Obviously you probably wanted weekly updates, which would have been oh so efficient of me, but the way I look at it, maybe it was a good thing that all of my down time was spent wandering the streets (safely of course), hanging out with family or sleeping because it was SO hot or bedtime. I have been filling most of my days for the past month, not with earth shattering activities, but here is an account of my most memorable experiences.
I last wrote a few days before I was to leave for Shahbad. After a 6 hour journey on a private AC sleeper bus and then 5 hour trip on a government creeker, Mukteshwar (a fellow CECOEDECON employee who was doing some work there on a new watershed structure) and I took the trip together which was perfect because I don’t think I could have done it on my own -between the 4am transfer and the stares. We took an overnight journey to make the trip more efficient yet, hahahaha on actually sleeping…
We got to the CECODECON campus, which was a lot bigger than I was expecting. Dreary and excited, I was taken to my room and really impressed with the accommodations. The office post at Shahbad had about 10 employees (CECO has 270 in total) working on joint projects with UNDP, UNICEF and TATA (a company that owns half of India) on issues from organic farming to child and health development projects. I was introduced to my translator, Dr. Gog Raj- an agrochemistry expert- who would be accompanying me on my daily trips out to the villages. I was so pumped on the fact that we would be using a motorbike for transport- easier and faster since roads connecting villages aren’t meant for jeeps.
We started our work on Tuesday since Monday I took a real long nap and no one ever came to wake me up, even though I thought that was going to happen. Oh well, that’s only one minor occurrence of things lost in translation. That night after most of the staff had gone home or to rented housing (2 of them rented rooms for the length of their posting), Mukteshwar, another engineer visiting for the watershed project and I took a walk around the town. Since I had only been on campus, I was ready to wander around. We walked up around the main road, and honestly, didn’t see anything. Shahbad is considered forest land yet most of the trees were about 10 feet tall, kind of shrubbish and not dense at all. I could say one thing, I enjoyed the quiet, absence of urine smell and the brilliance of all the stares. I hadn’t heard such quiet, I almost forgot what it was like.
I spent my nights there talking with Jabar (the on call driver), his wife, their 5 year daughter Mehvish, Mukteshwar and the incredibly talented 21 year old cook Anand. I told him one night that he would make it big in the states when he asked what he should do in the next few years. I really liked my conversations with him (through Mukteshwar) about anything, music, marriage, what I call laundry detergent, etc. I also spent a lot of time with Mehvish attached to my back- no seriously she really liked being piggy backed- spelling out the English alphabet and giving her a pen to give me henna on my hands and feet. It was fun to interact with her and she and Anand were the hardest people to say goodbye to after my 7 days stay there.
Now noting that I have completely run out of time, we are leaving for Delhi to start my “travel” phase, I am going to attach pictures with really brief descriptions and will hope to fill in the blanks sometime. Or when you ask me. I can’t believe it’s over but I am also getting really excited on seeing new parts of India. Caroline, C
aroline (difference of “carolyn” and “caroliine”) and I are heading to Kerala and Tamil Nadu (southern most states of the country). How cute is it that all the K names are going to Kerala???!! Anyways, we will be traveling from April 29-May 9 and then Caroliine and I will be heading up north after we get back to wander around Dehra Dun and stay at Vandana Shiva’s farm for about a week or so and probably head to Dharmsala or other Himalaya mountainous places.
After my return from Shahbad, everyone actually came back from their sites for our mid-internship get together in Jaipur. We got the chance to see some touristy stuff that we hadn’t done yet in the city like Jantar Mantar-
an Alice in Wonderland type museum/functioning astronomical “park” where you can get up close and personal with giant shapes that explain to you rotations of the earth, position of celestial bodies. We had a lot of fun just meandering, sitting on grass and wishing we could climb these suckers. For the next few days I hung o
ut with the kiddies again, as our first three weeks of the internship were spent isolated at our internship sites. My first two weeks were research intensive and then the week in Shahbad were pretty tiring.
I also arranged to go see Caitlin’s site.
Rima, our director at the mid-internship seminar said that she would be visiting Caitlin’s site –TBS working on building rain harvesting structures- in rural Bhikampura (could give a free ride) and with my report and project ove
r and a 2 day staff meeting that would make the staff busy at my site, I thought it would be perfect to take a little vacation. Here are some of the things we saw and how I spent my Easter. I fit in real well at her site and loved much of the staff. Kailash and Salim, the drivers, Vinod, a 19 or 22 year old writer (he’s not really sure of his age but his English is really good) and Tejpal, the 12 year old son of the organization’s secretary, were my favorites and we spent a lot of time hanging out with them, going on hikes and visiting temples.
After my return, a big batch of us decided to head to Udaipur the upcoming weekend to see Amber and Shiveta who were interning out there. It was a 10 hour overnight train- favorite way to travel. Udaipur was made famous for the film Octopussy which was filmed there. Every hotel shows it in the evening and any momento left from the movie is highly publicized. It’s really cute actually. Here are some visits to the City Palce, a view of the Lake Palace hotel, usually surrounded by a lake but the lake hasn’t been full for years due to lack of rainfall, and Monsoon Palace and a super gorgeous sunset.
I got back on a Tuesday morning and by this time, before I left for Udaipur, I had completed my seed bank report and since there wasn’t really a project for me to take up, I went back to Caitlin’s site for the next three days to complete the internship phase. It was a good decision for me because the Friday before we left for Udaipur we had nothing to do- I mean we watched a Mystery Science Theater episode at work. Since I didn’t want to sit around, I had a lot of fun and saw more villages and water structures at TBS, I headed back with Caitlin to her site. This time we headed to Alwar and saw massive government and Rajput built dams, hung out with Kailash’s sassy wife Chanda (moonlight oooo pretty). Oh we were also renamed at her site. Salim straight out told me that my name was no good and called me Sunita. Still curious as to what that means since the verb sunna could mean sleep or listen (kind of funny in and of itself).
Then we were picked up and broughtback to MSID for our final seminar. A Hindi exam and one 15 page paper, I am free from academia!!! It’s such a bizarre feeling to be leaving and to know that when people ask- oh so how was India- I can honestly say I haven’t worked that out myself. There were low points, there were incredibly awkward points, there have been some instances where I’m not too sure what I want to do with my life in terms of a career because I’m not sure if I could live in another country for long lengths of time which I thought I could do previously. I know I got a glimpse of a life here that I would not have had otherwise had I just done an exchange program and I am grateful for that. I went to pujas and temples with friends and family, I learned how to drink water from wells with two hands of from the communal glass where you don’t touch your lips. I’ve mastered bargaining and used my pretty good level of Hindi to my advantage in getting what I want. After sun in Goa and afternoons on a motorbike I’ve got the “you’re looking very Indian” more times than I can count and on top of that countless marriage proposals or promises to help find me someone. I’ve gotten the hang out Indian sweets which take a bit to get used to- cardamom and the use of milk really stretch your palate. I given up on utensils and find it incredibly awkward to shove metals prongs in my mouth- yet they are very found of spoons, mmm. I can make Indian chai and sip it at scalding hot temperatures in glass cups. I have gone out with my host sisters at my “Imli phatak” house during the internship phase to see what life and dating is like for 20 somethings in modern India. I’ve gotten my fair share of Hindi soaps and the musings of baby Krishna on Jai Shri Krishna which we watched every night at dinner with Bhuaji, my dad’s sister. I got used to people burping all the time and chewing with their mouth open and getting made fun of for saying please and thank you to much- here it’s their duty to take care of us.
I still don’t know the names of any Indian food dishes I’ve had here except samosas and poha, so I hope not to be a disappointment when I come back and am asked if I’m an expert now. Our meals always consisted of dhal (a soupy lentil), subzi (any vegetable, mashed, fried, boiled, food processed with any mix of spices) and chapati. Never really asked what we were eating because it was usually a vegetable with fancy stuff done to it. I also don’t feel I have a real enlighted look on Hinduism. I feel as though when I told people I was going to India, they get that oooo look on their face like, oh wow mystical and spiritual. I don’t know the names of half of the Gods, I visited so many temples of which I don’t really remember their names. I’ve bought prasad (offerings of ladoos or sugary crunchy white balls) and gotten an orange marking on my forhead but always just gone through the motions never really questioning anything. We visited Ganeshji tmple right by our house two nights ago to ask for safe travels (he is known minimally as the remover of obstacles). We have passed that temple hundreds of times and made our way through the maze of new cars that are brought there to be blessed (Ganesh’s statue is also found on most dashboards for safe keeping on the road) and to have a swastik drawn on the hood. I’ve heard Muslim calls to prayer just outside my house and can now understand the difference between Jainism and Sikhusm but found India to be a truly inclusively secular country and not separtistly secular as I feel ours is.
