Crack! Boom! with a nice curry on the side

Uncle Yuan · January 27, 2008, 04:47:40 PM

Kind of a "grab all" post.

I was unfortunate enough to be involved in a pretty significant car accident this afternoon. Fortunately, neither I nor the either driver was injured. The same can't be said for our cars. :( My poor little Bug . . .

On a much more positive note, Friday morning I leave for a month in India. I will be doing a "rural and medically under served" rotation for medical school. Aunt Yuan hails from India, so this is not my first trip - but it is my first time traveling there solo! Fortunately, I gather my internet connection should be pretty decent, so I should be able to keep in touch and post the odd photo.

Protomorph · January 27, 2008, 04:59:20 PM

So I guess that is news of bad and good.

a good ladyfriend of mine has a fiancee from India.

Ephemeris · January 27, 2008, 09:03:56 PM

Quote from: Uncle Yuan on January 27, 2008, 04:47:40 PM
time traveling there solo!

Yuan is more powerful than we thought! :P

Pyroclasm · January 28, 2008, 03:20:54 AM

Glad the accident wasn't more serious, Yuan. Good luck with your trip!

lugaru · January 28, 2008, 03:57:26 AM

I am envious of the india part, I would love to do that. The car part... not so much. :(

El Condor · January 28, 2008, 04:56:51 AM

Bummer about the car - that's always a pain, but a little less so when everyone's okay.

The good people of India will be lucky to have you. The "rural and medically underserved" there endure extremely harsh circumstances; I'm sure you'll learn much from the experience. Good luck, Tio Yuan!

EC

Glitch Girl · January 29, 2008, 08:35:54 AM

Sorry about the car. Have a great time on the trop though. Two of my friends are headed there in June so I'll be stories from all of you I hope. :)

Uncle Yuan · February 01, 2008, 02:56:17 AM

And I'm off! It will take me several days to get to where I'm going. I'll check in as soon as I am able.

The Phantom Eyebrow · February 04, 2008, 10:44:06 AM

Great timing on my part then, me wishing you well and you already on your way or there at this stage. Anyway, soon as you get the chance to read this then... er... you will have got my message wishing you well...

Anyway, sounds like you're undertaking a great task there; have a great trip and do update us as and when you get the chance.

Uncle Yuan · February 11, 2008, 04:30:25 AM

Well, I'm a week on the ground now. It's hot (relative to Minneapolis at least) and dry. the Comprehensive Rural Health Project is quite a fascinating organization. The main thrust of what they do is train local women from villages to act as Village Health Workers. They deliver babies, diagnose and treat common illnesses, teach on safety, sanitation, family planning and nutrition, provide childhood immunizations, screen for serious illnesses and refer back to the central hospital and so on. The remarkable thing is that almost all of them are illiterate and Dalit (Untouchable). The big cognitive leap on the part the the folks at CRHP was realizing that these women are uneducated, not necessarily stupid. In villages where the work infant mortality has gone from 170/1000 to 18/1000, the average girls'age at marriage has gone from 14 to nearly 19 and the family size has been reduced by about half! Here's more info: www.jamkhed.org

So anyway - learning tons, sweating, eating lots of Indian food. Hope the rest of you are doing well!

El Condor · February 11, 2008, 05:05:19 AM

Sounds like an incredibly rich and challenging experience for you, Yuan. It also sounds like this organization is doing great work for needy people. Keep the news coming!

Quote from: Uncle Yuan on February 11, 2008, 04:30:25 AM
The big cognitive leap on the part the the folks at CRHP was realizing that these women are uneducated, not necessarily stupid.

Was it really that big of a leap for them? :(

EC

Uncle Yuan · February 14, 2008, 01:56:07 AM

Sure it was. As Americans (or Canadians, or Europeans) it is easy to forget that "all men are created equal" is a fairly recent development in human history. Until very recently, in India all of society and the dominant religion all center around the idea that the caste you are born to determines almost everything about your qualities as a human being, the professions open to you, and what your social status (and thus economic status) will be.

Untouchables by definition are (or were) stupid, dirty, untrustworthy and disease ridden (talk about the self fulfilling prophecy!!). Women, even more so.

Things are improving, quite rapidly by any reasonable scale. Everyone gets a decent high school education, and a significant number of university slots and civil jobs are reserved particularly for low caste. But deep divisions still remain. People NEVER marry outside their caste, and in an office of equally trained folks all doing the same job, the Untouchable will be paid less and have more menial duties than their higher caste peers.