1985: WHO in India

I accepted a job as a social scientist for the World Health Organization Southeast Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. The office covered eleven countries, including North Korea. I got a hands-on crash course in a wide range of public health topics, including HIV/AIDS, immunization, sanitation, maternal health, and tropical diseases. I have a large collection of photos from this phase of my life that I call my “statue phase”: I’m usually the only woman in a group of serious-looking men standing in orderly rows. When I wore a sari, locals thought I was from Nepal, the Indian hill tribes, or Tibet.