Blog #3 - May 28, 2012

This past week I ran off into the unknown parts of the city that I had never been to. I was searching out specialty dentists. The hard part is that directions are very general. For instance, one of the directions of the dentist was the name of this huge and long street with the adress being "opp old Shanthi Theatre, Shahi Grill". So when I got to what I thought was the right part, I just had to look around and ask people. If I wasn't close to where I needed to be then people often looked confused, had no clue what I was talking about, or would point in different directions. The closer you get to right location, the more people start to recognize the name and when you are pretty much standing on it, the people can finally point you to the clinic. What may be seen as a polite gesture is if they do not know, they will just sort of point or say its a certain way. They may think I am talking about something else, but I have been led the wrong way various times. This process happened for a day, where I would ask for directions and be led all over the street until I could find it myself. It was fun being able to completely find things on my own, but there was also a feeling of uncertainty because I was in areas that I hadn't been to, looking for things I wasn't sure if they were still there. We got our surveys professionally translated and typed. We put together consent forms to help the natives understand our seriousness and professionality. We also purchased business cards to give the informants so that they could feel free to email or get in contact with us if they had questions after taking the survey. We are pretty sure we know where to begin finding informants for our research. The job shadowing is going great. The general dentist is teaching and showing me a lot. They love having me there which is evident from the food they bring into work for me, the regional treats they bring to have me try, and all of the information and help they give me. I am going to try and set up a few other clinics to go to so that I can compare and contrast. It will help me to see if people go to those clinics for the same reason, or if different reasons spring up.  We have made some sweet friends from the local branches. One of the guys speaks great English and he goes around with us helping us so that we don't get hustled and showing us sweet places to go. He is going to sit us down next Friday and go over anything that we want to cover. He will explain culture and customs, religions, history, and anything that we want. It should be good and I'm sure it will help us with answering the questions for our IAS class.  Our neighbors in the village love us, as much as they can. We can't speak to each other but they will fill up our water tank with a hose while we are gone. They say hi and bye to us. Some of the kids that can speak will come up and talk with us. They have tried to teach us as much as they could about how to do things.  The buses are great. You get a good 2 hours each day to read or listen to audio books. We are getting some good reading done. It's a little awkward how close you all are to each other, similar to being thrown into the middle of a mosh pit, but you get more and more used to it. Especially because they try to help you to find a seat when one opens up so that you can sit down. Once you sit down, its easy coasting for the rest of the trip. While standing people are bumping into you, the bus conductor is trying to walk past you to collect tickets, people are going in and out of the bus, so it is just pretty hard to get comfortable.  All is well in India though. We are having lots of fun. As doors keep opening and we keep finding opportunities, it becomes more and more fun.