Our first day here's wrapped up now; it's our only day here in Mumbai when we have time to sightsee. The day started out with introductions to 6 students from NID (National Institute of Design) here in India, who will be working with CBID on the design for devices. Three of the students, Sharon, Sowmya, and Namrata, will be joining team India for the entirety of our time in this country. They'll be corresponding and partnering with us on some of the maternal health projects.
After that, we made a quick stop at Marine Drive, really a beautiful (in sight, not smell) strand along a length of beach. This was followed by a quick stop to look from afar at the Haji Ali, a mosque that's out on the water, only accessible during low tide by a long walkway.
Following that, we headed out to sightsee, stopping first at Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, a large outdoor laundry, where workers clean the dirty laundry from all over the city. I think it's considered a tourist stop because it "offers a glimpse" of what work for some of Mumbai's hard-working citizens is like. I wasn't altogether sure what to make of it - on one hand I appreciated getting to see it and appreciating how people can work so hard all day for a couple of dollars, but on the other hand I felt a little like we were intruding or making entertainment at someone else's hard work.
Next, we headed over to the Gateway of India, an icon of Mumbai which, to be honest, I remembered really only because of the movie Gandhi. Right across the street we visited the Taj Palace Hotel, which I remembered from seeing it in the news during the terrorist attacks on Thanksgiving 2008. The Taj Hotel was a former British colonial palace that's been converted into a rediculously nice hotel. We spent some time after, wandering around the shops that are located nearby and getting lunch at Leopold Cafe.
After that, we made a quick stop at Marine Drive, really a beautiful (in sight, not smell) strand along a length of beach. This was followed by a quick stop to look from afar at the Haji Ali, a mosque that's out on the water, only accessible during low tide by a long walkway.
Moving through this huge city, I've tried to think about how the medical system fits into such a complex and huge population - that's just something churning in my mind, though. I'm sure I'll have some better understanding later in this trip.
On a personal note, one of the things that struck me today was the sheer number and density of people. I like to try to care about and interact with the people around me, and I felt absolutely overwhelmed in the midst of so many people, and with most of them seemed the barriers of many people's goal of begging or vending to us, a communication & partial language barrier, and my own fears of being scammed, etc. For some reason, though, something that helped me process and/or cope with that was seeing a Methodist church amidst the shops near the Taj Hotel. My congregation back home in Houston is a United Methodist congregation, so seeing the same symbol halfway across the world kind of made me have this feeling of unity or connection with some tiny part of the city, however much of a stretch it is.
It's been a long day, with a bit of processing still happening. Tomorrow we'll start our meetings with J&J here in Mumbai at Lilavati Hospital, and we've got to catch up on some rest. You'll hear more from us soon!
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