long but worth it!

The last week has been very exciting, and I have a lot to share, so sorry for the length.

Last Monday at the DIC, one of the clients needed a dressing change done on the back of his left hand. The volunteer coordinator (Shalini ji) asked me to observe how it is done, and offer some advice on how they could do dressing changes better. I went over to where the client was, and the nurse and outreach workers gave me a chair and asked me to do the dressing. The supplies they had were gloves, chlorohexidine, hydrogen peroxide, anti-bacterial ointment, cotton balls, and gauze bandage to wrap around his hand. I was taking all the precautions to keep the gloves and materials sterile and the site clean. However, they had set the cotton balls down directly on the chair beside me, and then passed them to me with their bare hands (which could not have been washed recently as they do not keep soap anywhere in the DIC). I didn’t know what to do as there was no way, especially with the language barrier, to do the dressing change as it needed to be done. Afterwards, I was asked to create a set of instructions (which Annu will translate into Hindi) for the outreach workers to use when they are in the field in case a dressing change needs to be done and the client cannot come to the center to see the nurse. I am going to ask SPYM if there’s any way to get more/different materials to do dressing changes.
After doing the dressing change, we went out with one of the outreach workers and a client who is still on buprenorphine but wants to become an outreach worker. We walked about 20 minutes to Lodi road, where we found four young men smacking (smoking heroine) behind some tall grass that was beside the road. We snuck back and crouched down to also hide. They were really nice, letting me take a few pictures, and even offered us some chai (which I’m not sure how they were going to make). The outreach worker, Sanjay, was telling them about the DIC and its services when two men approached, I guess having seen me (I stand out too much to hide anywhere). They were undercover police officers, and were hoping they had busted a tourist buying drugs. When they found out I was with the outreach workers, they left. Later I learned it is very common for police to simply take money from drug-users when they find them as a bribe not to press charges. I have heard many times that the police system here is very corrupt.
On Wednesday, we learned Vahid would be the third volunteer at our placement instead of Manish, as he worked there before the program began, and they needed him to help them figure out how to prevent people from sneaking off with the buprenorphine and injecting it. We went to McDonalds after (which sells no beef, and has Indian spices in the chicken burgers) so Vahid could get some ice cream. There was a white girl in the line behind me who seemed pretty excited to see me, and asked where I was from etc. She was from Michigan and here for her cousins wedding. She asked Annu and Vahid if they were from New Delhi, and then if they knew her cousins new husband, also from New Delhi. I told her the population of New Delhi is like the population of Canada, and that the chances were next to nothing. Either way, it was fun talking to someone from close to home.
On Thursday morning Annu and I were both coming down with a bit of a cold, so we decided it was better for us to call in sick and take it easy for the day. In the late morning, we walked down the road to a video store to rent a movie. The video store was a small room with four computers (it doubled as an internet café) and about 150 DVD cases on the wall. We asked about VCDs, and the man pulled out a couple shoeboxes full of burned copies of movies. It was 30 rupees (approx 75 cents) to rent one for a day, and the one we got had four different movies on it. I asked Annu if that was legal here and she said no, but no one cares. We walked around a little more to buy popcorn, and passed by a bank with a guard in front. Except the guard was more like a guy in scruffy clothes holding a shotgun.
Friday was a Muslim holiday. Everyone had the day off work/school, so we went to Jaipur for Friday and Saturday. It was about a four hour drive, and we rented a larger car with a driver to take us there. The roads are absolutely insane here. It feels like there’s a near collision every ten seconds, and no one wears seatbelts unless their passing a police officer. People also honk A LOT here and it’s not considered rude at all. In fact, ‘horn please’ is painted on the back of almost every truck so they don’t have to look in their mirrors to know you’re coming.
When we got to Jaipur, we went to visit a couple who owns the apartment next to Annu’s, but lives in Jaipur. They had a large house with all white marble floors (which is much cheaper and more common here), two large balconies, and a terrace. They have a son and a daughter who weren’t home, but she invited all of us (including me!) to her son’s wedding February 1. After having chai and sweets at their house, we went Choki Dhani. It’s set up like a little village, and you pay admission, which includes a buffet dinner and lots of shows (balancing acts, magicians, music and dancing, etc.). They also had camel rides and elephant rides, and I got to ride both. The wait in the camel ride line was taking a long time, and didn’t seem to be moving at all. Then we found out people were bribing the man who was helping everyone on to the camels so they could skip the line. Annu’s dad, along with a few others, stayed at the front of the line and made sure no one bribed the man, and finally the line started moving.
After about four hours of roaming around the village, we left to check into our hotel. Annu’s parents went in, checked the room, paid, and called us in from the car. When they saw me come in, they asked me for my passport. I hadn’t brought it with me (SPYM holds onto them so we don’t lose them while we’re here) but I offered them a photocopy of it. They said that was not good enough and said I could not stay there. So we got the money back and went to find another hotel. Annu found out later that three tourists went missing from a hotel in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and the hotel was held responsible, so hotel owners have become very strict on policies for foreigners. We found another hotel that said it was okay for me to stay there, but made it quite clear that they were not responsible if anything happened to me.
On Saturday, we saw so many temples and forts. It became a bit of a joke because my admission was always at least triple and up to five times more than everyone else in Annu’s family. I think having different prices for Indians and tourists makes sense so India can profit from the tourist industry but still allow Indians to see everything, but it was Annu’s family paying for me so I felt bad for costing so much more. The places we saw were the Birla Temple (a temple made completely of white marble), the Hawa Mahal (aka Palace of Winds because it has around 300 windows), Jal Mahal (water palace, which now sits in a man made lake), Jaigahr Fort, and Amer Palace (where the King and Queen once lived, protected by Jaigahr Fort). After our long day of sight-seeing, and before our long drive, we went for some chai and had a few snacks. We also went to use the washroom before the long drive. There was a little hut that had a ‘use and pay’ policy, and Annu’s dad paid for us after she and I had already gone back to the car. When her parents came to the car they were laughing a lot, and I asked what happened. They said it was one rupee each to use the toilets, except for me it was ten!

First Entry in India

I have arrived safely, and spent a week in New Delhi, though it feels like I've been here a lot longer. My volunteer placement is at SPYM's Drop-In Centre for IDUs (IV Drug Users) with Annu and Manish. There are 35 clients there on a daily medication to reduce cravings for opiods. It's has a fairly modern 'harm reduction' approach which is similar to ways of thinking in Canada. Another part of our job is to go around with the outreach workers and look for people injecting so we can offer them safe needles, etc. My first day there (Wednesday) we found three boys (youngest about 11) injecting near some train tracks. We passed by a little village and about twenty kids came out and followed me around for a while. Everyone in the little villages seems to think I'm either there to give them money or take pictures, which is pretty amusing.
As for exploring around Delhi, there are lots of things I have learned.
1) If I want things for good prices (clothes in a market or an auto to take me there) it's better for me to hide and Annu to bargain before they see me.
2) You have to look ahead when you walk so you don't run into a cow, and down so you don't step in their mess.
3) Cars drive on the left side of the road... usually.
4) Seeing one car accident a day isn't too bad.
5) Dogs in India are better at crossing the road than Canadian people in India.
6) You can't be sure whether the milk in your glass came from a cow or a buffalo.
7) A bath is actually a shower where you put all your hot water in a large bucket and then scoop it onto yourself with a smaller bucket.
8) Toilet paper is an unnecessary luxery of the western world.
9) Staple food includes rice bread and potatoes (at every meal)
10) Knowing the name of your food is not critical to enjoying it.
That's all for now. Please email me so I know what you're up to!

leaving today!

I leave Hamilton in about three hours, and am busy finishing up packing, so I can't write much! I will arrive to India super-late on Friday night, and hopefully will have access to a computer to let you know how the first few days went - I'm sure I'll have a lot to say at that point!

Leaving in 10 days!!

I think today is the day it clicked that, yes, I am actually going to India. I'm starting to have the same feelings of fear and hesitancy that I did on the days leading up to the start of the program. All the things that I need to do before I go are becoming more and more urgent; I'm starting to think about when I need to take my Dukoral vaccine and start my malaria pills; I'm beginning to realize a lot of what I assumed I would do before leaving is just not going to happen. I also wish I knew a lot more Hindi than I know, and I'm better off than most other Canadians for that.

The Canadian participants got together at the end of our normal day at the AIDS Network and discussed our hopes and fears about the Indian phase. For the most part, I'm obviously really excited, but at the same time feel like I will give up so much of my independence when I go. I'm also a really long (sketchy) bus ride from the other participants, so I'm worried I'll be really isolated. I will be living with Annu's family for sure, which is not ideal but I'd rather be there than at the SPYM guest house without my counterpart as some Canadians will be.
Today we also read a copy of an email a girl visiting New Delhi wrote home to her family and friends about her initial impressions of the city, most of which were not good. It lead to some interesting discussion about how we will perceive everything in the context of what we already know as normal, and therefore we are much less likely to see the reality of our new environment. I'll have to keep that in mind before I tell you all about the 'crazy' things I see!

Tomorrow I'll be presenting a session on STIs to the Rainbow Drop-In group, which was one of my favourite experiences here. Wednesday will be my last day of volunteer placement at HIFY. I'll be presenting 'Healthy Relationships' to a group of immigrant women at a centre downtown Hamilton, then back to help in the clinic and observe Risk Reduction one more time.

Sorry I forgot about this thing

So I haven't written in my blog for over a month. Oops. I guess things started to slow down and settle into more of a routine since right after my last post, but then picked up so quickly I didn't have time to post another.
On Wednesday, Jenny, Vahid, and I presented our HIV/AIDS session to the group at HIFY, which went pretty well but needed some modification after. I will be preparing and presenting a workshop on healthy relationships and self esteem to a small (10-12) group of immigrant women from all around the world. Apparantly their English is VERY basic, so they won't answer any questions I ask them and won't read anything I have written, so that should be a good challenge.
We had our mid-project activity at Crieff (so close to Guelph!) the last weekend in October. All 20 of us (18 participants + 2 project supervisors) lived in the same gigantic house and took turns cooking meals, etc. It was pretty awesome, and I wish we were all living together in one house in India (apparantly they've done this in the past). Instead it sounds like we'll be really spread out over the gigantic city, and might not see too much of each other anymore.
Since my last post we also helped out at a conference in Toronto called the Global Citizens Forum about creating social change through a variety of means (i.e. photography, documentary making, etc.). It was really interesting and I met a lot of really cool people who were doing a lot within their own lives to make a difference. For example, there was a man from Almonte (a really small town near Brendan's cottage I canoed through last summer) who went to Haiti with 30 disposable cameras, taught kids how to use them, and sold the pictures back in Canada as a fundraiser for their community.
As the days countdown to leave for India (19 to go!), I've really been realizing the importance of this phase of the program, and am trying to appreciate every day for what it's worth. Today Sharon is taking Annu and I up to Gravenhurst to visit her daughter and grandchildren and we will be back tomorrow in time for a movie night with the girls from the program.
I'll try to blog again soon! :)

One month down, five to go.

This past weekend was packed with birthday celebrations and turkey dinners. My cold has finally gone away after two weeks. AND I managed to extend my free gym membership another two weeks.
We found out all the CWY participants will be helping out with a conference in Toronto on October 25-27 and Annu and I will be staying with a close high school friend, so I'm excited to see her and get out of Hamilton for a couple days.
I'm still loving my volunteer placement. On Tuesday Chip took me with him to Parkview, a small (300 student) vocational school where HIFY runs the Risk Reduction program as a scheduled course for a small number of students. On Wednesday I again helped run the internal (at HIFY) Risk Reduction program on STIs. Today (Thursday) we had six girls from a local youth home in to see the clinic and ask questions. It's really interesting to interact so frequently with a demographic of the population that I have had such little exposure to, especially in this context, and I really appreciate the challenges it brings.

Settling into HIFY

So I've had a cold for about 9 days and it SUCKS. I haven't blogged because I've been sick and tired, and I've also realized that a lot of what I have to say is not appropriate to put on here, so if you want the real deal you will just have to email me.

I'm FINALLY getting established at my volunteer placement. I've been doing everything the nurses working there do, like pregnancy tests (so far all negative), STI screens, and just recently starting girls on birth control! It's really different from anything I've ever done, but I really like it. It's really frustrating to see some of the things that kids out there are doing, like sex trade and trying to get pregnant at fourteen. But you do what you can.
I've also been helping out with the workshops run through HIFY. Last night I co-facilitated a session on 'Safer Sex' for nineteen youth aged 14-18, many of which are street-involved. It went pretty well for being my first time doing anything like that, and I look forward to helping with a few more.

Tomorrow I'm going with Sharon (my host mom) and Annu (my counterpart) to Niagara Falls. Saturday dinner will be with the all the CWY participants, and Sunday dinner will be with Sharon's family.

So today I....

...walked the AIDS Walk route two more times.
...was on local TV promoting the AIDS Walk.
...went out for amazing (& cheap) Vietnamese food.
...met with the physician at HIFY.
...got permission from the Executive Director and the President of the Board at HIFY to practice as an RN at HIFY.
...got the physician to change the wording on the medical directives to include me in being able to prescribe and renew prescriptions for birth control (OCP/patch/nuva ring/depo) at HIFY.
...met Silken Laumann (and got her autograph and a picture with her).

And tomorrow... Tiger Cats game!!

Working, Finally!!!

The last week has been a slow one. Each day I've been anxiously waiting to get involved and actually start getting some work done, which finally came today! I've been placed at HIFY (Health Initiatives For Youth, Hamilton) for Tuesday - Thursday of each week. It was the most relevant to nursing, and seems like it will be a good fit. Each day Tuesday to Friday HIFY runs a clinic for three hours, primarily for young girls under 20, but has services for everyone. There are two nurses - an RN and an RPN - who work during the clinic hours and they both seem great. I'll also be helping with two weekly programs, a Rainbow Drop-In each Tuesday for two hours for LGBTQ youth, and a Risk Reduction program for youth who have, for the most part been court-ordered to attend. In the rest of the time I'm at HIFY, I'll be working with two other CWY participants (Jenny & Vahid) to revamp their pamphlets on STIs and birth control, create a presentation on HIFY's services, and research & develop an HIV/AIDS session for the Risk Reduction program. Tomorrow we're working on promo stuff for the Hamilton AIDS Walk that's coming up on Sunday, and tomorrow night I'm going with my host mom to see Silken Laumann speak. I've also been getting more and more into my Hindi learning, and think it's really interesting.
Below are some long overdue pictures, so enjoy!

First Few Days in Hamilton

After about a week of non-stop team exercises about sharing expectations and observations, everyone is pretty anxious to get on with the volunteer work. This morning we saw the launch of a program called 'the couch project' which is aimed at preventing youth from ending up on the street. It was interesting and involved a lot of the same people we'll be working with in the communities. Then we had to turn a tourist map of Hamilton into a more realistic map of Hamilton by asking random people about areas they liked/disliked or saw as positive things or issues. It turns out there are a few parks, two bath houses and porno theatres where men have casual sex with men and sex trades often occur - these were not marked on the tourist map. A few people had some really positive things to say, like about areas that used to be more industrialized and were 'taken back' and utilized by the community for events, etc, and some places where 'socially conscious' people like to go and share good food and art. Overall the exercise was really eye-opening, but as I said, most of us are pretty anxious to begin our volunteer placements!!
The program is begining to seem less and less organized as we go - the Indian participants all seem to think that the counterpart pairs will live at home with their families when we go to India in December, but we still haven't been told if we're allowed to have family/friends visit us in Hamilton. Apparantly one participant knows someone who was kicked out of a CWY program because her boyfriend visited after the project supervisors (/team?) decided that visitors should not be allowed since not everyone can have visitors. I think that's absolutely insane.
Tomorrow we have the morning off, and it's my last night having to share a bed, so I'm looking forward to that! I think Friday we find out where our volunteer placements will be, and I suspect I'll be working at Health Initiatives for Youth Hamilton (http://www.hifyhamilton.com/) , HOPEFULLY with some RN skills thrown in.

Orientation Camp & First Night in Hamilton

Sorry to everyone who's been waiting for a blog entry - if that is anyone. I didn't have computer access for the first four days, and things have just been sooo busy I've hardly had time to write.

The orientation camp for the program included all of the Canadian participants in my group as well as the Canadian participants doing an Orangeville/rural India exchange in social services. The people in my group are Amrit, Barbara, Jared, Jenny, Katrina, Stephanie, Stephen, and Wafaa, and we all get along incredibly well. During the few days living in cabins, we did some teambuilding stuff, reading and discussing an article and poem, sharing our limited and humourous knowledge of Hindi, and sharing our desires and expectations for the next six months. We were responsible for planning welcoming activities for the participants arriving from India, so we spend the good part of Thursday making posters and cleaning up. I had no idea what to expect - if they'd step off the bus in saris or the same clothes we were wearing, how much English they would know, etc.
They arrived around 4:00pm on Thursday wearing very similar clothes as us, some even with English writing on it, and everyone was basically fluent in English. In fact, they mostly spoke 'Hinglish' with each other (mostly Hindi with a few English words thrown in). That night we made a nice bonfire and introduced them to S'mores which were a big hit never heard of by them.
On Friday we got to find out who our counterparts were, and I was paired with the sweetest girl ever, named Annu. She is only 17 - the youngest in the group by far, but is very easy going and mature. We had a nice conversation once we were told we were together, and she told me that when they were driving in on the bus and saw all of our houses with pointed roofs they thought they all looked like 'dream homes' since houses don't have roofs like that in India. When they saw our toilets they were sure to remind us that they would NOT be like that in India - just holes in the ground.
Friday afternoon we got to find out who our host families would be, and where in the Hamilton area we would be staying. Annu and I are staying with a very sweet woman in her fifties who is an RPN at a chronic care hospital. Sharon's husband passed away in April of this year, and thought it would be nice to have our company around.
The three of us went out to breakfast on Saturday morning to 'Egg and I' and talked about many things, including relationships and teen pregnancies. It turns out Annu's parents are from an arranged marriage, and she expects to have one as well, and has no problems with this since she assumes her parents will choose very well for her, and 'love marriages' often don't work out anyway - EEK! Sharon said that she did not allow her daughers, even in their late twenties, to sleep in the same bed with their partners under her roof. However, no one seemed surprised or concerned that I live with Brendan, so that's good.
Last night (Saturday night) there was a celebration of the 60th year of India's independance, which all 18 CWY/SPYM participants and the two project supervisors went to. Eleven of us wanted to go to a bar together after, as we had not been able to hang out since the orientation camp.
There were seven Canadian participants and four Indian participants who made the trek downtown, but it turns out all the Indian particpants have for ID is a photocopy of their passports. We managed to sneak into a bar and have a couple pints before they checked the ID, and kindly told us to leave after our next beer was done, which was cool.
Today Annu and I are going to do a bit of laundry (finally!) and take a bus downtown for an adventure.

One week away...

I leave for Guelph in only five days, and then I'm off to Toronto in exactly one week. I talk about this program all the time to people I meet, who all seem to ask the exact same questions, and it STILL does not feel real! I wonder if it will before I'm actually there...
In the following days I have to wrap up a few things for work, see lots of people I won't see for then next six months, send out some emails, get a couple more vaccinations (= spend lots of money), learn more Hindi (I don't know much), book/rebook appointments in Hamilton, and PACK. This last one will be tricky since I still feel like I have no idea what I need to bring...