Just a Typical Day in Jamkhed

Getting shaving cream smeared on my face with a worn-out brush in a little stall right off the road, then having it shaven off using a razor that seemed to have been made 20 years ago, was for me quite a unique experience but just a normal thirty minutes for any resident of Jamkhed. The hair-cuttery shops are really an awesome site in Indian villages – two chairs set up on the side of the road under a tin roof and costing close to nothing. For a surprisingly very nice cut (I can’t imagine they often cut the hair of a white Jew) and a frighteningly-close shave, it only cost 25 rupees (50 cents). Using our limited Marathi, Wout (the Dutch tropical doctor also here for a year) and I spoke with the crowd that had gathered around us as the barbers went to work.

Afterwards, we walked next door to a little tea stall where the owner sat down with us and had tea with milk and five fried potato & onion rolls, also for a total of 25 rupees. The owner was from the village of Rajuri, which is 25 km from Jamkhed and also a CRHP project village, but lives and sleeps in Jamkhed for work and travels back to see his family when he can.

Whatever day it is, there are always crowds of people in town – the women shopping while the men either work in the shops or idle about, talking with friends. Every man is in pants and flip flops, no matter how hot it gets. After tea we bought some apples from a street vendor and took the ten minute walk back to the CRHP campus.

Since today was Sunday, we did not have class. This two-month training course runs six days per week and six hours per day. On the average weekday, I wake up around 6:30am, take a shower and stretch, and then read ‘til breakfast at 8am. Breakfast is usually yellow rice, some strawberry jelly and a cup of tea. At 9am is morning service. The Arole family is Christian and they hold an optional prayer every morning for around 15 minutes that everyone seems to attend. It is far from forced, though, and they have really used their belief in Christianity to guide them in their work with the poorest of the poor in rural India. Never have they demanded that any project village convert but rather see every religion as a search for the answer to what God is and every individual as equal in God’s eyes.

Class runs from 10am-1pm and then again from 3-6pm, with lunch in the middle. The trainings are very interactive with many guest speakers and often involve small group presentations or large group discussions to really absorb the material and relate it to the situation back home, since all the participants are professionals looking to implement primary health care in their own setting. After class we tend to work on our monthly individual projects (my topic is watershed development – more info on that later) which will be presented in the coming week. Dinner is from 7:30-8:30pm and always involves a rice dish. If we’re lucky they’ll make a curry or biryani, but often we eat it with daal (lentils), chapatti (delicious flat bread), and a vegetable dish (cauliflower, squash or moringa drumstick). The food is excellent and always has a very nice spice to it and occasionally a misplaced bone to chip off a tooth. Many of the Africans don’t enjoy the food but I find it much better than anything I have cooked at home and could cook period. After dinner I tend to study Marathi with Peter, a man who works in the library, and then I read until bed around 10:30pm.

Life is quite relaxing but even the most ordinary of days very educational. Things run slower and move at IST (Indian Standard Time, or as they say here, Indian Stretchable Time) which was difficult to adjust to at first but allows for a little time to hear yourself think.

In other news, Happy Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I will be leading the prayer service on the morning of Yom Kippur which will bring a nice change to the Indian and African gospels. Hopefully this Rosh Hashana will bring about a new year in America and abroad – one filled with a stable financial market, a President we can trust and a commitment to primary health care, or at least healthcare for every American.