After sleeping for a refreshing 12 hours I was ready for my first day in the slum. Zakhira is an hour away and Anurag and I picked up the Tuberculosis surverys at the office and then headed out with a driver. We arrived to the area and first started talking to a woman in w85 instead of W88. This was just as well because that woman looked like she wanted to slam the, well, curtain, in our faces instead of talk to us random kids about her health. The ASHA women came with us over the slum we had previously toured, W88. We weren't allowed to say it had anything to do with tuberculosis becuase the disease carries a lot of stigma, mostly because they are afraid of it. not all of them understand that there is now a cure for it. ASHA uses the DOTS program (Directly Observed Treatment-Short Term) to combat TB. The ASHA woman showed us all the tablets of each phase and explained they have to be taken in front of an ASHA worker for the first section, then they are given their own medication. The women responded much better when we had the women from ASHA working with us. They would ask the woman (it was almost exclusively women home during the day) her name, husbands name, address, and age. Some women who were 30 I would have guessed 50, and the 50 year olds looked about 70. We ask them about the basic symptoms of TB. It is incredibly frustrating not speaking the language, but I can gage a fair amount through the body language. Which reminds me of a fabulously Indian thing I have not mentioned yet: the head wobble. In the US we nod our head yes and shake our head no. In India the head does a sort of multi-directional dance which can mean Yes, No, or I don't know. Haha, not terribly helpful when asking someone a question.
Anyway back to the surveying, as we knock on the doors, children run around half naked, some with white powder on their bodies to absorb sweat, others with dark kohl etched under their eyes. There was a horrifying, heartwrenching moment when a baby (pictured below) was crying, flies covering her face, and as we walked by she began crawling after us still bawling. We asked where her mother was and the ASHA women brushed it aside, explaining, shes at work. Another home we went to had five children playing while a baby lay asleep on the floor, flies crawling all over him. Its very hard to get used to. I was also surprised that the children are really not very friendly. I would smile and say namaste, even getting down to their level, and they would stare up at me, stony faced. Anurag said that is because they are not used to strangers. Throughout my time in the heart of the slum I am thankful that I do look somewhat Indian. Anurag explained that in North Delhi where we work, the culture is mostly muslim, and more conservative and private than South Delhi, where we live. Asking questions about their health including their smoking habits, as strangers, young people, and then with the addition of being white skinned I think would be enough for them to shut their doors. The good news is that not many of the 30 people we surveyed about themselves and their family clearly had a case of TB. We asked about swollen glands, blood in urine, and lower back pain, as well as coughing, to cover all the types of TB. Although on the survey it says to ask -if they have lost weight- in Hindi it has to be framed as -have your clothes become loose-. I can usually figure from their body language if they are saying yes or no, which is nice because otherwise I would feel pretty useless there. Anurag has to write their names because I am not familiar with the spellings. We met one young man, aged 20, who had been in school and scored very high, but had to come home to work and support his family. Hopefully Asha can work out getting him a scholarship. After 2 hours in the extreme heat and humidity, less than an eighth of the people were completed, but we all felt sort of faint.
We went back to the center, got some water, and had some lunch. My dry bread sandwhich was very bland compared to Anurags nicely packed tupperware full of indian food cooked by his mom. I tried some essentially pickled mango filled with spices. Then we walked around the area surrounding the slum, I successfully crossed a Delhi street! (Anurag could barely believe that in the USA we press a button and the traffic stops) and wandered around the population which lives on the sides of the streets. Vendors selling cigarettes for a few rupees (42 to a dollar), and beggars of all ages.
2pm was time for my first english class. As I began to settle into the room, ready to repeat Ross and Kerrys lesson plan from the day before, they informed me that there were no books, notebooks, or white board. I expected about 10 kids but 19 boys and girls filed into the tiny room. I had been intimidated by the full notebook of a student I had looked at before, which had all the lessons they had been taught by two Irish guys for 5 months, but in fact these kids knew a lot less english than at the other slum I visited. They went around and said their names (none of which I can remember) and I drew a makeshift family of stick figures on a piece of paper. They then did the word search quite diligently while I tried to chat with the Asha woman who was to be my translator, although she didnt speak very much english. They had never played memory before but were delighted that the pictures used for the "family" were all famous Bollywood stars (my roomates had that brilliant idea). They figured out the game but we had to move into the main space because there was no room to make a circle in our classroom. We then did opposite words, few of which they were familiar with, and I tried to get them to act out the opposite of a word I picked. For example if I pointed to "Weak" and mimed it, I wanted them to mime strong, maybe by flexing their muscles in the air. But they merely looked at me and said "strong", they did not understand that I wanted them to act it out. I then tried to teach them Simon Says, but only a few understood. The language barrier was very challenging. The number of students was hard. Their lack of basic understanding was hard. The heat was hard. Until my partner teacher arrives I plan to just stick to games mostly. Next was a group of 15 boys. By then I had run out of most word searches so had them do it in groups. They were quite fast. I barely got through the lesson when it was 4pm and the computer class which Anurag teaches was out and I was ready to head home.
I was excited to get internet working on my computer. After posting some pictures and my blogs it was time for Anurag to pick us up to go to dinner at Pria Market. He picked us up and we went to the wonderful restaurant known as, Pizza Hut. Indian food places are more iffy on the stomach so they recomend the first few days to stick to -fancy- restaurants. I have been losing weight already on account of the heat and never snacking. The food out is remarkably cheap (16 for 4 of us having pizzas), but what we have in the apartment is not really filling. We stopped by a grocery store where I stocked up on some microwaveable indian dishes.
An evening which could have ended up pleasantly suddenly took a turn for the worse. As Kerry was stepping out of the car, Anurag began to drive away. She fell on her knee and had a rather deep gash. Poor Anurag was shaking all over as he drove us to the nearby Apollo health clinic. They said yes she needed stitches but we would have to go to a hospital. We went over to a private hospital down the road and she was able to walk right into the ER. They gave her a tetnus shot before we could explain she'd gotton one a few weeks ago. Ross tried to insist that they use these syringes they had brought themselves from Britain, having been told they should use these instead, but the nurse gave him a dirty look and Anurag assured us it was a good hospital. They stitched her up and bandaged her knee. They told her to stay off of it for 7 days and come back every 2 for redressing. They assigned her 3 meds, an anti imflammatory, a pain killer and an antibacterial. The total cost of the visit was 20 dollars. Incredible.
After an eventful day I am ready to retire but first must come up with some type of lesson plan that involves 19 children no space and no supplies. goodnight.
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