Tuesday 15 March 2011

Day 1 in a Hostel!

Being in India less than 7 days i've already experienced so much!
The day after landing I came and visited Surat, where i'm going to be carrying out my research, met with the Dr i'm going to be working with, he introduced me to soo many people. Only when meeting other students in different contexts do you realise how different things are. For example if you're in a class and another teacher walks in do you notice? Every single room i walked into with the Dr every single person stopped what they were doing and stood up, thats the kind of respect they have for their teachers. After meeting everyone including the head of state someone important or other, whom told me off for my NRI gujarati and then spoke to me in English!! i went off with someone to visit "the field" that i'd be working in, which basically meant a 3rd floor drop in clinic for everyone, but mainly used by Sex workers. Here i sat and spoke to some project managers and they took my picture and made me sign a guest book!
From there I was sent off with two different people to visit the boarding schools that the sex worker's children attend. Sitting in a rickshaw with two strangers that don't speak great english and speak broken guj was a lil daunting.. but i thought ahh gota suk it up and just do what i gota do!
All in all not a bad experience! A bit baffled as to what work i'm actually going to be doing now but we'll see!

In the mean time i've managed to shop shop shop, tan a great deal- its quite nastyyy, inproved my gujaratii and drove on many occasions through dad's insistance! its a friggin maruti van with no power steering and a stubborn brake. oh and the gears are stiff too! the roads of india are crazzyy there is no care and no one gives a crap if you're pulling out or just driving along. You have to have uber amounts of confidence and need to know what you're doing. have full control and expect the unexpected to jump out infront of you!

So it's now Tuesday, and i'm in the hostel that i'm going to be staying in. I have a room that i am sharing with three other girls. You know that feeling you get when everyone is staring at you and talking about you... i get that. alot! it's okay they all want to know my story and what i'm doing, its fun.
Altho no mosquito net and sleeping by an open window, we'll see how much fun that is!! I'm meeting the dr again at the hospital at 10am and then we shall see how it goes! shall try and blog again soon! 

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