.

Wednesday morning:

Field visits yesterday were really cool. We visited a 7-year-old kid with cerebral palsy who had been receiving physiotherapy through NBJK's program for 3 years. He was not quite a "normal" kid, but he was normal enough. He was walking on his own, holding my hands, and playing around. Before the program, he was completely bedridden.

Next we visited a blind boy who was about 11 years old. He demonstrated that he could write in Braille, and he could navigate around his house with relative ease. Next was an extremely charismatic 6-year-old boy who had problems moving his right hand. After a year of stretching and strengthening exercises, he had some movement, but he still couldn't use his hand for much.

After that, we saw some members of a Self-Help Group (SHG), which is a group that takes out micro-loans together and acts as each other's accountability network. There was a blind man who ran a small general store with help from the SHG loans, and a girl whose legs were slightly deformed who was studying English in college. They were very friendly and generous, giving us drinks and chatting.

In the evening, we saw a little boy who was slighly mentally impaired. It looked to me like maybe he had Downs syndrome, but I'm not sure. After 3 years of therapy, he had learned to say a few words, dress himself, use the bathroom by himself, and bathe himself.

Finally, there was a 7-year-old girl who was seriously stunted in growth and who had cerebral palsy. She was learning to walk, gaining strength in her legs. She showed us that she could go from squatting to standing and back, and then her little sister (aged 3?) started copying her, which was cute.

After writing a bunch of project reports, it was nice to actually see the work that is being done through NBJK. It seems like the kind of work they're doing is extremely rewarding. If it didn't mean being permanently so far away from home, I would be interested in getting involved.

Now it's 5:45 in the morning, and we're getting ready to head home. We were going to stay through the night today, but the whole reason we came was for Anand to give a presentation abuot the eye hospital to a potential funder. That funder is ill and in the hospital, so there's no reason for us to stay longer. I have enjoyed my visit here, but I'm looking forward to getting back to Hazaribag. My little apartment may not be luxurious, but I miss it anyways. And there are many fewer mosquitoes in Hazaribag than Dumka.

My only concern right now is that my head is killing me, and after 6 hours of getting jostled around, I'm worried about what kind of shape I'll be in. I've taken some extra strength Tylenol, so hopefully that will take care of it.

Later:
Just arrived back in Hazaribag. My head is okay, but I feel a little sick to my stomach. I don't know how I managed to avoid that on the way over to Dumka. Those roads are serious business. Now I get to post this backlog of blog posts, since I have internet again! Hooray!

Btw, posting pictures right now isn't going well, so I'll try to do that later.