Week Five From the Field: Progress

Blog #3

Besides of spending a lot of time shadowing doctors and getting to know the medical systems a little bit better I got my survey completely translated into Tamil and back translated, so now I am ready to go. It was interesting that in the prep course we focused a lot on how hard it was going to be to get the survey translated but in all reality it was actually super easy. The members of the church here have proven to be an invaluable resource. They know people and service for everything that you want to do. I also have several of them helping me gain entry to their social groups and places of education and employment so that I can administer my survey in other places than just the hospitals in which I already have permission and contacts to administer surveys.

My initial thought upon arriving here in India was that it would be somewhat difficult to learn all the systems of how things work and how the culture really works. I have learned that through working with people on the ground here and with our friends who came with us we can accelerate the process of getting to know the culture and how things work in the city.

I feel very blessed to have come with the group that I did. I love being able to get their insight and work with the group to make sure that we are all doing well and staying on top of things in the culture. I couldn’t have asked for a better group here in India. We all have become fast friends.

Really all is going well. The people are great. The food is awesome. I haven’t been sick really since the first week, which is nice. Things are going smoothly and although I feel that there is still an infinite amount of information that I need to know about the culture and the people I am really excited to get moving.

One last thing, in order to show an appropriate amount of reciprocity for the service that the branch and the members have been we are working with the priesthood leaders in the branch to set up a service project for the Chavadi Branch. The branch president is so great and he is so willing to help us with anything that we need. It only seems right to help them in a similar manner to how we have been helped out here. It has to be something thought out and long term so we are working through some ideas and ill follow up in later blogs.

Week Three From the Field: KG Hospital

Blog #2

Well its coming up on the start of our fourth week in India and I could not be more impressed and in love with this place. I had an experience just this past Tuesday that I want to blog about and outline some of the wonderful experiences that I have been having here in India. In order to prep my story I want to first outline some of the things that have kept me so focused and happy as I work to complete my research. Its all about the people. The countless numbers of people that I get to associate with on a daily basis have really shaped my experiences here. 

Matthew and Giva are so kind and understanding to all of our needs and we have fun teaching their kids English. It’s a wonderful relationship where Giva even commented the other day that in her opinion Edwin (her oldest son) trust our group more than any other group that has ever lived in the village. She said the way that him and Pria both have gravitated towards us makes her trusts us and she really wants us to focus on helping him with his English. What an incredible woman who loves her family so much. We also spend time learning from all the family members, whether its how to open a coconut from Isaac (the uncle) or if its talking with the neighbor who is also a member of the church about her soon to be new baby. Talking with her and the girls about here hopes and fears for the baby are possibly the most heartwarming conversations that I’ve had. Then there are the countless people that I have talked to in the streets of Coimbatore. I have adopted the policy that there is no need for maps or other directories of restaurants and places of interest because the people in the city are so kind and considerate. Most of the time they can’t understand a word of what it is that we are saying but they always go out of their way to help in any way possible. For example a man that Josh was having a conversation with the other day offered him a ride home. Josh declined at first but the man insisted. The man drove Josh all the way to the village and dropped him off our front door. Josh had money to pay him but he refused to take it. He just rode off into the night.

I want to now share my story of how this kindness, genuine respect and mutual friendship helped me have the best hospital tour of my life this past Tuesday. Here is the excerpt from my Journal regarding what happened to me as I went to request the opportunity at K.G. Hospital to shadow and observe their doctors and staff.

“After I had my meeting with Ruben I went to another meeting that I had with the Chairman of the K.G. Hospital here in Coimbatore. It was so incredible. I went and I was directed to go and speak directly with the COO of the Hospital and he told me that the Chairman wouldn’t be available for another hour. The chairman was teaching a class to some newly enrolled medical students in the auditorium in the hospital. The COO offered for me to go down and sit out side of the auditorium and to wait for the chairman, I consented and willfully went down to wait on the chairman. Once I got there I was almost immediately rushed in to talk with him up on stage. After he asked who I was and why I came to the hospital I sat down in a chair along the wall. I figured he would continue his lecture but instead he pulled another chair off from the side of the stage and had me sit down with him in front of the crowd of budding medical professionals. Not knowing a thing about me and not having any idea from where I came or why I even wanted to see him, he asked me a series of questions and presented me honorably to his medical students. It was quite possibly one of the most unique and impressive things that anyone has ever done for me in such an impromptu setting.

After my brief introduction of 5 or 10 minuets he took the woman that was a hospital employee and instructed her to give me a complete tour of the hospital and all of the different facilities and laboratories in the entire facility. It was an extremely exhaustive tour. The doctor in the first lab took me around and showed me all of the laboratory equipment and described in detail the science and job of each piece of equipment.

We then went through several operation theatres and various other labs and rooms, I had to scrub up once to enter the clean or room of the cardiothoracic surgery, the doctor who was showing me his operating room let me wear his personal scrubs (an extra pair obviously) and gave me the mask and head covering. It was incredible how much they let me see and participate in.

After my tour I was directed back to the auditorium where I was first introduced to the Chairman. I was once again brought up on stage and given a microphone this time. I then was put on the spot to describe who I was and what I was studying and where. He was very full of adoration and showed me a lot of respect and he spoke very highly of the United States and gave me the full go ahead to and shadow or observe any doctor in the Hospital. All of this is still in front of the class of medical students. He then had me tell everyone in the room how I was financing my education and why I wanted to practice medicine. He was so interesting and nice. He commented on how impressive it was that I took out loans to pay for school and how the students should be more like the American and be creatively engaged in making them selves and extraordinary person that in my opinion was a bit over the top but he made some great points. At the end of the little show he had me describe my impressions and feelings about KG Hospital. I told him that I was blown away with the authenticity and sincere goodness of everyone that I met. The fact that I had the COO the Chairman of the hospital and countless doctors and nurses showing me the entire facility was unimaginable in the United States. I was incredibly grateful for all of their kindness. I then continued to dramatically and emphatically describe how great their hospital was. The Chairman was moved. The amount of rapport built in that moment was incredible. I would have done anything for that hospital and the Chairman and I could tell that he felt the same about me. I was just grateful for the opportunity to meet him and in hearing his description of the medical field was nothing less than impressive.

After the class was dismissed I went with the Chairman to the office and he had me talk to his personal secretary to fill out all the paperwork I would need to start observing doctors in the hospital(this meant that I took blank paper and wrote my schedule and contact information while they photocopied my passport and ID. Then the most interesting thing happened. He had a visitor who came and with me still in his office, the visitor offered financing and a partnership with his larger hospital in Delhi to expand and create a more profitable enterprise for KG Hospital. The Chairman respectfully declined his offer on the grounds that KG Hospitals only goal is to help as many people as possible and he would not partner with anyone who’s business was business. He said if we cant offer our services for free under this agreement to those poor and underprivileged citizens of our community then I wont sign. The man hesitated and made some comment about profit margins. The Chairman then told him very bluntly that he didn’t need any profit margin as long as he could stay in business and that his business was helping people. He restated that he would not jeopardize that aspect of his business for unnecessary new facilities and more profit. The man was with out words and he was respectfully ushered out of the room! I was again speechless. Here was a man that was just offered part in a merger that would not only increase his next worth who knows how much but would also allow him to probably retire instantly (the chairman was in his early 60’s I’m guessing) and he turned him down on the premise that he wanted to give his money and services away not to hoard more. He then explained that they do over 2500 complex surgeries and somewhere in the range of 15,000 and 20,000 routine operations and checkups annually.

After this conversation he brought in his board of directors and several other top employees and said, “Tell them what you told the medical students earlier”. I chuckled inside at the offer and sat and explained my adoration and respect for the entire program and people that I had met. They all showered me with questions and about 15 minutes later they returned to their jobs. I was flabbergasted at this point wanting nothing more than to learn as much about this entity as I could.

I filled out a schedule for the next five weeks to work in the hospital and to see what the operations and administration of the hospital entails. I got it all approved to see several different aspects of the hospital and he wants me to come present again to another class Friday morning at 8. This should be great relationship with KG Hospital.”

These people never cease to impress me and I feel like I have so much to learn as I keep working on my research here. I just hope that in some way I can reciprocate the wonderful things they have shared with me in some unique and personalized way to each of them.

Week One From the Field: May 5 2012

Friday May 5 2012

I left the states 9 days ago. The progression through many of the steps mentioned in the prep course has been rapid and thorough. I can’t believe that my entire trip is 1/10 of the way done but it has been so memorable thus far.  I want in this post discuss my progression through the cycle of culture shock. In order to describe more uniformly my descent and partial recovery from culture shock I will use terminology and quotations from Spradely’s Coping With Culture Shock.

It was almost 6 hours after arriving into Chennai India on April 28 2012 that the first stages of culture shock set in. Really it was probably a combination of several factors that led to my initial frustrations. Up until this point in my journey I had slept a total of maybe 8 or 9 hours sporadically over the last 4 days with some of the worst and most uncomfortable sleep on the plane from LA to Hong Kong. Then I had a man spill his entire cup of coke on my leg and into my shoe on the same flight. Hong Kong was in the middle of a monsoon type down pour that soak all of our bags and clothes when they were being transferred between planes. On top of all of that we had a delayed flight leaving Hong Kong that set us back 5 hours. Thus all of these factors along with the dismal living conditions, smells and unrelenting heat that welcomed us in Chennai I was a bit overwhelmed rapidly upon arrival. This was when I left the honeymoon stage and moved straight into the bottom of the Irritation and Hostility Stage. This lasted pretty intensely for the rest of the first night. Saturday was a hard day for me. I was in a lull for almost 4 hours and it was really hard for me to communicate and even function at sometimes. For most of the time anything I did was with very little enthusiasm or emotion.

I knew from the reading that this was just a temporary stage of anxiety and frustration but I wanted out of it as soon as possible. Thus I decided to do the one thing that was for sure to work. Once I returned to our hotel that night I got straight on my knees in the bathroom and offered one of the most heartfelt prayers of my life. I poured out my heart in hopes that it would alleviate some of the heartache and discomfort that I was going through. It worked! I felt the one constant and contiguous feeling that from my childhood has comforted me in my moments of utter despair and pain. The relationship that I cultivated with the spirit on my mission and through out my teenage years was the only thing that brought me through that first day in the field. I learned that even in foreign and alien lands we must rely on the companionship of the spirit to really help us overcome life’s more difficult situations. It is the only thing that I had to rely on in such a foreign environement.