Did you all see my pictures? They are mighty groovy [side note: the hole in the ground=toilet, bucket=shower]. The two links are in the most recent post, I will be sending out pictures in this way from now one. The birthday celebration was a lot of fun, it was my birthday as well as my host brother Arpan’s birthday. I got two sets of bangles, a necklace, a rose, and a keychain from various host family members, they are way way to generous with me. I’m still a “special guest” to them although I’m doing my damndest to be a participating family member. No celebratory beer for this 21 year old, alcohol is a no no here apparently, everyone who drinks is either a public drunkard or sneaks off to the pub in secret (I know this because one of my uncles secretly told me that he does this, and since I am an American who probably drinks I can come too—I think this is a bad idea). The party involved three cakes that various people brought, and all 20ish people shoved cake in Arapan’s and my mouths, then smeared it on our faces. Whoah baby that’s a lot of cake.

Which brings me to food. I’m pretty sure I’m going to go into a diabetic coma soon. Everything is so sweet, from the coffee and tea to the countless cakes and sweets that people bring, to the jelly sandwiches that my host mother always packs in my lunch (I think because she thinks I can’t handle spicy food). I’m doing quite well on the spice front though, there has only been one dish that has been too much for me to eat a lot of. Also, people are always pushing food on me. Always always always. This is nice because I like food and I know it’s a nice gesture, but sometimes I am really not hungry—sometimes as in ever since I got here. If I don’t develop diabetes I will develop obesity, since I am also not moving too much. Arpan, Rinkey and I were going to go run this morning (yay!) but by the time we woke up it was apparently too late, since people and dust were already all over the place in the streets (this was Arpan’s judgment call, not mine). Instead we walked for only 20 minutes. But tomorrow we are waking up at 5 am to jog on a nearby university campus (apparently its uncool to run on the streets, so we have to walk to a campus and then run there). Whatever it takes to be able to move my body is fine by me.

To those who are wondering if I am only playing and eating all day, I offer an update on my work life: it’s somewhat frustrating. The counselor who is supposed to be my primary coworker in administering HIV tests and surveys in red light districts has been out of town until today, which has slowed things down a lot. Also, we need to wait for the IT team and the English-Telegu translators to complete a video which we will show to the men before giving them the tests. It’s basically pretesting counseling with no counselor needed, they explain what HIV is, how the test works, how to get your results and find treatment, etc. I’m really hoping that we will get off the ground next week. On the bright side though, it looks like some parts of the curriculum that I created will be presented this month. I wrote a program to train healthcare professionals on dealing with men who have sex with men (MSM), now it will be presented to a group of doctors and a group of medical students, in a shortened form. We will pre and post test them in order to determine whether the curriculum has made them more comfortable with the concept of MSM and more capable of providing competent and stigma free care. Yay! It will be really really good to pilot test the curriculum, I’ve been waiting so long!

I went to visit a relative who was in the free government hospital (Gandhi hospital, of course). It was…barebones. Rows of cots with the occasional IV and breathing tube, no fancy machinery. And very dirty. Some people’s IV bags were just on the floor, there was trash on the ground, it looked pretty bad. I talked to sabitha about it though, and she said that the gov hospitals actually provide better care than the fancy private hospitals, bc the private hospitals tell you that you need unnecessary procedures so they can take your money. She said that the place was a mess because of the illiterates who visit and don’t know any better (?) but that they provide good care. It’s something to think about.