arrival

We arrived in Chennai at 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning our time here.  We shopped in Chennai on Saturday and came to Vellore yesterday.  I'm enjoying my time here so far (food, Indian clothes, etc.).  Keep praying for jetlag and starting rotations today!

india information

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about India and Zambia to understand better the culture, history, and circumstances of the people I will meet. This also helps me to feel not-quite-as-behind my Indian-American friends with whom I will be traveling (thanks, Nithya, Thenu, and Obi, in advance for answering tons of questions!). So that you start off in a similar position as I, I include here some information about India, my first destination. Much of the statistical information is from the CIA World Factbook. Disclaimer: I am not faultless and may get some facts wrong or over-generalize; the intention is merely to give you an overview. :)

I will be living in Tamil Nadu, a state in the southeastern tip of India. It is part of South India, differentiated from North India by language (Hindi is more common in the north, while each state typically has its own language in the south), ethnicity (the north is more Indo-Aryan and the south Dravidian), and culture (multiple in both locations but especially in the south). The language and people group of Tamil Nadu are both called Tamil, so I will be attempting to learn (with some help from fellow Indian-American medical student travelers) a bit of Tamil en route to India as well as while there. I do not aim for fluency or even conversationality, but common things like “thank you,” “good morning,” “does this hurt?” for use in everyday conversations and medical encounters in the hospital will probably be helpful.

 
The state north of Tamil Nadu is Andhra Pradesh, my traveling companion Nithya's home state; the state to the west is Kerala, where we hope to do some backwater touring.

Country statistics (comparisons to USA in parentheses for reference)

• size: 3 million sq km – 1/3 the size of the USA
• population: 1.1 billion people (second most populous country in the world – compare USA 307 million)
• median age: 25.3 years (cp. 36.7 yrs)
• Vellore town: 200,000 (cp. Philadelphia 1.54 million)
• health statistics
• infant mortality: 30 deaths/1000 live births (cp. 6.22)
• total fertility rate: 2.72 children born/woman (cp. US 2.05)
• HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate: 0.3% = 2.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS (cp. 0.6%)
• life expectancy at birth: 70 years (cp. 78 yrs)
• major infectious diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, dengue fever, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, leptospirosis, rabies
• religions
• Hindu 80.5%
• Muslim 13.4%
• Christian 2.3%
• Sikh 1.9%
• languages
• Hindi 41%
• Bengali 8.1%
• Telegu 7.2%
• Marathi 7%
• Tamil 5.9%
• etc. – 14 official languages besides Hindi
• education
• literacy – 61% (73% male, 48% female)
• school life expectancy: 10 years (11 for males, 9 for females)
• politics
• 28 states, 7 union territories
• capital: New Delhi
• Independence: August 15, 1947

preview: "More than Skin Deep"

I leave the United States (including my two wonderful roommates pictured below and family, not pictured) on Thursday, January 28, 2010 for the remaining three rotations of my fourth year. I will spend one month at Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India on a pediatrics rotation followed by two months at Macha Mission Hospital in Macha, Zambia before returning to the States in late April. This blog will be a record of my thoughts, delights, struggles, and lessons as I travel. I hope it will accomplish two goals: 1) encourage me to be thoughtful about the people, experiences, and difficulties I encounter so that I may grow through them and 2) allow you to journey with me as I travel, being challenged by some of the things I am and praying for me along the way.



I chose the name More Than Skin Deep because, despite the short length of my stay at each location (and my frustration with not knowing the primary language in either site), I hope to learn about the cultures, values, and beliefs of the people I encounter in India and Zambia. The different skin tones at each place represent something of the cultural diversity I will find, and I’m sure I will become more aware of both my own light skin and the cultural traits I carry as well.

The blog’s name also comes from a Bible passage in Leviticus 13 in the Old Testament where the text talks about infectious skin diseases, the way in which they make the patient unclean, and how to be cleansed. I want to learn more about these holistic ideas of how illness affects one’s place in a community as well as about the possibility of healing and how that happens (emotionally, relationally, physically, spiritually) during these travels. I hope to be part of offering hope, healing, and accompaniment through suffering for patients and families and to learn culturally sensitive ways to do those things.

Use the link on the right to add your email address to a list that will receive blog posts whenever I post. If you want a snail mail address for me at either site, email me directly. See you in three months!