Today was a very busy day! First I went with our health coordinator, Ramanbhai. He makes daily trips to see kids in the anganwadi (preschools) that are reported to be sick and maybe needing medical attention and other members of the community with health concerns. Today we went to visit a kid who reportedly had a bloated stomach. On our way we stopped by another anganwadi (there are like 60 or 70!). Here we saw a kid who was 5 years old, but looked like he was 3. He was short, didn't interact much, and had a bloated stomach. They said he was like that since birth. Ramanbhai told the teacher to follow up with the parents and ask them if they've had him checked out, etc, and report back to him so he knows if we should take him to get seen. Then we went to our actual stomach bloating girl, who didn't actually have a bloated stomach! She wasn't eating, had diarrhea, had "pus" coming out of her eyes a few days ago...Ramanbhai said to bring her to the ashram tomorrow, and he'll take her to the doctor to be seen. He was taking down her information and asked her age . The mother replied "well, she's lost her teeth, so she must be 7." She was serious. They had a home birth, and never got a birth certificate made! What was more surprising is that anyone could look at the girl and tell she is no more than 5, more likely 4. I mean, does a mother, in today's day and age, living in the city, not have at least an estimate of 4 years compared to 7 years? They literally use when your teeth fall out as the marker for turning 7!! I asked Ramanbhai about it and he told me it wasn't just me, that was something they didn't understand and was something he always was educating them about.
While we were sitting there another mom came by saying she wanted to take home the snack we give to the preschoolers to her 19 year old daughter. She was recovering from tuberculosis, and the doctor said she should be fed well, and they couldn't afford to buy her good snacks. Ramanbhai explained that the government will help provide money etc etc. What was shocking is that these same parents spent over Rs. 10,000 ($225 or so) on "babas" or spiritual healers who claim they can cure people of their problems, obviously if the price is right. The people in these areas are uneducated and thus have this blind faith in things such as special slogans and prayers over medication. He told her that she can believe what she wants, but that she needs to continue giving her daughter the medications she needs.
Everyone was leaving to get vaccines today - the government sets up camps to vaccinate people for free in such communities. Ramanbhai had to really encourage many of the people to go! Somehow they have it in their mind that things that are free are ineffective, and treatments that cost money are the only ones that work. It's like this catch-22 - the more you try to help the more issues that arise with compliance!
After this visit we went back to Manav Sadhna - I went to make copies of the collage we made of the kid's portraits, then ate lunch. Then we met with the leaders of the Ram Rahim Tekro. Manav Sadhna is currently funding the classes there along with the proposed new community center, but the hope is that the community takes over the projects and self-sustains. We met and discussed logistics, how the classes were going (they want to add more because they're so successful) and we talked about how construction on the community center is currently on hold due to the rain. It was good to see such a positive interaction between us and the community leaders - such projects are only possible with their support.
Then they went to visit the current community center we have, while I met with the lady whose helping on the tekro project. She wants me to help with correspondence and updates with the people sponsoring the classes and community center. Then I waited for awhile, and assumed that everyone would have gone to Ram Rahim straight, so I got on the bus to go home. After 1 stop I got a call from Barotbhai asking where I was - he came back especially to get me! I felt really bad, but said it's okay. He then asked where I was, and told me to get off at that stop and that he'd pick me up from there. Now I felt worse - I should have waited longer! So then I got off guilty for making him run around so much. He picked me up (after spending 5 minutes unable to find each other at the intersection because of a huge truck in the way) and while I'm feeling this horrible guilt, he's apologizing for not asking me if I wanted to come and assuming I did! I was so taken aback by how sorry he was for not asking, while I thought I was the one who should have felt bad! It's small instances like this that make me feel pride and joy in working alongside these selfless individuals. Moreover, all we had to do at the tekro was put up the collage we printed! I keep thinking I hold my fellow collegues in the highest esteem, yet they still seem to somehow rise even higher than I thought possible. I feel very excited and positive towards my future work here because of the loving and thoughtful individuals I'm working with - these people truly do whatever they can to follow Gandhiji's teachings which gives me inspiration everyday.
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