final report on gujarat & my new (5th is it?) maid

I have returned from Gujarat in one peice. The last village I visited, Liya, was the most amazing of them all - the India I know and love. The village was located quite far away and could easily be the furthest I’ve ever been in rural areas. You could tell immediately that they were much poorer and had limited access to modern technology. even our cell phones stopped working as we got close!
I stayed in the car just to assess the situation and see if i could go out without being mobbed. The people would come up to the car window, stare, ask the driver why I was there and then carry on with their business. After a while of this I felt that they were mellow, respectful people and that it would be safe to get out!!
I sat near the interviewers trying to see if things were going ok. Soon a local lady sat down with me to keep me company. She was trying her hardest to speak to me, I tried my Hindi, but she didn’t understand anything but their local gujarati. So i started teaching her some english words. She was so excited to be able to communicate with me a bit! And of course this drew a crowd pretty quickly - but they all gave me plenty of space and were very quiet and respectful. And maybe I just wasn’t as tired too, so I really enjoyed interacting with the village. We took photos and then they all waved our car off into the dark.

Then I headed back to Mumbai the following morning, completely exhausted! First thing back I had to clean the house and then interview maids. (the last maid ruined several of folo’s shirts that we just bought in dubai and when I got mad at her for it, she quit — but her sister has continued to recommend people to me which has been great.)
This current maid - Collette, isn’t the best, but has a few perks so I must keep her at whatever cost!!! First, she lives only 3 blocks away from me, so during the rains there will be no excuse of why she can’t come and there will never be “traffic” delay excuses for being late or not showing up. and 2, she seems to be very fond of the cats and thinks about them a lot - even leaving out toys for them to play with when I am gone! She isn’t the best cleaner, but she has never worked for a foreigner before so I think she will just take time to learn how to do things properly. She also speaks/reads english well, and is happy working here all day long for the same pay as the other lady was for half day. She also has told me that if I have people over at night to just call her and she will come over to help out. So we shall see… although today she left an hour early… i’ve not been home all week with her, so I think she was getting used to being able to do her own thing, but today I came home early and she was gone…. I won’t get mad though —just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again!
I can’t afford to lose this maid - we really need someone who will be close to the house and reliable for when we are in the US this summer - we will be gone during the worst part of monsoon when many of the roads are flooded, so I need to make sure someone is close enough to come each day, twice to look after the cats!
and work is killing me still - i am just now starting to catch up on sleep — too many 20 hr days with little break. Tomorrow i have a volunteer coming so still another working weekend. i really do need a holiday, but I can’t imagine howmuch work will pile up when I’m gone, so i’d rather stay put until my big summer US trip!!!thats all from the wonderful world of slaint.

like a monkey in a zoo

For many months now I have been working on a project that is looking at the effect small businesses have on rural poverty. After months of waiting and working, I am finally at the stage to conduct interviews. And of course this being India, nothing goes as smoothly as you hope! I have a company helping me with the logistics, they said for me to just arrive and they would have everything sorted. So i quickly booked the only train ticket I could and headed off to Gujarat a day later.
After 12 hours of travelling (5 am - 3 pm) I finally arrived at my destination, several hours late of course. And what do you know… the company hasn’t made any of the arrangements! grr. But I managed to get it all pieced together in a few hours - interviewers, hotel, car and contacts to help us along the way. So the following morning we head off bright and early for rural Gujarat - a 5.5 hr drive from the semi-rural area I was in. It was nice scenery and I got to eat my favorite gujarati foods along the way so I was relatively happy.
Upon arrival we found that a hotel was not booked for us like we thought and the ones recommended were full. I think it is better that way though as we got a different one that is pretty comfy for the 250 (5 dollars) a night we are paying. And amazingly my wireless internet card works here, whereas it didn’t in the larger city!After 6 hours on the road our day didn’t officially begin until we arrived. It was to be another long day.
The project I’m working on is with a company that makes products for dairy collection centres and our main contact was the “chilling” centre where the milk is taken until it goes to the large dairy. They were quite helpful which was nice and they enjoyed hearing my few bits of gujarati.
Now on the road again - another 40 km to reach our destination. We arrived in a cute little village called Sara. Everyone was very friendly, too friendly if i were to be honest. Basically my arrival created absolute chaos in the town. I was the first foreigner to ever visit there, so I of course was the main attraction. The interviewers had previously thought that my precense would assist them, but they soon learned that I was going to be more of a hinderance than anything! After about 1 hr of chatting, drinking tea, being show people’s homes and the local temple, we were finally allowed to set out working. This turned out to be bad actually as that hour gave everyone enough time to inform the entire village that I was there. After about 1.5 hrs of being mobbed by people I had just about had enough of being surrounded by hundreds (literally) or old men, young men, children, women and even a few animals. They wouldn’t speak to me so much as they would just stare. Ok. I understand this is their first time seeing a foreigner, but get a good look and then carry on!!!
And since I was the main attraction I had to stay far away from the interviews going on so the work could continue.. even though I needed to be there to train them properly! I was being shuffled from one location to another trying to escape the crowds. I even went into a lady’s home and locked the door to no avail. Somehow within minutes the house was full of people again. I was sat in a chair on a ledge while they all sat below me like I was the teacher - except nothing was happening except staring!
And then, still with enough of this nonsense I went to the car and tried to hide there. It was just as bad. They all surrounded the car and just stared some more. oh and along with the staring comes the laughing at everything I do or say. So there I was a monkey in a cage. Now I really feel sorry for animals in zoos!
After 3 hours of this we escaped with not so great interviews, pure exhaustion and hunger!So today, at our 4 a.m. wakeup call, it was decided that I would stay out of sight so the interviews could be conducted. But it was early morning so I didn’t cause so much chaos!! Still word travelled fast and by the time we left i again had a circle of people around me. This continued all day as we went from village to village. I wish i could interact with the locals more, but it becomes so exhausting to just be stared at and asked where i’m from!
Tonight we’ll do it all again and then I’m leaving back to Mumbai tomorrow. I am sure the interviewers will be happy to see me gone - it will make their job much easier in many ways. But for this effort, I have enjoyed seeing the rural areas. Compared to other rural areas in India, Gujarat is much better off.now for my 1 hour nap before being put on display again!

life

the day after seeing the Dalai Lama I was invited to hear Muhummad Yunus, the current Nobel Peace Prize winner speak. What a week - 2 nobel prize winners. It was really great to hear him speak about how businesses can be built with the poorest of the poor in mind. After all that excitement last week I’ve done very little!
I did start an online cat group to try to bring together cat lovers of Mumbai. My vet keeps telling me that I need to start something for the cats of Mumbai. Amazingly there are no organizations dedicated to the care of stray cats, although there are many for the stray dogs. I think this is due to the fact that cats are hidden much more often and people don’t see them as a menace. But I have a cat eye and somehow manage to find/see cats all over the place! Last week the shop owner across the street said “I have something for you” to which I was terribly puzzled… and then he pulled out a baby kitten that looked just like Ginger Masala! I was worried about what I would do with another kitten… i’m quickly running out of homes to place these little guys in! Luckily the guy who owns the juice shop next door was interested in this little “garam” masala.But this again made me realize that I need to bring together the cat friendly people of the city. I can’t really start a home for cats, so I thought the first step in an eventual organization would be to bring people together online. so far its starting slowly with only 4 members… but I will give out the info to the local vets and pet stores, so hopefully people will join!
My maid quit — again. I must be a monster. well I know why she quit. She ruined 3 new shirts of folo’s (that we just bought in Dubai) and I yelled at her. She said she had never been yelled at before - and I said I had never had a maid ruin clothes before!! And of course, she didn’t come in yesterday. She still has the house key which is a bit worrisome… but hopefully I can get it back soon.
And now, I am off to Gujarat again for work. Not sure if I will have internet or not. Will update you when i return.

his holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am fascinated by the Dalai Lama and all things buddhist/chinese/tibetan. One of my first trips abroad was to China where I fell in love with monks and buddhist temples. When I first came to India, one of my first stops was to Dharmsala where the Dalai Lama has lived in exile since 1959. My friend Melissa and I were present during a rally for the Panchan lama (which I am sure you can read about here in the archives of March/April 2004) who has been missing for many years. The Panchan lama is the successor of the Dalai Lama in the way that he is the one who carries out the search for the new Dalai Lama incarnation. Since he has been missing (captured by the Chinese govt) it is wondered and been said that this Dalai Lama could be the last. I don’t know if this means the end of Buddhism how we know it or not. But it often fills me with great sadness to know that this could be the end of the line. The Dalai Lama is so peaceful and tries to bring all people together with the principles he knows are present in all religions.
Anyway, you can imagine my excitement upon hearing that the Dalai Lama would be speaking in Mumbai. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go hear him speak. He’s really a lovable guy - just like I had seen on tv and heard. He laughs all the time, smiles and is just a regular person who happens to also be extraordinary. His talk focused on inner peace, talking a lot about education and its importance. He believes that secular ethics needs to be taught in schools - that most religions believe in the same practices of honesty, compassion, etc and that these need to be taught to all not just in a religious frame of mind. During the answer and question series, he was faced with some difficult questions on the rail link to tibet, the current status of secularism in India, how to deal with personal anger, etc. He was very honest in saying he didn’t know the answer to many, but would give his perspective on most. It was quite good, but long and hot! It was unfortunate that the talk was given in the middle of the day - meaning that many people were unable to attend due to work committments. But nevertheless, it was filled with tons of foreigners, upper class Indians and tibetans. I don’t know if the Tibetans were able to understand the talk though as it was given in English. He will be speaking throughout the World in the coming year, so if he is close to your town you should go listen!
I didn’t come away filled with peace, but was excited that I had the opportunity to see him in person at least once in my life. Now I must get to Tibet before it is too badly corroded with the new train line.
Its been a busy an active week. Now I must focus on work and get back into the swing of things there before time gets away from me!