Fac finding, soul cleansing, and elbow rubbing

I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, two months went by and here we are, in the final stages of our project, getting in as much shopping and sight-seeing as we can, and making plans for good-bye dinners.

Work last week was much more ad hoc than it’s been, and things are now shifting to more time spent at the computer than in the field. We’ve had an interesting run with the facilities. I feel like we’ve gotten a pretty good range, in terms of the kinds of facilities and services available to these two communities. We’ve seen everything from a “health van,” giving medicines and vaccines out the back of a jeep, to local one-room clinics, to holistic medical research institutes complete with saunas and steam baths. Some of our target facilities have been surprisingly hard to locate – we drove around for about an hour last week, asking people all over the place where this certain hospital was, only to find, after being pointed in all directions, the “government hospital” we were expecting was really a much smaller private clinic with a completely different name. It was very indicative of the amount of community awareness, in terms of facilities, their names, and who actually operates them. The health van was also hard to find, no one we asked knowing exactly who operated it or where exactly it came to. We were told it was run by some NGO and came every week to Jasola, but not even the staff at the JMC knew of it. Finally, we figured out that it is actually a government service and comes three days a week, parking right across the street from the GRC…granted, hidden behind a Hindu temple, but nonetheless, right under our noses. This is the recurring problem in development – the right hand knows not what the left hand is doing, and then you just have a fumbling, confused, ineffective mess.

This week we’ll hopefully get to visit the big guys – the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (the government hospital) and the great Apollo Hospital. We will have the boss lady herself with us, so hopefully it will go well. For the most part, our interviews have been well-received and informative. Our last one, however, ended with the doctor asking us why we had just wasted so much of her time with our questions that will bring her nothing. It caught us all a bit off-guard, including poor Charu, who always bears the brunt of it. We mumbled some explanations of what we hope to come out of this, thanking her profusely for her time. She was not impressed, however, and we scurried apologetically out of her office as she called the next patient in. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Now we are hard at work preparing our presentation for the Delhi government, which is a week from tomorrow. I’m a little nervous for that...I hope it’s well-received and doesn’t come off as preachy or accusatory. We have Vimala working with us, though, so I know I don’t have to worry.

This weekend was well-spent, taking advantage of what Delhi has to offer and checking some things off our “To Do/See” list. Thursday night, Sarah and I went to Nizamuddin’s Tomb for the qawwali music – every week, a group of men sing their hearts out in prayer at the mosque. It is a beautiful thing to experience, and we were really welcomed in by the people there, invited to not just witness it, but to be a part of it. We stood at first on the edge of the crowd, as usual trying to be as inconspicuous as possible (and as usual, unsuccessful despite our best efforts), but we were soon nudged and then dragged up to the front by one very emphatic woman. And despite all the eyes and the camera phone shots, I felt welcomed there. I was relieved that we managed not to commit any taboos or seriously offend anyone…there were, thankfully, signs to help us out (“No uncovered heads beyond this point” and “Ladies not permitted inside temple”) and a few people watching out for us, as well.

Saturday, we had a much more peaceful spiritual experience, sitting in the mandatory silence of Delhi’s Lotus Temple – the Baha’i temple shaped like a giant, unfolding lotus flower. It’s made of white marble and is full of light, shining in through the many windows and streaming down through the petal openings above. It is a very impressive, comforting structure, much like the Baha’i faith itself. It’s a very accepting religion, believing in the unity of all religions and the unity of humankind. It welcomes and invites people of all faiths, it declares equality between men and women, and interestingly, it stresses the need for accordance between religion and science – because without science, religion is just superstition, and without religion, science is immoral and materialistic. I like that. Bahai's are also very involved in development projects around the world. They consider development work an act of worship in itself. I really like that.

Saturday night, Prem and Abha invited the three of us to go with them to their Club. It’s a very prestigious club – it’s where all the big wigs hang out, and there is a 40-year waiting list to be a member! So, we felt honored to be their guests and get to rub elbows with Delhi high society. Prem and Abha are so cute. Prem, being retired, hangs out there all the time, swimming in the pool and socializing at the bar. He seems to know everyone – oh, this is the Electoral Chief for the President of India, this man owns race horses, this is the Ambassador of Colombia, this man owns Indian Airlines. Oh, and that house right on the other side of the wall from the tennis courts, that’s where the Prime Minister lives. No big deal. We had a good time, enjoying our first cocktails since we’ve been in India (and came to find that our tolerance has diminished quite a bit…) and eating lots of good food. There’s usually live music on Saturday nights, but apparently a long-time club member died that day, so in his honor, things stayed on the quiet side. It’s too bad…I would have loved to see Prem get down on the dance floor.