Lots of Learning

Every morning at 8:30am, CRHP holds an optional worship service.  It is a brief meeting time led by Shobha where we come together to start the morning with prayer and singing.  It is also a chance to hear about the happenings of the upcoming day.  There are a few other groups staying at CRHP currently, so it is sometimes hard to keep track of where we are supposed to be and when!

We spent Friday mostly in the classroom setting, participating in various lectures and group discussions.  Our first was with Connie and the topic was the factors of health.  Going back to the basics, we broke down the determinants of health and discussed what good health looks like, often referring to the villages we have visited as a point of reference.  Following Connie's lecture, we got to be a part of a special ceremony for CRHP.  The Village Health Workers are here on Thursday for training, and spend most of the day on Friday here as well.  CRHP was inaugurating a mobile library to be kept up by staff and the VHWs and to benefit the people of the villages.  This is a project that everyone here is very excited about.

We then had a class discussion about maternal health, and after lunch heard from another VHW named Surekha about her story.  We were all very touched by her journey to becoming a VHW as she had to overcome many obstacles and hardships throughout her life.  CRHP saved her in a way, and she is now working tirelessly to save the lives of those in her community.  We are so thankful to have been able to hear from the VHWs as they are very inspiring.

After this, our Elon group had a personal session with Shoba on Women's Health.  We sort of ended up discussing instead Indian traditions and gender roles for two and a half hours.  It was such an informative and intriguing discussion, and we were all left speechless at times to learn about some of the past and present practices occurring here.  A long day of lectures ended with a game night with the other college students staying here.  We played a huge game of Catch Phrase and some other fun games!