Sorry I Didn't Bring a Camera

I can’t believe that I have been here for five weeks now. I can vividly remember my first hour in Udaipur thinking what did I get myself into? It’s amazing what just a few weeks can do to change your mind set. I made India my home and no longer feel like an outsider. I still get the daily cat calls and awkward stares as locals see this good looking American walk around the streets, but I embrace it and enjoy the attention. It’s all about stepping outside of my comfort zone. I explored my new surroundings and engaged with the people. I would have never become acclimated to this new environment had I stayed inside all day watching American movies. Once I got past the awkward encounters I realized that every person here is kind hearted and show a genuine interest in our American culture. This is such a great place to be it’s sad I only have four weeks left.
I had a great week in Karawara working alongside Lokesh. I think we were both motivated by the short time I have remaining in India. We created an entirely new youth project that involved capacity building activities and computer based learning exercises for the young men in the village. We sought out multiple funding agencies and are awaiting replies. On Wednesday we hosted a fun art activity with many of the children. Approximately 20 kids showed up to draw and paint pictures. I took part in this activity and learned that I draw worse than some of the six year olds that participated. We also got a few pieces of great news. Our 12A certificate successfully passed the approval process. This means that Alfa has non-profit status and is exempt from any government tax on future funds. This is critical for Alfa because funding agencies typically won’t consider organizations that don’t have this status. Even better news, we heard back from one of the CRY representatives and they liked our children’s education proposal. Our project is now in the next stages of the funding process and is being reviewed by the CRY Executive Board for final approval. Alfa will have a very secure future if this project is approved for funding. It’s a very exciting time for Lokesh and I. I only wish I had more time here to see that all of our hard work produces positive results.

Happy Father's Day

I want to start by saying happy father's day to all the dads out there! I missed my dad especially this year, but was able to spend a relaxing day with my host dad. Dr. Sareen and I share a passion for any kind of sweets or pastries. I made sure to buy him a special father's day sweet buffet from the local bakery. I knew that it would be my responsibility to help him finish. We are the only two in this house not watching our figures. Needless to say we both slept very well last night after our sugar crash.

I spent an amazing weekend with my fellow interns in Agra. I was able to experience my first long distance train ride. It was a lot like sleeping on a plane except no one seems to sit in their correct seat which makes things interesting as passengers are boarding at 3 AM. After a 12 hour trip we finally made it to Agra where it seemed to be 120 degrees. It had many similarities to Udaipur, but the vendors were relentless. There were little boys trying to sell magnets and Taj Mahal snow globes every five feet that you walked. I caved and bought some miniature snow globes. I like to think that I am contributing to the local economy. The Taj was amazing. It's hard to describe the sheer size and detail that went into the construction of this magnificent wonder of the world. I hope that I am able to visit the six other wonders of the world. I'm really happy that I took this opportunity to see the Taj because I'm not sure how many other chances I will have to visit. Our group only spent a day in Agra before boarding a train home. A day is all that we needed to see everything and being in the heat all day drained my energy. I'm heading to Karawara today and hope to work with Lokesh on Alfa's annual activity budget. I hope all is well back home!

Hello Monsoon Season!

When most of us think of rain, we assume a dreary day of puddled sidewalks, an inconvenient change to plans, or nature's sweet melody for a much needed nap. When the rain hits here, the city comes to life and spirits soar.

After months of the sun's relentless, piercing rays propelling temperatures of up to 100 - 113 F in the afternoon (trust me, I know this), people mound with excitement as gray clouds creep above them, thunders begin to sing their deep rumble, and a breath of new, cool air sweeps through even the most congested markets.

With no warning or progression, the rain hammers to the ground! Know that these are not your ordinary feeble spring-time droplets. As if someone took a needle and ruptured millions of swelling water balloons, there was no stopping the proportion and speed of this rain. As I caught an auto to head back home, I saw water sweep away the dust and debris built up from the dry season. After weeks of harsh, arid conditions I was finally seeing a different face of India. The Monsoon Season has made its arrival.

My host family's power was out for the evening, but this was not uncommon even if the weather was perfect. Especially during midday, our electricity would shut off about 3 - 4 times a day.Living in an Indian's home as oppose to a hotel, you quickly learn how scarce resources are. At times my shower head would run low, at which point I turn to my bucket full of saved water from our dripping faucet. Despite all of this, I would consider my host family to be extremely fortunate compared to 70% of Indians.

I can still remember traveling to the villages and seeing buses PACKED with people - some holding on to the outside frame of the bus while others sat at the top ducking to low tree branches. These are migrant workers traveling from their home village to perform labor at large cities such as Udaipur. On average, they earn 100 rupees a day which converts to a meager $2.00 USD. This, however, does not take into account transportation fees (remember those buses?) which takes away 25 - 30 rupees.

I'll be traveling to Kharadiya again tomorrow to visit the PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) and map out the village's water system. BAIF, the environmental NGO I visited, suggested on replacing the current hand pump pipes for plastic PVC pipes to solve the excess iron issue. These pipes should last about 10 years and are relatively cheap to install. I'm no engineer, but if I were to take on this project on top of the water purification & hygiene trainings I need to consider if that is possible in a few weeks.

*photo: Bart Pogoda

No electricity? No problem.

Life is much more difficult without electricity. After spending a week in Karawara I learned this hard lesson by spending almost three days without any fans, lights, or running water. Good thing it is only 110 degrees everyday of the week. All jokes aside, I changed my perspective on what I thought were basic necessities. I take a lot for granted back home and experiencing this lifestyle makes me appreciate that I can turn on my lights at any time during the day. I can't say I was the most comfortable during this past week, but I have learned how to adjust to new and challenging environments. This attitude could serve most of us a lot of good back home when we complain about how slow the Internet is! Trust me, slow Internet is always better than no Internet.

Aside from the electricity situation, I had my best week yet in the village for a variety of reasons. Lokesh and I started work on our main project proposal for the CRY organization which aims to generate funds for Alfa's youth project. My first week lacked direction, but last week Lokesh and I worked tirelessly each day to create a successful proposal. Hard work was exactly what I needed to take my mind off of the scorching heat. My main priority for this internship is to sustain Alfa and create an accounting system that is easy to maintain and budget. Currently, Alfa will have no source of funding when Lokesh's fellowship ends in October. There are many problems in Karawara that Alfa has worked to fix and I am determined to continue this progress. Our youth proposal is designed to sustain Alfa's creative learning environment, or Sanjha Manch as we call it, for the next three years. Many children come to Sanjha Manch for fun art activities, presentations on social issues and an open environment to learn and express themselves. The proposal outlines many of these activities and provides CRY with a budget that will sustain Alfa's operations for up to three years. We are submitting the proposal this week and hope to hear some good news soon!

Last week I spent a lot of time engaging with the Karawara community. Everyone wants to get to know you as an American because they are intrigued by our culture. The most common question I have been asked is whether or not I love John Cena (a professional wrestler). For the sake of making friends I may have exaggerated my interest in wrestling just a little bit. I've also fallen in love with the village cooking. I thought I would have trouble finding food that I like, but it has been the opposite problem. I can't say no to anything! My favorite is the bread pokora. It reminds me of popcorn chicken that you would buy at KFC, but better. I've probably eaten about four pounds of eat in the past week.

Unfortunately my supervisor Lokesh had to schedule a last minute trip to another state. I will be working at the FSD office all week trying to find more partners from funding agencies. I am very excited for this upcoming weekend because I will be traveling to Agra with my fellow interns to visit the Taj Mahal. How many opportunities do people have to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World? I'm lucky to be here and have all of these great opportunities. Thanks again KISI! Also, Lokesh has some great pictures from the past two weeks so I will make sure to add them to my next post when I see him.

Ready, set, go!: Water Purification & Hygiene Project

Surprisingly in just two weeks, what started as a venture to experience and gaze at the building blocks of a different country inevitably led to one's intrinsic journey and self-discovery.

I couldn't be more thankful of interning abroad, for the challenges I'm currently facin

g are taken for granted in conventional situations. As a previous RBKS intern (and my unofficial mentor) placed it: "You'll find in India that things move much slower, which is okay. But when it comes to the point where nothing is getting done then you must be persistent. Not condescending, but patient and persistent." Communication also became my most important challenge. I quickly learned that nothing can be assumed and one question could easily lead to five different answers if you can't navigate through the dialogue. My first field visit was the ideal opportunity to test these waters.

Along with my translator, Kamal, we traveled three hours by bus to a small city na

med Jhadol where I had close access to Pargevi and Kharadiya. I spent the night at Jhadol

to research these two villages and observe community life. The picture above is my night at the hostel with six other girls who are currently in teaching school. On a motorcycle, Kamal drove me along the edges of hills, through slim, winding pathways, passing desert-like landscapes with majestic mountains surrounding the background. When we arrived, little did I know that, technically, I had two translators, one for English to Hindi (Kamal's role) and another for Hindi to the villager's version of Hindi (community leader's role).

As I asked the villagers about water access, habitual illnesses, and daily routines, it became evident that a few things were lost in translation. The way questions were formed in these interviews were extremely vital as it may unveil clues to things unforeseeable even to the

villagers. Their only method of water purification from open wells to drinking cups is to pour it through a thin cloth. The villagers also believe that there is too much iron coming from some of the hand pumps, so they've eliminated that as a source for drinking water. To no surprise, illnesses and symptoms from unsanitary drinking water were common especially for children.

When I returned to RBKS I spoke with the program director, Nitu Singh, to develop a needs assessment and development workplan. She told me to choose one village and I chose Kharadiya since their drinking water was much more severe in quality and thus had more opportunities for improvement. If my training programs go accordingly, I should directly impact 80 - 100 families. Oh yeah, I have lots of work ahead of me! Tomorrow I'll be visiting an environmental NGO to meet with administrators, conduct research, and find devices to test the content of water. Then, Saturday I'll travel to Kharadiya again to take some water samples, conduct semi-formal interviews, and attend a village meeting.

I've learned that when you choose to look beyond the lens of a tourist and attempt to interact within the Indian society, it's freakishly similar to living like a newborn. You wobble your way through each new day; wide-eyed, responsive, and naive to almost everything. At times it makes you vulnerable, but others it's like seeing the world in new colors.

The stares I'm getting by simply walking down the street is something I'll never be use to. In the same playing field, however, I feel like a walking sign spotlighting myself as the gullible foreigner. Despite of all that, from observing the clamorous traffic and embellished camels around central locations, to the challenge of picking up on things quickly, it's something to breathe in every minute of every day. I couldn't ask for something better to hand me a new perspective.

Village Life

It's been a while since my last post, but I have been in the small village Karawara where there is no Internet connection. I spent four days in the village and had an amazing experience. My first day was spent at the annual cricket tournament that is put on by NGO, Alfa Educational Society. My friend Clare and I were the tournament's special guests which is the highest honor an outsider can receive. I am only the second person not born in the village to stay for an extended amount of time. The daily routine is very different than we are used to; the work pace is much slower and people take time out of their day to stop and converse with you. It was a new concept for someone like me who is used to not having nearly enough time during the day. I really appreciated how everyone in the town made me feel welcome. We are used to seeing different as a bad thing, but the people of Karawara wanted to know all about my life story. A few people found entertainment in my poor Hindi vocabulary. I guess I still have some work to do at my weekly Hindi lesson. Overall, life is great! I'm having such a great time with my host family and in the village. I'm hoping for a productive work week to make Alfa a sustainable organization for years to come. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

A Change of Plans...pack your bags, this calls for a site visit to the villages!

What I thought would be a regular morning walk around the city became one of the best ways I spent my morning. Instead of a jog, our journey turned into a hike reaching 850 meters above ground and instead of around the city, we saw the city at bird's-eye view.

Through 40 minutes of steep, winding pathways, viewing exquisite scenery, and seeing a pack of peacocks, we met the Neemuch Mata Temple at the top of our hiking destination. This shrine was dedicated to the Shree Nimcha Mata, a clan Goddess for a royal family here. Needless to say that this was a tranquil moment...something that I inevitably needed to balance-off the adventures that have kept me on my toes.

I am having a thrill ride with Indian food. As a native of Indonesia and growing up in southern Louisiana, I had my fair share of spicy, unconventional dishes. I have to say nothing can compare to Rajasthan cuisine. Almost all of the families here are purely vegetarian, but that did not limit the range of flavor in each dish.

My host family ate all of their meals with chapathi, what we would

relate to as tortilla bread, fresh off the cooking pan. We usually dipped that into dul (stripped dried lentil in a spicy, thick stew). With it we ate fried okra, seasoned potatoes, or other vegetables.

Even fruits commonly found at your local Wal-Mart are much more robust in taste here. The mango shake is definitely my favorite. Imagine the most ripe mango turned into a smooth, extra thick liquid of pure heaven.

Since the start of this experience I encouraged myself to be as flexible as possible, knowing that almost every aspect of Udaipur (from the customs, to the food, to social interactions, the aura of this city, and everything in between) could transform into a learning experience...but even this took me off guard.

After much research and debate, I've decided to change my project from livelihoods through ginger cultivation to water purification and hygiene. Several factors played into this decision:

1.) Water plays an essential role in the health and growth of a developing community

2.) An 10-week intern who previously worked at RBKS started a water purification project and had to leave it incomplete

3.) For the NGO and well-being of these communities - perfecting and officially establishing a training program for water purification is much more sustainable than undertaking a completely new project and have the likely risk of leaving it incomplete

I've chosen to stay overnight at two villages (which are my focal communities) - Parevi and Kharadiya. Parevi consisted of about 80 families while Kharadiya held around 400. After reading her final reports and others on this topic, I will be using tomorrow to observe the demographics and record my findings on these specific villages.

My supervisor informed me that if I can develop a successful program RBKS will utilize my techniques as a blueprint for other villages. Water purification was never attempted by my NGO. If I complete this in a few weeks I can expand my research to target hygiene, a topic directly relatable to water purification. Wish me luck and safe travels! Tomorrow will be a whole new animal, I can feel it.