From the air near Tokyo

Have you ever been left almost entirely to your thoughts for 12 hours or more at a time? Something about long international flights makes me sort of melancholy. I get much more sensitive to emotional stimuli, which mostly come from movies and music.  I just watched the Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is based off a book I read in high school. Both the book and the movie made me cry, but crying on an international flight is significantly more awkward than crying while reading alone in your bedroom. Y’know?

Anyways, I’m in the air right now on my way to Tokyo, where I have a one hour layover before I go to Manila, which is my final destination. Why are you going to Manila? you ask. Or maybe you’re asking, Where is Manila. Well let me tell you.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines, and I am going there for the 2013 Microcredit Summit. And what is microcredit? It’s the fairly new poverty reduction strategy of giving out small (micro) loans (credit) to people who would never be eligible to receive credit from a traditional financial institution. These people would not get credit because they are too poor to offer collateral, and they are in need of credit because most of them are able to become self-sufficient if they have access to capital and some training.

Some people criticize microfinance. After all, like everything else in the world, it doesn’t work every time. There are many things that can go wrong, depending on how a microcredit institution goes about giving loans. In general, though, it’s not uncommon to see a 98% repayment rate of microcredit loans. It’s pretty phenomenal. I’m excited to go to this summit and learn more about what it’s all about, how it’s going, what ideas people have for the future, etc. There will also be a lot of incredible networking opportunities for me, since many of the participants are leaders in the field of development.

I left Detroit Sunday at 3:30 pm EST, and I arrive in Manila 10:10 pm Monday in whatever time zone that is. It’s only about 18 hours of travel (isn’t that AWESOME after the 45 hours it took me to get to Hazaribag??), but I cross the date line, so I kind of lose out on my Monday. Coming back, I’ll leave Manila at 7:00 am on Friday, and I’ll arrive in Detroit at 12:25 pm the same day. I’ll actually arrive in Detroit an hour before I leave my layover in Japan. Time travel is strange.

This blog post is extremely overdue. I know because my mom has been reminding me often. :P

Here are some of the biggest things that are new in my life:

•        I started teaching my PE class
•         Jeff and I adopted a kitten, who we named Archer
•        I met with the director of the PhD program I want to do
•        I’m going to Manila!

I already talked about Manila, so I’ll talk a little about the other things.

My PE class is just a blast. I have wonderful students who are eager to work themselves hard and who do what I tell them to, even when it’s just drilling basics until they can’t hold themselves up anymore. (Did I mention that the class is on aerial silk and conditioning? Holding oneself up probably makes more sense if you know that they’re working on aerial silk skills.) It also gives me more time to train myself. After a year of having inconsistent access to circus, it’s a relief to have at least an hour per week when I can work on my own movement and strength. I’ve also been better about running on Mondays and Wednesdays when I’m not teaching and don’t have to be up early. I’ve been forcing myself to get up when Jeff gets up (or when he leaves for work, on my late days). I’ve overall been feeling happier and healthier with my schedule.

Kitten! Archer is the perfect cat. Okay, we’re working on a few things, but he’s seriously the best cat I’ve ever met. And he’s obsessed with me. It’s mutual, though, so that makes it healthy, right? He loves being around people. He’s happiest if we’re within his sight, and he’s really happiest if he’s snuggled with us and getting his belly rubbed. He purrs a lot and he likes rubbing his face against our faces. Plus he’s adorable and soft and just too precious.

PhD? I met with Chris, who single-handedly runs the Interdisciplinary Evaluation PhD program at WMU. He was also the program’s first graduate back in the day. He started out a little bit discouraging, but as he got to know me while we talked, he got much more encouraging. The downsides: the program is getting increasingly competitive; the biggest consideration for admission is GRE scores (and I’m not great at standardized tests); he is the only faculty for 50 students. The awesome parts: the program often has its students work at the Evaluation Center, which is world-renowned and gets contracted to do exactly the kind of work that I want to do; it generally takes students about 4 years to complete the program; the students are pretty close-knit and about half of them are international students; the program is pretty much exactly what I want to do.

I’ll try to post some updates during the Summit about what I learn and do there. The first day (Tuesday) is actually an “Ending Poverty Retreat,” for which I am acting as a scribe and discussion facilitator, and they are even giving me a stipend for my work! I can’t wait to be there and dig into great energy and discussion about things I’m passionate about. What could be better?

Transitioning

It's been a long while since my last post. Not much has happened, and yet so much has. I'll start where my last post left off: my voyage home.

My last day in Ranchi, I did make the changes I wanted to make at the printer's office, I had a shockingly delicious lunch at a nice restaurant, I said my goodbyes, and I boarded my planes. I noticed how different the people at the airport were from the general population--the difference in wealth was extremely apparent to me. I also noticed that even though I was surrounded by all Indian people and mostly men, it didn't feel strange to me anymore. I thought about the fact that soon I would be seeing more white people, and it made me just slightly nervous for reasons that I couldn't put into words.

When I got to Delhi, my hotel's driver was waiting for me with a sign, and he took me to my cushy hotel. Since my flight out of Delhi was international and at 5 in the morning, the receptionist said I should plan to leave at 2 am. Okay. I went to my room, Skyped with my parents, and relaxed in the huge, soft bed. Right before I went to sleep, I checked the printout of my itinerary that I'd received in Ranchi and had barely glanced at. I wanted to check whether my morning flights were on it, because Indian airports don't let you in unless you have a printout of your itinerary and your next flight is within 4 hours.

My next flight was on the printout. The problem was that the flight was at 9:30 that evening. At this point, it was 8:30 in the evening. Even if I was dressed and showered and packed and ready to go right at that moment, I wouldn't be able to get through security in time. My first reaction was utter horror and dismay, with a tinge of panic. I looked online for the 5 am flight that was listed on my online itinerary, and it existed, and it still had seats available. Good. After only 2 hours using Skype to call Etihad and then American Airlines, a nice man whose voice I will remember for a long time got me back on my original flight at no additional cost. I got a solid 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up and go back to the airport.

Apparently what had happened with my flight is that the airlines switched my flight (for some unknown reason) and couldn't contact me because Priceline.com hadn't given them my contact info, or something like that. To their credit, I had received an email saying that the airline had made changes, but I had also gotten an email after that with the same 5 am flight on it, so I don't know what their deal is.

I had a 4ish hour flight to Abu Dhabi, then a 15 hour flight to Chicago, then a long line at customs, then a painstakingly long wait for my suitcase, then an even more painstaking wait to leave the baggage claim area, and then, finally, there was Jeff waiting for me with flowers. So that was fantastic.

Driving back to Kalamazoo was odd, with the car on the wrong side of the street, and the streets so smooth, and the cars so fast and shiny, and everything so segregated and organized. We had sushi for dinner and I fell asleep around 9 pm, I think.

My first week back I had to focus pretty exclusively on moving. I arrived home on a Tuesday evening, and by Saturday afternoon I was all moved into Jeff's house. We had another week or so in Kalamazoo before Jeff and I spent 10 days visiting my family in California. In that visit, we managed to squeeze in two In-N-Out lunches, two sushi meals, two barbecues, and a camping trip with an epic hike.

A few days after getting back from California, we went camping with our Kzoo friends for a couple days. There was no hiking, but there was a disc golf course, gorgeous views and sunshine, a guitar lesson, and some raging campfires.

Now I'm gearing up for my second and final year of my masters program. This blog is going to transition from an India blog to a life/school blog for the time being. Things I'm thinking about today include:

• prepping for my PE class--the first class I will teach
• finding out about my TA assignment for the fall; I'm with the course "Women in Developing Countries," which I'm really excited about!
• working on a book about fertility, population growth, and culture with my dad
• applying for a PhD program--the deadline is January 15
• creating a more professional profile for myself: business cards, a website with my resume, better email address, etc
• finishing my CPR/AED/First Aid certification tonight
• soaking in the rest of my summer vacation

More to come later! Thanks to everyone who has supported me this wild, eventful, and impactful summer.

The Final Days

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I can say about my last week in Hazaribag. The pressure to accurately and meaningfully sum up my time here, and especially the last part of my time here, has given me writer’s block. I feel like nothing I could say is adequate. So here are a few attempts.

These are some of the most memorable moments from my time in India:

1. killing an army of cockroaches one of my first nights in my flat and then eating the only meal I could prepare with the few ingredients I had—scrambled eggs—and trying not to cry
2. Helen and I talking and Helen saying that something or other was “So hard!” and the driver saying “SOHUR!” and Helen agreeing, “So hard!” and me cracking up because Helen thought the driver was trying to speak English, but his name is Sohur and he thought she was trying to say his name
3. Going on the field visits to Bodh Gaya and suddenly and unexpectedly ending up at the Buddhist temple, which is the most beautiful and peaceful religious place I have ever seen. Sadly, someone bombed it three days later, but fortunately no one was hurt and the damage was minimal
4. Going to a “pub” in Kokata that turned out to be a funky family restaurant with booze and karaoke
5. Rita Auntie showing pictures of Jeff to everyone she introduced me to and saying, “Good couple”
6. Hiking to a waterfall with Satish
7. Spending the day on a houseboat with new friends in a beautiful place
8. Falling off my bike into a mud puddle
9. Having armies of children wait for Helen and me to bike home from work and then run after us waving and yelling, “BYE BYE!” at the top of their lungs
10. Many lovely conversations with colleagues at the office about India and culture and poverty and hierarchy and caste and gender and so on

And here are some skills I picked up:

1. Identifying the type of vehicle coming up behind me (bicycle, bicycle rickshaw, auto rickshaw, motorbike, car, bus, truck, tractor) firstly by the sound of its engine and secondly the sound of its horn
2. Blinking dirt out of my eyes quickly and without using my hands (while biking)
3. Riding on the back of a motorbike on bumpy, potholed, muddy, animal-filled streets
4. Riding a bicycle on said streets, avoiding the puddles and potholes and little baby animals and children and sleeping dogs/cows/goats
5. Making grilled cheese sandwiches by the light of a headlamp
6. Showering in cold water when it is not hot outside. And when it is hot outside.
7. Sleeping on a rock-hard bed
8. Doing laundry by hand in a bucket
9. Buying foods from small local vendors who do not speak English
10. Expressing myself with words that are easy to hear and understand for people who are not used to my accent, and listening and repeating what people say to make sure I understood them when I am not used to their accents

Meghan, who came here as an intern in 2009 and has come back several times since then, got into town while Helen and I were in Kerala. She has been showing us around, taking us to meet some great people, and talking to us about why some things here are the way they are. In a way, I feel cheated that I’m learning all this now. Seeing how comfortable Meghan is here (she even speaks reasonably good Hindi) has been contributing to the feeling I would have anyways that I should have spent my time differently/better. If only I’d asked the right questions or been more bold about exploring, maybe I would have learned more.

It’s weird, preparing to leave. A week ago I was ready to step on the plane at any moment and leave everything behind. Now, I’m not so sure. Being at this transition point, I feel odd. When I left Senegal after six months, I was pretty positive I would come back. Here, I’m not. There’s not a lot in Hazaribag, it’s hard to get to, and I have no idea what the next few years will bring for me. Plus, I’m much less comfortable living here than I expected to be. Having a study abroad orientation and living in a city meant that I learned Dakar very quickly, and the lack of those things has made it much harder for me here.

Still, I don’t like the idea of leaving the people I’ve met here and never seeing them again. I know when I get home I will get caught up in the busy life I lead in the US. I know I won’t be reading 2+ books per week, and I will spend my free time very differently. I’m excited about the things I have coming up in the US, but it seems very surreal to me. How do I get really enthusiastic when I don’t believe it will actually happen? I really just can’t imagine what it will be like to get home.

Tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning I leave for Ranchi. Helen and Meghan and Anand and Vinay ji will come. I’ll see if I can make the last changes needed for the annual report at the printer’s office (technical problems and other people’s inability to meet deadlines have caused this project to drag on beyond what I imagined possible), and if not, I’ll finish it in the US. We’ll have lunch, and I’ll go to the airport.

Monday night I’ll spend at a nice hotel in Delhi. I’ll leave around 2:30 in the morning to catch my 5 am flight to Abu Dhabi, then I’ll have 2.5 hours in the airport there, then 15 hours to Chicago. Jeff will pick me up, and we’ll…drive off into the sunset? I can’t even imagine that far in advance. Everything seems impossible about it.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Wrapping Up Vacation

Saturday morning Jithin picked Helen and me up at the hotel around noon, and we checked out of the hotel and headed toward the elephants. Turns out they were pretty far away, but close to Jithin’s house (which, incidentally, is pretty far away). We were not allowed to ride the elephants or even get close to them, because, as Jithin had been telling us all along, elephants go mad during monsoon season. The elephant training center doesn’t even conduct any training during monsoon season.

I seriously doubted this madness until I saw the elephants. Not that I’m any kind of elephant expert, but it was clear that there was something wrong with them. Their eyes looked unfocused, and they were all swaying back and forth to some rhythm in their heads, raising and lowering their trunks, turning their heads back and forth. They did not look suitable for riding. We took some pictures.

On the way back, we went to Jithin’s house and met his family. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. I was in the depths of a head cold, so my ability to hold an interesting conversation was compromised by my inability to breathe through my nose and the stuffy, confused feeling in my head.

We stopped by a temple that we were not allowed into (we’re not Hindu) and took pictures. Then we got coffee/tea near the airport and waited for Vijay, who had borrowed my flash drive to give me some great pictures he’d taken our first day or two. He came, and then we checked into a new (also lovely) hotel right next to the airport, and then we headed out for drinks at this awesome resort place called something like Shaj Earth Resort. I think.

They had a huge swimming pool, cool colored LED lighting, lots of bamboo growing, tables and chairs on scenic lawns, walking paths, etc. I’ve heard that tea with honey and brandy is good for head colds, so I wound up getting a drink called Honey Moon, which is brandy with honey and lime juice. It was delicious. I want another now. It also made me feel a lot better all through dinner, which was a huge relief. Then, after eating, I felt like I needed to crash, so we said our goodbyes and headed out.

We got to sleep around 9:30, woke up at 4, left the hotel at 5:40 for our 7 am flight. Which, we discovered when we got to the airport, had been canceled.

All week, when Helen and I would reflect about our somewhat hellish journey to Kerala, we would say, “At least on the way back, we have a nonstop flight, a few free hours, and a bus, and then we’re DONE.” In rescheduling our flight, we had no option but to miss our bus, which meant we had to stay the night in Kolkata and take the train at 6 the next morning to Ranchi, followed by a bus from Ranchi to Hazaribag. Okay.

Flights went fine, the day was going okay, I booked a room at a cheap place with good reviews, we took a prepaid taxi to the hotel…

And it wasn’t there. Or, it was there, but no people were. It’s still unclear what happened. What is clear is that we could not stay there, our taxi driver did not speak English, Helen and I were both beyond exhausted and frustrated, and the stress was making me sick to my stomach. Not to mention, it was 11 pm in a city we were not familiar with in the least, and we had a train to catch at 6 the next morning and no place to lie down.

After one more failed attempt at a hotel, we finally found a place (which is to say, the hotel was closed, but we banged on the door until the receptionist, who was sleeping on the floor and spoke no English, woke up and consented to let us stay). We had several of those frustrating conversations that happens often when there are language barriers:

Us: Sorry to wake you! Do you  have a room for tonight?

Him: Room? Tonight?

Us: Yes, we want a room tonight. We have to leave at 4:30 tomorrow morning.

Him: Booking?

Us: We do not have a booking.

Him: Room? Tonight? Leave tomorrow?

Us: Yes, that’s right.

Him: Booking?

Us: No booking. Can we still get a room?

Him: Room tonight, no booking?

Us: Yes. Whatever you have is fine. We are tired, and we will only be here a few hours. We have to leave at 4:30.

Him: Leave tomorrow 4:30?

Us: Yes, and we need a taxi to the railway station for a 6:00 train. Can you call us a taxi at 4:30?

Him: Taxi tomorrow 4:30?

Us: Yes.

Him: Okay. Tomorrow at 4:30.

Us: Great.

Him: Okay, 3:50.

Us: No, 4:30!

Him: 4:30. Okay. 3:50.

Us: WE NEED TAXI. 4:30. NOT 3:50.

Him: Yes yes, taxi 4:30! 3:50!

Us: [looking at each other]

Him: Taxi PAYMENT 350.

Us: OH! 350 rupees??

Him: Yes yes! So room. Booking?

The hotel room, when we finally got there, was not very nice, but it had beds and a Western style toilet and a shower. Possibly also bedbugs. We’ll find out soon.

This is getting long. Sorry. I’ll be briefer.

We woke up at 4, got to the train station around 5, found some muffin-ish things for breakfast, found our train, and discovered we were riding in the executive class. Air conditioning, lots of leg room, and so much food/drink service! The train arrived in Ranchi at 1:30, a driver from NBJK took us to the bus station, the bus left at 2:45 from Ranchi to Hazaribag, and we finally finally finally arrived back home at about 5:30. Finally.

Tomorrow I may write about the many and various things I love and miss about Kerala. For now, I will sign off.

Cochin Vacation

This post is long because I’ve been putting it off. Enjoy!

Tuesday:

This was our first full day in Cochin. We slept until 9:45 and nearly missed breakfast (which ends at 10). Jithin came to meet us by noon or so, and he took us to the coffee shop next door to the hotel, where we met his friends Melvin and Anthony. After coffee and a Nutella crepe, we went outside where the boys smoked and we waited to go see our first sights. Jithin’s friend Vijay, who studied at Western just like the rest of us, came with us for a drive and then to see a palace “where the king would go to chill.” He was great at knowing the history of the places.

Next we drove to Fort Cochin and had lunch at a hotel there that was built by the Dutch in the 18^th(?) century. Lunch took forever. Afterwards, we walked around the fort a bit, and we went to the beach nearby. Helen and I were invited to help fishermen reel in their Chinese fishing net, which is built in a stationary location and has a net that can be lifted out of or lowered into the water. We caught about five little fish. Apparently it’s the off season.

[more pictures to come later in the week--the uploader is being horribly slow]

By the end of our walk on the beach, Helen and I were both pretty exhausted (Helen was still recovering from food poisoning and I was feeling iffy), so we went back to the hotel. We had room service dinner while sitting on cushy beds. It was grand.

Wednesday:

We had made all these plans for seeing palaces and temples and things on Wednesday, but instead we ended up going for a scenic drive with Jithin and his friend Shorn (like Sean) to a waterfall.

Apparently you can sometimes see tigers and elephants there, but we only saw monkeys and deer.

Still, it was cool seeing wildlife and the waterfall was spectacular. The drive was gorgeous: densely forested with palm trees and green beyond compare.

Thursday:

Houseboat! On Thursday we planned to get going by 8:30 to make it to the houseboat by 10 or so. So naturally we didn’t get going until almost noon, and we got to the boat at 2. The trip was shorter than we anticipated, but it didn’t feel too short. The boat was really cool: two bedrooms, a bathroom, a dining/living room, and a kitchen.

It had ceiling fans, and the whole boat was covered, so when it rained they just lowered some tarps over the open sides, and we were protected. The scenery was gorgeous, and being on a boat with great people (and booze) was really fun. We had a traditional Keralan duck dish for lunch on the boat, which was delicious. After we got back to Cochin, we went to Mezzo, the bar/restaurant where the guys always hang out. I was feeling fine, and then I wasn’t feeling fine and decided to go splash some water on my face in the bathroom, but as I was walking to the bathroom my vision blacked out and I wound up lying on the floor in front of the bathroom doors because I couldn’t see where they were or which was the women’s. After about 20 seconds my vision came back and I went into the bathroom and laid down on the floor again. Fortunately the floors were very clean because Mezzo is a fancy place. Anyways, I started feeling better and went back outside, and then decided that I really should be back in the hotel, so we went headed back.

Friday:

Today, we started out early with Achyu, another friend of Jithin’s. He took us back toward Fort Cochin to see Jew Town and the synagogue. Unfortunately, most things were closed because Friday is a holiday, but it was still nice to walk around. Helen and I got some gift shopping done. We also saw the Folklore Museum, which is a private collection of historical artifacts turned into a museum. I think if you have that many artifacts, you have no choice but to turn them into a museum, because you can’t possibly store it all otherwise. One cool thing about the museum is that the building itself is constructed from pieces of historical architecture and decorative woodcarvings salvaged from old buildings. The place is sort of a mishmash of all kinds of things, some very poorly labeled, but it’s a neat place. I’m glad we made it there.

Achyu took us for lunch at a dosa place near our hotel, which was possibly my favorite thing I’ve eaten in India so far. Dosa is like a thin, slightly crispy pancake made from fermented rice water. Ours were stuffed with a potato masala filling, which was tasty and complemented the pancake well.

After lunch we rested at the hotel for a few hours, got coffee at the coffee shop, met everyone at Mezzo, and then went to an Indian clothing store to try to do more gift shopping. We didn’t find much for gifts there—it’s a really great store for Indian women, but less so for souvenirs—but we’ll hopefully have time for more tomorrow.

Tomorrow the plan is to check out of this hotel and into one closer to the airport, see and hopefully ride elephants, and finish gift shopping. Our flight is early Sunday morning, and then we have about 24 hours of travel before we get back to Hazaribag. And then, I have only one week left before heading to the U.S. 

Arrival

This is our hotel room. We are in heaven. There is hot water in the shower, there are mirrors in the bedroom and bathroom, and there is wifi. The hotel also has laundry service, which I will probably take advantage of since my clothes have not had a proper washing in two months now. The floors are spotlessly clean, there is room service, and the beds are so comfortable. We have a fifth floor view of the city, which is not smelly or covered in trash.

The last parts of our travel were trying. Helen definitely had food poisoning, but thankfully most of it passed before our last flight. The flight was delayed both before and after we boarded, but it was pretty empty so we were comfortable and were able to sleep. The male flight attendant gave me his number so he can "give us hospitality" if we ever stay in Mumbai. Hellen's friend Jithin picked us up at the airport (in his Audi) and brought us here, to the Center Hotel, where he had reserved our room.

We slept very well last night and I barely woke up in time to get us down for breakfast (which is complimentary, and they have coffee). I took a second shower and stood under steaming water for longer than necessary just because I could. Soon Jithin will come retrieve us and we will check out some historical sites of Cochin. Hopefully Helen will be completely recovered from her food poisoning by tonight, but if not we will take it easy and get lots of rest.

Everything is good.

The Art of Waiting

The last two days have been a study in waiting. Helen and I left our house in Hazaribag just after 8:00 pm on Saturday evening, and we will arrive at our final destination (or so we hope) around 8:30 pm tonight, Monday night.

Sunday we spent most of the day at that Spanish cafe. I mentioned breakfast already (and here's evidence!).

The second picture is Helen enjoying her first cappuccino in about a month. We also had lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner there. There was a cute boutique next door, so we got some gift shopping done, too. One of the servers at the cafe seems to have a mental impairment, and he speaks no English, but I guess he developed crushes on Helen and me? By the end, he would purposefully grab our hands if we handed him order slips, and he would give us little notes (written in Hindi) and he followed Helen to the bathroom a few times. Generally, he was making us pretty uncomfortable.

After we finished dinner, we paid for all of our meals and snacks and drinks and internet from the day (which came out to about $11 for each of us). We took a taxi ($8) the 40 mins to the airport. Then we found out they wouldn't let us into the ticketing area to wait for our flight until midnight (the flight was 6 am the next morning, but we didn't want to get a hotel just to leave at 3 in the morning). We watched two movies, One Day which was mediocre and The Intouchables, a French film that was fantastic! It may be one of my new favorite movies. You should check it out if you get the chance.

We finally got into the main ticketing area, and then we had to wait for 3:30 to actually get our boarding passes and check our bags. At this point we hadn't truly slept in far too long (Saturday night on the bus doesn't count for much, and Friday night we got back late from Bodh Gaya), the airport was freezing and drafty, and they were playing incredibly repetitive and generic Indian music. Plus, there was nowhere comfortable to sit, no businesses (restaurants, cafes, whatever) in the airport, and too many grumpy people. We couldn't really sleep, we were getting hungry, we were freezing, and we were increasingly annoyed about everything.

We finally got to sleep when we were at the gate for a few hours and found a comfy chair. We both slept a fair amount on the plane. We arrived in Mumbai and found some wide chairs without armrests that we were able to scoot together to make little benches to lie down on, and we slept a good amount here. I just discovered the free wifi, which is great, but there aren't a lot of outlets around and my computer is sapped from the movies in Kolkata. I'm charging now while Helen sleeps--we had to get sketchy fried Indian chicken/potato (??) burgers, and it looks like Helen's made her sick. I think it should pass by the time we have to board our next flight at 5:30 or so. After this next flight, Helen's friend should meet us that the airport in Kochi and take us to some sort of lodging, where we can freshen up and nap and have dinner or whatever.

I'm looking forward to getting back in motion. I'm really struggling to keep myself from getting angsty about all this sitting around.

Oh! And today is 8 weeks since I left the U.S., 2 weeks to go. When I get back to Hazaribag on Monday morning, there will be 1 week. And then all sorts of new and fun things will begin.

Sunday Morning at Raj's Spanish Cafe

Today is our first day of about 36 hours of travel to Kochi (formerly Cochin), a city in the southern state of Kerala. Kerala is known for being one of the richest states in India, in terms of wealth, infrastructure, gender equality, and natural flora and fauna.

Our flight out of Kolkata is scheduled for Monday, July 1 at 6 am. The only bus that goes from Hazaribag to Kolkata arrives at about 6 am, and it’s close to an hour drive from the airport. If only we had known that while booking, we would have opted for a different flight.

Last night (Saturday) we took the bus, and we arrived in the pouring rain in a giant mud puddle at 6 this morning. The bus drivers were exceedingly kind, and they took our suitcase and locked it in a special compartment inside the bus, and they found us a taxi at a good rate, and they carried the suitcase to the taxi for us. The taxi came right up to the bus, so we did not have to wade through the mud or stand out in the rain. This is very good thing, since I forgot my umbrella.

Helen and I had read in my guidebook that there is a Spanish café in Kolkata that has cheap wifi, excellent pancakes and coffee, ample power outlets, and comfortable seating. Unfortunately, they didn’t open until 8, but we went there at 6:45 (as soon as we were ushered into a taxi). Helen asked a guy standing under an awning near the restaurant what time it opened, and it turns out he’s friends with the owner, so he got them to let us in. We sat and read for about an hour until the kitchen opened, and then we got breakfast. PANCAKES. Turns out they’re actually crepes, but really, who’s going to complain about that? Plus, their coffee is espresso, not instant Nescafe, and it was quite good.

Their menu also offers Italian, Mexican, and Spanish options for lunch, so we’re planning to stick around for a good portion of the day. How lovely when things work out!

2 days of highs and lows

So, I haven’t posted much this week. Sorry about that. As a result, this is a really long post. I’ll do better in the coming week, since it’s my second to last (!!!) week here. Also this coming week Helen and I will be on vacation, so I should have lots to talk about. I have highs and lows from the last 36 or so hours plus a bunch of pictures that I want to get posted before we leave tonight and start our grand adventure.

Highs:

On Thursday, Satish asked Helen and me if we wanted to go to Bodh Gaya, which is a district in the state to our north, and which has several NBJK projects in and around it. Satish was going to leave Friday morning so he could show this man (I’ll call him L, because I don’t remember his name) from an award committee NBJK’s work. L was coming to evaluate NBJK to see if they deserved this prestigious award (whose name I also don’t remember).

Of course we said yes, so at 7:30 Friday morning we were all ready to go. At 9:15 or so, we actually got underway with all passengers in the car (6 of us plus the driver). The car is an ambulance, but an Indian ambulance more closely resembles an American Jeep than an ambulance. There are two bench seats (front and middle) and then two bench seats in the very back that go along the sides of the car. Helen and I got those seats, which I ended up really enjoying because it was the perfect size and shape to lie down along the seat and take naps while we drove.

Our first stop was the Amoli Apurva High School, 

followed by the elementary school. 

Both are in a village in Hazaribag but on the way to Bodh Gaya. The kids were great—the young ones had welcome songs and dances that the performed. 

L gave long speeches in Hindi about his life. 

He lived with Mahatma Gandhi in his ashram for a few years in his youth, so he talks a lot about Gandhian philosophy.

After the schools, we headed to the Lord Buddha Home for Children, which is an orphanage housing 60 children. The living quarters are divided into 6 separate houses, each with its own assigned mother, a kitchen, bathroom, washing machine, dining area, and several bedrooms. 

The kids were very happy in general, and also excited to see us (foreigners!) and speak English with us. Also, they were exceptionally cute.

We had lunch there and got a tour of the campus, which also houses a doctor’s and dentist’s office and several vocational training programs. Lunch was clearly prepared with care, but it was exactly the same thing we get every day, so Helen and I were not excited about it.

After lunch, we visited an ashram where Satish and Girija, who are two of the four founders of NBJK, grew up spending their summers. Satish took us to a temple, as if as an afterthought.

The temple is the place where Buddha received enlightenment under a banyan tree, so there is a magnificent temple (seriously, I think it’s the most incredible one I’ve ever seen) and extensive gardens, and the banyan tree itself. The designs carved into the temple’s exterior walls had birds nesting in them, most notably a large family of bright green parrots.

Then we visited a Thai Buddhist temple, 

then a statue of Buddha (Satish kept inviting L into pictures with Helen and me), 

then had tea and lassis (my first lassi in India!) and we headed back.

This is where the lows start.

First off, L told us right before lunch that he "had an interesting experience with a 26-year-old woman" and proceeded to tell us about how this woman married some guy her family was against, so when the marriage went foul she went to L rather than her family and he "became her brother, her sister, her mother, her father, her friend, and eventually her lover." L is 83, overweight, extremely self-centered, and clearly thinks very highly of himself. After that story, every time he looked at Helen or me or tried to tell us another story about himself or needed one of us to help him up or down stairs, I just felt dirty and disgusted. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to do anything about it since he was evaluating NBJK and we were representing it. Anyways, after the temples, we continued our journey.

We stopped at an eye hospital that NBJK runs, then there was a village meeting complete with insects (it was nighttime by then) and frogs and mice in the roofs, and it went on for a long time all in Hindi. I’m sure it would have been very interesting if we had any idea what was being said. But we didn’t.

We were then told we were going, and we asked where, and they said we would have dinner. We went to some place with a big table and we sat and waited, then the rest of the party joined and talked in Hindi, and an hour and a half later they said that now we would go have dinner.

Okay. So we went to another room with multiple tables (almost no one joined Helen and me) and waited more. About 30 mins later dinner was served, and it was actually fantastic. We had puri (a fried round bread) with a bean side dish and two vegetable ones (the same ones we have all the time), but there was also kir (rice pudding), which I hadn’t had here yet, and mango, and another dessert thing that was very sweet.

We got back after midnight and went to bed. This morning I woke up to talk to Jeff, and when I got online I found out that my dog Meesha, who we’ve had for 12 years, had died. Talking to Jeff was lovely as usual, and then I talked to my mom for more details and found out that a family friend is in the hospital and two of my friends had just broken up after several years of a serious relationship. I cried some, had tea and read to relax, and then the author who wrote the book I was reading had the gall to kill one of the main characters. So then I cried more. That plus packing has pretty much been my day today. Tonight Helen and I will take the bus to Kolkata, we’ll spend Sunday there, and Sunday night we’ll fly to Mumbai, then to Kochi, where Helen’s friend will meet us. And then who knows what will happen?

7, and Ranchi Field Visits Day 2, and illness, doctor, discoveries about water, and other victories

Thursday night in Ranchi, I went to bed feeling a little off. Nothing major, but I could tell that I was not 100%. When I tried to sleep, I kept having to stave off nausea with yoga breathing exercises (thanks Colleen!). I think I had a fever most of Friday, though I didn’t take my temperature.

Friday’s field visits focused on disabled children. We visited a house where a couple lived with a son with cerebral palsy plus 3 older non-disabled children. Their house was tiny, in a slum, and had a mouse problem (I saw 3 in the 20 or so minutes we were there). Still, they were quick to laugh, very hospitable, and in awe of the fact that there were two white girls in their house. The husband took our picture. They showed us the physiotherapy exercises that NBJK’s team had shown them to do with their son, and they told us about the progress he had made.

Next we went to a Resource Room for deaf-blind children. There are 12 (I think) children being seen at the resource room between 1 and 3 times per week, depending on availability. The children are given a baseline analysis and the family and evaluators set goals for one year out. For example, they might say that after one year, the child will be able to lift a certain toy above his or her head. The room has toys that teach motor skills and cognitive skills; they’re the same kinds of toys you’ll see anywhere in American day care centers, but here the purpose is much more explicit and (I think) critical. The room also provides walking aids to children who need support in their feet, ankles, knees, and/or hips to stand or walk. They avoid wheelchairs because parents tend to slack off on exercising their children if they can just wheel them around.

 

After that, we went in for lunch, and I was feeling pretty ill. I ate a tiny lunch which consisted mostly of banana and took a nap. When I got up, we went to a different NBJK office in Ranchi, which is right next to the zoo we’d been planning to visit. I still had a fever, so we nixed the zoo visit. We did get to see the composting and paper recycling projects at that office, though, which was cool. It was a little cooler in theory and memory than it was in practice, though. I was really feeling very sick, and it was hot, and we were in direct sunlight, and compost smells like manure and recycling paper smells like garbage being mixed with waste water, which is exactly what it is. My stomach was already unhappy, so that definitely did not help.

Helen and I took a nap while Anand and Girija did work, and then we read while they did work, and then we complained to each other about how late it was getting and how hot and uncomfortable we were while they did work, and then it was time to go. We had gotten about a half hour out of Ranchi when I tried to discreetly pull a plastic bag out of my backpack in case I needed to throw up, which seemed increasingly likely.

Helen and Anand noticed me, and started asking me what was going on, and we ended up stopping the car while I breathed and waited to either pass out or throw up, since I was sure one of the two would happen. I couldn’t seem to get enough air and my hands were tingling and going numb and I was dizzy and lightheaded (I think I was breathing too deeply, and the not getting enough air was psychological). At one point everyone in the car was turned to look at me and it occurred to me that I probably looked like hell and I couldn’t even muster a reassuring smile, and then it occurred to me that we were hours away from any kind of medical help, so I needed to get by until we could get help.

Someone had the great idea to put Helen and Anand in the seats in the very back of the car, so I could lay down across the bench seat. After I’d been laying down a few minutes, I felt much, much better. We got to Hazaribag and went straight to a doctor, who I think spent less than five minutes examining me before declaring I had consumed contaminated water and writing me some prescriptions. While Helen, Anand, and Girija were at the pharmacy getting the prescriptions, I heard them get passionate about some subject, and then Helen came back to tell me that she had just been informed that we are supposed to boil water before putting it in our water filter. What. I’VE BEEN DRINKING UNSAFE WATER FOR 7 WEEKS. No wonder I’m sick.

After a few days on anti-nausea meds, lots of sleep, antibiotics, probiotics (I always think that’s funny, taking both at the same time, but I understand it), and fever reducers, I’m feeling much better. I did notice today, though, that when I put on my linen pants, they sit a solid 3 inches (maybe even 4) lower now than they did when I arrived in India. They used to fit just below my waist, and they fit in the hips. Now I can pretty much take them off without unbuttoning them. This is a bit worrisome. I had a few pounds to lose, so I think I’m safe, but no more. No more.

So here’s the good stuff!

Auntie and Shradha came upstairs tonight to chat, and Auntie brought a bunch of bananas from the garden and mangoes from her friends’ gardens. Helen and I told them that we discovered today in my guidebook (thanks, Kat, for recommending it!) that in Kochi, where we will be traveling next week, there is an elephant training center where you can help train, wash, and ride elephants! I promised Jeff’s housemate (he probably doesn’t even remember) that I would find an elephant to ride, and Helen, completely independently, promised her uncle, so we’re really excited about it. There’s also a wildlife reserve where you can stay in a treehouse for about $30/night, and there are houseboat cruises, and restaurants on boats, and a café that apparently has divine cheesecake. I love cheesecake.

And speaking of cheese…Shradha said that the information I got when I first arrived, that there is not cheese available in Hazaribag, was completely false. She told me that there is a store in the market that sells cheese, and she will bring us some this week. Cheese! I can’t describe how much I miss cheese.

Tomorrow I promised to go downstairs in the morning to help Auntie set up a loaf of challah. I’m touched that the family liked it enough to want to make it again and learn the recipe. In the evening, we’ll go downstairs again, because I told them I want to make banana bread with some overripe bananas that we have. Plus, we now have three bunches of bananas (one is too soft, one is too green, one is just right), which is just way too much.

Today is 7 weeks since I left the U.S., and 3 until I go back. I have so much to look forward to, and I’m so eager for the next weeks (I was going to say the next few weeks, but I’m really excited about the next 52 or so weeks…)

So much to do! And that’s not even counting my actual work!

Ranchi Field Visits, Day 1

Today at 6:45 in the morning, Helen and I left for Ranchi! Ranchi is Jharkhand’s capital, and it’s thecity that both Helen and I flew into to come to Hazaribag. NBJK has an office in Ranchi that is (at least in some ways) much more comfortable and luxurious than the Hazaribag office. Today, we spent the morning doing field visits to some of NBJK’s projects here.

The projects we visited were microcredit Self-Help Groups (SHGs) that also receive loans for housing improvement, and a hygiene and sanitation program supported by Water Aid, U.K. The SHG consisted of about 15 women in a slum near the heart of Ranchi. The group had been together since 2005, and the women in it have been saving about 5 rupees per week in addition to their borrowing activities. Some of them now have quite sizeable savings.

The SHGs are designed to eventually become independent. The interest that borrowers pay on their loans goes into a group fund, which eventually becomes big enough to fund the loans to the SHG members. To qualify for aid from NBJK to form a group, the group needs 15-20 members, generally all women, and the members must all be married (to reduce issues of migration while holding loans). Through Oak Foundation, SHG members can also apply for loans to make improvements to their homes, and one of the women showed us the recent construction she had done at her house.

That same women told us about how she had no income-generating activities prior to joining the SHG. She took her first loan and used it to start a TV cover business, in which she fabricates TV covers to sell in the market. She started with local materials and selling in the local market, but as her business has expanded, she has started getting materials from Delhi and selling her products in other states. She has sizeable savings, a much-improved shelter, and a comfortable income, thanks to the Grameen-model micro lending that NBJK has supported.

Next we visited a Slum Development Committee (SDC) which receives aid from Water Aid, U.K. to make hygiene and sanitation improvements to the slum. This slum had received funds for several drains and subsidies for residents  to build toilets in their homes. At the start of the project, none of the households (there are about 70) had toilets, and now almost 100% have them.

At this meeting, several of the women brought children in with them, and one woman had a baby who was one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen. Helen and I took a picture with us sitting with the women, and in the second of those photos, I was completely distracted by huge brown eyes looking at me and tiny hands on my arm. Awwwwww. I’ll see if I can take it from her later.

We then went to another SDC meeting, which was in a very different slum that consists of about 100 households. The first slum was very crowded with narrow streets, few trees, mud everywhere, and a river of sewage running through it (I think it’s an actual river that the slum was built around, that has now been so polluted by waste that the water is black). It broke my heart to see children playing and bathing in that water. The second slum was much more reminiscent of a farm. There were animals everywhere (particularly ducks, which I haven’t seen much in Hazaribag), lots of trees and shade, and much more open space. The second slum had similar progress and similar issues to the first, except that they had also built a soak pit.

A soak pit, as I learned from Anand at breakfast this morning, is sort of like a well, but the opposite. It’s a pit lined with sand and bricks, but instead of taking water out of it to drink, you put wastewater into it. This prevents your household wastewater from creating a swamp on your property, it helps filter contaminants from it, and it helps refresh the groundwater supply.

After lunch I think we’re talking to a tribal development council, and then our agenda is blank. Tomorrow we have more field visits planned, and then a trip to the zoo! Funny story: In Hindi, J and Z are the same sound (like L and R in Japanese, I guess), so it took me a while to understand Girija when we were in the car this morning. He pointed out the window and said, “That is the Jew! Would you like to go to the Jew?” I asked what he’d said, and he repeated, “The Jew! The Jew!” It took a few minutes for me to get “zoo” from “Jew,” but I got it eventually.