This trip is my second global health experience, the first in Cusco Peru. During my time in India, so far, I have been comparing and contrasting these two experiences. After landing in Cusco, the first thing I remembered seeing were mountains. The first thing I remember seeing in Delhi was smog. I am sure I struggled with “culture shock” in Peru, but it was easy to look at my surroundings and fall in love with the area. I feel like I have had a harder time time appreciating my surroundings in Delhi.
Several of our preceptors this week have brought up this same concept. There’s air pollution, noise pollution, giant hills of trash, and poor sanitation throughout the city. But the other thing they mention is to not go home with out finding the beauty- Which has been my goal most this week. We have been able to travel to some pretty places this week- but I’m still looking for an everyday thing to remind me.
Today on rotation we visited the SYPM clinic at a Truck Yard in Delhi.
A little background on the life of a trucker (from what we were told):
Trucks are typically run by two people, a driver and a cleaner. The drivers will typically leave their homes, families and villages for a month at a time to make their deliveries. They can only drive at night due to the traffic and an attempt to decrease day pollution. When morning comes they stop at truck yards to sleep and spend a few days before long drives. The truck yard communities then become places of high risk behaviors which lead to increased incidences of HIV.
At the truck yard.
The truck yard sees around 1000 trucks per day/ 2000 people. So they set up places like barbers and health clinics to provide necessary care to the men staying in the area. The clinic operates through the help of social and out reach workers who walk through the truck yard and encourage the drivers and cleaners to get medical attention if needed. Because of the high risk category- they are also encouraged to be tested for HIV.
The clinic utilizes entertainment to attract attention from the people staying in the community as well. While we were visiting we watched several street performances on getting appropriate health checks and warning signs for HIV (which were hilarious, and I didn’t even understand the language). The entertainment aspect attracted a lot of people to come, listen to the message, and participate in activities after the show. Activities included flash cards on safe sex practices, practice putting on condoms, and question/answer sessions about males and females. All the work being done by the peer councelors has proven to make the program very sucessful.
Everyone coming to watch the play!
Sanjay with flashcard on safe sex practices.
After the truck yard our group visited a shopping market called Delhi haat. It was filled with vendors forms all over India and they had lots of scarves, clothes, trinkets and art work. The group was able to practice our bargaining skills and we ate a ton of good food!
I hate to be too cheesy, but today I found beauty during dinner while listening to my room mayes talk about all the amazing people we have met.
Megan