One Month in....

Welcome Back!

I’ve officially completed my fourth week here in Anadur, India.  And to tell you the truth, I’m loving it.  Now, I can’t say that I don’t miss the conveniences that city life brings – especially one in the US.  But it has been fantastic to get away and become more in tune to life without things I often take for granted: TV, air conditioning, forks...  You know.

I’ve finally gotten settled, got together a bit of a routine, and have started to make this little campus my home.

I'll start you off with a beautiful picture taken from
 the balcony at work.  This looks onto the front "lawn" of my NGO.

My Daily Schedule

-- 6:30am: The natural alarm clock of 3 barking dogs RIGHT outside my window begin.  If only other things in my life could be so constant.  I attempt to fall back asleep.

-- 7:30am: My electronic alarm clock goes off. 

-- 7:45am: I finish hitting the snooze button. 

-- 7:45 – 9:00am: Wake up, throw on some clothes, and run to the hot water tap with my two buckets: one for shower and one for laundry.  Cross my fingers that we have hot water today.

-- 9:00am SHARP: Whether I want to or not, I will get a fierce knocking on my door forcing me to breakfast.  It doesn’t matter that I’m in the middle of a Skype conversation, or need another five minutes to finish my shower, breakfast is currently being served and I need to be there.

Breakfast!  This dish is sushila, a puffed rice dish cooked 
with onions, chilis, peanuts, and turmeric.  Some lime on the side.  

-- 9:30am-ish – 1:00pm: Work.  I say 9:30 ish only because…by the time I get downstairs to the office and people actually start to show up.  What’s the difference, 9:30/10:00.  The Indian working environment is DEFINITELY different from the high-pressure, high-stress American one.  I have never felt so relaxed and at ease (the most stressed I’ve been is when I accidently misplaced my phone).  Some days are more productive than others.  Other days you might find me catching a few ZZZs in a corner chair.

The office!  As you can see, it's crowded at 10:00am.

-- 1:00pm: LUNCH…which I’m usually starving for.  And I have recently discovered probably the most ingenious thing: the afternoon nap.  By 1:30, I am sprawled on my bed, fast asleep for a nice 30 minute snooze.

-- 2:00 – 5:30pm: Let’s finish up this day!  Chit chat with the colleagues, get some work done. All in a day’s work.

-- 5:30pm: TEA TIME. A great afternoon break. 

-- 6:00 – 8:00pm: Relax from the day.  Usually I’ll hang around the campus, go for a walk, grab some personal internet time, or relax with my new friends on the campus.

-- 8:00pm: Dinner.  Same rules for breakfast apply here.  If I’m not at the mess by 8:00pm, someone’s coming for me.

-- 9:00pm: Back to my room, unwind, and get ready for bed.  Many of you have utilized this time to pester me with your Skype calls (actually, keep at it.  It might be the only thing keeping me sane).  I’ll grab a book, get some reading in, and just relax from the day.

-- 11:00 – 12:00am: Put up the mosquito net.  Turn on the electronic mosquito repellant coils.  Take my malaria pills. (Do I sound paranoid yet).  And sleep.

And it all starts over again.  Monday through Saturday, you’ll find me with the above routine.

My work

So I’m sure you are all very interested in learning what I’m actually doing here in India.  Well, I’ve just recently figured that one out myself (whew…) and I’m really looking forward to it.  My task (at least right now): to create a data management system so that my NGO can accurately/reliably track one of its programs.  In layman’s terms: create a monster excel spreadsheet that can store a lot of info.  In professional jargon, create a Management Information System (MIS).  The program I’m currently working on is a health/microfinance program, called “Women’s Empowerment”.  The idea is that women’s microfinance groups within villages can help empower women to better take charge of their health, local governance, domestic violence, etc. 

So, in order to learn more about current MIS systems in place, I traveled to Solapur (the closest city – 40 km away) to shadow coworkers in a project that works in the city’s slums.  The project encourages women’s microfinance groups within the slum to “adopt” pregnant women and ensure that they get proper prenatal and postnatal care.  I have to say, this has been one of the most sobering and fascinating experiences in my life.  Every person I met was happy to see/meet me and proud to show me the work that they had been doing.  Aside from the conditions of their homes or the depth of their bank accounts (which wasn't much), I felt a genuine sense of warmth from the community.  

Now, I want you to forget Slumdog Millionaire.  This isn’t Mumbai. The slums that I went to were not as destitute as the ones you are thinking of.  Many of Mumbai slums are illegal communities that spring up around the city.  Solapur's slums are legal (oxymoronic...I know).  And maybe it was because Solapur isn’t as poor (maybe?) or that I wasn’t taken to those slums specifically.  Most homes were concrete, or were mostly concrete with some corrugated metal roof/walls.  Main features were that: people were poor.  And people were lower caste.  I didn’t realize it, but caste is SUCH a major player here in India.  In one slum, the entire slum community was dalit (or community below the entire caste structure).  Interesting tidbit, they were mostly Buddhist.  Why?  My guess is that back in the 1950s, a very famous Dalit leader Dr. Ambedkar (who actually wrote the Indian Constitution) converted to Buddhism.  This prompted a lot of dalit communities to convert as well, hoping to leave the caste system behind.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and a lot of dalits still find themselves poor and excluded from most social/public roles.


I went with coworkers, meeting the contact people within the slums, and doing some home visits to pregnant women and recently delivered mothers.

A "candid" photo with members of the Ragwarda slum in Solapur.  
These women are a part of the local women's microfinance group. 

Grabbing some tea at a community volunteer's house in 
the Municipal Corporation slum before heading off to another 
Bachat Gat, or microfinance meeting.

A microfinance meeting at the Municipal Corporation slum. 
 Here, they are showing me how they explain to pregnant mothers
 about the need for good nutrition during pregnancy.  
As you can see, these meetings become a family affair.

Drinking some tea at the home of a recently delivered 
mother who had been "adopted" by the local microfinance 
group.    In this house, about 4 families live together.  
I think this stop was my 7th cup of tea for the afternoon.  
Each house would offer me a glass of water (which I would politely 
refuse - gotta play safe) and then boil me up some tea.  
I had to accept, otherwise it would have been impolite.

At another slum, a majority of the women generate income 
by making biddis, which are homemade cigarettes.  
A woman can make approximately 80 Rupees a day in such activities, 
approximately $1.60 USD.  Definitely not enough to cover the 
expenses of a home and family.  But this is one of the only 
professions limited to members of the community. 

Language

Well, I can carry on a simple conversation: ask about the village, your farm, questions about your marriage and kids.  I would consider this a HUGE success on my part, especially because I’m not receiving any real formal training in the language.  In the official NGO office, no one speaks fluent English.  So I need to learn Marathi out of necessity.  Fortunately, what I’ve found with Marathi (and I think this runs with Hindi too), is that about 5-10% of words are actually English crossovers (i.e. office, tension, project, etc).  So this makes things A LOT simpler. 

Last week, I went to a monthly meeting in Lohara (a neighboring county) with leaders of women’s microfinance groups of about 15 surrounding villages.  I went with the NGO’s accountant, who does speak English.  The meeting was in a city about 40km away.  However, it took over 2 hours to get there – by way of 2 buses and a stop for tea.  We arrived at the meeting site.  I gave my “Namaste”s around the room and sat on the floor.  During the course of the meeting, I mainly sat aside and watched as women discussed (in Marathi) issues in their villages with regards to local governing bodies, a health insurance scheme run by the NGO, microfinance issues, etc.  The accountant occasionally turned to me and translated so I understood the gist of what was going on.  As the meeting wound to a close and financial matters were being taken care of, the accountant looked at me and said “It’s your turn.”  I looked at him, “For what?”   “To speak.”  I think as punishment for being silent during the meeting, I was forced to speak to the group of 20 women before me…in Marathi.  Well, here I go.

The group of women village leaders during the meeting.  

So now, everyone in the Lohara area knows I come from America, am not married (I use my age as an excuse…but that usually doesn’t fly with most people. Marriage is early here), have an older brother who works in IT (sorry, closest I could get to what you actually do) and is also NOT married (a big shocker here), a father in IT, and a teacher mother who is now retired.  Yes, the Adelman life history has spread all across the Anadur/Lohara region.  And this is actually the course of most conversation I have, so I wouldn’t be surprised if all of Maharashtra knows by now.

And so the trip back to Anadur, I must share, took approximately 3 hours by way of 3 forms of transportation: shared jeep, shared rickshaw, private rickshaw.  Shared vehicles attempt to pack as many living bodies (notice I say living bodies and not people) into one transportation device as possible.  In the shared jeep we took, which should comfortably fit about 10 people, we had squeezed 19 people (4 of them being children), 5 crates of eggs, and a sack of potatoes.  On other vehicles I had seen goats and chickens as well.  I WISH I had a picture to share with you, put seeing as I had one leg out the back of the car and half a butt-cheek on a seat, I wasn’t able to reach my camera.  But I thought the mental picture might be enough.

Holidays

And just in case you were wondering, we’ve just finished celebrating two holidays here in India: Navratri and Dasserha.  Now, Navratri is actually a really really fun holiday filled with huge dance parties late into the night for 9 days straight.  However, it’s celebrated mainly in Gujarat (the state I had my orientation in) and major cities.  So, I wasn’t celebrated out here in rural Anadur. 

We did celebrate Dasserah, which is the same 9 days of Navratri plus one – 10 days total.  Now, I didn’t understand too much of why it’s celebrated, but most/some women fast for the 10 days.  On the 10^th day, everyone exchanges a certain kind of leaf and exchanges a Hindi greeting “Gold and Silver,” meaning our relationship will be like gold and silver (I think).  And on the 10^th day we ate some sweeter than usual food.  Here's a link to the Wikipedia post for more info if you're interested...

A Dassera Pooja, or place for prayer, in the home of a 
community volunteer at Municipal Corporation slum.

And so I’m sure you’ve read enough by now.  So I’ll cut it here.  But thanks for reading!  Some final pictures to leave you with...

I really do see some gorgeous sunsets here.  On my evening walk.

A picturesque view of the sky and farms.

Andrew

I thought I'd leave you with this happy picture.  
Sons of some of the volunteers of the Ragwarda 
slum. On the left, Abizek aged 8 and on the right 
Saheb aged 6.  It was Saheb's birthday!