Thursday, May 31, 2012

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.

3 comments:

  1. Honestly, I bet your group dynamic has helped a lot with everything. I could feel it as soon as you guys showed up. I was kind of envious a little bit, haha. I almost went with you guys to Chavadi when I was first planning my project, but really, Delhi is where I need to be, Alas.

    Good luck with the service project, I hope things continue to go awesome.

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  2. On a side note from Rem's, I feel kind of sad all the India field studiers can't be together more - and see all of India...haha. Yeah I know, it's a huge place, but I would love to see more of it and experience things how you are, and also experience the church in India where you are which we don't have here, but we're having our own interesting experience and I love learning more about yours with these posts, i'm so glad things are going smoothly for you. Oh yeah, i'm logged in with the wrong account so you aren't confused i'll sign off like this - britaroundtheworld.blogspot.com

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  3. Hey, hopefully you see this. I'm trying to get in contact pretty soon/quickly with more India field studies studients to ask some questions about potential travel to the north, are any of you planning to travel up north? Could you email me to chat about it and so I can tell you in more detail about my plans and questions? thanks! britneyklandrum@gmail.com.

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