Week 2: Mysore

We made it! It’s been two weeks since I have arrived in Mysore, and so far I have hit the ground running! In the past two weeks I have interviewed two subjects for my study, had discussions with more subjects in a primary health center (the lowest level of healthcare in India), and most importantly got to experience the best meal ever made by my fellow staff members!

Quickly, before I start on the day by day breakdown of what I have learned and lived while here in Mysore, I figured it was time to explain what exactly I am doing here. I am conducting my honor’s thesis research here in Mysore on populations involved in mental health, whether that’s community health stakeholders or people with mental health needs. It’s been a very fruitful research endeavor! And, the wonderful staff here at the institute along with my guides Mrs. Jay, Dr. Weaver, Dr. Flueckiger, Dr. Madhivanan, and others have taught me so much about research, ethics, mental health, and how to do it all with kindness.

India has been a great place to work, I love going back to my roots and exploring a stigmatized topic such as this has made me very appreciative of people doing work in this field such as those at the institute. So a big thank you to everyone that has helped me so far, I love you!

Alright, here is my week, day by day.

Monday, June 10th

• On Monday, I went to the community with staffers for Dr. Neha’s project. I was excited to see the questionnaires and interacting with people who are willing to speak on the issues they are facing. It was sort of…interesting. Because of a few miscommunications with our partner organization in this cohort study, the community members did not show. To further the matter, a famous poet had passed away on Monday as well so Karnataka state government declared it a state holiday. So that means even more people were gone. BUT it was not a failed trip, because on the way back home we went to a primary health center. PHC’s are the first level of healthcare and the pictures I have attached only show how crowded these facilities can be. I got lucky, because the one doctor who sees all of these patients really believed in my project (or wanted to help a foreigner) and brought in all of his postnatal care patients and pregnant women and let me have a conversation with them. I was really thankful to be able to ask them about their experience, and I was moved by their answers.

Tuesday, June 11th

• Tuesday was one of the slower days. After the community day proved personally successful, we had a debriefing to go over what I had found from the previous interview with my first subject. I liked being able to sit in on the staff meeting, also, because I got to learn about all of the other projects. Sometimes staff would go in and out of Kannada and English but I got the gist of everything.

Wednesday, June 12th

• Today was community meal day!!! The staff banned together to make vegetable biryani, chicken biryani, raita (yogurt sauce) and kheer (a sweet made from milk and butter). Biryani is an amazing rice dish made with specific spices and vegetables, and usually meat, but also veggies as the one I had! \

Thursday, June 13th

• I had my second interview with a counselor in the community. We had a few mishaps with the interview because it is almost like every place we went was undergoing construction. Luckily with community cooperation we were able to conduct a solid interview and kept the subject (and the interviewers) comfortable.

Friday, June 13th

• Oooh, Friday the 13th!! It was actually the best day! I went to the camp for the community that did not happen on Monday. It was great to see how it all works, and to sit through vital taking and counseling, the two distinct parts of any cohort study camp. What a lovely day to talk to people about their experiences. And, on the way back we stopped at an Anganwadi school, a place where school children from 3-6 can get fed and even pregnant women from the district can be fed such that there is a reduction of malnutrition, anemia, and promotion of normal healthy growth habits. On the way back, we stopped for fruits on the street! With salt and pepper! That was really unexpectedly good!

Saturday, June 15th

• Maddie and I went to the community again on a different project. We worked with a transgender community and helped them practice meditation! This community is heavily ostracized, and meditation is meant to help with the lasting mental health and anxiety issues they might face due to this discrimination. They also had the cutest puppy!!!

Bye for now!!!!-Ru