Chokhi Dhani

Meagan, Brenda and Mary eating the Rajasthani food.

Brenda and Meagan on the elephant...it was scarier than I thought it would be!

Meagan with the bhindi that they put on you as you enter.

Outside of Jaipur, there is a fake Rajasthani village called Chokhi Dhani that tourists and locals visit to see traditional dancing, food and handicrafts. It was a lot of fun! I had my fortune told and they guy said that I would have a very happy life but would have health problems and would run into money trouble for 5 years at the age of 40. Hmmm....that doesn't sound good!

One of the best parts was the Rajasthani meal that was included with the ticket...we were fed a huge meal on little plates and bowls made of banana leaves. It was very interesting...Rajasthani cuisine is unique. There were lots of dished that were sort of on the sweet side, and lots of fried dough ball type things.

This video is pretty hilarious because you can hear the fear in my voice. Elephants are scary to ride because they are so high up! Also, the little boy driving it was whipping it so much I felt bad...if I were that elephant, I would probably go crazy and charge and get the small boy off my back...

Rajasthani Dancing

Rajasthanis love to sing and dance, and they seem to be naturally good at it. During the first days of data collection, some of the girls invited us over to their hostel. I felt sort of bad because we were staying in a hotel that we hadn't thought was particularly nice at all until we saw their hostel. They had no AC, and given the heat, this seemed like an unendurable hardship. To escape the heat, the entire dorm would drag their mattresses up to the roof and sleep there. Their beds were really hard, but that wasn't very surprising considering that I had lived in China before and the beds are pretty hard there.

After they showed us their room, they wanted us to teach them "American Dancing" and "American songs". We tried to explain that the only dancing we know is the type you do in clubs. (I am sure they could not picture as I think they have a life that is nothing like out friends in Hyderabad; all we did was go clubbing there!) They showed us their dancing and it was pretty phenomenal. Some of them sang and clapped while two danced. I guess this was from a movie and they learned the dance.

Soggy boxes of cold puris....yum!

Meagan and Raksha in the jeep eating kulfi on the long drive home.

During data collection, we had a long drive every morning and evening to and from the villages. Unicef ordered boxed lunches for all of the data collectors and for us, but these left a lot to be desired! Everyday we got a stack of puri (deep fried bread) and a teensy tiny bag of dal or sabzi. It was gross because the oil from the puris would soak through the box and they were cold by the time we ate lunch. Nothing like old, cold puris in a soggy cardboard box! Sometimes the villagers gave us little snacks and they gave us chai (tea) pretty much everyday. The chai came in tiny glasses the size of shot glasses, and was rich and super sweet. At first I could barely handle the sweetness of it but by the end I sufficiently developed my sweet tooth to be able to drink a whole glass.

Brenda, Mary and Meagan...it is a strange world when I am the tallest in a group!

During data collection, the girls and drivers were really worried because they thought they noticed my skin getting darker and they knew I had a wedding coming up. I told them that in the US, people get dark on purpose for their wedding and they couldn't believe it! They took extreme measures to keep themselves protected from the sun. They wore long sock son their arms and wrapped scarves around their face and heads. It looked miserable to me because it was around 110 degrees there!

In the Villages

In the villages, we would sit at Anganwadi centers and take the length and weight of 30 children under 3 years old. Anganwadi centers are community centers funded by Unicef and the Government of India. They provide supplementary food, immunizations, health services, and education for pregnant and lactating women and young children. We were attempting to determine the impact of a Unicef program that enhances services provided by Anganwadi centers.

Everyday we weighed and measured 30 kids under three! That didn't sound like a lot when we planned it, but on some days it was quite a struggle to get 30 kids. Some parents didn't wan their kids weighed cause of superstition, and other kids were just freaked out and hard to weigh. We were strange foreigners doing strange things, of course they were scared! Sometimes I felt like I was torturing small children, not doing research. There was a lot of screaming and I often went home with a headache. Each of us had our own team of 7 or 8 data collectors that would administer the survey in the local language, which we would weigh and measure kids. It was interesting and the villagers were great, but it was HOT! At the beginning of the data collection, it was over 110 degrees and there was no air conditioning in the villages (obviously!).

This is a video of a typical day at the Anganwadi Center.

We Leave Jaipur and head to the villages!

As soon as we finished training the data collectors, all of us headed out to the rural areas to start collecting data. Little did we know what we were in for! All 25 (plus three drivers) of us squeezed into 3 jeeps with all the luggage and equipment piled on top. It seemed tight at first, but by the end of our time in India it seemed totally normal.

When we got to Jaipur, the first thing we did was to go to Unicef and explain our research plan to the Unicef-Jaipur regional office. We were lucky to be provided with 22 full time data collectors! The data collectors were students at the Home Science department of the University of Rajasthan. They spoke Hindi, English (with varying ability!) and Marwati (one of the local dialects). I was amazed at how difficult it was to communicate with the data collectors. I have never had that problem before in India! Some of them spoke quite well, and others not so well. Many of them were shy to speak English around us.

The Unicef office left the training of the data collectors up to us, but the entire thing was conducted in Hindi, so it was a sort of awkward situation. They practiced conducting focus groups, key informant interviews and a survey. We also trained them in the proper way to weigh and measure children. It went smoothly but I felt sort of odd "training" a whole bunch of other graduate students when I had less experience in village situations than they did...but I guess it was our research so we had to let them know how we wanted it done.

Mary with a stadiometer (measures height) in front of the Jaipur Palace Hotel where the training was held.

Girls Practicing Conducting a Focus Group

Vaasanti Niwas: Our Hotel In Jaipur

After the Unicef orientation, we headed by bus to Jaipur, India. As a nice welcome to the unpredictability of India, our bus got into an accident and we had to schlep all of our luggage into the 110 degree weather and wait for a new bus to come. When we got to Jaipur, there was no one to pick us up...but when we finally made it to our guest house, all was forgotten! It was much nicer than we had expected. We each had our own room with a private bathroom, hot water, air conditioning and a TV that had cable (sometimes...). As far as I coudl tell, we were pretty much the only ones staying there. Sometimes other guests would come, mainly other people affiliated with Unicef, but they would leave after a night or two.

Right next door to our hotel was a construction site. The construction workers lived on site and it was a little bit odd sometimes because my room was closest to the construction site and I worried they could see in my window. My curtains were kept closed! We were in a great neighborhood, although you can't tell fromthis picture. We could walk to lots of cute things and there was a grocery story about a half block away. The Unicef office was only two doors down.

My room was the one on the second story, far left. We loved the guest house when we first got there, but we loved it even more after we spent time living in the rural areas! It was like heaven after our other accomodations...

Dinner with Rohit's Family

While we were in Delhi, I had a chance for a delicious meal with Rohit's cousin Poonam. She always serves the best food. I was in Heaven! It was great to see them after so long. I could not believe how much older Ahana was...like lots of other "only children", she has an amazing vocabulary and seemed very adult.

I am back!

I am back from India! Actually, I have been back for a week but I have had severe jet lag...and that horrible overwhelmed feeling of having a ton of stuff to do but being paralyzed to actually begin, and then being worried about the fact that you haven't started anything you are supposed to be doing.

When we first got to India, we had a week long Unicef orientation in Delhi. It was held at the Habitat Center in Chanakyapuri, which is a really nice part of Delhi. We listened to guest lecturers talk about all aspects of child health (not just nutrition) in India. It was very informative and it was great to get a chance to meet all of the other Unicef interns from all over the world. One thing I noticed is that Unicef actively seeks out film students for internships to do student documentaries and stuff. It made me think of my 2 cousins that are interested in film, and about all of the other avenues in film besides just Hollywood type stuff.

They fed us really well during the orientation, with everything catered and frequent tea breaks. At the end of our orientation, we had a big dinner at the International Center in Delhi. It was good but the weather was insanely hot...like 45 degrees celsius! It was a freak heat wave during our stay and I coud barely handle it. Walking outside for 20 minutes would make me dizzy and nauseous. I can't believe they expected us to eat outside!

The last dinner of our orientation.

The Unicef orientation was fun...I felt like a kid at summer camp. We were all staying at the same hotel and they drove us around on buses. We even went on a field trip to Humayan's Tomb.
These are my team members, Brenda and Mary. We look so clean and happy at this point!



This tree is amazing. I had to post a photo.

Goodbye, Boston

This afternoon I am leaving for my summer internship with UNICEF in Rajasthan, India. I am very excited but also very sad to leave Matt for 2 and a half months. Plus, Boston is gorgeous right now and I think spending the summer here would be very fun. I am going to try to blog while I am over there, but I am not sure how much time I will have. Have a great summer, everybody!

Cape Cod!

Matt and I banked our Christmas time share one year, and it has taken us 3 years to use it! We finally did use it this past Memorial Day weekend. We stayed at the Ocean's Club on Smuggler's Beach and it was great. We loved the hotel! It was right on the beach , the rooms were cute and the staff was nice.

This is the view from our balcony. It is so nice to wake up in the morning and see the ocean out your window! It makes me realize I want to live near the coast again.

The front of the hotel had lounge chairs overlooking the beach but behind a wind block because the weather is so unpredictable. The pool was also on the beach, but enclosed by a "glass house" to keep the wind or rain out if necessary. It was nice because it was completely warm inside, but you could see the ocean. At one point we were sitting in the hot tub looking at the ocean while it rained.

The thing I like about timeshares is that they are like little apartments. It saves a lot of money on food. We didn't have a full kitchen, but we had a sink, mini fridge, microwave oven and plates, forks and knives. It was great.

The other nice thing about our room is that it had a two-person hot tub!

We spent a lot of time at the driving range, the video arcade, and just lying on the beach. It was SOOO relaxing, and it was only a one hour and 20 minute drive from our house. I would probably buy a timeshare here if I had kids and lived in the Boston area. The staff was super friendly, also, which is nice!

The other nice thing about Massachusetts is that people love ice cream. There were like five ice cream places within walking distance from our hotel...so we ate ice cream everyday. We also went into Hyannis and walked around and had breakfast. Basically, I loved this mini-vacation. Matt especially needed it because he has been so stressed at work.

Cape Cod Salt Water Taffy

Near our hotel, there was a salt water taffy stand. The minute I saw it, I yelled at my boyfriend to pull over. Not that I like salt water taffy (I actually don't like it at all) but it seemed festive and vacation-y. Of course, I had to get a picture, although now I am not sure why it seemed so urgent! The place was good though, they make there taffy everyday and they had a huge selection. Somehow, I decided that my Grandma Janet loves taffy, so I bought a bag for her. (Expect it in the mail soon, Grandma.) I am not sure if she really likes taffy or if I just imagined it. Anyway, they had some interesting flavors: fluffernutter (very New England) and molasses peppermint (ew). I am not sure if molasses peppermint qualifies as a "true flavor". Haha!

Spring Flowers

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers who live in areas with Winter post pictures of flowers on their blog when Spring rolls around. I always thought, "Ya, ya, it's spring, we get it." But now that I have successfully made it through my first New England Winter (with snow and everything!), I see the need to post pictures of flowers. They are everywhere, all of a sudden! It is amazing and beautiful! We have been living for months in an extremely grey city...it was almost inhumane. But now there is color and warmth again and I can almost forget how long the winter seemed. Plus, there is still Fall, which is so gorgeous here, before Winter rolls around again. Yay!

Health Update

Multiple Slerosis

After a year of waiting to get an appointment to see an MS specialist at the Partners MS Center of the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard University, I finally went in to see my new MS doctor...Dr. Margolin. I was extremely nervous for the appointment, mostly because I have been living my life feeling perfectly healthy for the past 2 years since the diagnosis. I didn't want to ruin my nice life by hearing bad news! I managed to convince my wonderful boyfriend to leave work early to come to the appointment with me. It meant a lot to me that he came with me, because he seems to be a workaholic and it is really hard to get him to skip work. I felt that it was important for him to go with me though, so that he could hear first hand everything that the doctor said, because my health is going to affect his future if we are married and living together. The waiting room was a big relief. Everyone in there looked fine to me! Not one single wheelchair or blind person! Of course, this may have been chance, but it was good for my psyche.

Dr. Margolin was very nice, but also no-nonsense. He was honest with me, which is important. He seemed much less optamistic about my MS than the doctor in Hong Kong did. He said that my MRI shows classic MS and he doesn't have much hope that it is benign. The "black hole" in my brain that you can see in the photo above is also due to MS...there is a subtype that causes it. THis is a relief because before I did not know this. He advocates aggressive drug therapy, so it looks like I will be on medication in the Fall. Unfortunately, most of the medications are administered by injection, so I will have to inject myself either daily or weekly. That does NOT sound like fun to me, but I guess you can get used to anything. It could be worse! He also told me (ratherly excitedly) about a drug called Tysabri that reduces flare up frequency by 60%. But, in the clinical trials, one out of 1000 patients developed something fatal, I forget what. Anyway, they died. So, this scared me and I was appalled that he would suggest this to a healthy enough 26 year old person. But, I think he only meant to let me know about my future options. Still, it was scary. The other options were avonex, copaxone, and rebif, but these only reduce flare ups by 30%. The great news for me is that he sees no reason why I should not go to India and also no reason why I should not be able to have and raise children.

I feel confident that I have done what I need to do to obtain the best medical care possible. Dr. Margolin and the Partners MS Center focus solely on MS and they are extremely knowledgable. I liked my doctor in Hong Kong, but MS is rare over there and he didn't have much experience with it.

Osteoporosis

This is a shocker. I volunteered to be a "control" in a research study at Massachusetts General Hospital. Part of the study was a DEXA bone scan that shows your bone mineral density. This is a test I never would have had if I was not in the study, it is expensive and no one would ever think that a 26 year old would need one. Anyway, the bone scan showed that my wrist is normal, my hip has osteopenia and my spine has osteoporosis. (The research study physician told me the spine had osteoporosis, but the neuroendocrinologist I saw later told me it was only on the borderline with osteopenia.) This was scary finding! I started crying, of course, and my poor friend Rachel happened to call and then I started sobbing. It was the straw that broke the camel's back: how can I, a healthy 26 year old yogini, have all of these life threatening, horible diseases? It is just not fair. But, to quote Grandma Janet, "No one deserves anything in this world." The older I get, the more I think this is true. Some people are lucky and have good health and/or lots of money, other people don't. Most of the time, it has nothing to do with your worth as a person.

Luckily, the physician of the research study took pity on me and called in a favor from her colleague at MGH who is a neuroendocrinologist that specializes in bone, Dr. Nachtigall. My friend Rachel's stepdad also called around for me because he has connections to the medical community in Boston, so I had lots of good people helping, I was very lucky. I ended up going to Dr. Nachtigall, and she was extremely nice and she sort of reminded me of House. Not in the way that House is rude, but in the way that he is like a detective trying to figure out what is wrong with a patient. She looked me up and down and asked me a bunch of questions that were seemingly unrelated. At one point she looked at me searchingly for a long time and then said, "Well, you seem to have feminine features." I was like, "Ok, good to know!" The bottom line is that I have low estrogen and that has been causing bone loss. She gave me a prescription for the pill to normalize the estrogen until we figure out what the cause for the low estrogen is. She was stumped as to the cause, for now. My initial bloodwork showed none of the obvious culprits, like other hormonal imbalances, and the low estrogen has nothing to do with my weight. Based on bioelectrical impedence, my body fat percentage is right in the middle of the "normal" range and so is my BMI. So, it is definitely not that. She said that sometime they can't figure it out and even then it is not that big of a deal, because I can just artificially control my hormone levels. She also said that I should have no problem having a baby. So, this is great news. Dr Nachtigall also said that there is no reason why I should not go to India this summer. She said my chance for fracture is as good here as it is there, and she can't see me again until August anyway.

The bottom line is that that I am relieved that I volunteered to be in this research study so that I know about this problem. Now I can attempt to fix it, while I still can! In September I will have another MRI so she can get a look at my pituitary and some blood tests to examine my vitamin D and Calcium levels. I was told not to ride camels or horses, which suits me fine because after my last experience with camels in Rajasthan, I am fine with skipping it this time. Camels are really, really tall and uncomfortable. Plus, when they stand up or sit down while you are on their back, it is scary.

So, all of these health issues have been at the forefront of my mind these past two weeks and it has been very emotional. I have tried to force Matt to think about how this will affect his future, and I wanted him to know that he has a choice and that I am capable of surviving on my own. (Not that I want to, but I could do it, I have a large and loving family. I would buy a condo near the ocean in San Diego and get a job and hang out with my mom. It really would be ok.) But Matt is the loyal person that he always is, plus, we are in love. I think our lives and personalities are so intertwined that we are basically one being at this point. Plus, I am healthy now, and have to keep hope alive. No one should live their life based on "what if". On the other hand, my health will have a huge impact on Matt's future.