FIELDtrip

Me and Chethan

This past week has really given a whole new meaning to the idea of a ‘field’ trip. Ms. Frizzle would be so proud. Rather than the magic school bus, I journeyed via overnight train with David from CFAR, Mallika and Chethan. It was quite the experience. They handed out ‘clean’ sheets and pillows to set up the beds which were stiff as a rock. I was seriously worried about having to sleep in a sauna, but we were in the second class of the train with A/C! I was very relieved to feel a relatively cool breeze once on board. I slept on the bottom bunk and it had a curtain I could pull across which was great…I could finally hide my identity and feel like less of an outsider. I was so thankful to be with frequent train travellers since there was no announcement or any sort of indication of where each stop was. Trial and error!

2A Class on the Humpy Express

Once we arrived in Koppal, it was a short rickshaw ride to the hotel which really exceeded my expectations. We quickly showered, changed, and then headed straight for the field office. We met with the research team there – none of whom spoke English – and briefed them on the project. It was great to get their input and comments on the tools we prepared and they were all very enthusiastic. They will be the ones who will be doing most of the field work so it was great to see that they took such an interest in the study. The language barrier forced me to pick up some Kannada and I’ve got a few phrases down! I still sound like a fool though. Even if I remember the 10 syllable words, if the accent is not right, its totally useless. Luckily I had Chethan with me! After a long day of edits and hashing out the details of the study, we headed back to the hotel.

Day 2 was a bit more action packed. We met with medical officers at primary health centres (PHC) and a few different villages where we interviewed pregnant women and adolescent girls and got a few focus groups done. Each village was drastically different than the next. In one, we were trudging through pales of hay and in another we were in a much more developed area with electricity – though it failed 6 times while we were there (so thankful to have a flashlight feature on my cell phone).

It was great to pilot all of the questionnaires and make sure they were culturally sensitive. We had a ton of changes to make after testing them out. It’s so much harder than I would have ever thought to ask the right questions and in the right order.

Focus group

Interview with the girl to the far left
(note: this was as close as they
would get to me)

I also started realizing how my presence was influencing the level of sharing, so I decided to take a step back from the actual interviewing process and the focus groups – translating just made it far more complicated than it had to be and I felt as though I appeared too intimidating. There was one interview that we did that actually required 3 translators and took hours. It was a pretty interesting execution of broken telephone (much less fun when the responses actually matter). Luckily, we have the local research team that already has rapport with the villagers. 

One of the girls we interviewed insisted on braiding my hair like hers. Later, her mom came of out of the house with a Jasmine flower ornament to attach to it (all the girls wear them as decoration). It was pretty cool.

The jewelery on these women was also so spectacular. So much colour. I am jealous. I love it. I am going to be decked out when I return. I already have some great bangles.

We ended up staying on the field until it was dark but were met with such amazing hospitality from each of the villages. At each interview, I was force fed chai served in the tiniest little cups….in addition to a killer deep-fried hot pepper delicacy. Come to think of it, most of the food I had in Koppal was  something deep fried and super spicy…I am currently in detox.

Funny story: While working in Mallika’s hotel room, the boys noticed a smell in the air and called the hotel cleaning staff right away. Their keen senses had accurately detected a big dead RAT that was right behind Mallika’s bed. Yikes. It had been shmushed to death. Poor thing. I was so very thankful it wasn’t in my room. I knew the hotel was too good to be true.

Taken after the bed was pulled away.
Not too sure how he died in that position...

All in all, the trip was a success! It was so HOT (40 degrees) and there was really no way to cool down. I was drenched in sweat at every step of the way…and wearing sleeves and pants…not fun.

David on the far left and the girls!
(they warmed up to me by the end)

David, me and Chethan on our
way back to Bangalore

Anyways, I returned on Thursday morning and then went straight back to work! I’ve been a bit dizzy and lightheaded ever since the trip and every muscle in my body aches but I think it’s finally starting to go away. YAY. I knew something must have been seriously wrong when the office catered a meeting with a UNAIDS rep with Pizza Hut and I was nauseated by the smell of it. That just wasn’t right. It is so much worse with the smell of curry and masala though. So, please disregard what I wrote about sticking to Indian food in my last entry…I think I have officially reached my limit. I spoke too soon. In the last few days, I’ve had lots of cheese and bread and even had the pleasure of going to Stephen and Janet’s (other founders of KHPT) for STEAK last night. I don’t know how I will ever get back into the swing of things. Sorry Monica.

Side note: in case you had ever wondered who would win in a battle between 4 angry squawking crows and a three-legged monkey, I can assure you, it is not the monkey :(

That’s all for now folks!