So I fell in a rice paddy...

...more on that later.

On Friday we took a day trip to Kanchipuram, which is a few hours away from MCC.  Our first stop was at a sari shop.  Several girls bought saris to wear for Diwali.  Sari buying is a really complicated process...first you have to pick out the actual sari that you want, then the blouse piece and skirt have to match.  Amazingly we got out of the store in about an hour and managed to buy saris for 10 girls.  We ate lunch at this really good vegetarian restaurant.  It might have been the best food I've had yet.  I shared cashewnut naan, cauliflower curry, and some kind of vegetable dumpling curry with Serena.

After lunch we stopped by a weaver's house and watched some men making wedding saris.  It was incredible to see them making the fabric by hand.  The machine was so intricate and complicated.  We also stopped by a potter's house and watched him throw pots and jars.  Some of the girls in the group tried their hand at throwing pots too.

Okay, now for the rice paddy story.
On the way back from the potter's we stopped to look at a rice paddy.  We were walking out on a small strip of solid ground and somehow I managed to slip in the ditch and fall into the rice paddy.  And then I fell in again while I was trying to get out.  I only got a little mud on my shoes, but after that I was pretty much done with looking at rice.  And apparently Suresh got a picture of it.  How nice of him.

The next stop was at the beedi (cigarettes)  maker's house.  Since I had no interest in smoking, I took pictures of the village kids.  They absolutely loved having their photos taken.  It was super cute.  Our final stop was to see a dance performance arranged by Suresh's in-laws.  It was pretty incredible.  I can't even imagine all the practice it must take to do that.  We finally got around to dinner at 9:00 and didn't get back to MCC until 1:00 in the morning.  All in all it was a pretty good day.

On Saturday we slept in and headed into the city of Chennai after lunch.  We stopped at a musical instrument shop and then we went to the mall.  It was pretty much like an American mall, but there was a weird mix of Western and Indian stores.

I'll try to get some pictures up later...

Pondicherry

On Thursday we left for a weekend trip to Pondicherry.  The first stop was at DakshinaChitra, a living museum of the culture and architecture of southern India.  We walked through various styles of houses and looked at cool old stuff.  It was a really neat way to display the culture of the area.  Much more interesting than walking through a normal museum. 

DakshinaChitra

After that we traveled to Crocodile Bank and looked at more species of crocodiles than I ever needed to see in this lifetime.  We also saw some snakes and turtles and other reptile-y things.  Then we went to a super fancy hotel and spent the afternoon in the pool, which was nice after walking around in the heat most of the morning.

Friday we saw the temples at Mamallapuram, which have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The temples were really neat and each of the panels told a different story, but there were A LOT of them.  We also stopped at the Five Rathas (more temples) and Shore Temple.  That night we stayed at the Dune Eco Resort, which also had a nice pool. 

Temple at Mamallapuram

On Saturday we went to Auroville, which is a SUPER weird hippie attempt at a utopian society, although I'm pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate me calling it that.  It's a community dedicated to achieving human unity, which is a neat idea, but they're still kind of weird.  They call the woman who founded the community "the Mother."  If that's not creepy, I don't know what is.  They also have a giant golden ball where they do meditation.  We weren't allowed in.  It was also an  interesting place because there were so many different countries represented in the population living there.  I think it was more of a melting pot than the US.

Matrimandir aka completely unnecessary giant golden ball

They were doing some good things at Auroville.  We visited a place called Upasana, a social business that tries to help men and women gain livelihood.  That was nice.

On Sunday we went to the ashram of the man who inspired "the Mother" to build Auroville.  I think we saw his body and people were sitting around it.  We also got blessed by an elephant, which was...cool and sad.  After checking into the hotel in Pondicherry and eating lunch we went shopping all afternoon.

On Monday we visited Neyveli Lignite Mines, which I didn't think would be that interesting, but was actually pretty cool.  It was a huge open pit mine and we got to go into the mine and see the areas undergoing reclamation after mining. 

On Tuesday we saw Chidambaram, a really big temple and Pichavaram, a mangrove forest.  We got to ride on a boat through the forest, which was fun.  Then we came back to MCC.

"Even the weeds are pretty!"

The title is courtesy of Tori.  :)
Yesterday after class we visited an orphanage where the children are raised in a family setting.  They are placed with a mother and siblings and also participate in the larger community life of the orphanage.  The orphanage will continue to support them until they get married or become independent because they have a job.  It was an interesting way of running an orphanage that is so different from the way we normally think about orphaned kids.  On the way back from the orphanage, some guy on a motorcycle definitely tried to pick me up.  I said no.  (Don't worry mom, I wasn't in any real danger...there were other people around).  In the afternoon Caitlin, Brooks, Serena, and I tramped around campus.

We wanted to see the MCC farm, but it was closed, so instead we went exploring around the campus.  There was a lot of nature happening.  And a lot of bugs who decided I would be a tasty afternoon snack.  Which is unfortunate for me.

Today we went clothes shopping in the afternoon and stopped for some more soft drinks from the store on the way back.  Then Luke and I dragged a group of people through the chemistry building because we really wanted to see the labs.  Luckily we ran into the chemistry lab store room guy and he showed us around to everything.  We saw an organic/inorganic lab, a physical chemistry lab, and the chemical room.  It was pretty cool.  I miss chemistry a whole lot, so it was nice to see something familiar.    

12 people. 1 rickshaw. no big deal.

This morning was our first day of lecture.  That was cool.  After lunch we sat around for a long time and talked about how we needed to exchange money and buy some supplies at Pick and Pack (aka the convenience store) down the street.  .......four hours later we finally headed out to the bank.  We decided to go by auto rickshaw.  So naturally we piled 20 people into two rickshaws.  Naturally.

This is pretty much what they look like.  I think there were 12 people in ours.  Maybe.  Anyway, it was a lot of people in a tiny space.

We arrived at the bank safely, although I was kind of scared we were going to lose Katie, because she was barely inside.  But we made it.  It took forever to exchange all our money.  No surprises there.  So we were just chilling at the bank for a good hour and a half.  Maybe longer.  Fun fun.  Then we went for ice cream!  :)  Then we went to the store to get some shampoo and soap.  AND SPRITE.  I've really missed soft drinks the past few days, so that was nice.  And that's pretty much the day!

Introduction to India

Day 1:
We left for the Greenville airport at 7:30 on Thursday morning.  And didn't arrive in India until 4:00 Saturday morning.  Oh, the joys of flying.  First we had a 6 hour layover in the Dulles airport and I thought I might actually die of boredom.  Then we got diverted from landing in Chennai because a plane had skidded off the runway and they couldn't get it cleared in time.  So we took a surprise trip to Bangalore to get fuel.  And finally, 4 hours behind schedule, we landed in Chennai.  We didn't get to Madras Christian College until around 6, so we had a snack and Caitlin and I took a much needed nap.  (Which is why there are no pictures of me up yet, Megan).

After napping all morning, we wandered around campus.  We saw the trash heap.  That was lovely.  We also walked by the cricket fields and "we were so hot, we got whistled at" (quote courtesy of Caitlin).  The first of many whistles, I'm sure.  Later in the afternoon we went to a John Lennon tribute concert put on by the MCC students.  It was pretty awesome except I was so tired I almost fell asleep a few times.  And then we went to bed at 8:30 and slept for 11 1/2 hours.  "It was glorious" (also courtesy of Caitlin).  Except the bed feels like you're sleeping on a ream of paper.

Day 2:
After breakfast we all headed out to the market.  It reminded me a lot of markets in Malaysia except everything seems so much less permanent.  We saw some cows.  Traffic was scary - but kind of what I expected....crossing the street was....fun.  The best part was going in the air conditioned department store.  I forgot how awful the heat and humidity would be.  And how much I love air conditioning.  We came back from the market and Caitlin and I collapsed under the fan in our room.  In the afternoon we met our MCC "buddies" and they took us around campus.  Then we had dinner at the Principal's (aka the President of the college) house.

So to sum up: In the last two days, there's been lots of sleeping, we've taken a lot of showers, and we haven't done any homework.  Which, to borrow from Caitlin, is glorious.  

The Role of Selenium in Human Health

Humans contain roughly 20 mg of selenium distributed throughout the body (Combs, 2005).  The element is usually incorporated into proteins.  Due to the size similarities between selenium and sulfur atoms, selenium can be incorporated into amino acids, replacing the sulfur that naturally exists in sulfur-containing amino acids (Combs, 2005).  These selenoamino acids can then be integrated into a variety of proteins (Combs, 2005).  Two types of selenoamino acids exist.  Selenocysteine and selenomethionine are both incorporated into proteins, but only selenocysteine amino acids have a physiological function (Combs, 2005).  In the body selenium-containing proteins provide antioxidant protection, redox regulation, and thyroid hormone regulation (Combs, 2005).  The antioxidant properties of selenium are extremely important in counteracting diseases involving oxidative stress (Rayman, 2008).  Selenoproteins are also necessary to prevent neurological dysfunction and brainstem degeneration (Rayman, 2008).  

Selenium can play an influential role in a variety of health issues and disease states.  Studies have shown that addition of selenium in the diet can improve immune response even in healthy individuals (Rayman, 2008).  Through the use of animal models, researchers have shown that selenium supplementation may play an important role in preventing HIV from mutating to a more powerful and dangerous form, and it may be possible that supplementation is necessary because retroviruses deplete their host’s stock of selenium so they can incorporate it into their own selenoproteins (Rayman, 2008).  Selenium intake may also influence the reproductive health of men and women.  Men’s fertility can be improved and women’s risk of miscarriage and pre-eclampsia can be reduced by increasing selenium intake (Rayman, 2008).  Selenium may also have a role in the reduction of cancer risk.  Current research has suggested that selenium metabolites may prevent cancer by inducing apoptosis in cancerous cells and inhibiting tumor cell invasion (Combs, 2005; Rayman, 2008).  

The major species of selenium available in food determines what humans consume and accumulate within the body.  The available species of selenium also govern the element’s final destination and the body’s use of the element (Rayman, 2008).  For example, selenium obtained from broccoli (Se-methyl-selenocysteine) cannot accumulate in the tissues, nor does it have a significant physiological function (Rayman, 2008).  However selenomethionine which originates from cereals or yeast can accumulate in proteins and be stored for long periods of time, allowing it to be used to maintain selenium levels throughout the body (Rayman, 2008).

Selenium in humans may be derived from meat, shellfish, nuts, whole grains, beans, peas, lentils, or fortified breakfast materials (Combs, 2005).  Humans generally ingest selenium from plants.  The uptake of selenium by plants depends upon the amount present in the soil (Rayman, 2008).  The bioavailability of selenium to plants is controlled by concentration within the surrounding soil, pH and redox conditions, the amount of organic matter present, bacterial activity, and mineralogy among many other factors (Rayman, 2008).  Within the soil, selenium levels vary because organic matter, iron hydroxides, and clay minerals can bind selenium removing it from the cycle of uptake by plants (Rayman, 2008).  Additionally the particular species of selenium – determined by pH and redox conditions – present in soil affects the mobility of the element and bioavailability (Rayman, 2008).  Therefore high levels of selenium in soil do not always result in selenium-rich crops, because the element may not be present in a form that can be used by the plant (Rayman, 2008).  

Different plant species vary in the efficiency of their uptake of selenium.  Some plants that accumulate selenium in significant amounts include Brazil nuts, broccoli, cabbage, garlic, and onions, all of which can contain up to 40,000 μg Se/g dry weight (Rayman, 2008).  Cereals like wheat, oats, rye, and barley are non-accumulating crops; therefore they uptake relatively small amounts of selenium, no more than 100 μg Se/g dry weight (Rayman, 2008).  The amount of selenium present in foods varies by country and region from excessively toxic amounts to inadequate quantities.  Countries such as the United Kingdom, where selenium levels are low in plants, have begun supplementing animal feed with the element to increase human intake (Rayman, 2008).  

Humans can suffer from both a deficiency in selenium and an excessive intake of selenium.  Insufficient levels of selenium can cause cardiomyopathy, the deterioration of the heart muscle, possibly in conjunction with the mutated Coxsackie virus (Rayman, 2008).  This condition, known as Keshan disease, is mainly prevalent in north-east China, however the cardiomyopathy of some Western patients has been associated with a lack of selenium in the intravenous nutrients provided (Rayman, 2009).  Selenium toxicity is much less common than deficiency and symptoms of excessive selenium intake include hair loss, and brittle, thickened and stratified nails (Rayman, 2009).  Chronic ingestion of high levels of selenium may lead to skin rash, weakness, tingling sensation, and diarrhea (Combs, 2005).  Therefore selenium, like most nutrients must be consumed in the proper amounts or health problems could ensue.  However the determination of a recommended daily intake of selenium is difficult due to the numerous factors that influence regulation of the element (Rayman, 2009).  Advisory bodies must weigh both the benefits and the risks in order to determine an appropriate threshold level of intake.

References:

Combs, G.F. (2005) Geological Impacts on Nutrition. In Stone, D. Essentials of Medical Geology. Elsevier.

Rayman, M.P. (2008) Food-Chain Selenium and Human Health: Emphasis on Intake. British Journal of Nutrition. 100, 254-268.