Acha Juma Hai!

Also known as "I have real responsibilities and people like me".

But, what a great Friday, indeed! Mai bohat khushi hai [I'm very happy]. Also 3 cheers for Phrasebase.com -it has officially saved my cheap ass by teaching me Urdu phrases for free (I wasn't about to get ripped off at the local bookstore for a phrasebook+CD: 1700 Pakistani Rupees... which is about $25... which is not too bad at home, but a freakin' rip off here, where one can eat meals for a day under $1, and get their legs waxed for literally $1.50!). Glad those 4 hours spent learning Urdu yesterday paid dividends so quickly!

[Photo above: Juma (CHS) Building courtyard, bird's-eye view... yes, by the way, 'Juma' is the name of the building, and also the same word for 'Friday' in Urdu...]

Anyway, I woke up in an obsessive sweat around 4:30 this morning (so much for almost getting over the jet lag...) and basically spent 2 hours tossing and turning constructing phrases in my head, and repeating them over and over, for when I had to address the CF field coordinators at work. Main janti hon kai mere Urdu achi nahin, lekhin main koshish karte he, seekengre... aap asta bolte, me samajti aap ka kaam, field mai, mushkil kya hai, etc, etc... really, it felt like the night before a big debate tournament in high school all over again!

But then I woke up, ate a nice 'Pakistani omelette' (i.e. french toast made with cardamom) for a mere 20 rupees, went into work, and said my rehearsed line, which was extremely well and warmly received, with kindness and understanding and appreciation for my efforts. They were patient with me, and then told me about their field experiences, main challenges and rewards, etc... that I may include these perspectives in my 'summary report' of my understanding of the Complementary Feeding project (assignment #1). All my supervisors also have been appreciative of my language efforts, and I actually was able to have fun with them more... felt like I belonged a bit better and that was really nice.

Then I met up with another doctor in the CHS department who also coordinates studies / field interventions, and we talked about what I'll be doing over the next 6 weeks or so. As it stands, I will be going into 'the field' (read: slums of Karachi) about 20 times total (probably not for full days though) to get that 'hands-on' experience at last, starting Monday. And for the rest of July, I will also be assisting this doctor in preparing a presentation that she will be giving for a jury from the World Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh at the beginning of August, since her proposal for a new maternal health and early childhood nutrition intervention was accepted for the "finals" in applying for World Bank funding. Isn't that exciting? I'm so thrilled!

Anyway, after spending some time reading through that proposal and the World Bank event FAQs, I accompanied my supervisor to the AKU School of Nursing (SON) to observe the training of Pakistani government Lady Health Workers (LHWs) by an AKU team on how to fill out maternal-baby registration / medical history forms (the only record of birthdays and thus, birth rates, for the country, and unfortunately, right now, the rest of the medical history of the mother and particularities about the baby tends to get lost, since it's not stored in any central database... just goes to show that Western models of record-keeping are not easily imported into developing countries that have massive populations and insufficient financial and technological resources, along with inadequate infrastructure for making these models sustainable...)

Anyway, the LHWs are government employed, with minimal education so even in training, there are significant challenges which remain to be seen at the level of effective implementation... you could tell they were all trying really hard, in all earnesty, to learn everything properly, but frankly, it was probably still too much information, in too short a time frame, and even if they are successful, those paper records just end up getting lost... my supervisor was saying that hopefully it will improve as more central databases are put in place to keep all these records straight...

Well, here I was thinking this would be a short entry and look how long it became! Off to visit with family friends for the rest of the day and spend the night... and I've got some pretty cool, novel plans for khushiali tomorrow, which I will fill you in on later this weekend...

XOXOXOXOX

P.S. I almost forgot, the Pakistani biryani free lunch was absolutely delicious -bilkul achi!