Writing that title was a little surreal. Has it honestly already been seven weeks that I've been here? Scary thought.
Research Update
Since returning from Delhi, we've met with two more NGOs - these were sector-specific rather than integrated - and one social business. It's been a little frustrating that, with so little time left, we've been able to do so little, but it would seem that late July and early August is "Entertain Foreign Funding Agencies" season here in Indian-NGO-land, and there's not a lot we lowly American student researchers can do about it. The meetings we DID have were pretty great, though - they add a dimension to the research that I personally have been hoping to get ever since we met with Avvai all those weeks ago.
People Update
Harini (Teju's cousin) had "Culturals" at her college last weekend, an inter-departmental talent show cum debate tournament cum all-out battle for bragging rights and cultural dominance, which meant that the ten days preceding the auspicious event filled the house with literally 50 girls practicing at least seven different dances, musical numbers, and dramatic performances. "Hectic" is far too tame a descriptor. The contrast between one week ago and now is pretty drastic, though; Culturals ended, Harini went on a school trip, Harini's parents and other extended family members went to South Africa for a safari, and Teju went to Hyderabad for a cousin's wedding - well, come to think of it, he's probably at this moment somewhere between Hyderabad and Chennai... minor details. He left Wednesday night, the wedding was this morning, and he's due back tomorrow morning, and in the absence of the usual crowd, I've been having a jolly old time with various books, NGO profiles and blogs, Indian kitchens, and the roof.
A Story for my Mommy... and for the rest of you, too, I guess...
My mom keeps asking for STORIES about what we've been doing in India, so here's one: After a relatively slow week, calling people who were too busy to call us back or even send us to bother someone else, we finally got a hold of Purush Uncle Wednesday morning, and he finally gave us the contact info for another NGO in Chennai. We promptly called Mr. Hariharan, the founder of the Indian Community Welfare Organization, who said essentially "Sure I'll meet with you. How does half an hour from now work?"
Let me present the context: We'd been unable to reach Purush Uncle for the past week, and Teju had a train ticket to Hyderabad at 6 PM Wednesday night... eight hours from the time we spoke to Mr. Hariharan. So we were both just hanging out being lazy, hoping at best to talk to Purush Uncle and obtain from him the promise of someone's contact info if we would call him back in a few days' time.
We naturally assented; of course we could meet with him in half an hour, never mind that Teju needed his shirt ironed and I was still in my pajamas. After frantically scrambling everything together, we managed to get out there with the aid of a very helpful auto driver who even offered to wait for us as we met with the organization; it was in kind of an out-of-the-way location pretty far from the house (the drive was 40 minutes), so we agreed and told him we'd be an hour and a half, two hours tops.
Three educational hours later, we came out to find him still waiting for us, luckily, and not even that perturbed. "I know how meetings go" he shrugged, and we started the drive back to the house.
On the way, we were stopped at a light (it does happen, though rarely) near a school. Classes were apparently over for the day; some kids were walking along the sidewalk. Most took no notice of the jumble of traffic waiting for the light to turn, but one little girl looked over and met my gaze. Her face burst into a sparkling smile and she waved enthusiastically: "Hi!" Her companion, too, looked over and I was treated to the beautiful sight of two spectacularly grinning eight-year-old Indian girls waving at me so vigorously that their whole bodies rocked back and forth. I grinned and waved back, and as the light changed and the auto revved its engine the first girl blew me a kiss. I caught it and sent one of my own to them, and just managed to see the other girl blow a kiss of her own before we were away.
There've been tons of tiny stories like that - boys spontaneously dancing as I leaned out the door of the moving train and smiled at them, a little girl at the Taj Mahal who shyly watched me until her mom asked me to take a picture with her... Ask me about them when we're next face-to-face - which, for some of you, is less than one week hence! - It'll be much more enjoyable for both of us.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Things I Love About India
Cow count: 2153
Things I love about India:
Cities here - at least, the ones that I've visited - are built around trees rather than over them. In my experience, in the US, new developments are characterized almost inevitably by all the baby saplings that the developers have planted to replace the trees they plowed over when they built new things. US streets, when lined by trees, are lined by trees which are strategically placed, regularly spaced, and invariably younger than the street they line. Trees here are old and gnarled and sporadic, and usually have old asphalt splashed on their roots because they've been there much longer than that new-fangled road has.
Traffic. Traffic here has been more insanely exciting than I could have imagined. And the fact that you drive on the left doesn't even register on the list of insanities:
I love Indian food. I thought I loved Indian food before I came, but that was just a childish infatuation. I didn't know the meaning of the word "love" until I tasted paratha and paneer butter masala served on a banana leaf in a small restaurant in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India. Beginning every day with iddly, sambar, and coconut chutney has almost made a morning person out of me. Suffice it to say, I'm going to be incredibly bored with North American cuisine when I return to that part of the world. But, with any luck, I'll develop a thorough rapport with the local Asian market.
Things I love about India:
Cities here - at least, the ones that I've visited - are built around trees rather than over them. In my experience, in the US, new developments are characterized almost inevitably by all the baby saplings that the developers have planted to replace the trees they plowed over when they built new things. US streets, when lined by trees, are lined by trees which are strategically placed, regularly spaced, and invariably younger than the street they line. Trees here are old and gnarled and sporadic, and usually have old asphalt splashed on their roots because they've been there much longer than that new-fangled road has.
Traffic. Traffic here has been more insanely exciting than I could have imagined. And the fact that you drive on the left doesn't even register on the list of insanities:
- When people usually describe crazy foreign traffic, they use the example of cars driving on sidewalks. Well, that wouldn't really work here, because curbs are about 18 inches high and so clogged with vendors and debris that any invading automobile would be more mauled than mauling in that attack. Also, as previously mentioned, there tend to be trees along the edges of the streets, so if anything it's the curb-dwellers who infringe on the territory of the two- and four-wheelers, spilling out into the spaces close to and between trees.
- But people make up for the lack of on-curb-driving by observing NO spatial restrictions on the rest of the road. I've only seen lines painted on a handful of roads here, but all of those were ignored. On roads with two-directional traffic, it's perfectly acceptable to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road - as long as you don't pick a fight with a bus or cow or bicyclist. The only medians which people pretend to obey are ones over 12 inches in height, and even then cars will nonchalantly drive over to the right-hand side if there's a break in the barrier and a 2-foot gap between oncoming traffic and the median they just crossed.
- I just said "don't pick a fight with a bus or cow or bicyclist" because, on the urban streets of Chennai, there are ample opportunities to pick fights with all three. That's right. Cows, dogs, goats, people, motorcycles, bicycles, buses, rickshaws and their myriad spin offs, autos... the prevailing mentality seems to be that all of the above have an equal right to be on the road, they just have unequal abilities to fight for that right. So don't pick a fight.
I love Indian food. I thought I loved Indian food before I came, but that was just a childish infatuation. I didn't know the meaning of the word "love" until I tasted paratha and paneer butter masala served on a banana leaf in a small restaurant in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India. Beginning every day with iddly, sambar, and coconut chutney has almost made a morning person out of me. Suffice it to say, I'm going to be incredibly bored with North American cuisine when I return to that part of the world. But, with any luck, I'll develop a thorough rapport with the local Asian market.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Whole Nine Yards
Hm. I have been here a full month, and haven't yet put up a blog post. I figured that someone should keep up this blog now that Mitch is gone and the trip continues, though...
A brief overview of MY impressions of the last four weeks:
Week 1: India is hot. And humid. And, when presented with the option of playing badminton at noon in a non-air-conditioned gym in such weather, one should NOT leap at that opportunity. One should not even indulge in a small, half-hearted, lurching hop. Unless one is fond of heat exhaustion.
Week 2: Our trip through Nagapattinum and Cuddalore was fantastic, involving everything from discussing US-India politics with the director of Barathi Women's Development Center over lunch, to spending a full day on motorcycles, driving over 100 km to three different rural villages, learning how to make salt from seawater, and seeing Rama's footprints. We came back to Chennai Friday night and met with two more (spectacular and inspiring!) organizations which have been (and will hopefully continue to be) goldmines of contacts and info.
Week 3: We went to two Indian weddings, which were both incredible... interesting cultural side note: in South India, weddings only take place while the moon is waxing and the sun is rising, so that means that all weddings get crammed into the mornings of two weeks per month. One wedding was for Roshni's classmate, and one of the weddings was for (wait for it) Teju's mother's cousin's husband's business partner's wife's sister's daughter. Further evidence that India may, in fact, be just one huge extended family. Everyone there welcomed us as though we were their long-lost niece and nephews, explaining all of the little ceremonial quirks to Mitch and me, inviting us to have tea with them... PS Apparently the phrase "the whole nine yards" came from a traditional Indian garment called... a sari! Full saris actually involve nine yards of fabric, which, after wearing one to an Indian wedding, I can now vouch for personally.
Aaand... we spent last week in Delhi. For the record: If you, like me, have ever wondered, in a small, skeptical corner of your mind, whether the Taj Mahal is really worth all that hype, the answer is YES. Not only is it just Beautiful (with a capital B and that rhymes with E and that stands for Enchantingly So...) but it was built so deliberately! There's perfect symmetry over the entire 5-acre plot or however big it is, and the domes are mathematically perfect, and the minarets lean outward just enough to not destroy the center in event of an earthquake, and there are optical illusions in the stonework (PS, we got to visit the workshop of the guys whose great-great-400-years-and-fourteen- generations-ago-great grandfathers did the original stonework... they're not only still doing that stone inlay work, they're still using the same mortar recipe!) and the garden is laid out according to some Quoranic passage, and... AND!!! And the Red Fort was amazing, and we got to see this abandoned city, and we played an epic 2.5-hour Uno game on the 36-hour train ride... in short, it was wonderful, and I'll do more justice to it some other time (like when it's not 1 AM).
Anyway. That Delhi train ride catapulted us into the 22nd century with the cow count (it's now at 2126 or something) and me thinking of it catapulted me into bed, so good night!
A brief overview of MY impressions of the last four weeks:
Week 1: India is hot. And humid. And, when presented with the option of playing badminton at noon in a non-air-conditioned gym in such weather, one should NOT leap at that opportunity. One should not even indulge in a small, half-hearted, lurching hop. Unless one is fond of heat exhaustion.
Week 2: Our trip through Nagapattinum and Cuddalore was fantastic, involving everything from discussing US-India politics with the director of Barathi Women's Development Center over lunch, to spending a full day on motorcycles, driving over 100 km to three different rural villages, learning how to make salt from seawater, and seeing Rama's footprints. We came back to Chennai Friday night and met with two more (spectacular and inspiring!) organizations which have been (and will hopefully continue to be) goldmines of contacts and info.
Week 3: We went to two Indian weddings, which were both incredible... interesting cultural side note: in South India, weddings only take place while the moon is waxing and the sun is rising, so that means that all weddings get crammed into the mornings of two weeks per month. One wedding was for Roshni's classmate, and one of the weddings was for (wait for it) Teju's mother's cousin's husband's business partner's wife's sister's daughter. Further evidence that India may, in fact, be just one huge extended family. Everyone there welcomed us as though we were their long-lost niece and nephews, explaining all of the little ceremonial quirks to Mitch and me, inviting us to have tea with them... PS Apparently the phrase "the whole nine yards" came from a traditional Indian garment called... a sari! Full saris actually involve nine yards of fabric, which, after wearing one to an Indian wedding, I can now vouch for personally.
Aaand... we spent last week in Delhi. For the record: If you, like me, have ever wondered, in a small, skeptical corner of your mind, whether the Taj Mahal is really worth all that hype, the answer is YES. Not only is it just Beautiful (with a capital B and that rhymes with E and that stands for Enchantingly So...) but it was built so deliberately! There's perfect symmetry over the entire 5-acre plot or however big it is, and the domes are mathematically perfect, and the minarets lean outward just enough to not destroy the center in event of an earthquake, and there are optical illusions in the stonework (PS, we got to visit the workshop of the guys whose great-great-400-years-and-fourteen- generations-ago-great grandfathers did the original stonework... they're not only still doing that stone inlay work, they're still using the same mortar recipe!) and the garden is laid out according to some Quoranic passage, and... AND!!! And the Red Fort was amazing, and we got to see this abandoned city, and we played an epic 2.5-hour Uno game on the 36-hour train ride... in short, it was wonderful, and I'll do more justice to it some other time (like when it's not 1 AM).
Anyway. That Delhi train ride catapulted us into the 22nd century with the cow count (it's now at 2126 or something) and me thinking of it catapulted me into bed, so good night!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Final Post
Dear friends and family...
All out if time and there are tons of stories that never made it up...
I have, however, developed a strong liking for Chai and would love to tell stories/ catch up in person!
Much love...
All out if time and there are tons of stories that never made it up...
I have, however, developed a strong liking for Chai and would love to tell stories/ catch up in person!
Much love...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Skeleton of the last two weeks
Cow count: 1634
Boo on you Nate Reaven for your less-than-ardent dryer post...
Boo on me for no posts at all...
First things first... apologies that its been so long since I've been able to write- the days have filled up and I've been utterly daunted by the prospect of trying to convey the ever mounting list of interesting/ moving/ fantastic events that have made up the last two weeks. Still processing lots of it and will probably be slowly adding stories between now and the time I get back...
The last two weeks...
Maybe the best way to start is with a brief run of the events. We left two weeks ago to undertake our second circuit of research-subject-NGO's, traveling down the coast that was struck in the 2004 tsunami. We met with 3 organizations, traveled to 6 villages, and learned a whole heap about rural development efforts in India.
In the time since we've been back in Chennai, we met with an inspiring research organization (as close to the cutting edge in development work as we've been yet) and the head of TAFVA, a network of 1500 NGO's operating in Tamil Nadu (the state we're in). I'm not exactly sure who they had us confused for, but they took us out to lunch with the heads of several organizations and two members of the Indian National Parliament. Fortunately, I managed to make it through the meal without spilling anything. Since this meeting we have spent our time working on developing a survey which that will allow us to expand our research from the 4 NGO's we've interviewed in person to the 1500 members of TAFVA. A really lucky break!!
Looking forward, we leave Tuesday by train for Delhi to visit Angie Hsu, more of Teju's infinite family relations (who have once again offered us the hook ups), and the Taj Mahal. In the two days until we leave I really hope to be able to write more about everything that has happened... there is a whole swirl of quickly fading memories and emotions that I would like to make a clean exit from my head.
Love to all...
MDK
Boo on you Nate Reaven for your less-than-ardent dryer post...
Boo on me for no posts at all...
First things first... apologies that its been so long since I've been able to write- the days have filled up and I've been utterly daunted by the prospect of trying to convey the ever mounting list of interesting/ moving/ fantastic events that have made up the last two weeks. Still processing lots of it and will probably be slowly adding stories between now and the time I get back...
The last two weeks...
Maybe the best way to start is with a brief run of the events. We left two weeks ago to undertake our second circuit of research-subject-NGO's, traveling down the coast that was struck in the 2004 tsunami. We met with 3 organizations, traveled to 6 villages, and learned a whole heap about rural development efforts in India.
In the time since we've been back in Chennai, we met with an inspiring research organization (as close to the cutting edge in development work as we've been yet) and the head of TAFVA, a network of 1500 NGO's operating in Tamil Nadu (the state we're in). I'm not exactly sure who they had us confused for, but they took us out to lunch with the heads of several organizations and two members of the Indian National Parliament. Fortunately, I managed to make it through the meal without spilling anything. Since this meeting we have spent our time working on developing a survey which that will allow us to expand our research from the 4 NGO's we've interviewed in person to the 1500 members of TAFVA. A really lucky break!!
Looking forward, we leave Tuesday by train for Delhi to visit Angie Hsu, more of Teju's infinite family relations (who have once again offered us the hook ups), and the Taj Mahal. In the two days until we leave I really hope to be able to write more about everything that has happened... there is a whole swirl of quickly fading memories and emotions that I would like to make a clean exit from my head.
Love to all...
MDK
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Journey #2
So this just a quick note- there is so much to tell and so little time to record it all. We have ventured down the coast and spent the past two days meeting with NGO's and the villagers with whom they work. This was very fruitful time and the next four days are booked with meetings in which we will hopefully learn as much as we did today and yesterday. Our Current Journey is marked here in green and our previous trip to Dindigal is in purple- just to help give a sense of where we're going!Mostly, I'd just like to say that we are well, and it will probably be a week before I'll be able to sit down and record more of whats been going on. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!
MDK
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Bollywood, badminton, and beach dancing
Cow Count: 811
Quick Check in...
Since returning from Dindigal picking up Amy we've found ourselves in a bit of a holding pattern, passing the time, learning Indian games, and exploring more of the immediate parts of Chennai. Our research has stalled a little, waiting for a meeting that could not happen until today. At this meeting we were able to set up (with the generous help of Parush Uncle) a 7 day, circuit of 3 NGO's working in rural areas along the coast, areas that were hit by the tsunami. I'm very excited for the freedom and independence that I think is in store on this mini- trip. We'll be staying in a hotel near the center of a town outside of Chennai. Also this weekend we are being visited by Angie Hsu, a friend that I met and became close with while teaching in China. She rocks. I have no doubts that we will have a delightfully wonderiffic time.
The happenin's...
So I think the best way to talk about the last several days may be via a list of tidbits. (which I didn't know was a real word until just now)
-Visited the beach last night. Made a friend while playing tag games, and ended up dancing in the surf. Only complaint is that the stars here are small and scarce.
-Its been really great having Amy here. She is a dear friend and has jumped in with both feet. Her blond hair and blue eyes attract even more stares than my goofy mug.
-Conversations about dating, arranged marriages, and what are called love marriages with Teju's cousins have given me a small peek into one aspect of the cultural changes at work here. I've enjoyed watching and wondering about India's seemingly selective mix of east and west.
-We got to watch serious badminton- something I had never seen and was really impressed by- When it was our turn to play, both Teju and Amy beat me repeatedly.
-A further perk of having Amy here is having someone to share my confusion when the conversation changes to Tamil.
- Still adjusting to the presence of servants. Specifically, I'm a little bothered by the fact that the role of servant seems to reach beyond simple employment and touch the way that they view themselves, and perhaps even their worth. I'm unsure of how the whole caste thing plays into this, and should also note that they seem happy for the most part. I wish very much that I could speak and understand Tamil, as I would like to be able to talk to them about all this. It has given me a whole new perspective on the ideas of servant leadership, Christ's washing of the disciples feet, the last being first, and the story of Cinderella.
-We've watched two Bollywood films and I've really enjoyed them. Every Bollywood film is a musical, and the films we have watched so far have a distinctive, sappy, cheesy charm. They were also at times clever and emotionally poignant. (Janessa, you really need to watch some Bollywood movies right now!)
-We've continued to play Uno, which I've enjoyed. I think (and hope) we might up the stakes and move to a game requiring a little more strategy sometime very soon.
Thanks for taking the time to check up on us, more to come. Much love and best wishes to all!
MDK
Since returning from Dindigal picking up Amy we've found ourselves in a bit of a holding pattern, passing the time, learning Indian games, and exploring more of the immediate parts of Chennai. Our research has stalled a little, waiting for a meeting that could not happen until today. At this meeting we were able to set up (with the generous help of Parush Uncle) a 7 day, circuit of 3 NGO's working in rural areas along the coast, areas that were hit by the tsunami. I'm very excited for the freedom and independence that I think is in store on this mini- trip. We'll be staying in a hotel near the center of a town outside of Chennai. Also this weekend we are being visited by Angie Hsu, a friend that I met and became close with while teaching in China. She rocks. I have no doubts that we will have a delightfully wonderiffic time.
The happenin's...
So I think the best way to talk about the last several days may be via a list of tidbits. (which I didn't know was a real word until just now)
-Visited the beach last night. Made a friend while playing tag games, and ended up dancing in the surf. Only complaint is that the stars here are small and scarce.
-Its been really great having Amy here. She is a dear friend and has jumped in with both feet. Her blond hair and blue eyes attract even more stares than my goofy mug.
-Conversations about dating, arranged marriages, and what are called love marriages with Teju's cousins have given me a small peek into one aspect of the cultural changes at work here. I've enjoyed watching and wondering about India's seemingly selective mix of east and west.
-We got to watch serious badminton- something I had never seen and was really impressed by- When it was our turn to play, both Teju and Amy beat me repeatedly.
-A further perk of having Amy here is having someone to share my confusion when the conversation changes to Tamil.
- Still adjusting to the presence of servants. Specifically, I'm a little bothered by the fact that the role of servant seems to reach beyond simple employment and touch the way that they view themselves, and perhaps even their worth. I'm unsure of how the whole caste thing plays into this, and should also note that they seem happy for the most part. I wish very much that I could speak and understand Tamil, as I would like to be able to talk to them about all this. It has given me a whole new perspective on the ideas of servant leadership, Christ's washing of the disciples feet, the last being first, and the story of Cinderella.
-We've watched two Bollywood films and I've really enjoyed them. Every Bollywood film is a musical, and the films we have watched so far have a distinctive, sappy, cheesy charm. They were also at times clever and emotionally poignant. (Janessa, you really need to watch some Bollywood movies right now!)
-We've continued to play Uno, which I've enjoyed. I think (and hope) we might up the stakes and move to a game requiring a little more strategy sometime very soon.
Thanks for taking the time to check up on us, more to come. Much love and best wishes to all!
MDK
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