Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day 3

It is the end of my third day here and my head is swimming with all that has been happening.  If someone would have shown me the pictures of Mumbai, one year ago and told me that that was where I would be I would not have believed them.  Unless you have been here and actually spent time walking these streets, you just cannot imagine this.

As soon as I walked out of the airport and upon arriving, the first thing that hit me was the smells.  Cardomom, jasmine, coriander, curry?  Like the whole city is cooking and burning incense at the same time.  Really, the sensory overload is... overwhelming.  The sounds, smells and sight of millions of people walking the streets side by side with cars, motor bikes and ricksaws is mind boggling.  And this was at 12:30 at night!  There was no easing into this country! 

Sunday being my first day and feeling a bit like in a dream, mostly from lack of proper sleep and time zone difference, was a good day for getting my head together and a grip on my surroundings.  The weather is beautiful, sunny and in the mid eighties!  I am told that there are two months that are the best months for visiting and that is December and January.  After that, it starts getting hot again and by April and May, sweltering with the heat. Monsoon season then runs from mid June to September.

I wanted to get an understanding of how the term "slum" is defined.  I spent the morning discussing this with Walter and then spent the afternoon going on a guided tour of Dharavi, one of the largest slums in all of Asia.  It is in the center of Mumbai and has over 1 million registered members with another million that is estimated who are not registered.  It was requested that no cameras be allowed so as to respect the privacy of its residents.  You must understand that all the pictures that I have taken are from another slum and not Dharavali.  While it was disarming the level of poverty, I grew to have great respect for the slums.  There are a number of misconceptions about it and having read only articles, I found it very interesting.  I really wanted to begin understanding it as I would be working with these people for the next two weeks.    While it is certainly is not the safest thing for a foreigner to walk there alone, it is by comparison to the ghettos of Los Angelos or Detroit, far more safe.  Rarely is there violence on the streets and gunshots are almost unheard of.  The slums are a defined area much like neighborhoods.  In Mumbai alone, there are hundreds of them and each one is run as a tight community.  Residents care for each other, often cook together, share responsibilities and respect each other.  Not once did I have a child come up asking for money or food.  Apparently, there is a difference between living in the slums and living on the streets.  It is the people that live on the streets that you will see begging or possibly try to steal from you. 

One of the other visiters that was in our group, asked the children if they wanted a cookie that he had in his bag.  They all went running away.  The guide explained to him that children are told never to take anything from strangers.  That moment stuck in my head and changed the way I saw the children immediately.  The girl that is in the photo has the same sweet expression that I saw on almost all the children.  They would come running up and ask in English "how are you?", "what is your name?".  They love to shake hands and stand there waving as you walk away.

Now, I am not trying to paint a pretty picture of the slums.  It is so painful to see the garbage that covers the grounds and the children playing in the dirt where the sewage lies.  The sight of so many people living in rooms eight by ten feet and one public toilet that services 15,000 thousand people a day is heartbreaking.  The poverty of people living on, in one month, less than what I make in a day or even in one hour is astounding.  The pictures that I have taken are no where as destitute as what I witnessed in Dharavi.

Contrary to what is usually understood, most people who live in the slums do have jobs but cannot afford to live in the metropolitan areas of the city.  These are people like taxi drivers, maids, cooks, etc...  Also, what is a large part of the slums is purely business.  There is the residential districts and then the business districts.  An unbelievable amount of money is made from there.  I will never look the same at a product that is "made in India".  Industrial manufacturing is procured there with minimal labor costs and finished products then being sold to major corporations.  We are not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, but billions.  I saw people tanning leather, collecting plastic and making them into recycled plastic pellets, the cleaning of gallon paint cans to be returned to the corporations that refill them, the embroidering and dyeing of fabrics, the list goes on.

The slums continue to grow at an alarming rate.  Many of the people come there from the countryside and villages with the hopes of making money.  Some are lured by the Bollywood, movie making industry.  Others, come because their life in the countryside is even more destitute.

I am finding that Mumbai and perhaps the whole of India is full of contradictions.  The people that come into the clinic are in such a way that you would never know it.  Their hygeine is carefully maintained and rarely do they ever smell.  As I swab their skin to prepare them for needling, the cotton always comes up clean.  Their clothes are clean and carefully pressed.  It is such a contrast to the conditions of the streets, the cars, and anything else visible from outside the home, where garbage, dogs and excrement proliferate.  The insides of the homes are kept immaculate.  The floors washed daily and provisions neatly arranged. 

More tomorrow... It is 2:30 in the morning and we have between 30 to 40 patients to treat.  I wanted to get this out to help you understand some of the basics as I had to learn.  Of course, there is still a mountain to be said but for now, I've got to sleep.  To my parents, I know you are reading this but to let you know that I am well taken care of here.  Someone is always with me and I am fed clean food...  To my son Tenzin, whom I hope will read this, I miss you very much.


Friday, January 21, 2011

Today!

It is fast approaching, my flight for Mumbai.  And while I still have a million things to do to wrap things up at the office and at home I couldn't help but take a few minutes to gather my thoughts.  I have never been to India before, much less any sense of remote areas unless you call the mountain peaks of Colorado or the middle of the rainforests in Hawaii remote.  But remote in the true sense that even in a city of nearly 17 million people and half of them living in slums, I will be so out of my element or near anything that resembles the familiar comforts of my home and country.  Nevertheless, the excitement can hardly be contained!

I am realizing that my post at best is going to be quite naive as I won't be speaking from experience.  But this will be a good vantage point with which to view from after my trip.   I have so many questions...

The biggest question that I have is what is the impact of culture in the slums on health.  The food and lifestyles are different. Does this make for different TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) patterns and diagnosis?  Kidney deficiency, for example is Kidney deficiency where ever you go but will I see more of a lack of Kidney Jing or more prevalance of Kidney yang or yin?  From what I have gathered in the articles that I have read from the internet search, lifestyles in the slums are way more physically demanding than what we are accustomed to here in the U.S.  Does that present for quicker burning of the Kidney Jing?

Food is limited to what one can afford.  What I have observed here in the U.S. is that people can still have food here even in the most destitute of situations.  But not only that, very often the food that is chosen is cheap processed food such as a box of macaroni and cheese that can be gotten for less than a dollar, rather than a head of broccoli for a little over a dollar that will have much more nutrition.  Is the diet in India simpler, such as a bowl of rice?  Often times I've wondered in other countries even with the scarcity of food if they are still eating better because the food is more wholesome.  And if that is the case, are some diseases less prevalant, like diabetes.  Will we see less damp/phlegm presentations?

And with Lonny's voice in the back of my head, Spirit is always first.  I hope that I can approach these people through the eyes of my spirit.  To be humbled and changed in ways that will help me to serve others better.  How can I help these people in ways that make for lasting change? Already, I am well aware that my two weeks there will be very insufficient to even touch the surface...

I am acutely aware of how fortunate I am living in the conditions that we have. While my income is certainly not in the six figures, I am so far from being destitute.  I often realize how appalling it is how much I take for granted.  If electricity is cut off for more than an hour, my life is halted and complaints are reported.  Often times I drive a car two blocks to the nearest store because the weather is too cold.  I take it for granted that there will be food on the table three times a day and that my children will never have to starve.  I have multiple computers in my house and how impatient I've become if the screen take longer than a second to load.  And I never give it another thought that I have running water to drink, a toilet to use and water for an automatic washing machine for clothes.  While I am not advocating a lifestyle that is different from what I have, I am doing what I can to be grateful for what I have.  And that is why this project means a lot to me.  I honestly have nothing to complain about and always have something to give. 

There are two clinics in the city of Mumbai and two in the village in the country called Tamil Nadu. Here is a youtube video that Walter Fischer had posted of the newest clinic.  I was struck by how close the clinic is to the train tracks.  Literally when you step out the front door, there are tracks!  And I love the last shot of the goat rambling up to the door. Now, every time I look at a goat I'll be thinking of you, Herman, raising your goats on your farm.  Even with the state of the surroundings, people are smiling. 


I have many more questions and I hope to be able to share them with you with each passing day.  There is something really incredible about leaving my sense of self behind and taking that leap into the unknown.  And what good is my existence if it is not there to serve the greater good of human kind.  As my plane approaches this country I will be greatly inspired by all those who have gone before me.  And my studies of the Theosophical Society (I will be forever grateful to you, Tim for having made me a part of your family!) will not have gone to waste.  The people I love and turn to often for sustenance, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama, Krishnamurti, Gandhi, Maharishi, Aurobindo, and even Madame Blavatsky, just to name a few, all have roots in this great country!

That's all for now as I have to finish preparations!  Love to you all and I'll see you from the other side!