12.30.10
Only 4 Days Left!
Only 4 more days until I’m off to Newark Airport to board our flight to India! The anticipation is building and I’m pretty much hyped and ready to get out of this country and head to warm and sunny villages of India. I wish I could say i’m packed and ready to go, but my suitcase lies open on my floor, half empty as I type this right now. I don’t want to overpack, but I feel like I’ll end up not packing the one thing I’ll end up needing the most. Or watch me end up packing clothes that I won’t even wear. Ah, the various dilemmas that come with packing.
So I suppose I should mention what exactly it is that I’ll be doing in India.
I, along with 7 other students, will be travelling to the village of Jamkhed, located in the state of Maharashtra, in India for a Global Health study abroad. We will be getting credit for an Anthropology course, but our main focus will be primary healthcare, specifically in the rural setting. We will be staying at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) center, which was created by two extremely ambitious and talented doctors, Raj and Mabelle Arole. Along with our day to day classes, we will be making trips in to the villages to observe firsthand, the everyday activities of the local village healthcare workers who have been trained by CRHP. The majority of these village healthcare workers are women who have made many breakthroughs and transitions in order to get to where they are today. In addition, we will be making a trip to the archaeology site at Ellora and Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad where we will learn about the history and culture of India.
I’m pretty excited about the entirety of the program and hope it’ll be as phenomenal as it sounds!
