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Nepal By Aviva Zohar Fohrer (Class of 2003)
At another village we found out that the women there were of a lower caste and both smoked and chewed tobacco. They smoked out of a pipe called a Concod, which is much like the Hukka used by the Bedoiuns in Israel. This concod is a carved-out coconut shell with a wooden stem that has a tobacco filled bowl on top. To smoke out of it, the women hold the coconut with one hand while the other is used to cup around the hole on the other side while they inhale. They suck and exhale suck and exhale while clouds of smoke billow around them. I showed them a couple of photos from my digital camera and they all wanted me to take their picture smoking out of the concod. Not exactly my idea of promotion of tobacco cessation. Since arriving, I was placed in the Ob/Gyn ward and have had quite a few interesting experiences. What first struck me was the flip-flops that everyone wears both in the labor and delivery room and in the OR (here called OT: operating theatre). People take their shoes and socks off and put on the blue rubber flip flops to enter those areas. It takes getting used to and I still feel odd being almost barefoot while delivering a baby. Yes, I have been able to deliver and I found it interesting that here they give women episiotomies for every first delivery they have. There are daily power outages and it is not an uncommon occurance to have the power go out in the middle of surgery, as happened during a hysterectomy I was in two days ago. Everyone takes it in stride and pause to wait for the electricity to go back on while I felt my blood pressure rising while this woman lay on the table in the middle of surgery. |
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I am writing from the town of Ineruwa, which is about one hour southwest from Daharan. This is a smaller town with a health clinic that services a large variety of people from the Terai region. As part of my research project, I have been in a 8 kilometer radius from the health clinic surveying women and their attitudes and knowledge of the effects of smoking during pregnancy. After speaking with 60 women I have a small taste of what the women in this low valley region think about smoking and chewing tobacco. This project has given me a wonderful glimpse into, not only health beliefs, but also village life in general.