Murudagalli

Today is my first day visiting one of the rural villages in the Mysore district. Our first stop is at the preschool. The government provides each village with a preschool and a teacher. The teacher is responsible for not only the care and well being of the village's near-toddlers. She also does weekly surveys of the health of the village, and has the most current count of pregnant women. The most remarkable part of the whole operation is the 20 children who sit quietly waiting while we talk to her. Having fairly recent AmeriCorps experience attempting to corral American kindergartners into "circle time," I'm totally amazed.

In the village we survey women about their birth and pregnancy histories, and then identify and interview three Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA's). This woman tells us about reviving
babies who aren't born crying by placing cow dung on their bellies and umbilical cords. We give her a few of the several hundred "birthing kits" I didn't declare at customs on my way into the country. Each kit has gloves, a plastic sheet, a clean razor, some soap and string.

It's hard not to notice the sweaty, febrile, ill-appearing child quietly moaning in the lap of her TBA/greatgrandmother. The family tells us they plan to take her the 16 kilometers to the government hospital in Mysore that afternoon.