Research

Friday we conducted our surveys and focus groups with the paramedics that serve the chars, we got up early from EFH and took a trawler to Chilmuri where we met everyone. After gathering our information we left late on another trawler to Gaibanda. Since it was a 3 hour boat ride at dusk, they told us to sit under the canopy to ward off bandits. I was thinking pirates, but luckily we had no such excitement. The boats have LED flashlights that they use to communicate with each other on the water. The trawler docked at Balaschi Ghat where our arrival attracted much attention, "hello, where are you from? thank you". Our 25 min rickshaw ride to Gaibanda was accompanied by two motorcycles from the guesthouse. Rickshaw rides are great for a few minutes, but when balancing luggage for anytime they become uncomfortable. The only consolation was the stars were bright and many, and at night rickshaws travel with oil lamps below which is pretty.
Yesterday we went to see the local market with Frida and Helena, the Swedish architecture students. While looking in a sari/salwar shop a patron with paan stained teeth insisted we sit. At one point a shop keeper was pointing his phone at us, we moved together, as if for a photo, and were embarrassed once we realized he was filming us. The patron then bought us ginger tea. A difficult situation, on the one hand it was very generous of her, but on the other hand I don't want any stomach issues. I have been lucky so far.
Today I was supposed to go to a satellite clinic on a char to start the observation part of my research, but the paramedics were sick. Instead, one of the supervising paramedics, Chetu, took us on a tour of two local hospitals. The staff was very welcoming as were the patients. First we saw the Maternal Ward, apparently they have 200-300 births a month. The labor room has two birthing tables within arms distance of each other, both were occupied during the tour. Then we went to a room with 9 beds for postnatal care. The infants share the bed with the mother and are wrapped in multiple bold colorful blankets, no pastel blue or pink. The next hospital had the pediatric ward, 11 beds in a 100 bed hospital. The children were mainly there for pneumonia. On the way out of the hospital a father ran up to us with a toddler boy and told me the boy drank kerosene a week prior, but was doing well now. Someone explained to me that when a foreign doctor comes the villagers think it is really important to be seen or touched by the doctor.
After the hospital we went to see a school. It was a private school with Pre-K to 12th grade. The director of the school came personally to show us the classrooms and helped us interview the students. Many of the children want to be doctors, engineers, architects, and pilots, only one little boy wanted to be a cricket player. We asked how long they spent on homework, they answered 4-8 hours!
After visiting the school we stopped by one of the paramedic's house, she brought multiple children for me to examine, mostly family members. My favorite was a man asking why his son is irritable and throws tantrums at 30 months of age, very challenging to do in another language within 5 min of meeting the family. Not to mention, I have no sense of standard Bengali parenting.