Karambayam village

After a day spent in the Big Smoke of Thanjavur, today headed out to the field. It took about 3 hours of frantic driving to get there. Driving here is a fascinating experience in its frequent brush with death as all traffic ignore all possible rules all the time. Drivers weave in and out, honk every few seconds and nearly run over passengers around every bend. First stop in Karambayam was the library, a modest building near the village entrance.
Let me take a step back and explain what we were doing in Karambayam. I am working as an intern for ICTPH, an Indian not-for-profit research center that aims to improve the health of the poor through innovative healthcare delivery and technology. Sugha Vazhvu is a project that aims to increase healthcare access for the rural communities through creating rural health "kiosks" staffed by local women that work as nurse-practitioners. Currently, we are at the stage of the project where we are surveing the healthcare needs of these rural communities. Karambayam is one of two villages that we are surveing.
We met with a GFK rep who is conducting parts of our surveys. By the way, yes, we did ask why the library did not contain any books and we were told that the books were ordered & that they are in transit.

We hired a car and a loud speaker actor (? for lack of better terms) to go around the village to round up the folks.

While the loud speaker car was making its rounds, we pulled out supplied from our car to set up.

We had one set-up with 2 nurses and a male aid in one corner of the village.

I preferred the outdoor set-up as it was much cooler with the breeze. Here is our nurse checking a few simple labs of the folks.

I kept wondering where the children were because I only saw adults in line at our little booths. Before the end of the day, I located them having recess at the school.