Back in Jaipur city, I spent a good 3 hours sifting through google-search results for girl's colleges- hoping to find one that I could visit and interview some of their staff and students. After a series of phone calls that involved the person on the other end passing the phone around to someone who spoke English (I forgot to plan for that happening- I REALLY need to brush up on my Hindi)- I got the okay to go to the Rawat Girl's College to speak with one of the administrators. After a 20-minute rickshaw drive, I reached the college- which was located underneath a highway flyover on the outskirts of the city. I walked onto the campus through a courtyard of groups of teenage girls sitting on the ground in circles talking with one another. All of the girls wore white salwar suits with blue scarves pinned on the front of their shirts that draped over their backs. I was wearing a Western button up shirt, black pants, and bright blue converse sneakers- I stood out like nobody's business.
A girl helped direct me to the main office, and I sat down and waited for the administrator to come meet me. After 10 minutes, a tall woman wearing a bright red sari strutted in and shook my hand very forcefully. She told me she was both a professor and an administrator at the school. I told her about my project and asked her a few questions about her family history and education. She said that she had a love-marriage and had decided to go to school after she got married with total support from her husband, parents, and in-laws. (Totally different from the village women I've spoken to that usually drop everything once they get married and move into their husband's home to live as housewives.) She had a Master's in English and Psychology and was the recipient of a prestigious award given to 1 of 35 selected women of Rajasthan who have worked to promote female development and education. SCORE! I asked her if she had children- she said she had a three-year old daughter. I asked her how difficult it was to manage a full-time job with the care-taking of a young child- she said it's very hard. On top of caring for her daughter, she said that she does all of the housework in her home- her husband doesn't lift a finger (granted, this is one side of the story, but I don't doubt it's validity very much.) I asked her if she wanted her husband to help her more and she said- "Of course I want him to, but he won't. Males are the dominant ones of the house! It's difficult to change that." For all of the confidence and independence this woman seemed to have, I was surprised to learn that she still suffered from the societal pressures of being a housewife....and even more surprised to learn that she accepted that this way of life wasn't negotiable.
The next woman I interviewed was a dentist at a local hospital. I found this contact as I was walking back from the Rawat Girl's College trying to flag down a rickshaw. Walking along, I scanned the many store signs lining the buildings and saw a bright orange sign for Raj Dental Hospital. I thought, Hmm....maybe there's a female dentist I can interview! I walked in and up three flights of stairs to the waiting room where I explained my project to the receptionist (who fortunately spoke English- I AGAIN realized I hadn't thought about that beforehand.) She must have thought I was crazy, not only because I was coming in out of nowhere asking to talk to a "lady dentist for my school project," but because I was completely out of breath and was pretty much gasping for air while trying to explain myself to her. I swear, the air is either thinner or so much more dry than what I am used to- I get out of breath doing even the most basic physical activity.
Anywho, she gave me a phone number and said, come back at 5:00pm. I left, not knowing what I had just agreed to. I got myself lunch at a sweet shop near my old neighborhood- a sweet lassi served in a clay cup with a little wooden ice cream spoon for better scooping and an yellow-looking pound cake dish covered in green chilies. Everybody else was eating it, so I decided to give it a try too. The longer I'm in India, the more comfortable I feel trying new foods from places I'm unfamiliar with. For the first few weeks, I only ate in restaurants that were air conditioned (a sign of hygiene)- but my system is gradually getting used to the food. In the village two days ago, I was invited by one of the women to eat her homemade chapati- she had ground the flour herself from the wheat grown in her family's fields- topped with butter made from their own water buffalo. I don't think I've ever eaten anything so clean tasting in my life. This was followed by a sweet dairy drink (from the leftover liquid from making yogurt) along with a sweet made at the family's sweet shop in the local market.
Back to the rest of the day-
I went back to the dentist's office in the early evening and was greeted by a lovely women, Dr. Anu. She sat down with me and was the most friendly person I've spoken to do far- and the most successful! She has a Master's degree in Biochemistry along with her Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry where she works at two hospitals-one during the day and one in the evening. She said that I was welcome to come and attend one of her dental education camps for children to see what kind of work she does. We exchanged contact information, and as a thank you, she gave me this award (which they hand out to children after check-ups if take good care of their teeth...adorable!)
Later that evening, my interpreter (whom I had gotten to know pretty well these past few days) invited me to go out to dinner with him and his friend (our driver from the previous day.) They picked me up from the SIT center and when I asked them where we were going- they told me it was a surprise. After some confusion with directions (apparently it's not just the tourists who get confused with directions here)- we pulled into the Ramada Hotel- the highest, most brightly lit building on the block. I told them that they did NOT have to take me to such a nice place, but they kept insisting, "You're our guest! It's our tradition!" This was by far the fanciest meal in the most decadent restaurant I've had thus far. I ate with a FORK and had ICE CREAM (not simultaneously though) and drumroll...a MOJITO! It was quite enjoyable, but slightly awkward at times because while they spoke English fluently, we still had trouble communicating our ideas clearly to each other. I kept having to rephrase my questions- and had to avoid using sarcasm (I haven't had much luck with my humor being understood here.) I guess the English language without the cultural context isn't always enough to have effective conversation. Either way, it was an experience. I had another one of those- WHATTT am I DOING here?- moments.
Next Day:
One of the SIT staff, Manoj-ji- who has lived in Jaipur his whole life and has held every kind of job possible from jewelry cutter to pharmacist-was kind enough to set me up with a pediatrician and a gynecologist from his old workplace for some interviews. When I reached the hospital, I introduced myself to the receptionist and was brought back to the office of the main pediatrician- Dr. Patra. He was in the middle of giving a shot to little boy- who mustn't have been older than 2-years- he was bawling his eyes out and clawing at his mother's sari, but Dr. Patra ushered me in to sit down in the room with him. I sat there- feeling very invasive- watching him fill syringes and give shots in this little boy's legs. The doctor then pulled out a jar of candies and shook it in front of the boy and his agonizing screams morphed into a wide-eyed fixation with the candy.
After the mother and boy left, I told Dr. Patra about my project and that I was interested in learning about pre-natal and women's health education. Although he didn't have much to say about the topics I was interested in (he referred me to the gynecologist for those questions,) he was very kind and told me about his private practice and the challenges they face as a small business. He said he chose to go into pediatrics because India has such a large youth population- over 30% of the current Indian population is under the age of 25. This is much higher than the average for most countries today. Thus, he said he feels it is necessary for the betterment of society to serve this demographic because as he said, "They're our future." 10 minutes into our conversation, another woman carrying a baby came into his office. Dr. Patra excused himself and began consulting the woman about her child- who was looking blue in the face- it was pretty scary actually. He picked the baby so nonchalantly and flipped it over onto it's stomach and poked around it's neck and face. Again- I felt like I shouldn't be in the room for this. But he talked with the mother for 5-minutes tops, filled out a few forms, and off they went.
More interview deets to come! I'm really starting to get the feel for how to balance having a successful interview while have a friendly-casual conversation with the person I'm interviewing. All of the people I've met so far have been so available and willing to give up their time to talk with me. I've gotten a few phone numbers, e-mails, invitations for dinners, and even a Facebook request from the administrator at the girl's college! #Making-Friends-In-India
***My interpret took a lot of photos while we were in the village. I asked him to send them to me, so I'll post them when he does!***
A girl helped direct me to the main office, and I sat down and waited for the administrator to come meet me. After 10 minutes, a tall woman wearing a bright red sari strutted in and shook my hand very forcefully. She told me she was both a professor and an administrator at the school. I told her about my project and asked her a few questions about her family history and education. She said that she had a love-marriage and had decided to go to school after she got married with total support from her husband, parents, and in-laws. (Totally different from the village women I've spoken to that usually drop everything once they get married and move into their husband's home to live as housewives.) She had a Master's in English and Psychology and was the recipient of a prestigious award given to 1 of 35 selected women of Rajasthan who have worked to promote female development and education. SCORE! I asked her if she had children- she said she had a three-year old daughter. I asked her how difficult it was to manage a full-time job with the care-taking of a young child- she said it's very hard. On top of caring for her daughter, she said that she does all of the housework in her home- her husband doesn't lift a finger (granted, this is one side of the story, but I don't doubt it's validity very much.) I asked her if she wanted her husband to help her more and she said- "Of course I want him to, but he won't. Males are the dominant ones of the house! It's difficult to change that." For all of the confidence and independence this woman seemed to have, I was surprised to learn that she still suffered from the societal pressures of being a housewife....and even more surprised to learn that she accepted that this way of life wasn't negotiable.
The next woman I interviewed was a dentist at a local hospital. I found this contact as I was walking back from the Rawat Girl's College trying to flag down a rickshaw. Walking along, I scanned the many store signs lining the buildings and saw a bright orange sign for Raj Dental Hospital. I thought, Hmm....maybe there's a female dentist I can interview! I walked in and up three flights of stairs to the waiting room where I explained my project to the receptionist (who fortunately spoke English- I AGAIN realized I hadn't thought about that beforehand.) She must have thought I was crazy, not only because I was coming in out of nowhere asking to talk to a "lady dentist for my school project," but because I was completely out of breath and was pretty much gasping for air while trying to explain myself to her. I swear, the air is either thinner or so much more dry than what I am used to- I get out of breath doing even the most basic physical activity.
Anywho, she gave me a phone number and said, come back at 5:00pm. I left, not knowing what I had just agreed to. I got myself lunch at a sweet shop near my old neighborhood- a sweet lassi served in a clay cup with a little wooden ice cream spoon for better scooping and an yellow-looking pound cake dish covered in green chilies. Everybody else was eating it, so I decided to give it a try too. The longer I'm in India, the more comfortable I feel trying new foods from places I'm unfamiliar with. For the first few weeks, I only ate in restaurants that were air conditioned (a sign of hygiene)- but my system is gradually getting used to the food. In the village two days ago, I was invited by one of the women to eat her homemade chapati- she had ground the flour herself from the wheat grown in her family's fields- topped with butter made from their own water buffalo. I don't think I've ever eaten anything so clean tasting in my life. This was followed by a sweet dairy drink (from the leftover liquid from making yogurt) along with a sweet made at the family's sweet shop in the local market.
Back to the rest of the day-
I went back to the dentist's office in the early evening and was greeted by a lovely women, Dr. Anu. She sat down with me and was the most friendly person I've spoken to do far- and the most successful! She has a Master's degree in Biochemistry along with her Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry where she works at two hospitals-one during the day and one in the evening. She said that I was welcome to come and attend one of her dental education camps for children to see what kind of work she does. We exchanged contact information, and as a thank you, she gave me this award (which they hand out to children after check-ups if take good care of their teeth...adorable!)
Later that evening, my interpreter (whom I had gotten to know pretty well these past few days) invited me to go out to dinner with him and his friend (our driver from the previous day.) They picked me up from the SIT center and when I asked them where we were going- they told me it was a surprise. After some confusion with directions (apparently it's not just the tourists who get confused with directions here)- we pulled into the Ramada Hotel- the highest, most brightly lit building on the block. I told them that they did NOT have to take me to such a nice place, but they kept insisting, "You're our guest! It's our tradition!" This was by far the fanciest meal in the most decadent restaurant I've had thus far. I ate with a FORK and had ICE CREAM (not simultaneously though) and drumroll...a MOJITO! It was quite enjoyable, but slightly awkward at times because while they spoke English fluently, we still had trouble communicating our ideas clearly to each other. I kept having to rephrase my questions- and had to avoid using sarcasm (I haven't had much luck with my humor being understood here.) I guess the English language without the cultural context isn't always enough to have effective conversation. Either way, it was an experience. I had another one of those- WHATTT am I DOING here?- moments.
Google-image of the Ramada hotel...Oh you fancy huh?
Next Day:
One of the SIT staff, Manoj-ji- who has lived in Jaipur his whole life and has held every kind of job possible from jewelry cutter to pharmacist-was kind enough to set me up with a pediatrician and a gynecologist from his old workplace for some interviews. When I reached the hospital, I introduced myself to the receptionist and was brought back to the office of the main pediatrician- Dr. Patra. He was in the middle of giving a shot to little boy- who mustn't have been older than 2-years- he was bawling his eyes out and clawing at his mother's sari, but Dr. Patra ushered me in to sit down in the room with him. I sat there- feeling very invasive- watching him fill syringes and give shots in this little boy's legs. The doctor then pulled out a jar of candies and shook it in front of the boy and his agonizing screams morphed into a wide-eyed fixation with the candy.
After the mother and boy left, I told Dr. Patra about my project and that I was interested in learning about pre-natal and women's health education. Although he didn't have much to say about the topics I was interested in (he referred me to the gynecologist for those questions,) he was very kind and told me about his private practice and the challenges they face as a small business. He said he chose to go into pediatrics because India has such a large youth population- over 30% of the current Indian population is under the age of 25. This is much higher than the average for most countries today. Thus, he said he feels it is necessary for the betterment of society to serve this demographic because as he said, "They're our future." 10 minutes into our conversation, another woman carrying a baby came into his office. Dr. Patra excused himself and began consulting the woman about her child- who was looking blue in the face- it was pretty scary actually. He picked the baby so nonchalantly and flipped it over onto it's stomach and poked around it's neck and face. Again- I felt like I shouldn't be in the room for this. But he talked with the mother for 5-minutes tops, filled out a few forms, and off they went.
More interview deets to come! I'm really starting to get the feel for how to balance having a successful interview while have a friendly-casual conversation with the person I'm interviewing. All of the people I've met so far have been so available and willing to give up their time to talk with me. I've gotten a few phone numbers, e-mails, invitations for dinners, and even a Facebook request from the administrator at the girl's college! #Making-Friends-In-India
***My interpret took a lot of photos while we were in the village. I asked him to send them to me, so I'll post them when he does!***
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