Monday, March 9, 2009

Research topics

Hi everyone!

First off, I'm also interested in staying in Delhi for a few days after the trek (I am NOT leaving India without seeing the Taj Mahal {side, side note - listen to Sam Roberts' song called Taj Mahal. It's not about India, but it's really good!})

Okay I do actually have something significant to post...

Research topics! Originally I wanted to look into traditional medicine and how people use it and perceive it. However, I think I would be more interested exploring spiritual health (i.e. health of the spirit - not necessarily religious) in the region we will be visiting, noting how people feel about spiritual health, the institutions that cater to a person's spiritual health, who attends to their personal spiritual health (the rich? the educated? young people? old people?), and how the recognition of spiritual health is incorporated into the daily life of the individual, family and community. Those are just a few of my questions :). I find spiritual health particularly interesting because of how differently we care for our spiritual health in North America (or arguably, don't care for it at all). During my stay with an aboriginal family in Ecuador, one of the most noticeable differences between our societies was their recognition and respect for a person's emotional component. In fact, one of the trip coordinators had done an exchange in Canada and absolutely hated it! He said that he felt like people closed away their emotional part, and he could not live that way.

I would love to share more with you later, but I have to go meet you all now :D

Lots of Love,

Meghan

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