another Tamil Nadu trip

I have again just returned from Tamil Nadu. Seems that is the only time I write. I guess the reason might be that Mumbai seems too “normal” to me that i only find things to talk about when I get out of the city!
Again I was in TN for work, but as usual its always exciting! This time I was there for a conference/workshop that Dasra helped organize for a donor organization in the US. The theme was “Recovery & Renewal” bringing together organizations from all over the world. There were 6 countries represented - US (Hurricane Katrina), Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka (Indian Ocean Tsunami) and Pakistan (Earthquake). After 6 weeks of talking to all of these people online or on the phone, it was great to finally meet them in person. I was in charge of logistics which meant I was busy running from one place to another for most of the week, but it also enabled me to interact with people on a different level which was nice. It was great to see newcomers thoughts and feelings about India as well. I am too used to life here that I forget about the little silly things that are so different to others coming for the first time.
It was also a really moving experience — hearing the tales that each of these organizations had from their disaster. I, along with many other people, was quite shocked at how devasted the Katrina areas still are in the US. It is shocking to think that a developing country like India can get back to normal so quickly when the richest country in the world is still strugling to get back to normal. It was heartbreaking to be honest. I can definitely see how the people in Louisana and Mississippi feel like the rest of the country has ignored them. The are overwhelmingly poor (or so it seemed from the video we were show) and/or minorities.
I can’t really seem to put into words all that was said and experienced during the week, but I think for many people it was a once in a life time opportunity and I was extremely grateful to be part of it and part of making it a success. I have tons of photos that I will try to get to in the next week or so (before my next trip to TN!)!
And.. the countdown has begun… 6 more weeks until I get to the US. I am totally looking forward to it. I will be in Mumbai for 2 weeks, then to TN for 2 weeks, then back here for 2 weeks before heading off. Busy busy, but happy as can be!

why is the doll walking and talking? - life in rural tamil nadu

I’ve just returned from a wonderful 11 days in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is the southern most state in India on the Eastern coast. This is also the area that was hit by the Tsunami in December 2004. I started my journey in Chennai for a 3 day “Community Exchange Review”. One of the things that Dasra does is brings communities and NGOs together to learn from one another, rather than think that we are the experts. They know their areas and the work they do and are best able to share that knowledge with other groups similar to themselves. For one of our grants, we have conducted 6 community to community learning exchanges — so this was a “review” of those - bringing together all of the stakeholders to find out what has been done since the exchange, what ways we could make it better, etc. It was interesting - but difficult for me to follow as it was all in Tamil (the local language; which is completely different than Hindi).
After this, I went with our Tamil Nadu Coordinator Vana and a potential donor to see several projects that we work with. The first was called ROSE and was located in Puddhokotti. We visited women self help groups that are formed to help the women save money, fight for their rights and attempt to uplift their communities. We visited two different groups - one that has worked to buy some land so that they can cut the rock on it to sell (by cut I mean, with a sledge hammer - getting it into small peices to be used for construction works throughout the state), the other was a group who has been formed to work on issues affecting their village. After only one day/night there, we headed to Madurai. I had been there before with Tina almost 3 years ago. I still remembered most of it, which was shocking considering I had only been there for 2 days in the past.
I stayed in a new area that had the best coffee stall ever! I am not normally a coffee drinker, but for some reason I love the South Indian filter coffee. so good! I went there every morning before we set off to the villages.
Outside of Madurai is a town called Usilimpatti, which is known for high rates of female infanticide (killing born or unborn female children). I wasn’t terribly impressed with the organization, but was very moved by what goes on in this area and how the NGOs are trying to educate people to stop this practice. Its done all over India and has been going on for a long time. In 1993 a law was passed forbidding doctors to reveal the gender of unborn babies. This hasn’t stopped anyone though - the rate of female to male children has continued to drop in India since that law. In 2001, it was at 927 females to 1000 males. One of the reasons this is done is because of the dowry system (where the parents of females must pay the male’s family in order to have them married). Often the prices are ridiculously high and people cannot afford it so rather than put themselves at financial risk later on, they abort female babies. so sad.
Then I visited Vana’s organization, which works with Dalit children in rural areas, providing education and to some extent lessons on rights. (Dalits are considered “untouchable” in the Indian Caste System. This system was outlawed but continues to thrive in villages and even in most cities). Here i was able to interact with some truly lovely children who were all very excited to see a foreigner!
Instead of having a day off, we had to take the overnight bus to another small town in Nagapattinum district. Here I was able to meet with several organizations working with tsunami victims. The work here was very interesting. most of the projects we saw worked with Dalits in agriculture or with fisherman. It was interesting to see what has happened since most of hte larger NGOs have left. They have left people with new homes, new boats and a feeling of “expectancy” — they think that NGOs are there to hand out things to them. Of course the ones we work with are not like that and follow the motto “it is better to teach someone to fish so they can feed themselves for life, than to give them a fish for only one meal” They have faced quite a bit of difficulty in getting people’s support for their programs, but it is slowly coming around. And it was interesting to see that people are still living in temporary housing - which consists of tin shacks. New homes are being built, but they are being built 3 km from the shore, which most are opposed to since their livlihood is fishing. So many of the people we met have refused to move and are staying in their temporary housing.
And then on to my favorite of all — a programme working with Muslim girls who were affected by the tsunami. This programme is teaching the girls how to do tailoring and embroidery. Since in the Muslim custom, women are not usually allowed out of the home much, these skills can enable them to work from home but still make a livable income. The girls are from 14-22 years. They were really quite amazing girls. Very shy and reserved for a bit, but once I sat down on the floor with them and tried to talk they really started opening up. It was so hard to leave after spending the day with them. I really became attached to several of them. The girls even put me in a burkha! I actually really one — even though it was hot, it felt nice because it was tight around my head.
The trip was really informative and just a great experience all together. One of our Tamil Nadu team members, Parthiban was my guide, translator, body guard, server and of course friend. We had a really good time together which made the trip even better. He was amazed at how people stared at me constantly and reacted to me. One little girl even said “Why is the doll talking and walking?”. Haha.. This completely explains the varied reactions I get from children throughout India. Some are absolutely terrified of me, while others love me right away. On one of our visits to a home in the rural areas, the family had a poster of a white baby on the wall — I guess for decoration. But this also gave me the sense of why these children feel frightened when something they have only seen as inanimate objects are actually alive!
Throughout my trip the NGOs we met asked for more and more assistance, so hopefully I will be back there for another 2 weeks in May. I really enjoyed it, even though I was boiling hot the entire time. I checked the weather on the plane yesterday coming back to Mumbai and it said that Chennai (the big city in TN) was 38 degrees (100.4 degrees farenheight) with 64% humidity! Mumbai was only at 28 (84 F) with 44% humidity — which I thought was unbearable when I left! Now it feels nice in Mumbai — but I know it won’t last.. I will be complaining about it again in a few days as soon as the “cool” feeling wears off and I get more used to it.
So thats all from here.. I could write for days on this trip, but that gives you the jist of it….

work and more work

I can’t believe its been so long since I last updated. After coming back from our trip I have been swamped at work (both jobs) and have had very little time to myself. And now I am out of town on the start of my 11 day trip to Tamil Nadu (South India) for Dasra. But since i last wrote, i celebrated my 1 yr anniversary for Mumbai Daily Photo. I can’t believe its been going on for only a year! Its a fun task, but sometimes stressfull, especially when I am out of town and have to find other people to post. thank goodness stacie and i seem to have completely opposite travel schedules (well good for MDP, but not good for us finding time to hang out!)
I finally found time for a much needed haircut. got a cute do — its becoming blonde again and now the bottom is dark brown (well for a few days at least until it fades to my normal colour!) Folo also got a much needed haircut. its totally cute and hip.. probably should have taken a photo so we can try for it again in the next 6 months when he decides to cut it again!
besides that.. nothing else has been happening but work work work. and the next 10 days of this trip will be lots of work as well, but is a trip i have been looking forward to for a while. But… The trip didn’t start off too well, but i’m hoping its going to improve as it goes along! On my 6:50 a.m. flight, in which I hoped to sleep as I had only gotten 3 1/2 hrs, i was sitting next to a very large man (not fat necessarily, just large) who took up his entire seat and half of mine. So i was crunched into a weird position the entire flight not able to sleep a wink. Finally got off the flight to sit in traffic for 2 hours to try to reach my destination — it was boiling hot and i had no water or anything. But i made it and asked for some water at the hotel only to find out that they do not keep any beverages on site and their “errand” boy was gone for the day. grr… and the room’s ac doesn’t really work, nor do the lights AND to top it all off, there are no English tv channels!! haha.
But the reason i’m here is to participate in a review of community exchanges (where one community teaches another community some skill). It is all in Tamil (the local language), so i’ve not picked up much, but when I have its been interesting.
Tomorrow will be another long day — conference for the first half of the day then a 6 hr train ride followed by a 2 hr car ride. It seems that everyday I will be moving around quite a bit, but I hope to be able to find some time to take photos. so far i’ve not had the time, but perhaps i will when i’m in the rural areas. I really need to come to tamil nadu on my own some time so i can take photos.. there seem to be interesting photos everywhere!

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!