Summer in South Asia Fellows Blogs

Living in Hawaiʻi means every trip starts with crossing an ocean. It's a routine of red eyes, long layovers, and calculating time zones. Somewhere between keeping track of boarding passes and getting my mandatory airport coffee, traveling solo has become my new normal. It feels like I've spent more time at airport gates lately than anywhere else. While I'm incredibly lucky to travel this much, crossing four time zones in a single week is definitely taking its toll.

By the end of the week, I'll have made a quick round trip from Hawaiʻi to San Diego before officially beginning my SiSA journey: Hawaiʻi to San Francisco, on to Germany, and finally Bangalore, India, where I'll be calling home for the rest of the summer.

As I write this, it is July 6, 2026, 7:51 p.m. Hawaiʻi Standard Time. Packing for this trip has meant adjusting my expectations for everything that happens between leaving and arriving. Navigating unfamiliar streets on jet lag, stumbling through language barriers, and adapting to whatever doesn't go according to plan - it’s what makes the trip after all. Logistically, my last minute preparations have consisted of printing my itineraries, comms with my internship at the ReReeti Foundation and my Airbnb host, and stocking up on American snacks (Cheez-Its were non-negotiable) to help with the inevitable homesickness. I’ve also had to completely rethink my wardrobe after realizing it's monsoon season in Bangalore. Safe to say, even with the humidity, my usual Hawaiʻi uniform of tank tops and shorts won't suffice unfortunately. 

Other than prep, it’s been an introspective couple weeks. Earlier this summer, my father passed away. Hesitant about whether I should still pursue this fellowship, it felt like too much; I felt a sense of guilt, and it seemed strange to leave home after everything that had happened. But during our last conversation together, his last words to me were simple: Go.

To up and go, is a trait I got from my father for sure. He’s a curious guy, loves to travel, explore, meet new people and try new things always and so this trip especially means a lot for me personally as it does professionally. This summer has already taken me from Brazil, back home to Hawaiʻi and San Diego, and now to India. It's been a season of constant movement, but also one of profound growth. Sometimes it takes leaving somewhere familiar to realize how much you've changed, though going to college on the mainland U.S. definitely proved that to me as well.

India is completely new territory for me, and as scary as it is, I couldn't be more excited. I know this next month will challenge me, surprise me, and hopefully provide some future "mom lore." Whether it's working alongside museums through my internship or going through the motions of everyday life in Bangalore, I’m really looking forward to what’s to come.

My actual travel day starts July 8 though after packing I will rest accordingly as my sleep schedule is all over the place enough. With long travel days ahead, I shall see y'all in India. Shoots.

Today is currently June 26, and by June 29, I will have officially started my volunteer work with Prime Education and Social Trust. There are currently 10 different projects that the organization works on, like the  Janani Home for Girls, which is a government funded safe home, where young girls can apply to live, get educated, and be fed until they are 18 years old. Furthermore, I will be able to witness medical projects and help with awareness programs that the organization conducts in rural areas, and I can’t wait to see what my role can be in their efforts.

Only three days ago, I travelled back home from Costa Rica, after doing a study abroad program for Spanish. It doesn’t feel real that I am now packing up to get ready for a completely different country, culture, and language on the other side of the world. I have always been an adventurous person, but about 12 weeks of travel straight is quite the ordeal. I suppose I will find out very quickly if I made the right decision! If I am being honest, I didn’t realize how exhausting language barriers were before going to Costa Rica – I am still expecting workers to try and talk to me in Spanish here in the States. I am not one to turn a challenge down though, perhaps I will have time to pick up yet another language this summer. 

The study abroad program had already been amazing for me in my personal growth, and I am confident that I will look back at this pre-departure blog and laugh, knowing how much different my experiences were than what I am envisioning now. Each day you wake up a new person, never live the same day twice, and I truly wish I could talk to Koen Aldridge a month from now. 

What a different experience. Truly, I am a fish out of water, floundering around, but thankfully, I am enjoying every last bit of the struggle. There is nothing I have ever done, no where I have ever been, that even remotely resembles my past week here. Two days ago, I took my scootie to the beach to watch the sunrise, and as the stray dogs padded around me and the waves gently lapped the sand, I reflected a little on my experience. 

Here at Prime Educational and Social Trust, I have been doing a lot of work with media outreach, social media, and helping the organization smoothly set up a new branch in France. There is constant work to be done, and my group of coworkers are some of the most passionate people that I have ever worked alongside. One of the biggest shocks for me was working six days a week, with only Sunday off. It is easy to be hardworking though, when you can see the benefits of your labor. I have gotten a full tour of their operations, seeing their process of true community development, rather than temporary help. 

Every day after work, I go to the Janani Home for Girls, where I am able to help with their English lessons, along with simply bonding with the group of children. It is such a raw human experience. Children are children; they love the candy that I give them after each of our lessons, they love dancing with me, playing games, etc. At the same time though, I see their struggles, their loneliness, the cliques that have formed between them and everything in between. One of my favorite parts so far has been eating dinner each night with them – not a fork in sight – and simply enjoying each other's company. I am really happy to be here, and so grateful for the opportunity to be a small chapter of their lives.

My flight out of Detroit is in 6 hours. It's been a stressful week trying to make sure I have everything in order and discovering new things I need to pack every day, but I think I'm finally ready. My cousin who lives near Mumbai is going to meet me there tomorrow night when I land and we will spend some time together before my internship starts next week. I'm looking forward to having a few days to explore the city and get accustomed before work starts up. I have some books and movies ready for the flight, and am hoping I can keep myself entertained, since this is the first time I've gone on such a long flight by myself.

I've gotten in touch with a friend of a friend who knows about student organizing in Mumbai and I'm really excited to keep talking to them and learn about the organizing scene. I want to get involved with it in whatever way I can and hopefully share lessons from organizing at U-M and learn about the unique issues they face in Mumbai, especially in struggles against local government. In my first weeks, I want to try and go to as many events as I can and just immerse myself in it.

In terms of my internship, I don't really feel like I have a great handle on exactly the type of work that I will be doing yet which is making me a little nervous, but I am hoping that things will become a little more clear in the first week. I'm going to take some time on the travel to go through the work that SPARC does a little more so that I have a strong understanding by Monday. 

I'm about 10 days into my trip, today I got hit by a stomach ache so I missed a day of work. It's been really cool to explore Mumbai so far and I feel like I've seen a lot of the city but there's still a lot more that I want to see. Last week on Thursday, we had our first Focus Group Discussion with one of the committees that SPARC is working with. It was super interesting and I feel like I learned a lot just by listening to them answer the questions. Something I've been struggling with is how to become more invested in SPARC when I'm only working with them for so little time, I think I need to just ask if there's more field work that I can help out with and try to put myself in different types of work, but it also does feel like I'm more of an observer than an active participant sometimes. Hearing the committee talk about how they've taken the initiative to improve the health, sanitation, and hygiene of their community was deeply inspiring, and I really admire the way that the staff at SPARC carefully facilitate the committee's work by connecting them with resources and skills to make change. I am going to be sitting in for a few more committee meetings this week so it will interesting to see how they compare and how their goals and achievements are similar and different. Other than work, last week I explored the Ambedkar memorial site, Shivaji park, one qawalli and one dastangoi show, a trip to Madh Island and lots of yummy food, like seafood and a Vietnamese place. I also visited a cool bookstore that I want to spend more time in and try to meet people there!

I've been writing more in my physical journal than I have online in the last few weeks, so I will try to recount the events of my last weeks in Mumbai, even though I'm now in Pune with family. I miss basically everything about Mumbai, from the ease of transportation on the local train, despite intense crowds at some times, to the distant ocean I could see from my window each morning, to the interactions with new people every day and the tentative familiarity I had found in that short time. Though I think I exhausted nearly every part of the city I wanted to explore, there are still a few things on the list that I would love to return to Mumbai for. I was waiting eagerly for the rains there, and I have just heard that it's started raining heavily, which I'm starting to experience hear in Pune as well. Some friends I made taught me a lot about the politics of the city, and explained what the current state of the movement is like, I learned a lot from them. They sang beautiful songs that have been sang throughout various moments of rebellion and revolution in Indian history. 

On June 3, I went with one of the field workers to do weight checks for children, something that I would help with several times in the next couple weeks in different areas. I wrote that, "The first two girls were sisters, five and three, they each looked at least two years younger than their age. Soon many kids had gathered and clambered onto the scale, excited for some sort of activity different than their regular games, staying home all day during their summer vacations from school. Several of them had been removed from school at a young age, as well. They were young, but they acted like the whole world was in their hands, speaking with the wit and sharpness of young adults, though none was above 10 years. One girls was eight years old and had stopped attending school, she knew the birthday of every kid in the group when we asked where specific families lived, she could easily point in the direction of the house of any child we wanted to find. These areas don't receive rations, so often times it feels as though simply telling the kids that their weight was in the red zone and handing them a piece of paper to give their parents wasn't going to do anything. For many of them, both parents worked all day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., leaving the kids to look after each other, a seven year old left in charge of her two younger siblings. The kids were so full of energy, constantly asking me questions about life in America, and what it's like to be on a plane, and if I listen to K-Pop, and "why does your Hindi sound like that" and "it's my mom's birthday in a week, will you come back for the celebration?" I had lots of fun talking to them. The kids are so in charge of their own lives that it makes more sense to start by telling them which behaviors to change, after all their parents aren't home enough to affect much change. 

I depart for my flight to Bangalore in a few minutes. I have mixed feelings of nervousness, but more so excitement. Most of this experience feels surreal. I don't think I have fully registered that I'll be in a completely different country in a few hours. It feels like it is all happening so fast. I guess I did not fully register this trip until now because I finished finals and spent a very nice and relaxing few days with my family before the trip. Although I have traveled internationally alone before, I was with a group of 20 other American students. This feels like a completely different experience given the ruralness of my internship location and my independence. I do wish I had more time to learn the language and gain a better handle on the culture, but my cursory Google searches and binge-watching India travel videos will have to suffice for now.  I am excited to see what Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement has in store for me as I complete their Medical Student Elective program. I initially chose this program because I found that it was the most unique experience where I got to see how rural medicine works in India as the NGO works with Indian tribes to deliver healthcare to underserved groups in and around Karnataka. I had been looking forward to getting experience with global medicine and this fellowship was the perfect opportunity to explore this passion of mine. I am prepared to be busy with an individual project alongside day-to-day shadowing with doctors in the hospital and field visits to their rural clinics. However, I hope I can work out my day-to-day with the program as I plan to explore other cities like Mumbai on my free weekends. 

I have spent around 11 days in India and about a full week at the Vivekananda Memorial Hospital I work at in rural Saragur, and hour and half drive from Mysuru. Before my internship started, I toured the main administrative operations in Mysuru where they are completing research on maternal health and a project on HIV prevention for migrant workers in the Karnataka state. I have also had the chance to visit the Mysuru palace, St. Philomenas Cathedral, and Chamundi hills. From the annual 10-day Dasara festival in  the Hindu month, Ashvina, to its nationally renowned sandalwood and silk, I am amazed by the rich royal history the city holds. As for the food, I have been blessed with a strong stomach and a high spice tolerance so I haven't had much problems with adjusting to the food here. I am roommates with another pre-med student, Thomas, from the University of Utah who is doing the same internship as me with the NGO, and we have made a few local friends who have been helpful in showing us around Mysuru. 

As for the Vivekananda Memorial Hospital, I have seen a wide range of specialties, including ayurvedic medicine. It is very interesting to see how the hospital continues to provide allopathic medical services while simultaneously maintaining an ayurvedic medicine ward for patients who opt for that treatment. While on surgery, I observed two C-sections and ORIF surgeries. I have also been on health camps where they have a healthcare team travel to smaller towns, and doctors hold consultations for any patient who shows up to the "pop-up" clinic. I am now posted in the emergency room where I have been shadowing the doctors here. I even had the opportunity to practice suturing here. I have been concurrently working on a research project to track the consistency of care among patients with the same diagnosis. I have had a busy week here, but I am glad that the internship has been fruitful. 

I have definitely seen a gamut of things from a variety of doctors this past week. I saw laparoscopic surgeries in general surgery and treatment for a diabetic foot ulcer in the emergency room. I even got the chance to travel outside of the hospital this week, where I joined their Mobile Health Unit, and we traveled to nearby tribes. We essentially drove in an ambulance around the tribal areas, using sirens to announce our presence, and different people would come up to get any of their ailments checked or questions answered by the doctor. This was a really eye-opening experience for me. It reminded me of why I wanted to go into medicine in the first place. There was a seizing baby at one of the camps, and we did not carry injectable lorazepam to stop the acute seizures. However, the doctor was still able to convince the parents to take the baby to the hospital first instead of the temple, as they believed the seizures were caused by spirits. I am amazed by the organization's ability to communicate to the tribal populations the importance of seeking care. They speak a completely different language to Kannada, the Karnataka state language, and carry different values. Many of these patients are only concerned with surviving today and are unable to see the benefits of preventing illness in the future. I also went into rural towns on the team's palliative care rounds. I even correctly diagnosed a patient with an onset of diabetic foot ulcers here! 

For my one-off day, Sunday. My friend, Thomas, and I traveled to Ooty. A resort town in the neighboring state, Tamil Nadu. From the vast tea gardens to the homemade chocolate, the landscape is not something I would expect from a trip to India. It was so interesting to see elephants, all types of monkeys, and wild boars on the drive there. 

I cannot believe that I am already nearing the end of my internship. My time at the Vivekananda Memorial Hospital in Saraguru was brief but I learned a lot. While the first few weeks were mainly focused on gaining exposure to the hospital's vast specialties, from orthopedic surgery to Ayurvedic medicine, shadowing doctors can get repetitive. Although the extent of clinical help I can provide is limited, I figured I would try to create something useful both for my learning and the hospital's efficiency. Recently, I was able to pilot the project I have been working on. I have created an Excel-based tool to improve patient tracking and data analysis in the Emergency Department. I was originally tasked with a 3-month study of the top diagnoses in the ED and follow the patient's prognosis to ensure that the correct procedures were taken. However, I quickly realized the patient data was disconnected and inconsistent. The main problem was inconsistent data entry from the analog sheet into the spreadsheet. I virtually have no experience working with Excel but I learned that I have the time, and tools to learn. So, I aimed to created a pilot spreadsheet that can run alongside the analog sheet while the staff can get familiar to with digital tracking. While I will not be here long enough to truly pilot the spreadsheet, I have high hopes for the hospital's patient tracking system. I will be presenting my final project to the staff which will include a tutorial. The program is also looking towards implementing some form of my spreadsheet into their hospital wide medical records system called AppSheet which works similarly to Excel.

Outside of the hospital, I was able to see the Mysore palace at night! I went on a few runs at Kukkarahalli lake and also visited the Jin Min Cat World Museum. I watched Obsession, the horror movie, one of the best horror movies I have seen. Something I learned was that Indian movie theaters have intervals where they pause the movie for 10 minutes so the audience may use the restroom or get refreshments.

I have been in India for ten days so far, and I already feel as though I have gained way more than I imagined through this experience. While the startup I am working at is based in Bangalore, a lot of the field work and community integration happens in a smaller city called Udupi. Early on Sunday, one of my coworkers asked my to come to Udupi so that I could be engaged with a lot of the field work that the startup engages in. I took a night sleeper bus that night, and got to Udupi at 6am the next morning. 

My week was full of meeting different stakeholders and vendors. I had lunches and personal conversations with leaders in the local fishing industry, local entrepreneurs, and a rural program manager who had implemented software from my startup, and then deployed it to 123 local villages for access to microloans. One day, we even went on a day trip to a local village to see the implementation of the digital system. Outside of work, I ate at local fish shops, met many people my age, and even had breakfast in a grandma's one room house turned restaurant! I got to explore the extremely famous temples in the area and the beautiful beaches. It was so incredible to experience such a vibrant and tight knit community culture.

One of the biggest takeaways that I had was that commerce was incredibly personal and relational. Microloan systems were built on how well the lendor knew the family, and the fishing industry was generational. It made me realize that when trying to digitize areas in international development to develop them, this localized and personal dynamic must remain intact, because that is the heart of the commerce system. And this is something that centralized digital platforms largely take away from when they take away data sovereignty of developing countries. I also learned that one of the biggest obstacles to development through technology is not the actual development of the technology or even access for that matter, but rather the behavioral element. Because so many industries have been operating for decades with many workers still illiterate, workers were against deviation from the status quo, and how they had practiced their business for years prior. 

I learned so much this week!

What a week! Just when I thought last week I had grown so much, I realized there was so much more learning and growing left for me. I am so excited to be working in India to learn about digital public infrastructure— each day I find myself amazed at the scale at which technology has been deployed to help everyday citizens and integrate social networks. Today, I had a funny conversation, where a auto-rickshaw driver chuckled when I said I don't have UPI, the digital payment system. He said, "how do you even live here?"  But to me, it also really signifies how integrated these systems have become into every different area of life— and it’s allowed for so many people to get access to payments! This week I met with leaders in the Digital Public Infrastructure space in Bangalore, while working in Bangalore. Much of the technological development in India comes out of Bangalore, so it was exciting to be in such a dynamic space, and talk to many individuals who have created start ups of their own. Some unique perspectives that I heard from this week were the auto-rickshaw union leader, Pramod Varma the architect for Aadhar, which is India’s central digital identity system, and Priya Jayarmana, the communications director at EGov. I was able to get started on my bigger project for the internship, which was creating a white paper proposal for the Udupi District Commissioner to integrate software as an interoperable digital public infrastructure for the community as a whole. This proposal will then be taken to the district commissioner, and hopefully Udupi can be a model for what is integrated in other Indian states, and countries across the world.

The people I have met here have absolutely been a highlight of the week. I am constantly surprised at how personal every interaction feels. I was looking for a temple on the way the other day, and this older man saw me looking confused and walked me in the direction of the temple. I have constantly been met with acts of kindness and a genuine curiosity for what I think. Even the people I have been working with have been really invested in my learning and growth. It’s been nice to hear about their thoughts on spirituality, the presence of religion in daily life, and many more nuanced discussions that have allowed me to understand life in Bangalore in full color.

Outside of my work I was able to enjoy  what Bangalore has to offer for the first time. I walked around Cubbon park and read a little bit. I also went to Bangalore’s famous Chickpet Market and Church Street areas to do some shopping. Bangalore had a lot of really nice coffee shops that I did a lot of my coffee chats with people in— my favorite was Araku! After finally being able to spend an entire week in Bangalore, it felt nice to settle in and adjust to the pace of life here. It's the simple things; I really enjoy my walk home— I am living in Indiranagar, which is an extremely lively area with vendors, stores, and lots to do everywhere around me. It’s also mango season! I have been bringing home a kilo of mangos with me everyday from work, it’s my favorite snack and dessert!

My time in India has been an absolute dream so far. I constantly find myself stimulated by what I am learning, both culturally and intellectually. 

This week, my boss recommended that I work remotely and travel somewhere to learn about how these digital systems expand beyond just Karnataka. So this week, I chose to spend some time in Pune, and it was the best decision ever! Pune has a very different pace of life than Bangalore has. While several streets like Deccan Road and the Karishma complex are busy areas, there is substantially less foot and street traffic than there is in Bangalore. I also learned that Pune has a lot of history, especially from the period of the Maratha Confederacy. I was able to visit Shaniwar Vada and learn more about the history that Pune carries. 

I was also able to learn a lot about the differences in DPI across states. For instance, in Bangalore, Namma Yastri is a popular ride app that is used to get auto-rickshaw rides at a fixed rate. After leaving Bangalore, I learned that Namma Yastri is an app that is used in Bangalore but not in other Indian states. Rather than Namma Yastri, several other Indian states use platforms such as Ola and Rapido for ride hailing. I found this interesting because it provided a real world example of a central principle of Digital Public Infrastructure, interoperability. India’s Digital Public Infrastructure is built open source, and many different platforms can exist for similar functions on the India tech stack. It is because there is usage of multiple platforms, rather than a culture of competition, that so many Indians have gotten access to so many different services. 

This week was also important for the writing of my white paper. I finished the first draft, which integrated findings from my conversations in both Udupi and Bangalore. I recommended the district commissioner of Udupi to implement pilot programs to implement the tech stack as a digital public infrastructure— first in the fishing industry, and later promoted through local educational institutions. I was able to receive feedback, which I will work on implementing throughout the next week. 

Looking back on the last three weeks, I feel really grateful to have had such different experiences each week. Not only was I able to really experience India in a variety of different ways, but it has allowed me to understand Digital Public Infrastructure in a nuanced way that spans several different perspectives.

Wow, has time flown by! I can not believe that I am already saying goodbye to this experience. The person that came here is not the same as the person that is leaving. And while yes, the professional experience is absolutely part of it, I was profoundly inspired by how personal every professional decision felt. As someone had told me on a coffee chat sometime in the last few weeks, "even at the sake of advancement sometimes, the people care here in a way that is hard to find elsewhere in the world." It was a professional culture that was completely unfamiliar to me. 

Over the last month, I worked on a white paper proposing the integration of ESamudaay’s technology stack as a form of digital public infrastructure for the Udupi community. This past week, I finished up my White Paper. The vision is that it is a platform where community members can participate in a system that keeps both data and economic value within the local community. The proposal will be presented to the district commissioner later this year, with the hope that Udupi can become a model for other cities across India and around the world seeking to strengthen connectivity, efficiency, and meaningful access to technology. I feel incredibly grateful to have been part of such transformative work, and to have been given the opportunity to bring my perspective to these conversations. 

One of the other meaningful parts of this experience was the opportunity to sit down with people from vastly different backgrounds and learn from their lived experiences. Conversations with leaders in the Malpe fishing industry, microentrepreneurs in Udupi, and auto-rickshaw union leaders in Bangalore challenged many of my assumptions and gave me a deeper appreciation for how technology serves communities. What I learned is that too often, centralized technology platforms extract local wealth, social capital, and valuable community data, while the benefits created by that activity rarely return to the communities themselves. This is exactly the challenge that ESamudaay is working to address, and it is a challenge that I found to be extremely radical— especially because of how many economic systems are presently built. These ideas are undoubtedly going to stay with me for the rest of my life in other work that I do.

Outside of my work experience, living in India by myself for a prolonged period was a completely eye opening experience. There were so many moments of connection— negotiating in bazaars, talking to rickshaw drivers en route somewhere, talking to little girl in the park. It was these moments that allowed me to understand the country more than anything else. It gave me an authentic local understanding of India, and I will forever be grateful for that. Not only did I get to live and work in Bangalore, but I saw so many other cities as well as part of the work I was doing, to get a well rounded understanding of Indian society's economics. I will never forget the people I have met here and how inviting and welcoming they have been. Thank you for giving me this opportunity!

It’s May 10th – Happy belated Mother’s Day! I am currently spending some time with my family, celebrating my mom, before I leave for the Bruno Mars concert! I leave for India tomorrow. If I am being honest, I have been so busy leading up to my departure that I haven’t had the time to feel excited. But now the stress is slowly morphing into excitement as I have been moving out and packing my suitcase, making this trip feel more real. I’m glad I was able to spend Mother’s Day with my family – it’s a nice way to say goodbye and start my journey to India. I will be gone for 3 months, which will be the longest time I have spent out of the country! 

I will start my trip to India by visiting my grandmother, or Avva, in Hyderabad. I’m glad I can start my trip by visiting family. I haven’t seen them in person since the last time I visited India, which was in 2018. I know Hyderabad has changed a lot since then, and so have I. I am hoping that since I am older, I’ll have a greater appreciation for India and develop deeper connections to my heritage. 

As far as my internship goes, I am excited! I don’t fully know what to expect, but I know that I’ll be working with the Aaladamara Foundation, a non-profit that delivers mental health services to communities in Bengaluru. I will be working at an Emergency Care and Recovery Center that helps people experiencing mental health crises. I think this will be a very informative experience, and I am looking forward to exploring Bengaluru!

I've been in India for a little over a week now, and I just finished the first day of my internship with the Aaladamara Foundation! Before I got to Bengaluru, where my internship is, I visited my family in Hyderabad and traveled to Goa. It was so nice to see my family again! I missed my grandma and cousins. I already miss my grandma's chai. Also, my favorite fruits are mangos, and the mangos in India are so much tastier than the ones in the U.S. Goa was also amazing! It has been on my travel bucket list for a while. I visited North Goa, where I went to the beach, walked around local markets, and visited the Portuguese tourist sites. It's interesting to see the Portuguese influence in the architecture, religious buildings, and food. 

Now I am in Bengaluru, which is where I'll be for the next month. It's a very busy city, so I'm excited to explore! And I think I will learn a lot in this internship. The Aaladamara Foundation provides care and support for people with mental health conditions experiencing homelessness, and they have a very holistic approach, which I appreciate. Not only do they provide people with their basic needs, but they also have job search support, family tracing, dance therapy, art therapy, the ability to take leadership roles, and help out with operations. I value their person-centered approach as well. I am on a weekly rotation, so I will be visiting a different site each week. I am currently at the HBS hospital, where cross-collaboration occurs with psychiatrists, general physicians, pharmacists, nurses, case managers, etc. As a Public Health major, it's interesting to see multiple disciplines in action to provide support that extends beyond just medicine. 

I have completed one week here at the Aaladamara Foundation, and I have already gained a lot from this experience. I mainly worked alongside Ires, who is very hard-working and kind. I can tell that she was made for this kind of work. This first week, I was at the HBS ECRC, which is a clinic inside a hospital. It was interesting to see the cross-collaboration between different staff/areas in the building (eg: communication with cleaning staff on how to safely dispose of expired medicines or visiting patients in the ICU). It is also very jarring to see how different the Indian healthcare systems and infrastructure are from those in the United States, but there are also a lot of similarities in the problems they face. As a Public Health major, I really noticed how Public Health is integrated in Aaladamara’s work structure, but also the imperative need for public health in Indian communities. I have already heard multiple accounts of people contracting and spreading HIV, leading to death or family separation, and these incidents could have been prevented. These heartbreaking cases remind me of why I chose to go into Public Health in the first place. I really appreciate Aaladamara’s holistic and person-centered approach to care. I am interested in seeing how operations differ at Thanal, as it is an all-women’s clinic, and it is not attached to a hospital.

I am at the halfway point of my internship at the Aaladamara Foundation and my stay in Bengaluru. This past week, I had the opportunity to intern at Thanal. This was a unique experience as it is an all-women’s clinic, which gave me a lot of insight into the unfortunate issues that are shared among many women. I was given a task to create discharge summaries for past clients at Thanal, where I summarized their materials into a document describing their intake history, their progression during their time at the clinic, past. mental health history, mental health status upon admission and discharge, and the medications/recommendations for their discharge. Writing these made me learn about many past experiences and traumas that women have faced. It is, unfortunately, a very common experience for women to be in abusive relationships and have no familial support to turn to, leaving them with no other option than to be homeless. This makes me wonder how many women are out there who weren’t able to seek the services from The Banyan or Thanal. Reading through the files made me reflect on how our society is inherently male-centered, leaving the burden on women to be stronger, more resilient, and having to challenge societal norms themselves instead of placing the burden on men, the perpetrators.  This week has reminded me of why I chose to pursue public health in the first place – I want to address the root cause of widely shared problems and prevent them from happening. I am glad Thanal exists to give these women a place to rehabilitate and be able to live without the fear of being hurt, but it is heartbreaking that this is even an issue in the first place. 

I am approaching the end of my internship at the Aaladamara Foundation and of my time in India. I have gained a lot of perspective from being here by myself for an extended period, and I am very grateful for this experience. Last week, I was placed at a clinic in a government hospital called CV Raman, and I met a few other interns. This Aaladamara location is a little different than the other clinics I was previously at because it is a mixed gender clinic with male and female wards, and it is the largest. I heard some eye-opening stories, to say the least, and I saw firsthand how mental illness and personality disorders shape a person's affect and behavior. While I am no stranger to interacting with people with mental illness, approaching it in a clinical setting was a new experience for me. I have learned about the holistic approach Aaladamara takes in creating a client's history, going beyond just demographics and the history of their presenting illness. Additionally, I learned the methodology of doing a mental examination (which is procedurally done during the time of admission and before discharge). I have also learned the significance of the Rorschach Inkblot test, which is controversial among the clinical psychology community. I have also seen healthcare workers and case managers going above and beyond their job descriptions to help their patients in any way they can. During this time, I read some research papers about the 2017 Mental Health Act and the 2016 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in India. I'm glad I was able to familiarize myself more with the current policy landscape here. Outside of the internship, I've tried some delicious food with people and saw Obsession with the other interns! I am excited for the last week, but it is also bittersweet.

Today is my last day in Bengaluru, and I leave for the airport in a few hours. I’m sad to leave already – I wish I had more time to explore here and other parts of India. This last week of my internship was eventful, and I learned a lot from this experience as a whole. While I don’t plan on pursuing a career in clinical psychology, it was very interesting to observe and take part in the day-to-day operations of a community mental health clinic in another country. I got to help conduct an MSE (Mental Health Examination) on a newly admitted client at one of the Aaladamara locations and take part in a discussion with a psychologist, other interns, and social workers in developing an ICP (individual care plan) for not only the admitted client, but also her mother. I got a little exposure into how complex and unique a care plan can be, and characteristics that seem innate to me have to be taught to others.

I also got to observe an outreach, which is when staff from Aaladamara go into certain parts of the city that are known spots where people experiencing homelessness reside/or get referrals from community members, and see if they can get clients to accept support from Aaladamara. I went with their outreach coordinator, and he saw someone on the street who was aimlessly walking around barefoot with dirty clothing and had a large wound on his head. It took some time to convince him to accept help, but after getting him some food, explaining what the Aaladamara foundation does, and showing him photos of other people whom they have helped, he accepted being transported to one of the Aaladamara clinics. The outreach coordinator has only been at this foundation for three months, and he has already gotten 25 clients this way. The next step in the intake process is filling out a Police Intimation form, which is a legal document stating that the client is being consensually moved to an Aaladamara clinic for care and support. 

I also met with other psychology interns and had lunch with them during our shifts at the clinic. It was nice to share some responsibility and hang out with them! On my last day, we helped create a small mural with the clients. Everyone painted a balloon, and it seemed like they enjoyed the creative process! Outside the internship, I went to a few restaurants, did some shopping, visited some cafes, and saw live music. Overall, I gained a lot of perspective from this trip, and I can’t wait to come back! I’m so grateful for this experience :)

Hello from my dining room! In less than 24 hours, when that plane takes off from O’Hare, it will officially mark the beginning of my eventful summer in India. And I have a few words to spur. 

I want to sit here and tell you about how stoked I am to be one of those cool solo travelers you see on Instagram. But, quite frankly, I am more overwhelmed with anxiety than anything else. After wrapping up my finals yesterday, I came home and decided that now would be a good time to start worrying about my first international solo trip (technically second, but who’s counting spring break in Costa Rica).  Now here I am, hoping that when I read this back at the end of my experience, I ask myself what I was so worried about.

I can’t answer that now, so I’ll instead write about what I’m excited for. I will be volunteering in Udaipur, Rajasthan, where the organization works in three sectors: Maternal Wellbeing, Child and Neonatal Health, and Elderly Healthy Aging. Their work targets those in the larger rural Udaipur area, so I’m particularly inclined to look at how distinct cultural values intersect with the perception and recievement of medical care. With ARTH’s dual focus, I also hope to focalize on how maternal wellbeing is shaped and addressed in these remote vicinities, and how that ultimately intertwines with child health. Outside of the organization, I will most definitely be engaging in typical tourist activities in my free time. Udaipur, deemed “The City of Lakes,” seems to be a popular tourist location dressed in sunset boat rides and a buzzing shopping scene. 

With all these thoughts and emotions circling, I truly hope to have some solidarity by this time next week… but for now, see you soon, India!

Namaste from the office. One week in and my travel anxiety has now been mellowed by familiar faces, routes, and routines. I first landed in Delhi, and immediately, was asked 2400 rupees ~$24 for a 10-minute ride to my airport hotel. That was the night I started using Uber. After my sketchy Delhi airport hotel in an alleyway, I was stoked to meet my very warm homestay host in Udaipur the next day.  

The organization has been incredibly welcoming of my presence and has chosen to dedicate my first week to exploring the wide scope of issues they tackle. My time this week has been divided into 3 Field Days, where we traveled to these village areas for community home interviews and visited ⅔ of the organization rural clinics, and two office days putting my observations in context through literature reviews  (because really, what’s seeing without understanding?). Driving out anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours on Field Days, you can really tell how far their work spans and the people they try to reach. From following up on these women’s experience with hormonal contraceptives to addressing postpartum depression during interviews, there isn’t a topic that the women at ARTH aren’t ready to talk about. I also sat in on an elderly group meeting and helped assess physical hazards in their houses. Initially, I was very inclined to create a clinic-centered experience in India. Yet, engaging in these home interviews this past week, there is something deeply meaningful about entering a woman's house, sitting on the floor beside her, and simply listening to her for half an hour. It allows me to fully understand her story and challenges in ways surface level check-ins and passer-by interactions couldn’t offer. As someone who wants to go into medicine, these interviews provide a humanistic perspective; perhaps part of the root of why these women so bravely seek clinical help in the first place. Here’s to more interviews, James-bonds-style drives, and electrolytes!

Week 2, and we are in the thick of things. This week was a mix of engaging in home interviews for women community health entrepreneurs (local villagers who sell menstrual and sexual health products to those in their community), sitting on elderly healthy aging groups, home assessment, clinical observations, and interviewing teachers in local schools about menstrual health for an ongoing research project. I also made a good friend in the office, and she has been such an older sister in helping me adjust to things around here!

On one of my field days, I vividly recall visiting a tribal woman’s house (quite honestly, it was a room). She shared with us that because she has given birth to 3 girls consecutively and her husband told her he is “finding another wife.” Someone has also cheated her out of her gas tank, and thus, she has spent some time with no gas to cook meals. She said sometimes, she dreams of what her life would look like if she ran away from her children and husband. 

To simply phrase it, suicidal thoughts and postpartum depression are only compounded by patriarchal norms, household labour, and familial relationships, and much more in rural Rajasthan. All of ARTH clinics have trained nurse-midwives to address postpartum mental disorders, but of course, the general stigma of seeking out mental health resources exists. I wondered if providing a doula would help alleviate the challenges of adjusting to motherhood, as it would additionally serve as a way to indirectly receive emotional guidance. This week, I have spent my office days beginning a literature review on Doulas to introduce their role to the organization, as they are primarily a Western occupation. Additionally, I need to consider translating the practices of traditional doulas into a different societal context, such as rural India. For instance, will in-laws be approving of their daughter-in-law seeking outside help for tasks that should appear instinctual for mothers? I will continue to develop this write-up in the coming weeks, especially since I’ve begun to value the importance of emotional and physical support for these forthcoming mothers. 

Although all this work has been exciting, my small weekend adventure of cafe hopping, getting traditional nail art done, and hitting up Badaa Bazaar was equally thrilling. I really do try to be the most obnoxious tourist I can be on days off :)

Three weeks in, and while I am spending the majority of my time interacting with local villagers, I do have a few clinical blocks. All 3 clinics all fall under a similar structure of counseling, labour, recovery, and kangaroo rooms. I’ve never heard of a kangaroo room, which is specifically designed to promote mother and baby contact for underweight newborns, so it was interesting to see it in practice.

From a timid looking woman coming in for a permanent sterilization service, to young daughters testing positive for malaria, I got to witness quite a diverse range of cases during clinic days this week. One interaction that stood out to me was with the mother of a baby who came in for a postpartum checkup. Maternal health is commonly swept under, but I do agree with ARTH’s ideology that it could use the same amount of awareness that child health receives during typical PP checkups. In an informal attempt at this, my supervisor asked the mother across the room how she was doing three different times, yet she had remained quiet. As her husband stepped away, my supervisor gently pulled her aside just to check in with her. At first, she shyly kept covering her face with her scarf and avoiding eye contact when answering. I think it goes to show that casual conversation starters like “How are you?” can feel deeply intimate to different people. It’s also a reminder that trust isn’t an automatic given in these settings, but something to be built upon. It explains why my supervisor suddenly switched the conversation to a lighthearted topic, like the way they kept hilariously butchering each other’s names. Eventually, the mother opened up that she was indeed eating well and getting adequate support, but it took a while to get to that point. We got to rock her baby, who was the smiliest little guy (and had diarrhea, but that’s a different story). 

With roughly a week to go, I am already starting to feel sentimental about a place I haven’t even left yet. I usually explore Udaipur only on weekends, but to maximize my time here, I began going out after my office days. Watching the city palace’s lights reflecting upon Lake Pichola at night was quite the view to end my week with. 

I genuinely cannot believe it has almost been a month! This week, we accompanied a community health worker to several different mothers’ houses to supervise the tasks she undertook. While many women here place emphasis on prenatal care, postpartum checkups often see less attention. Thus, community health workers are trained to bring postpartum checkups directly to the woman’s doorsteps. From weighing the baby, providing mental health and nutritional screening, to inquiring about the woman’s usage of contraceptives, there really is a lot of ground to cover with each visit. 

At one point, however, a young woman had excused herself shortly but never returned. Her blatant discomfort on her face was quite visible when we brought up contraception, especially considering her mother-in-law was listening in. Despite there being more frequent conversations around reproductive and sexual health, that doesn’t make it any less sensitive for some people to engage in. I have found it important to be attentive to ways in which cultural contexts can impact the delivery of health communication —a perspective I hope to continue developing. I also had the opportunity to ask these mothers a set of questions I prepared for my doula literature review to provide a new lens from my western centered research findings. Riding a motorbike for the very first time and witnessing a village altercation between two families was an eventful way to end my final field day.   

I will be giving my final presentation tomorrow about what I have learned and suggesting any areas for improvement. Additionally, I will also formally present and introduce my holistic findings about doulas and their potential roles and advantages. Looking through my thick notes of observations from the past four weeks, I truly am grateful for not only how much I was able to learn, but experience. To end my night, I met with my friend from the organization who made us some mango shakes (absolute 10/10) to sip on while we sat on the terrace. Feeling quite cinematic and sentimental, it reminded me that it's not the place, but truly the people who make it :D