Aaron and I arrived in Bangalore Friday morning around 1:30am, India time. We were exhausted, jet lagged, slightly grouchy and hoping that we would get through customs without a problem. When we arrived at the baggage carousel I found both of my enormous suitcases untouched and unmarked...yes! Since my bags were so new and so large, we thought that those would definitely be the ones that would have been marked among the four checked bags. We thought we were in the clear.... Then Aaron's bags came...we noticed a fat, white chalked "X" on the side of his purple duffle bag (doesn't rub off unfortunately... we tried). We had packed one electronic piece into this bag and later realized we had no reciept to go with it. Airport security looked up how much the item cost online, which was about $900! They wanted a $360 tax!!! Luckily, after about 30minutes, Aaron managed to get through customs paying a bit of a fee, and we could finally begin our 4-hour drive to Mysore.
Honking, swerving, and tailgating the entire way, this drive was quite the ride despite the lack of traffic this early in the morning. There were many shops that lined the highway, which were covered with large, bright advertising prints for Indian movies, tea, and whatever else the TATA company sells. Along the way, we stopped for some tea at one of the many open refreshment outlets located along the highway. You literally have to pull off to the side of the highway in order to get to these places. About 100 ft. away, there was another snack stand (this was very common along the road). The tea was absolutley delicious!!!! I only wish it didn't come in such a small glass. I will definitely be bringing plenty of it back with me once I find out which brands are the best. I also debated buying one of the many stacked baked goods they had in the display case, but I held back and settled for a safely sealed bottle of water. As it got closer to daybreak, women and men started walking along the side the road to start their day; a few stood by the speed bumps and tried to sell us flowers and a few other items. We passed by several oxen and donkeys pulling carts as well as sheep, stray dogs,and cows walking along the road. One set of dogs ran full-speed to try keep up with our car!
We finally arrived at the house around 5am. We were introduced to the security guard, Sidhu (pictured above), and his wife, Lakshmi, who offered us some tea, which we declined, and took our bags to our room. Upon entering the room, we immediately threw our things onto the floor, climbed into our beds, and crashed.
Once Aaron and I decided to crawl out of bed the following afternoon, we went downstairs to meet the PHRI staff. I wasn't expecting such a large group! The group of 16+, consists mainly of females. Each staff member is involved in a different piece of the PHRI, Prerana operation. Some go out to the rural villages to recruit for studies, conduct surveys, give classes and information about maternal/infant health, and distribute birthing kits to midwives (for info. visit: http://phrii.org/prerana). Members of PHRI include, doctors, a nurse, field workers, drivers, laboratorians, and the administration staff. After we introduced ourselves, we left so they could finish their meeting and begin their work day. One member took us down to the hospital cafeteria to get our lunch. Within moments of stepping outside the front gate, a fourteen year old boy was walking in front of us with his hand held out, gesturing for money. He even brushed his open palm against Aaron's arm a couple times, thinking that would be more persuasive. It was kind of a shock to have this happen within the first minute of our first outing and outside of our house. Our guide tried to shoo him away, but it eventually took us ignoring him for a couple minutes before he would just walk away.
At the cafeteria, we had a simple rice dish (similar to fried rice) parceled for us to take home. It came with a rich creamy sauce that made it all but impossible to pace ourselves while eating (It is now day5 and we have yet to have a meal we both didn't love). After lunch, we had another meeting with Shalini and Dr.Bhavana to discuss our projects... both of our IRB's were approved!!! Yay!!!
The climate has been relatively humid and temperatures not very hot. It stays relatively cool until noon, then gets a little sticky. It has rained 2 out of the 5 days in the early evening which was accompanied by some heavy thunder. It only lasts for about 30minutes to an hour. So far, I am actually finding the weather here to be more enjoyable than the recent, very warm California weather. This comment, of course, will come back to haunt me in a few weeks when the true monsoon season starts. I have already accumulated 7 bug bites (some which have turned into large welts) despite the extensive amount of deet I have sprayed on. I have recently upgraded to putting on the 100% deet twice a day and started spraying my clothes with permethrin.
Note: yes, there are bathrooms outfitted with the porcelain commodes in which we are accustomed to, (the Indian toilets are plastic holes in the ground with a water-source nearby) and yes, there is toilet paper and running hot water. I have yet to use the bathroom in a public place, so I'm am not sure what is available to me outside of the house or restaurant yet.
