. . . .Una Aventura Real. . . .

A Lot Can Happen Over Chai

2012-02-07T18:13:00.000+05:30

The Juxtaposed Skyline of India

Check out my new AIF Blog post, "A Lot Can Happen Over Chai: Analyzing the Extremes, Appreciating the (Indian) Monotony"

After 5 months with the fellowship, chai has become a good thought stimulator on how to analyze what has happened, what to look forward to, and how to enjoy the monotony as Mumbai passes by with every sip. Let see what else comes up during chai time!

The View from the Office Window at Magic Bus

A Sandy Christmas and a Shaadi New Year

2012-01-13T17:59:00.000+05:30

I wanted to include some photos and stories from my trip to Rajasthan and Gujarat from a few weeks back. It was a pretty epic journey that I took for Christmas and New Year's. (Get ready for A LOT of photos).

Rajasthani Sights

Rajasthan is a wild place. It is one of the most popular tourist places for foreigners since it is a super flamboyant place with lots of colors, openly practiced customs, traditions that are centuries old and so much architecture and nature to see. On the other side of the picture, it is also an Indian state with lots of poverty and crazy developmental issues - such as an extremely high infant and maternal mortality rate. You can leave the modern city of Delhi and within the same day find yourself in the middle of a desert land village that feels like it is straight out of Arabia three hundred years ago. For all these reasons, along with the colored turbans and camels, a lot of people find themselves enchanted by Rajasthani culture as they pass through India.

Jagdish Temple, Udaipur

City of Lakes - Udaipur

Udaipur was a really awesome first stop. We checked out this City of Lakes and saw some amazing architecture with temples and the Udaipur Palace. The history reminded me of the long legacy of wealth disparity in this country. It was awesome to spend Christmas day with a fellow Ohioan and Clinton Fellow, Megan. It was also a beautiful and colorful intro to Rajasthan. Our Christmas celebration was spent making hot toddy masalas and a makeshift "masala chai pumpkin pie" from a pressure cooker with people from all over the world. It was a beautiful thing.

Around Udaipur Sights:

The City

The City Palace of Udaipur

Christmas in Udaipur:

Auto Ride through the City in Udaipur

Christmas Party!

One of my favorite things I got to do there was a camel safari. Now, usually, I sort of hate doing really common "backpacker-like" tourist things like forcing a camel to carry me through the desert so I can take photos and feel as if I am in some Arabian dream, while poor villagers pull me along and make fun of me. However, I really wanted to see the desert and sleep there, so this was a good organized way to do it really close to the Pakistani border without getting myself into too much trouble as a first-timer. Also, since I live, eat, work, sleep, and breathe everyday India in Mumbai, it was a fun adventure to take on for a vacation of a limited time. A sneak preview of the nomad life that I over glorify.

Jaisalmer

Camel Ride to the Dunes!

After a looong 16 hour bus trip on one of the worst roads in India, we arrived in the Golden City of Jaisalmer where we almost immediately jumped aboard a car ride that took us all the way out to the middle of nowhere to find some camels to mount for the next two days. It was epic. The actual camel ride was less interesting since it really hurt my ass and there was not much authenticity (since no one really rides camels anymore long distances through deserts), but it was still fun to imagine myself in some Rajasthani caravan on a desert journey. The really amazing part though was the environment and the people. The land was so dry. As beautiful as it seemed, I could see how the peaceful open spaces could easily transform to desolate and scary isolation. Seeing the conditions of the villages and their landscape opened up my eyes to the realities of living in a deserted land with little hope for adequate water and food production. My crappy Hindi was really taking off around that time for some reason and somehow I managed to talk a lot with some of the guys that were taking us around. At first they gave me the impression that they were going to ask for money, which made me put my guard up. As the conversation went on though, I realized that they really just wanted to know more about the rest of India, and what they really wanted was to know how to make more opportunities for themselves. Their biggest desire was building a school for their kids.

It is hard to go so many places and hear so many needs of people - so many people that are continually ignored and geographically or socially disadvantaged. I recognize my own privilege of mobility, but it almost feels like a curse since you are exposed to so many problems with little to offer. The least I could do is listen, and hope that things work out. What I really wanted was to stay and build them a school, but all of my work with NGOs and in development have made me realize how hard this actually was. We made a fire and hung out in the rolling sand dunes, watching the sunset turn the sand a luminous ochre color until the light disappeared and gazillions of stars crept out from the black sky. We slept under the stars in the sand, covered in blankets as the desert cold crept in. The next day we visited a few villages, the homes of our guys and met some extremely jovial and exuberant kids that made me miss being a kid. Then we left. I don't know if I will, but I hope to go back.

We raced around Jaisalmer when we got back before catching a bus onward. Jaisalmer sits in a huge pile of sand, with most buildings made from golden sandstone, giving it a real interesting look and feel. It was so cold compared to Mumbai, but the city's charm enchanted us to stay out through the night. We rented motorcycles and even sampled local "Bhang" until we had to bid farwell to the Golden City as we headed onwards to Jodhpur, the Blue City.

Motorcycle rides through the fort!

Temple Roofs inside the Fort

A Glimpse of the Real City Outside the Fort

Jaisalmer Fort by Night

This place is one of the coolest cities I have been to in India just because of its random beauty. It was colorful, random and beautiful in a very crazy, polluted sort of way. So many things to check out! From gorgeous houses, forts and clocktowers, to crazy festivals with elephants and marigolds being dropped overhead from a helicopter! No joke! Rajasthani food was the best here and I need to get back since it was some of the spiciest I have had so far!

Rooftop Breakfast in Jodhpur

Jaswant Thada Mausoleum

Bangles

Marigolds being dropped overhead by a helicopter

Jodhpur - The Blue City

Opulence is how we ended the trip. After seeing some of the poorest people living on the edge of India near the Desert National Park, after some of the worst roads, after so many houses haphazardly stacked on top of one another -- we wound up in Gujarat where the roads are smooth and the housing societies are nicely planned and spaced for front yards. We headed to Baroda for a friend's wedding and it was an outrageous experience. From village parades, to drinking with 20 uncle Patels, to massive flower composed statues of peacocks and boats, it was full sensory experience. It was also one of the most beautiful and colorful things to witness, with a firework show better than most I have seen back home for the 4th of July. The pictures will have to do most of the talking for this nearly $1 million wedding (check out my last blog post "Holidays in India" in addition to this one for more photos and stories on the experience).

Me - never blending in - at the Wedding outside of Baroda

The Procession for the Groom in the Village

Dancing the Night Away

Entrance to the Wedding, Final Day of Celebration

Amazed!

Chalo, now back to work! Happy Friday the 13th!

What is S4D?

2012-01-11T10:38:00.000+05:30

Want to know more about my work with my NGO Magic Bus and what exactly their method of Sports for Development (S4D) is? Check out my new blogpost for work @ the Clinton Fellowship blog: "India and It's Youth: Maneuvering Sports to Empower."

www.magicbus.org

To know a little more about the fellowship I am on, the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service through the American India Foundation (AIF), check out their respective websites.

To see past posts on service work across India that all fellows and I are up to, check out the blog homepage!

Holidays in India

2012-01-03T19:03:00.000+05:30

When people say that India is a very festive society, it is definitely something you have to see to understand. Colors, music, lots of people, crazy beautiful idols and food. Even though I constantly feel the exuberance of celebration for all sorts of festivals I have never heard of, the holidays that I do know and usually look forward to have been spent in completely mellow and nontraditional settings for myself. These landmarks of the year for myself have totally disappeared, leaving me with no idea what month it is anymore. Instead, I am marking time with holidays I have never heard of before (and most of them run on a totally different calendar - the Lunar calendar for many). It feels ironic, sort of like always walking into someone else's party, but not being able to show up to your own. Despite the challenge of being far from home and family though, it's been a good experience to let go of the calendar that I am used to and find other days to jump completely into random celebrations!

The Hindu Wedding: Far away from white dresses and Bride-zillas!

A friend's wedding, 12/18/11

Hindu Wedding Celebration - So many colors!

The walk of commitment -
one foot step together for every life time together

The road to my office is prime location for crazy festivals and parties. In the crowded lane off of Lower Parel station, one has equal opportunities of being ran over by a speeding motorcycle, a mass crowd of people, a taxi or a ox-drawn wooden chariot with a life-size statue of Sai Baba. Randomly, I will arrive on the small roadway en route to the office or home to encounter some new festive surprise -- ranging from big transient temples, LOUUUDD hindi mantra music blaring, towering animatronic figures of Hindu deities, a parade, tribal children performing a huge makeshift drum ensemble, wild chickens running loose, firework mayhem, five cars blocking the way as they wait for cows and a big dance show to break up, or even a whole group of Sadhu's congregating in everyone's way. A lot of the time, they are not even formal holidays and most people have no idea what is going on. For some reason, there has been an equal amount of chaos late at night in Dadar and other near by neighborhoods to mine with massive festivals and wedding celebrations. This has been the scene too often this past month around Mumbai.

Going to work. . .

Going home from work . . .

Thanksgiving? Christmas? New Year's? Well, let's just say they were a little different.

Thanksgiving Day - just another day in the trains

Thanksgiving was pretty calm. For some reason, I did not have any desire to make a big fuss out of it and do much other than share a small meal with a few friends at a restaurant. I have never really had any Thanksgiving traditions besides eating with my family. The past few years, Thanksgiving has been spent in so many different ways -- from catching mussels on some rocks in front of my house in San Diego with my roommate and best friend, to eating feijoada and dancing in Rio de Janeiro, congregating with friends in Berkeley over a makeshift dinner, to eating turkey tostadas in Merida, Mexico. Believe it or not (I am no longer surprised by global Americanization, despite the shame. . .), I could have paid a crazy price and had a fancy Thanksgiving dinner at one of many restaurants that were serving it all over Mumbai. Instead, this year was spent with cheesecake and a salad (I vegged out with some familiar food) at some restaurant in Bandra - my hood in Mumbai. Most of the people were from the fellowship, so we opened up a little bit about what we miss about home and what we are most thankful for this year. It was pretty simple and short lived.

Jump to Christmas. After a month of accidentally walking into festival celebrations and see wedding ceremonies, I was excited to see what Christmas offered here. I became really excited and nostalgic since this was the big holiday that marks the year for me back home, and there are actually a large number of people who celebrate it here. A few days before Christmas eve, my friend Nadia Espinoza arrived in town. Some awesome local friends of mine, Karun and Vasu, had a really fun Christmas party on the 23rd that involved so much good food and dancing. I was beginning to feel the Christmas cheer that I was used to and missed, even though it was still 90 degrees outside in Mumbai. And then Christmas Eve? An 18 hour bus ride. We were headed to Rajasthan. Through the night, I laid in a bed on the bus thinking about my family, friends and this crazy year that I've had. I stared at the roof of the sleeper and began feeling the cold air of the desert seep in from the broken window that somehow reminded me of home in the wintertime (both the broken window and cold air). Christmas day, I arrived in Udaipur and had such a nice day in bright sunlight exploring the City of Lakes, until the evening when our host, Megan, had a small Christmas gathering at her house. I made some hot toddies to spark the feeling of Christmas time, and we all sat and enjoyed amazing food and talking about our lives in India.

Udaipur for Christmas

New Year's Eve @ a Gujarati Wedding Celebration

New Year's. After a week in Rajasthan - Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhopur - we headed to Gujarat for a wedding. We were excited to be involved in something festive for New Year's Eve, but were a little bummed out that we wouldn't be doing any sort of countdown. The Gujarati New Year happened after Diwali two and a half months back, so there was not going to be any recognition for the western NYE. It was ok though since we had such an awesome week. We had no idea what we were in for though. We made it for the last two days of the wedding. January 30th was a big day in the village that the groom's family was from, with so much dancing and parading. It was really fun, and even this day seemed a little fancy for us. And then, we went to the final day of the wedding ceremony on New Year's Eve. Wow - I can not even describe what we saw. . . All outdoors, it looked like some sort of mix between a Las Vegas hotel, a posh NYC club and a space for Indian Royalty. It looked outrageous -- Hindu opulence manifested into shaadi form (Just look at the photo's below). I had heard all the stereotypes of Gujarati festivities, but I never imagined them to be this extreme! Already baffled by how beautiful and extravagant it all looked, I could not think of what the actual cost of it all was. Then, the father of the groom came to reassure me of what I already knew: it was a $700,000 wedding. And once again, the world is crazy.

The Bride to be

This is what a $700,000 wedding looks like
Fireworks at Midnight

This is what a $700,000 wedding looks like - part2

Gujarati dancers watching the bride's procession

One thing about India that is so crazy to me is all of the people and their cultures. Even Hindu culture is not homogenous, but filled with all sorts of different subcultures. Although there are often misunderstandings between groups of people here (like anywhere), there is still this tolerance for everyone that makes it a pretty unique place. All last month, I saw all through the streets various people celebrating such different things: bright Hindu weddings, Eid Al-Adha & Ashura, and even Christmas. Celebrations do not even have to be in the calendar either, as people are constantly celebrating something. All space becomes public, too, with little objections to loud music playing super late or a wedding parade stopping traffic. It has been an interesting experience to let go of my traditions that I feel so emotionally connected to and opening up to new festivities that make me realize more and more how similar humans are with their desires and customs, yet how differently we all express them.

Getting caught in a Jodhpur Festival

Running into Festival Traffic - Jodhpur

More Rajasthan coming soon. . . .

Pawar Got Slapped - Office Space Turned Squalor

2011-12-11T16:24:00.000+05:30

So, a few weeks ago around 4 pm, I was sitting in my office doing work. Like any other day around that time, I was sitting on a computer doing research up against a wall across the office, a little bored and getting tired of air conditioning. While dreaming of carne asada and Mexican guacamole, all of a sudden a commotion cracked in the office. I look behind me to see the normally calm cubicle space break out into conversations and fast movements as people ran back and fourth. Must be another rave over yet another version of Kolaveri Di, I thought. Suddenly though, everyone around me started to get up and congregate close to the epicenter of chaos, coming back in a sort of unusual simultaneously humorous and frazzled manner. Everyone is laughing and begins packing up their bags. Within a few minutes, lights begin to turn off and people are leaving, shouting "I'm going home!" in hindi and english. I am thinking, "WTF now??"

My office is sort of funny like that. Not much happens from day to day, like any other big cubicle filled office. Aside from talking about new news and when the next chai or food break is, people are usually just sprawled around at desks and tables working or chatting. Sometimes though, random and crazy chaos breaks out. The other day for example, out of nowhere a field worker brings a scale over right next to my desk. Almost instantly, the area transformed from a quiet workspace to a hectic mass of loud voices as the whole office crowded over to be weighed. I could not get any explanation for the random weigh-a-thon. Another experience was when the office turned into a game of "Clue" when someone stole a large amount of money from the safe. Everyone was sitting working, when within 10 minutes we were in lock down mode and sitting all together (all 100 of us) discussing who the possible bandit could have been, and whether they used a candlestick or revolver. My favorite though was the birthday celebration - when meetings and work actions got interrupted and suddenly replaced by a massive party that took over the rest of the day! The HR department decided to celebrate three months of birthdays on the spot.

1 Party, 3 months of Birthdays Celebration - Magic Bus

Today was different though. It was not what happened in the office that stopped work. Actually, it wasn't even in Mumbai. A politician named Sharad Pawar got slapped by a young activist in Delhi. Everyone freaked out. "Pawar got slapped! Pawar got slapped! Everyone go home! Shops are closing!" Being the ignorant foreigner in the office as usualy - I had a million questions. First of all, who the hell is Pawar??

Sharad Pawar is a politician with many hats. Currently, he is the President of the National Congress Party and has served as Minister of Defence and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. His "tight slap" that he received was mostly for his current role as the the Union Agriculture Minister of India and the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (how one man can be in charge of so many things -- and such big jobs at that -- for a country of 1 billion+ people is beyond me). On November 24, a young guy named Harvinder Singh got past a barricade of reporters and slapped Pawar across the face as he was leaving the New Delhi Municipal Council building. After, he attempted to punch Pawar. The justification: food inflation. India has been experiencing massive food inflation for the past few years, escalating this past year. Pawar has been accused of multiple cases of corruption and upward Rs. 600 billion/- scams.

So what does that have to do with Magic Bus in Mumbai?? Back to my story - I am sitting there, confused, listening to everyone run around in circles are they panic that this guy in Delhi got slapped. Within 15 minutes the office was empty. Since my yoga class was right by my office at 6:30, I decided to hang out with my mentor and do more work. She filled me in that they were scared of riots. "When these things happen, people go to the street and usually riot. Things close up. It can get crazy."

Damn! Can you imagine? Just strolling up to Secretary of the US Treasury and bitch slapping him for the fiscal crisis! (Later added: Or going up to Obama and slapping him upside the head for thinking about signing the National Defense Authorization Act?) India continually surprises me like this. People seem to not care at times about politics and feel detached, others blame a generation of apathy on hopeless corruption; the middle class continues to argue over the role and importance of Anna Hazare, while millions of people are not even aware of their basic rights that are continually abused. I can not even question my boss at times because of strong cultural ties to respect. And then Harvinder Singh rolls up and slaps Pawar for costly food prices! It is not exactly aligned with Gandhi's practices of nonviolence, but how else to wake up politicians directly. Of course afterwards, even a slap did not phase much as Pawar explained that he thought nothing of it, and of course everyone now blames that Singh is mentally ill. It sounds a lot like the police's justification for attacking UC protesters and delegitimizing their words (get those facts here). Although distinct, Singh's actions remind me of the protests back home and around the world right now. Occupy, Egypt, Russia, Pakistan. One thing is for sure, the youth are getting pissed.

Everyday at work is interesting. Watching youtube at work: OK! Being late on deadlines: No problem! Leaving work early because of slapped politicians: Of course! Just another day at work though. Who knows what will happen tomorrow! One thing this Pawar experience reminded me of, and one theme that I constantly think of in my life (even more so in India for some reason) is that so many actions tie us all together. A slap in Delhi can in fact stop the Mumbai local trains, just as much as anything else can. Our lives are intertwined and that is undeniable.

Speaking of rowdy disapproval, here are some photos of a Anna Hazare protest against corruption that I ran into today in Mumbai:

Anna Hazare Panamoneum

"I am Anna Hazare" - slogan at 12/11 protests

Anna Hazare Protests

New AIF blog post!

2011-11-26T12:27:00.001+05:30

Check out my new post for work @ the Clinton Fellowship blog: "They're not just poor, They're kids."

To know a little more about the fellowship I am on, the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service through the American India Foundation (AIF), check out the websites.

To see what other fellows and myself are up to, check out the blog here!

My New Life in Mumbai!

Haji Ali

The Gateway

Be the Change?

2011-11-09T17:28:00.000+05:30

Laxmi's Footprint. . . Diwali

The last weeks of October and beginning of November were sort of reenergizing experiences that gave me a lot of positivity on my time here in India. After a week of Diwali, I spent a week in Panchgani, a hill-station five hours away from the hustle and bustle that is Mumbai for work with Magic Bus on a peer leadership camp, and then found myself at an awesome conference in a tropical paradise. . .

Diwali with friends and family

After Laxmi Pooja, Diwali

Magic Bus Peer Leader Camp

Diwali was a special time to see a really fun holiday in Mumbai. It was nuts! Fireworks going off left and right, outside your bedroom window at 4am and under your rickshaw; bonding time with new friends and their families; everyone being so happy and eating tons of sweets. I felt so excited to be here. Then, I spent 5 days with 40 teenagers from slums across Mumbai for a weeklong peer leadership retreat that I helped develop and facilitate. The week was inspiring to say the least; it fueled my motivations to sit with 40 of these smart and enthusiastic kids that were from some of the least privileged urban neighborhoods across the world. We opened up about our lives, discussed overcoming ones family and community restraints, and discussed how to make change. Then, I found myself with the opposite: intellectuals, politicians and some of the most privileged and elite of India mixed with the middle class to talk about bigger issues to change a bigger community: our world. Huge topics from the environment, cancer, poverty, democratizing media, the Palestine-Israel and Kashmiri conflict to corruption and Bollywood were discussed, including innovations from nanotechnologies to a flying car.

Peer Leader at Organic Farm in Panchgani

Bollywood THINKing:
Kiran Rao, Imran Khan and Abhay Deol

Sain Zahoor, amazing Sufi Singer
This is a private VIP event I snuck into . . .

Where was this? After the peer leadership camp, I headed to Goa for THINKfest. Goa is a weird and special place in itself. Although it is gorgeous and a very special place naturally, and also one of the friendliest as Goans usually offer a laid and kind attitude, the amount of foreigners dominating the land gives it a sort of strange, artificial feeling compared to most other parts of India. There are so many white people, that it almost felt like a new European colony (here's one Indian's point of view). For these reasons, I was always skeptical on going, but I am really glad I chose to. Aside from an amazing conference, renting a scooter and cruising to various tropical beaches and through palm jungles all around the area made me feel so revitalized after an initial two months in busy and polluted cities like Mumbai. I guess you aren't in India unless you get a situation with extremes!

Magic Bus Peer Leader Camp

These weeks inspired me to think about a lot, but also just confused the hell out of me. There I was, talking to some kids about their lives living in slum neighborhoods like Dharavi, BPT, and Jogeshwari, hearing about what its like to live off of Rs.10/day ($ 0.20), have one outfit, fear of their parents wanting them to get married when their 15, drug abuse, the country forgetting about their existence in these huge slums in a crazy city like Mumbai as they live their lives in shanty scrap metal houses, and then I am sipping champagne and listening to Frank Gehry talk about creative architecture and the "modern world" that we live in (here) and some American guy talking about a flying car he built (no joke). I sat in a circle on a porch of a farmhouse in Panchgani with kids sharing our experiences of being trouble youth (I used to be one) and then just two days later I am sitting in the Grand Hyatt hearing Imran Khan talk about making movies that matter without the interference of corporations (here).

Dayamani Barla, Jharkhand activist, speaks on Just Development

A little taste of Goan Beauty:

Goan shacks

Aram Bol, Goa

The world is crazy, but especially India is mind-blowing as always for me right now. People tend to not trust what I have to say about the world, so I thought I would dedicate the rest of this blog to sharing a few reasons with backup why India is special for those who want to know more about this place, and for those who think they know enough. Here is India in a few facts and numbers:

India is predicted to be the fastest growing economy by 2013 (source).
India is the ninth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (source). India should overtake Japan in 2013 to become the third-largest economy in the world at purchasing power parity (source).
There are 1.17 billion people here (source), almost one sixth of the worlds total population living on 2.4% of the world's land (source). Nearly half of which, or 456 million (42% of population), live in extreme poverty on less than $1.25/day (source). 100's of millions more live just above this line.
Today, India accounts for the greatest burden of newborn deaths in the world. According to 2009 estimates, 908,000 newborns die each year (almost 2400 per day) in India alone – accounting for 28% of the total global burden of neonatal deaths and and a staggering 55% of under-5 deaths in India (source).
India is full of rich people and tons of money (two of most expensive weddings were Indian: source, the most expensive home in history of 27-stories was build in Mumbai: Antilia, and two of the richest people in the world are Indian: source), as well as tons of food (one of the leading economies of agriculture in the world source and for example, produces 1/4 of the world's eggplants source), however still nearly half of India’s small children are malnourished: one of the highest rates of underweight children in the world, higher than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. More than one-third of the world’s 150 million (68 million: larger than the population of most Western European countries and almost double of California) malnourished under-fives live in India (source).
Indian is the third least consumer of meat in the world, only eating 11.5 lbs. annually. Compare that to Americans at 275.1 lbs. annually (a funny source). 30% of Indians are pure vegetarian (no animal product whatsoever) while an estimated 42% are vegetarian but do not consume eggs. Even the "nonveg" population do not eat meat frequently, with less than 30% consuming it regularly (the reasons are partially economical, partially cultural; wiki veg by country).
80% of children, 70% of pregnant women and 24% of adult men are deemed in some form anemic in India (source).
They say that Indians save more than Americans and are in less debt: it is estimated that Indians save up to 62% of their income, while the average American saves only -5% (this percentage is actually debt) to 10% (source).
India is extremely fragmented in terms of development, with the national life expectancy being 63.7, but the life expectancy of Mumbai being as low as 56.8 (source).
India is said to be the largest democracy in the world based on it being the democratic government with the largest population, 700 million of which are eligible voters (thats almost 2x the entire size of the US, source).
Corruption runs so deep in politics, that even Parliament has it's fair share of criminal politicians (about 162 of about 802 members of Parliament have some sort of criminal case against them: source). It is estimated that 40-50% of GDP, in the neighborhood of $600 billion, is from the informal market (source). In fact, India has lost more than $460bn since Independence because of companies and the rich illegally funnelling their wealth overseas (source). Although they are doing somethings though?
Over the past three years, an average of 700 NGOs open daily in India, and the country is now home to 3.3 million NGOs (source source).
Child marriage is big issues here. In some parts of India, it is estimated that 80% of girls married are under the age of 15 (source). This is no stranger to big cities like Mumbai either; most of our kids in our program face this problem in their communities.
Mumbai: In Mumbai the population density is about 45,662 persons per square kilometer (source) - almost double compared to all of NYC (the densest city in the USA) which is about 26,000 (wiki). Half of Mumbai lives in poverty (source), half the city lives in slums--which only comprises of 6% of the total land area (source), 1.2 million live on less than Rs.20/day ($ 0.40) (source) and there are about 100,000 people sleeping on the streets (source).
The other Mumbai: there are plans to complete several, very expensive residential skyscraper projects that include the "World One Tower," a proposed second tallest residential tower in India on land taken from a mill that used to employ 7,000 people and will require 14 million man hours and $400 million to complete; the Indian Tower will be the tallest building in India at 126 stories, double size of the current Imperial Tower, which cleared thousands of slum homes for its construction. All this is somehow part of the plan to make Mumbai "slum free" by 2015, yet these buildings (and others alike: Palais Royale and the Lokhandwala Minerva) will hardly be for the people that had to leave the land for their completion, as they will cost upward millions of dollars.
And then there is Antilia: supposedly the most expensive and largest home in world: estimated at $1 billion to build, 27 stories high, 600 staff to run it, and situated on the most expensive block of the tenth most expensive road in the world, Altamount Rd (cost of upward $10 million/square meter). All for 5 people. And as of last month, they won't move in because they're unhappy with the design.

This country is big, fast, contradictory and special in so many ways compared to the rest of the world. My appreciation for India expands everyday. There are so many problems stacked right next to many virtues that world can learn from it (like having a pretty great appreciation for family values and marriage and possibly being happier than most Western countries). For example, having so many problems is intense to think about, but thinking that no one is doing anything is just wrong. The efforts and creative thought that happen here inspire me, even though it is hard to see at first.

The ending note of the THINKfest conference is in order to make change happen in our world, no matter what you do, you have to be creative. Thinkers are needed everywhere to challenge the barriers that surround most professional fields and personal lives. It seems like no secret, yet most people don't really question things or think beyond their limits. And it is not just India, the world has even greater problems than India has to offer, and my own country of the good ol' USA could use a whole entry itself to point out it's own blasphemy. In any context though, it is hard to be the change you want to be though when people are maintaing broken system systems, or even the most developed countries that are supposed to be the example are not upholding democratic values that they preach (source and Colbert Report). It is so difficult to help empower these kids at this camp when it seems so impossible for many of them to be the changes they want to make. Still, there is always a horizon. I guess we all need to think bigger, overcome our differences and unite in our struggle, a cliche still not yet lived (like here).

Dazed in the Mumbai Maze

2011-10-25T16:41:00.000+05:30

Mumbai has been a lot like a board game for me this past month. It has gone something like this:

START:

Head to Mumbai for ten months of service with AIF! Beforeyou start, make sure you know a one thing: Mumbai is a Maximum City in everysense. If you can live here, you really can live anywhere. Chalo! Let’s getstarted.

Flying into Mumbai

1.) Welcome toMumbai! Soak up the freezing air conditioning and views of the very modernairport that overlook massive slums stacked to the walls of the runway. Pleaseexit straight outside to the thick, muggy, trash-scented air to a taxi that islooking to rip you off.

IF you didn’t get charged triplethe amount for being a foreigner, please advance straight through the muggy airthat reeks of trash to your new home.

IF you did get ripped off, pleaseargue with the taxi driver in crappy Hindi and American English until heunderstands. Collect your money back and RUNFAST with all of your bags away to the next space as he yells at you inpublic!

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

2.) COOL OFF withsome hot chai! Drink your first Maharashtran chai with a spicy hot samosaand smile as you advance to the next space already drenched in sweat and bliss.Make conversation with the friendly locals sitting next to you.

Mumbai Locals

3.) AUTO RICKSHAW RUNAROUND!! The moment after dropping your bags off, take an auto rickshaw tomeet a random broker on the back of a random motorcycle on a random streetcorner.

THINK FAST! There is an auto bundh! Youwill have to walk!

Bandra Station

4.) SUCCESS. Take4 steps forward and collect 30,000 Rupees as you visit 8 different apartmentson your first day in Mumbai and receive your first month’s stipend!

5.) SNEAK ATTACK!!!Take 5 steps backwards and pay 3,000 Rupees when you realize that none of theplaces are livable, except for the first one – which is way out of your budget!Stay on track. . .

GO FORWARD 1 space for every three apartments you look at as youcontinue your search! GO BACKWARDS 3spaces for every place that is completely out of your budget!

6.) EAT, PRAY, GROOVE

Dance Garba for Navrati as you arereborn into the next activity

Engage in pooja to Durga and eatBengali bhog beneath her pandal as you are blessed with tika and advanceforward

Durga Pooja

Line for Bhog at a Durga Pooja Celebration

7.) JUMP ON THE FASTTRAIN to Churchgate and check out the Gateway to India! Enjoy the beautifulviews and peaceful atmosphere as you sit amongst families and friends in frontof Mumbai’s proudest monument.

Gateway to India and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

‘TREAT YOURSELF’ to extremely overpriced souvenirs and food in themost touristic neighborhood in India! If you speak Hindi, take off ¾ of theprice.

Avoid the stalls and sneak into abar for a drink and some of the funniest locals you can meet on this side ofthe Arabian Sea!

8.) SLLLLLOOOOOOWWWDOWN on a slow train! Take the Mumbai “local” Western Rail to Lower Parelas you head to work.

Mumbai Local Trains

FREE SHOVES! Fight your way on the train every single day as youget elbowed, stepped on, pushed over, scratched at and spat at while at leasttwenty-five other very sweaty and anxious people try to get past you. For everytwo people you push and every one person you elbow, you arrive at work 2minutes earlier.

Take a step backwards if you get pushed out of a moving train atDadar Station or stand on the wrong side and miss your stop! If you can jumpback on the moving train, you may only be 30 minutes late!

9.) NOT YET SUCKER!Just when you think it is time to start work, go back 10 spaces to apartment hunting!!

Deal with crazy landlords and shadybrokers as you fight your way into an apartment! Bargain hard for a decentdeposit, then pay way too much money to get out of the hassle and into your ownplace that is completely unfurnished. PLUSSIDE: Enjoy amazing new roommates.

10.) MAGIC CARD!Take a stroll along Carter Road with new Mumbai friends and check out thepeaceful Ganesha beach temple. Soak in the Mumbai skyline and take one stepforward as you realize your dreams have come true. Head to a friends house fordinner to hang with inspiring and talented people of this country.

11.) BONDING TIME!You finally begin work. Interview some of the most underprivileged people inthe world during community visits to Dharavi, BPT and Thane to see some of themost complex slum-communities in South Asia. Interact with amazing people whoseresilience lifts you forward 5 morespaces.

*Move backwards 5 spaces if youfeel pity for these people or disgusted with these places. The only thing theyneed is advocacy, not critics.

12.) JUMP UP AND DOWNand forward 5 spaces as you finally get a cell phone and make a few friends! Ifyou actually get network, keep moving forward another space!

13.) CAUTION TAPE!You are not welcome to the communities you work with because you are white.Please start over and figure out why you are playing this game!

Dharavi by Night

14.) NEW BEGINNING!Revise your role in your NGO and what project you can with only 8 monthsremaining! Convince people that not all white people are bad, even though a lotare. Finish this all in 5….4….3….2….1….

Footsteps for Good NGO Charity Event

15.) TILT-A-WHIRL!!Spin around really fast to imitate the pressures of Mumbai!

Feel the pressure as dozens of autodrivers drive past you and ignore you, the trains get fuller everyday, an oldhomeless man pees on you, you witness babies crawling around in trash heapswith rats and insects, your landlord gets more demanding, your Hindi getsworse, people do not trust you, rabid decomposing dogs chase you home and achild cries at the sight of your face!

16.) SIT BACK ANDRELAX on a rickety old merrygo-round that is manually operated by three small boys on Chowpatty Beach.

INDULGE and enjoy the best chaat in Maharashtra. Treat yourself tofresh pani puri, dahi puri, pav bhaji and a mango milkshake. Sit still for thisround and calm yourself from the all the spinning fun and stress.

*Despite the craziness, rememberhow calm and challenging last summer was in Eastern rural India for theopposite reasons. Embrace the madness of Mumbai for the sake of keepingyourself entertained and think hard about your role at your NGO, Magic Bus.What meaningful project can you do there?

17.) EXPAT TRAP!Looking for friends? Take the Sea Link to Bandra West! Get trapped withforeigners (and really rich Indians who want to be foreigners) that arecomplaining about India all the time, recreating a USA party-all-the-timeculture and spending waaaayyy too much money! Remember, most foreigners reallyare rich and have more money than you!

Either hang with them and blow yourstipend, sending you right back to START as well as diminishing any attempt tounderstand India

Drop them and deal with yoursolitude as you focus on work and figure out how to make genuine friends aswell as a great project.

18.) BONUS! Forfeeding a street child lunch one afternoon, someone will be a little nicer toyou on the train and not push you.

REALITY CHECK: After he tells you that both of his parents died of afever last month, you feel even worse and more powerless in this living machinethat is Mumbai. This child is one of almost a million in Mumbai. Take one stepback.

19.) HOMESICK REMEDY!After missing your family, distract yourself with Diwali! Cover your apartmentin bright, tacky, colorful lights! For Dhanteras, purchase dipas and enjoy thelight show at night as the five-day festival of lights commences!

Rangoli - Getting Ready for Diwali

Diwali Madness

POW!! Random fireworks outside your window and around your officeresemble the gunshots from back home in the US. Jump out of your skin andscream like a girl as you head backwards three spaces! Exchange sweets withfriends in order to feel better.

Fireworks

20.) STARVE YOURSELF!Since you spend all day on trains, trying to find auto-rickshaws and wastingtime trying to connect to the internet – you have no time or energy to makefood and you don’t have enough money to eat out!

One of Many Commuter Crowds

Give in and pay a bai to make youlunch and dinner everyday. Fill your belly with ghee, and move forward twospaces. Realize your privilege!

21.) MOSEY AROUNDTOWN until you wind up in South Bombay. Sit and marvel at Haji Ali – asacred and beautiful example of Indian Islamic Architecture that reminds you ofthe struggle Muslims continue to fight in this country and across the world.Feel good about today and go forward to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel where youcan pretend you are rich guest just to use their bathroom.

Dhobi Ghat - Mahalaxmi Station

22.) LUCKY YOU!!!A bird defecates on your head for the 12^th time since you arrived!This is considered good luck in India, so you can take those feces and runahead five spaces!

Lucky Bird

SORRY! A monsoon hits and washes away your good luck, and in themean time also soaks your laptop bag and all of your clothes! Go back wardsfive spaces, then take the train all the way home soaking wet!

23.) WAKE UP ANDSMELL THE FUMES! You get stuck in traffic and nearly suffocated by gasfumes for 2 hours from Andheri to Bandra during rush hour, a distance of only13 km! But you still arrive to your destination before anyone else! Go forwardone space!

24.) DANCE IT OFFafter a long week of quantitative data collection in slum communities at aMumbai club where you score free entrance. Get sweaty and step outside to geteven more sweaty from the thick October heat as you look out into thecontradictory landscape that is Mumbai, where even you are a part of themassive contradiction that houses over 20 million people.

Mumbai Juxtaposed

25.) HAND STANDS INBANDSTAND! Have fun with street kids and do handstands in your neighborhoodas snooty onlookers judge you with their eyes. Embrace a light attitude aboutlife and feel good about a new beginning in this crazy huge city!

Sunset off Carter Road

FINISH?

Yeah right! Keep your chin up and don’t run into any more cows while walking or offend your Indian coworkers with your ignorant foreignness!

The journey continues. . . only 20,461 more spaces to go!

Holy Shit: Bharat Part 3

2011-10-07T15:04:00.000+05:30

Really?

Back to India. If someone would have told me three years ago that by this time in my life, I would have visited India more than any other country in the world, I would not have believed it. "How the hell would I get to India once, let alone three times!" is probably what I would have thought. Well, life is weird, man. Today is my twenty-seventh day of my third trip to India. This is also the second time I am working here, at another NGO. Also, I will be here for the longest amount of time I have ever been abroad: nearly 1 year. "Holy shit."

Bahá'í Lotus Temple, Delhi

Humayun's Tomb

That's all I kept thinking for the entire six weeks I was back home in the States before coming back to India. It was absolutely unbelievable to me that I was about to fly half way around the world again to live in Mumbai, one of my favorite cities in the world, for 10 months. "Holy shit." Not only am I coming back to India, but I am also leaving the country after just returning from being in Ghana for 6 months and having had the luck of traveling through Europe for a month and a half. In the past year, I have been on over 25 planes, and was about to board three more to get to Mumbai. "Holy Shit." Above all, I am not just coming for a short internship or a galavanting travel expedition. I am actually being paid by a foundation to come and work for and NGO. I am going to be a fellow under the name of the ex-president Bill Clinton. I am going to be paid to come to Mumbai and work for a youth development organization that offers its services within slums across the mega-city. Right after my final study abroad in Ghana in the spring, I am going to work on the ground in one of the most fascinating and socially stratified cities in the world. "Holy shit."

Lower Parel - My walk to work from the train

My good friend Mini and I at an Art Show (furniture made from recycled trash)

Marine Drive - Mumbai

This year will be pretty different for me. I am representing the American India Foundation (www.aif.org) as a Clinton Fellow for Service (http://www.aifclintonfellowship.org/blog/). My job is to work with Magic Bus, a Mumbai-based Youth Development and Sports for Development NGO, to do some project to benefit the NGO, the beneficiaries and myself. Upon arriving in Delhi, I did not really know what to expect. Yet, as days passed by, the Fellowship became more and more interesting. We met the American Ambassador of India, had dinner with big Delhi socialites that are into development and philanthropy, partied on the rooftop at the nicest Sushi restaurant in Delhi, met heads of NGOs and non-profits ranging from rural livelihoods to women's rights, discussed politics withthe Editor and Chief of the Indian Express, talked caste with distinguished professors and even got a lecture on sexual minorities from a rep from a Delhi based MSM org. This fellowship is way more complex than I thought, having fellows doing work from public health to social enterprise to human rights to education. The most interesting part are probably the fellow themselves: some of the most talented and experienced people I have met. Meeting past alumni of this program has also made me realize what a great opportunity this is begin something even greater for myself after this fellowship ends. The group dynamic was great though, and I really enjoyed hanging out in Delhi with everyone, as well as getting to know some amazing people. Every day up until we left was packed with some activity, and then we all dispersed all over India. Once again, for the sixth time, I flew into Mumbai.

Hitting the clubs in Delhi

Some of the AIF crew at orientation, Delhi

India is one of those places for me that just never gets old. Beyond the appeal of being extremely foreign to me as a Westerner, it is a place that keeps anyone's senses occupied to the maximum. It felt good to land and know what to expect right away, while simultaneously remaining eager to continue to learn more that I still do not understand. It takes a local a lifetime to really know their homeland inside and out, and even they still are surprised by what happens in their own hood. This is a great lesson I have learned staying with my family in Ohio. Even though they know their city, they fit in culturally, they understand the local language, and even though they keep up with what's going on around them, they are still surprised by the traffic, by people's unexplainable behavior, by politics they can not explain, by things that have been there forever. This is my third time in India, but it is still only my 137th day in this country all together. Even two years here would not be enough to know it all. Yet, even though the learning curve for a traveler is steep, with greater effort you can learn a lot. I want this next ten months to never be dull. Everyday I hope to figure something new out through conversation, getting lost around Mumbai, practicing language, eating something new, reading up Indian books and authors and just living life in Mumbai. "Holy Shit," this is real!

Durga Pooja

Continuing the Journey

2011-09-06T10:40:00.000+05:30

Handstands in Siena

It is crazy to sit down and write about a trip once it's over. It is so difficult to feel the same sensations you were feeling, to live the same reality over again in your head, or to even convince yourself that what you remember is really how it happened. It has only been two months since I have left Ghana, and it already seems to haved slipped years away. The most certain thing that I feel, however, is complete disbelief that I lived in West Africa for nearly six months in the first place. Now, West Africa is huge, and my small existence inside of Ghana--along with a few travels to neighboring countries--does not necessarily mean that I all of a sudden understand completely what is West Africa for West Africans. It does not even mean that I could easily summarize it accurate enough for anyone. However, after returning to the US and traveling through Europe, it is amazing how blackmarked that part of the world is (no pun intended) to most people in their psychological travel maps. "Who the hell would go there??" has been the most typical response. Ghana seems so far away now because it is hardly spoke of or even heard of to most people I am around. It makes me remember how unbelievable it is for many people that one could even go there. This conceptual distance seems to transform into physical distance in a lot of people's minds, when really Africa is not that far away.

Giza Pyramids - Cairo, Egypt

As always, it is strange to reinsert myself back in the US. Two years ago, I remember thinking of

the trio, my best friends

coming back from South America as the, "re-americanization of the self." The reverse culture shock is a little easier this time, especially since I transitioned slowly with stops in Egypt, Italy and Turkey. Yet, the weirdest thing that still remains in my mind is how unique Americans live. Big cars, lots of waste, using tons of water and other resources. . . it's all been said before, but it's no less surprising or disgusting once you meet so many people living on so little. The other big shock is that we are no better. No matter how modern, how much more technologically advanced, what kind of toilet one sits on or how one eats-- the United States is as backwards as any developing nation that we claim has no clue. I come back to huge class disparities, Americans being unaware of major social issues related to class or race, the ignored white privilege (and the straight privilege, the male privilege, the wealthy privilege, etc.), homeless people being continually pushed out of the streets (and not into homes), the increased withdrawl of the State in public matter, and of course. . . . Americans favoring backward morons like Michele Bauchman and Sarah Palin, and blaming Obama for everything wrong with our country despite his short presence in office (did we forget about the two term Bush administration? And we call out Africa for corruption??)! It has been difficult. But, don't get me wrong, it's been easy too. I can not deny that I am from where I am from. I really am American, I can't deny it. I love coming home to lots ofdiversity in food and people, to crazy Lady Gaga, to eccentric people and massive cities with gorgeous skylines. . . Mostly, I am so grateful for the people in my life. I have been way too negative about my own culture in the past, and I am realizing more and more that is not fair to box anyone into a category - another lesson I constantly relearn. People are dynamic and it is awesome to come home to such good people in my life, especially the mindful ones that are trying to make changes in the world in their own lives, in small ways (mostly by not doing all that above).

My couchsurfing host family - Lome, Togo

Python Temple, Benin

Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria

Couchsurfing Friends - Lekki Reserve, Lagos

My summer was amazing, to say the least. After Ghana I went to Nigeria, Togo and Benin. It was an awesome chance to see other kinds of West African countries and have my own solo adventure. I met some awesome people, got lost in the craziest places I have ever been, completely challenged my inner traveler by showing up in Togo and Benin not knowing much French at all, or any local languages, and made it to Lagos to confront the realities behind all the craziness that people speak on Nigeria. I loved it. West Africa is gorgeous, and something about it makes me constantly want more. Then, I flew to Egypt on the way to Europe. I had planned to visit a friend in Italy for two months, and on the way I organized a two day layover in Cairo. The best choice I made in the prior 6 months!! I was so lucky to be able to get off the plane, buy a $15 visa, and go roam Cairo. It is such a cool city. I was right there in Tahrir Square to talk about the recent "revolution" with street goers and drink tea and smoke hookah with new friends as we watched new demonstrations take place. I learned a few things about Islam from a really amazing guy named Hassan, and even got to see the Giza Pyramids. It only got better as I flew to Italy for a few days and stuffed myself with amazing food and beautiful cities before flying to Turkey for two weeks. This part of my trip made me feel so spoiled, and so privileged. I felt embarrassed telling people about these travel plans, thinking they would misinterpret me for some rich travel snob. It all just sort of worked out through luck I suppose. Turkey was great though, but I don't feel like I got to know enough. Istanbul is such an awesome city though! I actually found myself in the middle of their first gay pride parade one day! There are so many things I never knew about Turkey. It has such a unique history with language, their relationship with Islam and being in between Europe and Asia.

Assos

Istanbul Pride

Ayasofya

Ayasofya Interior

Grande Bazaar

Then, Italy. . . what magic the whole month there was. Driving by car from the very north in Milan, all the way to Sicily. It was an expensive ass journey after Ghana, but so gorgeous. Speaking Italian for a month and getting lost in new places through the tiny country during summer made me feel like I was in paradise. Italians definitely know how to treat themselves, and they definitely know how to relax and enjoy summer!

Pisa

Cinque Terre

Torre del Lago

San Gimignano

Now, back in Ohio. This place is just as beautiful. So many amazing people, so many things I never knew existed. It's hard to come back after so many new places, and it's even harder after visiting San Francisco and Berkeley for 10 days (another perfect trip), but Cleveland has it's own awesome things that I still need to discover. . .

The Cleveland Metroparks

Storm rolling in at Sunset - Lakewood

Ohio junk yard

My Aunt and I, maketing my photo show!

Bay Leaf Family - my Oakland family

Good ol' Memorial Glade fun

the Mission in SF

So, here I go again. After being home for 6 weeks, I am going to kiss my mother good bye and jump on a plane to India for the American India Foundation's William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service. Am I ready? Yes and no. I guess I will have to decide when I get there! Chalo!

La famiglia

And that's a wrap. . . ?

2011-06-01T11:52:00.000+05:30

I am leaving Ghana, and can't believe it. Just got over malaria, moved out of my place (by force), said goodbye to all the friend I've made around campus and am getting ready to head to Togo, Benin and Nigeria for my final two weeks in West Africa. I am nervous to travel alone through francophone countries without speaking French and go to Nigeria alone, but I am going for it. I am having a pretty rough experience my last few days, with lots of people trying to haggle me and take advantage of me, but I am really trying to keep my cool and keep a light attitude. It's rough though: no matter how long I've been here, no matter how good I have become with bargaining and no matter how much I have learned to get around on my own, people still take advantage of me. I can't convince some people that just because I am white and a foreigner, doesn't mean that I have money. All in all though, I am just looking forward to enjoying my last few moments here.

After 6 months, it's all concluding so fast. Here is a little photographic summary of my final days in Ghana. . .

Last days in Ghana - Slideshow

Please, I'm coming, I'm coming.

2011-05-12T11:51:00.000+05:30

Someone could tell you, "I'm coming," in Ghana, and not show up for three hours, if at all. When I ask for anything here, I have come to expect things to take twice, maybe even ten times longer than I am used to at home. "Can I get some food?" "Please, I'm coming," someone will respond. Everyday I come into contact with my high strung Western Self, realizing how addicted to efficiency and receiving things as soon as I ask for them like what happens so often back at home. I remember thinking this in India as well, and even in South America. Things don't happen as suddenly as back in the States, and what I have come to realize is that, "I'm coming," doesn't necessarily mean that the person is actually going to come or do what you ask anytime soon, but that it is in their intentions to eventually do what you ask. Don't get me wrong - there are some very punctual and efficient people here, but the majority of people do not have the [sometimes neurotic] instinct of extreme production and fast movement in mind that many Westerners have. It has reminded me that people are actually humans here, and not the robots that we are sometimes forced to be.

In lieu of this common Ghanaian attitude of, "eventually, I'm coming," this is my explanation for the gaps on my blog writing. "Please wait, I'm coming." Being here, especially on campus at the University of Ghana and in the village of Wli Todzi, I have adopted a much slower rhythm and momentum of activity than I am used to back home. I find myself constantly late from stopping and chatting with people, taking time to stop and eat and not while walking, doing one thing at a time, prioritizing talking to people and making eye contact to really listen, sleeping when I feel tired, and having an awesome time just enjoying where I'm at. Ghana is a special place, and I feel lucky to be here!

On another note though, I just received notification this week that I was accepted into the American India Foundation as a 2011-2012 William J. Clinton Fellow for Service!!! I am going back to India for 10 months this coming September! I can not believe I got it. After an intense competitive process of a pretty extensive application with 10 long essays and a 45 minute skype interview and waiting for over 4 months to hear back, I got it!! But am I ready to go back to India, right after being in Ghana and Europe for 8 months? We will see. Just got to stay present right now. . .

Peeling through the Layers of Ghana

2011-04-16T04:17:00.000+05:30

In my last post, I had started off by saying that I really started to feel like I was finally IN Ghana. I was mostly talking about immersion. Looking around me at the time, I began to feel myself soaked in a Ghanaian lifestyle: eating and making the food, talking about locally relevant issues, wearing the clothes, walking the walk, living with Ghanaians, practicing languages and greetings . . . This was all pretty important for me since for the first time, I knew next to nothing about the place I was coming to. It wasn’t like my last trips. It is almost as if I came to Ghana blindfolded, dropped off by a taxi on the side of a deserted unrecognizable road that could have been in several places in the world. Yet as I began to make sense of it all, I started to realize shortly after the last post that I still did not understand Ghana and what to make of this place in general.

Kokobrite Beach

Fufu and Light Soup

Colorful Ghana Creatures

This is one perplexing theme that my mind has been wrestling with. What is Ghana? Upon arriving, I began to pick up phrases in a local language of Twi, I was given my Ghanaian name of Kwaku for being born on a Wednesday, I bought some cool Ghanaian printed shirts and explored various places – all while eating the food, managing trotros, operating in intense heat once again, and trying to adapt to different social behavior. I started coming to conclusions about what Ghana is versus what my culture is, until I found myself in the same trap I always fall into: Ghana is not just one homogenous culture. It is so much more complicated than that! In fact, learning Twi and taking on a Ghanaian 'day name' of Kwaku is really only beginning to understand Ashanti culture--only one dominating culture of Ghana. I know, I know, I have written this before, but I can not just write what all Ghanaians do and what is typical of here when people are so much more dynamic than that. I have found myself stuck, over and over again, in conversations with international students comparing Ghanaian culture to the US, only to realize that their idea of what Ghana is not the same as mine, or that they have made limited or hasty generalizations of this place. I even realize that their idea of what US culture is not even the same as mine!

Kaneshie Station

Tro-tro Madness

Out at Container with a good friend Samuel and my roommate Joshua

March 6 Independence Day (54th Anniversary)

All this has prevented me from writing much. Although it is hard to avoid being reminded of my “Americanness” or to step outside of my culture and just accept another’s, I have still tried to forget about constantly comparing Ghana to where I am from as a means to understand it. I have instead dove head first into many projects and activities that have allowed me to get close to different kinds of Ghanaians and undersrand what it's like to live, work and organize here in the Ghanaian system. The month of March disappeared for me while I kept busy working on a play, implementing my photography project, helping put together an activist forum for University of Ghana students and working hard on a village development project for the village I mentioned last post, Wli Todzi. Each project though has provided me great insight around so many different perspectives on huge themes like racism, religion, development, sexuality, sexism, gender divides and even various political views on Ghana locally and Ghana in the world today. Let me break down what each activity has been like. . .

"Atobra"

The play took the most amount of time, but it was one of the cooler things I have been able to do here. The storyline was hilarious, with a modern relationship going sour because of complications with traditional expectations. I played a chief wizard (a male witch and leader of a group of vodoo witches) that tried to destroy the husband with the help of his wife, and then Jesus saves the day in the end! Kind of out there, but it was still a really cool experience and great way to make a bunch of Ghanaian friends and be apart of a performance directed by a local playwright. Since I have been in Ghana, it has been interesting to open myself up to how outgoing so many people here are. It is not as frowned upon to be the loudest person, or to be extremely outgoing and confident as it is back home. With the momentum of other people here, I felt like I was able to come outside of my own constraints and confidently perform something. It was a great opening up experience, one very big theme to my time in Ghana. Also, every night during rehearsal or performance, we all always had really interesting conversations back stage mostly around religion, race, culture and politics. Religion comes up here a lot, and since Jesus saves the day in the end of the play, I definitely had a lot to say and hear about Christianity. Some of the people I met in my play though were some of the coolest and smartest students I have met here. It also brought me closer to the performing arts department where I have been dancing my ass off at!

"Youth Partnership for Social Justice"

Youth Partnership for Social Justice (YPFSJ) is another project that I have been involved with. It is a really great and necessary space for international students and Ghanaian students to get together and is discuss common issues that fall between us all, beyond borders. It has been an awesome way to break down barriers and having a place where themes important for encouraging activism to be explored and talked about by all different kinds of people. This is one place where I have totally realized how different Ghanaians are from one another, but also a place where I have realized immense apathy amongst the students and youth here. There definitely seems to be a sense of powerlessness against a massive system against change and too extreme of social progress. But, I am gaining faith from people who come to our group discussions so passionate to relay ideas and thoughts. Recently there was a really controversial happening on campus where a girl was stripped naked and sexually abused by a bunch of men in dormitory as a punishment for getting caught stealing from someone's room. Stealing is serious here, and it rarely happens, but if it does it usually is by men. If they are caught, they can be beat to death or stripped naked and walked all around campus for everyone to see you. This time it was a girl though, and a "female appropriate (as many have explained) punishment was given of sexual abuse while it was video taped and disbursed all over campus. The event and the commentary by various students afterwards opened up my eyes to the immense gender divide and sexist views held by many here. We talked about it one week as a topic for out YPFSJ meeting, and it was just another topic that made me realize how much more complicated it is to understand things here, and how difficult it is to penetrate as well as understand thoughts soaked in a completely different social context.

"Rise Up Wli Todzi"

Wli Todzi is my other source of extreme pleasure. Since my last post, I have become really involved with trying to work alongside the people of Wli Todzi and just get them simple things they need. The clinic is still the largest concern, but is becoming more and more difficult to attain. Working on this project has been such a beneficial experience for me to try and run a development project with other students all from our own hands and minds, but it is so challenging as well given our short time and limited resources. Wli Todzi is also such a special place. Since my last post, I have gone up two more times, and have plans for about two more visits. I wanted to go up even more times than I have to spend time with people that I have grown close to and explore a completely different side of Ghana; a humble village life in the Volta Region with a whole different language, social system and traditional roots stemmed far away the busy and hectic collage of things and life that exists in Accra. What I have done most is try and talk to people about the village, help continue to streamline the tourism project that will generate revenue for the village, conduct a baseline study for figuring out health stats on the villages for advocacy, research grants and writing a proposal for what our project is trying to accomplish. We hope to at least be getting a large sum of money to build the clinic from a fundraiser we are currently organizing. My eyes are more open more than ever to how ridiculous this place and the world is sometimes; all we need are materials and no one we need help from is convinced that a clinic is necessary. Aside from all of the challenging work, Wli Todzi has become the most special place for me in Ghana so far.

"Photo-Adesan: Photographing the Young Voices of Ga Children of the Street Academy of Accra"

This has been one of the most satisfying and interesting experiences yet. The project took some time to take off, and I have gone through a roller coaster of emotions and self-critique on what the project means and how well it is or isn’t working out, but right now I feel that it has taken off so well. The kids I am working with are some of the most underprivileged kids I have ever met. They are also one of the primary sources of inspiration for me at the moment and have completely filled the void that developed after leaving my students and job at College Track of Oakland. I finally have been able to buy 6 cameras for the project, and have also gotten two cameras donated and volunteered my own cameras for the project. Having these artistic instruments for capturing and recording their lives as a means for self-representation/expression and therapeutic value have opened a flood gate for the kids to explore a totally different educational medium. I have also seen the kids feeling more empowered and stoked in general because of photography, which has made me feel somewhat accomplished. However, the kids are still crazy, and I am continually confronted by intense challenges. Also, I am becoming so worried about just ending it next month after all this work of setting it up on my own.

Claudio and Ajetay

Caleb doing flips in Jamestown

Patience, Rashid and Caleb on our first photo field trip

Claudio in class

Photo Homework

Travels. . .

I have not traveled much since the beginning of my time in Ghana besides to long journeys to Wli Todzi. Craving to get away, last weekend I took a little escape trip to Koforidua with my friend Chuks from Nigeria and Rhiannon from the UK. Koforidua is the capital of the Eastern Region, just north of Accra. It was just a random last minute trip, but ended up being so much fun. Koforidua sits in the Shai Hilla, north of Accra, so it was nice to drive up through beautiful vegetation and plush green hills, to a place cooler than Accra. It was a really cool chill city, and we also got to escape to Boti Falls, some nearby waterfalls, and a few other random natural tourist attractions like "Umbrella Rock" and a palm tree with three stumps. We found ourself in hilarious situations, from hichhiking with a bus full of Christian University students from Boti Falls back to Koforidua, to being stranded in the city in the middle of the night with no hotel and then meeting a cool taxi driver who took us for free to a nursing school to sleep for the night. The hostel at the nursing school is usually only for its students, but they let all of us sleep there in the nicest room I have seen in Ghana yet!

Chuks, Me and Rhiannon in a trotro

Boti Falls

A walk through the park with giants

Umbrella Rocks

Palm Tree with three stumps

Aburi Botanical Gardens

I just wanted to write a simple and blunt update. All of these experiences have shown me completely different sides of Ghana, especially mixed in with going to school with wealthy Ghanaians and exploring fun places and interesting people of Accra! That’s all I got for now . . . More thoughts coming really soon.

Ghanaian Diarrhee: Finding My Groove

2011-02-24T23:39:00.000+05:30

Today I realized that I am really in Ghana now. After 50 days in the Ghanaian heat, eating all Ghanaian food 24/7, navigating myself through the country and big cities, picking up some phrases in local languages, mingling with locals and making some genuine friendships, sitting amongst Ghanaians everyday in class and seeing what life is like here from the middle class down to the rural poor, the United States feels further away than ever. And the best thing is that I still have four months left. It was a hard transition this time, as I had to leave my family once again after a great Christmas, and also it was the end of my time at Berkeley and with my job College Track of Oakland. I also had to say goodbye to so many special people to go and start a new adventure in West Africa. After the transition period though, I am beginning to see how much easier it is for me to adapt to foreign places for long periods of time than it used to be.

After my first month in Ghana, I am starting to get the hang of things. After a pretty thorough orientation for our EAP program that lasted about two weeks, there was a whole week on campus at the University of Ghana that felt lonely. It was the week before classes had started, and no Ghanaian students had moved onto campus yet. It was this weird space of random international students and employess of the university on a huge sprawling space made for over 35,000 students. After just moving into our new rooms at Legon Hall, the other Americans and I were the only ones in the building! Lost in an awkward transition period, I focused on the logistics of settling into a new room and navigating my way through the area. After feeling out of place and impatient with how things were working out, I started to focus on my school schedule and working out things for my internships and research here this semester. Within a week, more students came on campus and filled the empty streets and rooms, and I started classes!

Going to school here is way more complicated than back in the States. Unexplainable bureaucracy, a very complicated registration process, ubiquitous disorganization, along with the fact that students and even professors randomly do not even show up for class make it pretty confusing for students from outside the school system to manage. I am realizing that some of it is Ghanaian culture, and a lot of it is their own way of doing things at the University of Ghana. For awhile, I was trying to feel out the campus and lectures to see what classes I would end up taking. After exploring, going to so many lectures and talking to so many people about different classes, I decided that since I do not have the pressure of having to fulfill my requirements for Berkeley, I am going to balance my class schedule with a couple of academically stimulating courses that will give me some background of where I am at with mostly on Dance and Theater classes! The Performing Arts classes here are really good and it seems like the best place to make a lot of friends and master African dancing (a newfound goal of mine here). I am also taking a Twi class to learn one of the languages most spoken here besides English.

I ended up having a Ghanaian roommate here, which is awesome. He really loves nice clothes and dressing in “high fashion,” so he ha shown me all of the cool markets of Accra and where to buy some cool clothes. The markets are so awesome to learn to manage and explore. They are nuts! Ghanaians dress really well, so I have discovered some pretty cool and cheap second hand markets. It is unbelievable that they manage to dress so well and stay so clean since it is over 90 degrees everyday and there is always dust blowing around from the Harmattan Winds from the Saharan Desert. I also have been trying to practice my dance moves and learn from locals how to get down. It is crazy that everyone here knows how to dance, REALLY well. Almost everyone has an amazing sense of rhythm and a collection of impressive steps. Getting to know nightlife and mingling “spots” has been a really cool way to hang out with people from here. Being on campus makes me feel pretty isolated from the rest of Ghana, so I have been trying to get out and see what’s going on around Accra and elsewhere. Two weekends ago, I took a trip to Wli Todzi. I will post info about that at the end of the blog. . . I was also able to meet Rita Marley (Bob Marley's wife) at a beach party for his birthday a few weekends ago. La badi beach is a pretty fun place to go and meet random people, including guys to learn acrobats from!

One of my main goals coming to Ghana was to find opportunities for research and ways to execute projects on my own. I was able to connect with the Street Children’s Academy last week to begin work on a photography project with poor street children of Accra and use funds from a small grant from the Institute for International Studies at Berkeley that was given to support the project. I have a lot of work to do still, but it feels good that I got the ball rolling. I am pretty skeptical on the project so far, but after meeting the kids and spending a days with the project, I am eager to do some work with them. It is also a really good opportunity to be in touch with other social classe and cultures of Ghana outside of who I meet at the University of Ghana. I have already become pretty close to some of the kids and have seen their amazing talent. This past weekend I went to see a performance for and by the kids that included traditional and modern hip hop dance, boxing, music and incredible acrobats. I am still trying to arrange possibilities with an internship or NGO, preferably around health and development. I have made my schedule pretty basic here, focusing all of my energy on performing arts! It is something I have always wanted to try out and get more into. I am taking two awesome African Dance classes and just got a small role in a play here called Attobra that debuts next month! It should be interesting.

Ghana overall is still pretty perplexing. It is hard to figure out the average Ghanaian demeanor, as well as understand what is really socially acceptable and not. I am starting to realize after many travels that you can not try to box up generalization about a place though, so what may be normal to one person here is not to the next. What does seem to be pretty uniform Ghanaian is knowing how to dance (or basic rhythm), knowing at least three languages, having a very light sense of humor, being very religious or serious about beliefs in God, and LOVING Fufu (mashed up cassava with some sort of soup, an awesome Ghanaian food). Christianity is pretty serious here, and is one cultural element that I seem to have the most issues with. I am really learning a lot though about my values and views on spirituality and faith. Right now, what I want to take away from Ghana are some new dance moves, acrobats, some meaningful relationships and a strong understanding of Ghanaian tradition in a modernizing world. Yɛbɛhyia bio!

A Weekend at Wli Todzi:

Two weekends ago, some friends and I left campus and traveled up to the Volta Region to stay at the village of Wli Todzi for three nights. Wli Todzi is a community on the top of a mountain (about 1000 meters, high for Ghana), part of the Wli village network and near to the popular tourist site of Wli Falls and the Ghana-Togo border. Most people know the village of Wli (named so as also part of the “Wli” villages) at the bottom of the mountain, as this is where a lot of tourists come to get to the lower Wli Falls. Wli Todzi itself is pretty isolated from any outside contact, as no roads from Ghana access the village. It has been in its current location for over 400 years since their earlier ancestors migrated from the foot of the hills to the higher spot for better hunting and agriculture opportunities. I had heard about the place from a friend Jeremy Kirshbaum doing the same EAP program since last semester. He and a local member from the village have been trying to establish an eco-tourist project for the village that would bring tourists to the village to stay with a local family and experience Wli Todzi daily life and all of the beautiful natural sites around, like a set of deep caves and the upper Wli Falls.

The short term goals for his project “Rise Up Wli Todzi” are to provide employability and income generation for the village, and also to support long term goals of funding the construction of a clinic and road that would lead to Hohoe, the nearest urban are and capital city of the Volta Region. Currently, the only clinic available is a small and unmaintained structure that only provides basic services on limited days of the week, and a 13-year-old unfinished foundation for a new clinic that was initially funded, built and later abandoned by government agencies. For serious medical issues, like pregnancy complications, people have to carry ill family and friends down the mountain 3 km (about 2 miles), through the brush another 4 km (about 2.5 miles) and wait for a taxi or trotro to get to the nearest hospital. The road is desired for access to buying and selling products in the marketplace to also generate income and cash in the village. The only road that they currently have access to leads to the neighboring country of Togo where they cannot cross the border to sell their goods.

The weekend was one of the most special experiences I have had so far in Ghana. It started with a long 4 hour ride up to Hohoe, the capital of Volta Region, and then a hike from the Wli village. We walked for about 5 miles total, 2.5 of which were straight up a mountain through a jungle green canopy and tall elephant grass. The hike was strenuous under the blazing sun, but so worth it. After about two and half hours, we landed in the village of Wli Todzi, where children and locals ran up to us and greeted us. All of a sudden the sights and sounds of Wli Todzi village life sprawled out around us. The bright orange clay dirt up against the sky blue housing structures stood out against the solid green backdrop of forest all around us. For the next few days, we stayed in a small hut with Yaw, one of the project leaders and village native, and his family. The first night we relaxed around here as our home base and enjoyed some delicious food called akple (a cooked corn flour mix) with hot ground nut soup. After doing acrobats and playing drums with kids that had more beats and rhythm than most adults I know, we fell asleep to the sounds of nightlife around us. Around the crack of dawn the next day, village life had already started bustling. I woke up around 7:30, and during the two hours that our hosts had been awake before me, they had already continued the construction of a nearby house from clay that would be used for future guests. People do not mess around here, and the amount of work that people do in villages never seizes to impress me in contrast to the easy lives we live in cities. Watching people build houses from clay extracted from the ground, the intense labor that it takes to made food or execute simple chores like cleaning their homes or fetching water, also gave me a great relative perspective on how good we have it back at Legon at school in Accra. Even though we take bucket showers everyday and carry water up four flights of stairs, we still have easy access to food and can find refuge in air condition from time to time in random buildings.

That day, we had an unforgettable hike to the upper Wil Falls. Through the walk, we got to know all the local edible fauna to coffee beans and cocoa trees, bisi (cola nut), angla (or thaumatococcus daniellii, aka katemfe in Ghana or miracle fruit in other places) and all the fresh and wild mango, banana and pineapple that we could handle. The pineapple was indescribably luscious. We also were able to sample local fresh made akpeteshi (a strong Ghanaian liquor, fermented sugar cane or palm wine drink), palm wine (local wine that comes out of a palm tree alcoholic and carbonated! a gift from heaven . . . ) and fresh grubs (huge maggot like creatures from under a log! Continuing on the hike, the landscape changed from tall thick yellow grass that grew higher than me, to banana and mango tree groves, and carried us to bamboo clusters and over rivers through swarms of butterflies. We descended down a pretty steep dirt side of a mountain than dropped into thick jungle brush until we stepped out into a clear that revealed the gorgeous falls that dropped from 300 meters. Once we returned, I met Jeremy and Yaw and got to meet the stool father. This guy holds the power to enstool and destool the village chief. The stool is the equivalent to the throne in Ghana for chiefs. It was important to meet the stool father since the chief was not around to greet us. This experience was great to understand social life in the village and how the village is organized in general. After dinner, one of the local kids took me the big community church to watch a movie. About 40 people from the village were crowded around the one small 20 inch television they have to watch a Nollywood (Nigerian) film. They were seated on small wooden benches, in rows that emulated a movie theatre. The simple and charming set-up humbled my spirit on the sense of community here. After, we went to a small hut where people gathered in the darkest or dark to sing hymns and Christian songs in the local language of Ewe. It was magical experience that made me smile from within.

The next day was a more relaxing day where we got to know village life a little more, making local food and going to church. This has become a normal experience for me in Ghana considering it used to be a very uncomfortable one for me through my life. Ghanaians love to go to church to celebrate God and life, and also to promote solidarity of community and wholeness. It was even more unique in Wli Todzi where people did not wear the same flashy outfits they do in Accra, or donate large sums of money in the name of God and get praise from the whole church. Instead, we went to a very little church, which was essentially a small thatched roof being held up by a few wooden beams with benches that sat at most up to thirty people. We walked into singing and loud African drums, and were thrown into dancing with a bunch of women in long cloth dresses and matching hair wraps. At some points, the energy from the people in worship actually made me feel goose bumps as people shouted from their souls with joy for life. I loved seeing such boisterous celebration in Christianity, and the dancing and drums made it even more exciting. At the end, as visitors, we were asked to stand in front as the people prayed for us behind our backs and shouting in tongues for our protection. It was invigorating, and we took the energy they gave us with us through the rest of the day as we got a tour of the village and entered peoples homes, saw the unfinished clinic, and even got to check out the schools that local children were excited to show us.

We got caught in a pretty heavy rain storm at the end of the day, which was perfect after some pretty hot and sweaty days. Being the crazy Americans we are, we danced under the storm while villagers watched us. They matched us later in the night though with an incredible drum circle they created with traditional dances, such as the unforgettable warrior dance. Practiced for centuries by the village, the dance is a proud custom performance by the village. Basically, it involves a series of solo dances where a man displays a large blade that he uses to repeatedly cut himself on his head, arms, stomach and tongue. The incredible part is that the blade never actually draws blood, and it is believed that the their ancestors are protecting them from actually being injured. It was nuts to watch, and fun to mimic! This ended our trip, as we went to bed and awoke in the morning to our last amazing meal by 'Auntie Charlotte.' We finished up and said good bye to Wli Todzi for now as we walked back down the mountain for three hours. I don't think that will be my last experiences with Wli Todzi. . . (for more info, visit: www.RiseUpGhana.org)

Akwaaba! You Are Welcome.

2011-02-02T21:21:00.000+05:30

Since I walked out of the Kotoka International Airport at Accra almost one month ago on January 6, I have definitely felt Welcomed. "You are welcome," is a common phrase that you say to someone here in English. It is a translation from Twi, an Akan language widely spoken in Accra and around Ghana. "Akwaaba," therefore literally means that you are welcome to this place.

Cedis and Pesewas

It has been almost a month since I arrived in Ghana. On January 5, I packed as fast as I could, ran out of my house to the airport, and flew ten hours across the Atlantic to Ghana. I was a little more nervous this time leaving since it will be the longest time I will be abroad. Yet, I still was packing last minute. All the rush was kind of a nice distraction from all of the eager feelings of anticipation. It wasn't until my last hour when I was standing in line at Wal-Mart Pharmacy buying a 6 month supply of Malaria pills that I realized, "Shit! I am going to West Africa!!"

Ghana is a very unique place. For the first week I was here, I felt more like I was in Africa than Ghana. More specifically, I really felt like I was in sub-Saharan Africa. That may sound strange and might not make sense, but it's how I felt. I was seeing things that reminded me of the Africa that was always presented to me in popular media and public representations (and mis representations for that matter). Hectic traffic, bustling underdeveloped city centers, black Africans, poor African children jumping in front of my camera lens, shantytown and slums filled with poor young kids and adolescents playing soccer, small villages with mud thatched huts and nude villagers, slight signs of modernity next to old and outdated colonial architecture, hints of a rising and developing economy in city centers, bribing of police officers. . . These were my first impressions. I could have been anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa for all I knew. I was unaware of what Ghana is and where the divide between African and particularly Ghanaian lies.

Adinkra Stamping Village - Important Ghanaian symbols imprinted on kente cloth.

Kumasi Traffic

palm nuts! Used for palm oil, a MUST in Ghanaian food

I traded this girl my pen for a photo. Interesting. . .

The typical reaction from kids

Kakum Canopy Walk, Ashanti Region

Then it all started becoming Ghana to me. After arriving, I went to a small hostel on the beach in Accra. I was dropped off in what looked like a small slum neighborhood in Accra, only to find out that the hostel was a part of that neighborhood. After a very sweaty and dusty first night, I awoke early to jump aboard a 5 hour bus (that was 2 hours late) and two hour taxi across the southern coast of Ghana to the Western Region in search for a beautiful isolated beach near the village of Akwiida. I spent four days on an isolated beach that stretched miles in both directions to the plush green Ghanaian jungle. It was a nice way to dive into a new place and get over the cold Ohio winter I just came from (It was around 12 degrees when I left Cleveland, and about 95 degrees I got to Ghana). The most intriguing thing was how different the culture was here in Western Ghana then back east in Accra where I would be studying the rest of the semester. For example, most people speak Fante and a few other languages that are not spoken in Accra. It was a preview into the complexity of Ghana.

Coming back to Accra about a week after arriving in Ghana, I joined up with 26 other Americans from the University of California and so began my study abroad in Ghana. It was interesting to see the reactions and first impressions for students who just got off of the plane after being here for a week. I had already traveled across Ghana, learned a few Twi phrases, shopped around the markets, figured out transportation and even had my first "tro-tro" experience. I was skeptical about doing another study abroad since I mostly just wanted to come to Ghana to do my own thing and pursue some possibilities of projects and research. But, right away the program seemed pretty legit. We had a two week long orientation that included hanging out with Ghanaian students, learning about and eating awesome Ghanaian food, touring the campus, visiting slave forts in Central Region, traditional African dance lesson, learning about the role of traditional chiefs and Asante culture in Ghana, going out in the big cities of Accra and Kumasi, a canopy walk through the rainforest, feeding monkeys, learning Twi, swimming under waterfalls in the Volta Region, learning about Ghanaian society through a roundtable conference, cooking lessons, managing and bargaining at the markets and going to the beach! I felt like I got my money's worth so far. My room is a little shanty, but it will be really interesting to live in a hall with all other Ghanaian students!

Right now I am still trying to get established and figure out my place in Ghana. I am trying to get a project started with photography with youth in a local shantytown, but things are moving slow. I am also trying to navigate my way through classes and registering at the University of Ghana. I am super intrigued by certain uniquely Ghanaian themes though, like Christianity in Ghana, the role of chiefs and practices of chieftaincy throughout Ghana, the layers of identity in Ghana -from national to regional to tribal, the impressive reduction in poverty over the past two decades, sanitation issues in urban areas, environmental and wildlife degradation in Ghana, the role of dancing and celebration in social affairs, and so much more! Right now though, all I really want to do is learn fluent Twi, become a professional African dancer and figure out the food culture of Ghana (including how to cook it all!)!!

my new dance teachers

Christmas Day Reflections on India

2011-01-04T02:13:00.000+05:30

December 25, 2010

It is Christmas Day. I am sitting in a warm sweater, jeans and two pairs of socks feeling toasty from the burning furnace heat and typing under the glow of red and green Christmas decorations. Behind me is a window that exposes the yule-tide spirit of Christmas snow blanketed across the ground; the cold air fogging up the window as it meets the warm heat from inside my Mom's house. I am back in Ohio, finished with my final semester at Berkeley, and celebrating the new-age Christmas of Coca-Cola Santa Clauses and shopping like a maniac to get everyone the perfect gift. It is the Christian holiday that celebrates the remembrance of a miraculous birth of Christ. India has never seemed so far away as it does right now. . .

I physically got back from India about four months ago after three months of living in the subcontinent. I mentally arrived about two or three months later, and I am still feeling slightly culture shocked by the lack of spicey food, constant car honks and upfront aggressive bargaining. On the verge of yet another departure, I am still in reflection mode of thinking about what happened to me this past summer in India. I haven't updated my blog in awhile as I started to really become immersed in thoughts of what India is and what my experiences were telling me. I also tried to focus more on being present rather than being too in my head and analytical on what was happening. By the time I got back to Berkeley, my mind became quickly involved with spending time enjoying my last semester with people I loved and getting to know my brand new co-op life inside of a crazy house called Lothlorien. It was also filled with a busy schedule and taking random North American adventures! It was a privileged semester for for sure, but I balanced it out with working hard.

When I got back from Orissa, I got right to work to finish my internship with Tata and to begin traveling. I had a little more of a grasp of what it was that I wanted to accomplish, but at this point was just trying to get my project done with the little resources and time that I had. By the end of my time in Jamshedpur, I began to feel connected to a few people and some communities that I was visiting more often in the rural areas. I had never expected to spend so much time in rural India, lost amongst heavy traditions and ways of life that I had no idea how to relate to. Yet, my last week or so, I ended up getting to know the village of Murkum outside of J-pur a little better through some amazing young guys involved with their local RISHTA projects that motivated me to put myself out there more. In lieu of the world cup, I actually played my first big soccer game with them that totally kicked my butt! It was great. The last few weeks were spent wrapping up my internship with my closing presentation and report creation. It was a very good lesson to learn how working with an NGO may go, but also how to do things like collect and compile data, conduct proper field research and try to communicate my recommendations and where I am coming from to a big company. I was a little bitter towards the end and during the process of making my report as I began to see all of the gaps of the internship. I had a visitor from Berkeley come to evaluate my experiences. She was so surprised at where I was, since she could not fly in or out of the state of Jharkhand due to warnings and dangers of Moaist activity constantly breaking out. It was crazy to feel myself in the middle of these conflicts stirring so much attention. It was even crazier to feel the sharp contrast between peasantry life and the pervasion of capitalism upon all areas. Either way, my visitor Puneeta from the Center for South Asian Studies at Berkeley reminded me of what Jharkhand looks like coming from outside. Leaving became slightly difficult as I built so many close relationships with some really amazing and beautiful people from Jamshedpur and began to see the beauty of the state. I had to leave my new great friend Mini behind as well as she began to settle more into India as her new home. I tried to do everything I wanted to do before leaving, including hiking around a national forest, and then took off on a train to Kolkata. I was split between wanting to stay and completely ready to leave. I do miss that guest house with all that amazing food though. . .

The last few weeks began back in Mumbai with the rest of the interns. After two months, Kate, Marie, Neda and I found ourselves back at the same hostel we stayed in when we first arrived in India. It was so weird to see them and feel how India had affected each one of us. I just kept wondering how different our experiences have been the two months in between. Kate had been in the mega city of Dehli and Neda and Marie were in the most isolated and rural area of Mithaipur. After our very official final presentations at the Bombay House with Tata and an uber-formal book release at the Taj Hotel in Colaba, we were set free to India for our remaining time. I got to meet up with awesome friends from Berkeley and the HMS group and finally had a crazy fun dancing night out that I had been craving after two months in Jamshedpur. It reminded me of how much I love Mumbai with all of its dynamic extremes. After a two days, Marie and I headed together through the south--going to Pune, on to Bangalore, to Mysore, Kodaikanal, then Kochi and finally Alleppey. This trip through India was a little different as I was able to stay with friends living in Pune, Bangalore and and in Kerala, feeling more closely connected to some Indians. It was incredible to have such amazing hospitality and Indian guardian angels look out for me while traveling. Our friend Shreyes from Bangalore set us up with a nice place in Mysore as well. The most memorable moments were: delicious Maharashtrian thalis with Mugdha (my favorite food in all of India); the modern streets and settings of Bangalore with sprawling temples and a massive sized Shiva statue; the easy bargaining, smiling faces and impressive palace of Mysore; the breathtaking views and cool air of Kodaikanal; and the amazing Keralan private beach with a palm tree forest, vibrant green rice patty fields and moseying boathouses through Keralan backwaters.

The trip was not all perfect all the time, but as I sit here on a snowy cold Christmas day in Ohio, I am slipping back into memories of the ubiquitous beauty that always enchanted me about India. It is a place of extremes, and a place that is intense for a Westerner like me; yet it such is a unique place unlike any other I have seen, and I am glad I got to spend a whole summer of my twenties there. Until next time India. . . chalo!

Best of the end. . .

Vamos a Mexico

2010-12-02T09:08:00.000+05:30

The funny thing about Mexico for me is how close it is. With all the travel I have been able to do lately, the most of Mexico I have seen before a month ago was still limited to Baja California! In my San Diego years, I spent so much time in Tijuana and got really into Mexican-US politics. It amazed that such a different place was right there, like two neighbors with so much in common, yet so entirely contrasting to each other. My times in TJ are some of the most beautiful moments I remember about that period of my life, moments that are the reasons themselves for why I eventually decided to travel so much more after leaving San Diego.

A quick stop in San Diego at the Vine before heading toTJ!

At the TJ airport, headed to Oaxaca!

But, I could never find time or opportunities to travel there. Between all my new adventures in India, intense semesters at Berkeley, and trotting around South America, I had to keep deferring the wonder of what else Mexico has beyond it's northern border. Finally, my friend Nadia Espinoza, la mexicana that opened up my eyes to her country, and I decided that we had to act quick and go way south before I left Berkeley and North America again for my upcoming 6 months in Ghana. We took 10 days and headed to Oaxaca, Chiapas and the Yucatan.

This was our schedule:

November 19: SFO - SD. Hang out in my old hood Ocean Beach for the day!
November 20 2am: TJ - Oaxaca
November 20 - 22: Oaxaca
November 22 - 24: San Cristobal de las Casas
November 24 - 26: Chiapas
November 26 - 28: Merida
November 29: Merida - DF - Guadalajara - Tijuana - San Diego - SFO!

Oaxaca

A nice snack from Oaxaca

Handstands with Robinson

We ate these crickets!
So good with some lime and chile!

Mezcal de Oaxaca!!

EL MEXICO. Wow es la única cosa que puedo decir. Los sabores, la gente, las vistas, los colores, las ruinas, la natura... Todo me hizo sentir como yo estaba en otro mundo tanto lejos de los Estados Unidos. Con una maniera local muy única, con una cultura demasiado agradable y que se da la bienvenida, y con una historia impresionante y aun visible fiscalmente -- no podría parar a pensar porqué no vine más pronto.

San Cristobal de las Casas

The trip was the most incredible 10 days that I have ever experienced. I wanted it to be way longer of course -- I imagine backpacking for months down there, or living for awhile in a Chiapas -- but I was already skipping classes and work at Berkeley and stretching a 4 day Thanksgiving vacation! I was just amazed at how beautiful everything was. The entire time, I could not believe that I was only a 5 hour flight from San Francisco. That is how long it takes for me to get to Ohio! And probably the same price. We explored Oaxaca for awhile. One of the greatest surprises was having my friend Ryan Robinson meet us up after 3 months in Brazil. It was perfect to have him since I missed him a lot my last semester at Cal! After so much mole, Mezcal and handstands in Oaxaca, we checked out a really beautiful and cool little city of San Cristobal de las Casas and got lost in all of its colorful winding street. We took a day trip and explored a small village indigenous village with a really interesting church. There were religious ceremonies happening that involved a mixture of indigenous beliefs with Catholicism. A lot of the customs reminded me so much of Hindu rituals in India.

Indigenous Church

Tacos . . . Oh my god Mexican food is soo good!

Next stop was Chiapas. This place is one the most gorgeous places I have ever seen in my life. In one day, you can see incredible waterfalls, hike the jungle, encounter crazy screaming monkeys, see Palenque pyramids and sleep in a hut within a rainforest. Misol Ha waterfall was one of my favorite experiences. I have never been able to swim under a waterfall that strong before, with the water running so deep underneath me.

Palenque Pyramids

Palenque

The city of Palenque

Misol Ha - First visit

Misol Ha, Chiapas - Second Visit

Misol Ha, Chiapas

Our house in Chiapas

It was hard to beat Chiapas. Then we got rerouted since our flight's got screwed up. We had to head to Merida to catch a flight back to Berkeley on time before we got thrown out! Merida was a really beautiful surprise though. It was like stepping into a Mexican version of Europe. Salsa in the street at nights, romantic patio restaurants around the main Zocolo, gorgeous architecture. Not to mentions it was on the Yucatan, so there were plenty of beaches to visit. We arrived right in time for Thanksgiving, and luck behold Merida was famous for it's turkey! This is the only place outside of Canada and the USA where I found turkey so prevalently! For the big T-giving dinner, we sat down and ate some amazing tostadas del pavo. Wow.... I would go back just for that right now! The last stop were these "cenotes" or caves about an hour car ride and a 40 minute manual train ride away. Jumping from 30 feet high into clear blue fresh water at the bottom of epic looking caves. . . need I say more?

Progreso Beach, Robinson and I

Merida

Tostada de pavo

Merida!

Cenotes

Rickshaw ride back to Merida

Mexico City DF Subway

Gudalajara

The best part of all the trip was that I was finally able to practice Spanish again. It was so weird to be in a place where I could speak to language. It had been too long. . . I was already addicted in 10 days! This was the perfect end of the semester and my time at Berkeley for me. Now I know that I don't have to go to far to be amazed. Mexico is still one of my favorite places in the world. Gracias a Mexico!!

Bharat Bandh: Laxmi and Jagannath lost in Orissa!

2010-07-13T19:11:00.000+05:30

Beautiful Children of Dusara

This blog is a little long. Since I have not had a chance to update in awhile, I thought I would write a lot on what kind of work I am doing (to answer the famous question people like my Mom keep asking, "what are you actually doing in India?") and about some recent adventures that I went on. There are basically 2 blogs in one here. Enjoy!

To Start, here's a look at some typical days at work:

The line of translation: The girl I am talking to is from a local
village and is speaking Santhali. The girl standing is translating it to Hindi
to the girl sitting next to me. Then Shikha, the
girl sitting next to me, tells me in English what she has said.

Project RISHTA. Visit to a youth resource
center for the youth development project

Local Children watch a play

on HIV/AIDS

The usual end of the day after
visits to Seraikella villages

Leading a workshop on Self Reflection
with RISHTA peer educators

Giving the car a push to
start with some other guys

Waiting for late people. . .getting
used to IST (Indian "Stretchable" Time)

Monday June 28, 2010

Exactly one month ago today was my flight from Cleveland to Mumbai. In exactly one month, I will be back in Mumbai giving my final presentation. I have completed half of my internship with Tata Steel this summer, and I am looking towards only one month more in Jamshedpur with the Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundation and then two weeks of travel before flying back to life in the U.S. It’s kind of weird that so much time has already gone by. I feel slightly nervous with only one month left to do all of the work needed to make this project what I want it to be, but all in all I know even if I walked away right now I would be pretty satisfied with all of the experiences I have had working on the ground with an NGO.

Traditional greetings by Peer Educators of RISHTA

I am getting more and more nervous with leaving India with only a broad understanding of many things, and not full understanding of any one thing. My thoughts are constantly sprawled out in too many directions. I have spent time trying to sink deep into the culture to fully understand the environment that I am working within, and also understand how development works “Indian Style”. Yet, in places like India, you can only crack the shell of culture in two months. Simultaneously, I am trying to learn everything that the department that I work within does. This is also ambitious, and taking more time than I want it to. Then there is figuring out what I can actually do here. Every time I think to do something, I am assured that it has already been tried, or it’s impossible given the circumstances – going back to the fact that these people know this place better and I actually don’t have anything really practical knowledge to offer. Then I struggle with whether I actually agree with this company and their interventions. It is definitely interesting to work within a CSR division rather than a non-profit NGO. For one, resources are a big difference. They seem to do so many things because they have resources and the knowledge to implement a project. Yet, because there is so much general and broad work being done, no single project or intervention is fully successful or operating sustainably within its proposed goals. And no area that they work within has an overall better quality of life.

The Zoo

The most important issue for me right now—after finally learning the project proposals, intentions and also adjusting to cultural barriers—is what my role is here. I have learned so much, yet I don’t feel confident with all the brushed over details. People say it’s better to get a gist of things, but what I was looking forward to most was really understand how an NGO operates on the ground and immerse myself in practical ways to problem solve and implement something real that can help people. It is not that easy though. The only tools I know how to use would require more time and a better array of perspectives. There is no instant gratification in this line of socially driven work; it is such a process to get from that desire to improve people’s lives to actually experiencing the change. But the truth that I am coming to learn is that it is not impossible. I think people just have to put the reports down and spend more time in the field, where reality will paint it’s own picture—regardless what funders expect. In these dubious times of skepticism, I think of what Paul Farmer would say. I think his example proves that it’s definitely not impossible just to give the poor what they need. I don’t really know what I can do here, but the least I can do understand how I see inequality so clearly and how its really simple what needs to be done. I guess its all in how you define injustice, and how you choose to deal with it.

July 9, 2010 - Work Hard, Play Hard

Peer Leader Training

Time is flying! The last post were some random thoughts I have been having for awhile now, and wanted to share it. I am in the latter phase of my internship this summer, getting ready to wrap up my project and begin compiling all my observations and interviews to create a qualitative report on my activities and interactions with the beneficiaries of TSFIF services, how the plans work into action and how people using these services actually perceive them (sort of a mini-ethnography). As I sit here in an air conditioned office in the Muslim neighborhood of Dhatkidih of Jamshedpur sipping chai and looking over all of my notes, I realize that this past month has been nuts!

Fetching water in a drought

So before this trip, I mostly had contact with urban populations and urban poverty. I had been around the urban poor of the U.S., most recently in the Bay Area. I had no experience with rural poverty in a developing country and was skeptical on working with those in rural areas, as most people mistaken simplistic village life for poverty. I was also suspicious on how making them dependent on urban services would improve their lives, or make them more apt to move to urban areas, which would most likely result in them living in slums in Indian big cities as urban cities become more crowded and unable to house more people (sort of a slippery slope I suppose, but urbanization is the trend). So, crowded and polluted slum life, or rural village? Also, what happened when Tats Steel stops giving them help? How do you sustain such give aways?

Once I began more work in rural areas here in this area of the state of Jharkhand, I confronted a lot of these internal problems as well as began to realize how I wrongly saw things. The choice, or the tradition, or the random occurrence of coming to live in a rural village should not be any different that the choice, tradition or random occurrence of living in an urban area- except if you get sick; or, if you are a woman in most of these villages; or if you want more for yourself than working on a farm and having a family. It can also be a huge problem if you have no access to water, sufficient agriculture techniques to yield larger crops (for food and livelihood). There is no option if you are isolated hundreds of miles away from possibilities of help. The rural life is tough, and it is not the romantic life of simplicity and constant natural beauty that us busy city slickers dream up. In India especially, during those extremely hot summer days and nights where the temperature is breaking 110 degrees before noon and the rain is a month late, it can be pretty miserable. When you can’t even grow crops for cash or food, where do you go?

Me asking quiz questions in Hindi to the adolescents
during a peer leader training for RISHTA

Sahiyya Training for MANSI

RISHTA Nukkad Natak teaching about HIV/AIDS

Girls Peer Leader Class - RISHTA

The projects I have spent most time with are RISHTA (Regional Initiative for Safe Sexual Health for Today’s Adolescents) and MANSI (Maternal And Newborn Survival Initiative). RISHTA is an educational project that establishes YRCs (Youth Resource Centers) in villages where select community adoloscents are trained as peer educators and teach other youth in the community about sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and empowering the youth to make better decisions about their future. The most important things are bringing men and women together (something that usually does not happen in these villages) between the ages of 12-24 to talk about STIs, family planning, contraceptives, HIV/AIDS, empower girls to have equal opportunities with guys, and also enforce the legal age of marriage (18 for girls, 21 for guys) since most girls are married off as young as 12 years old. MANSI on the other hand is trying to improve health of mothers and newborn babies since maternal and infant mortality rates are extremely high in these areas (they are even higher in this state than the already high national rates). They pretty much try to promote births at hospitals rather than at-home deliveries, educate pregnant women on caring for newborn children, changing cultural beliefs around how to treat new mothers (some villages believe they should not touch or feed the mother and child for two days after birth, a time when it is essential to give mother and child nutrients and care), weighing the child after birth to assess whether or not the baby is underweight and to promote the usage of current public services offered by the district. This project is complicated though, as it is not easy to convince most women in isolated rural areas with no mode of transportation to get to a hospital or clinic up to 20 km away to have a birth, especially when they fear hospitals and it is tradition to have children at home alone. Both MANSI and RISHTA are linked though, as I begin to see that educating and empowering women at a younger age lends to change around how they also manage their births and marriages.

The other part of my work has been to just observe mobile health clinics and health camps that are sponsored in rural villages and urban slums to give free basic health care to the poor on specified times of the month. These have been really interesting to watch. It has been difficult to follow unless I have a translator, and it becomes difficult to understand how people socially interact here and what is appropriate and what is not. A few times I have actually experienced some horrible doctors giving care to people and did not understand why people who do not have any sort of services have to wait until the one time every few months when there is a free clinic, only to interact with a complete jackass that does not deserve a medical license. It is not fun sometimes to do this kind of work. I have had a lot of emotional struggles as I watched women bring children into clinics that are so extremely malnourished that they can not even stand or stay awake, extremely underweight adult men who look so this you could break their limb just by grabbing them the wrong way, families infected with malaria, people struggling with skin boils due to poor hygiene (due to the lack of access to clean water and extreme heat), parasitic infections, scabies, children covered in lice, old women in desperate need of eye care or medication for painful arthritis, and parents living with HIV trying to raise their children and take care of themselves while dealing with scrutiny of the community. One emotional story was when an entire family (a brother, a pregnant wife and mother) came in to support their brother, husband and son as he learned he was positive with HIV. They sat on the bench in the waiting room all crying. I kind of internalized the pain a bit, and couldn’t understand what they could possibly be feeling, let alone what the man was feeling.

Basically I have spent my time observing, interviewing and learning how an NGO working around poverty and health works on the ground in a developing nation. I have also had opportunities to help create modules for projects like RISHTA training sessions for self-reflection and second hand leadership. I actually led one last week- ALL IN HINDI! (Don’t ask, I still don’t know how it happened). I have attended meetings to help coordinate TSFIF with other NGOs in the area and government services, and I interact with beneficiaries to get a sense of whom this department targets. It’s intense just to get to the rural poor though. It takes three hours just to get 70 km to villages in the district of Seraikella. The roads are horrendous. A lot of pregnant women in villages have to drive on these torn-up roads while having contractions just to give birth at a clinic. It is also intense to experience their lives and then just leave and go back to my nice guesthouse. The imbalance of privilege seems wrong. The main problem often times though is the political problems that happen everyday around Jharkhand. Because of Moaist rebel “bandhs” (protests that close the roads), we have had to cancel a lot of field visits and my project has taken a big hit. I am not sure what I will end up with anymore.

Mini and I
(aka Laxmi & Jagannath)

As I was saying in the last post, I have become pretty good friends with Mini, my Indian-born-part-American friend. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t meet her. Absolute immersion into Indian culture and dedication to a project are the kinds of experiences I have craved for my practice experience this summer. However, I have come to realize that it would have been pretty tough to be all alone here without someone who understands where I am coming from. Being the only foreigner, the only westerner, the only person not understanding Hindi, the only American, the person who has deal with stange American stereotypes, the person who sometimes does not know what food we are eating or what famous Indian people are talking about—being this person everyday gets as frustrating as it is fun. Mini has been great as someone who has been living in the US and understands where I am coming from as she is basically American (and also someone who actually understands my accent!). It is also nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and discuss issues around the work we are doing, especially when trying to assess whethere or not they are doing the right things. The other perk is that she is my translator (not by her choice). I wasn’t even supplied with a translator, so without her I am usually totally lost as people speak a whole pool of languages from Hindi, to Bengali, to Bihari, to Oria, to Santhali—even to English I can not understand!

Dhaulighiri Buddhist temple

Orian Temples

Ganesha - the remover of obstacles

The amazing sun temple and it's carvings

Last week we took a trip to a state south of here called Orissa. It was an amazing place, one of the most beautiful places I have seen in India. I was reminded how stale Jamshedpur is in some ways. It is a factory town with little to do, and it full of people tied to the corporation for their livelihood. Nothing is extravagantly beautiful and everything has to do with the company itself. Life in the guesthouse usually only promises the same food and conversation from upper class officers from Tata Steel. I have made some good friends, and it has been an interesting time with a lot of Indian cultural experiences, but I was reminded how excited I am to travel and see more after this internship. So anyway, Mini and I traveled to the capital of Orissa—Bhubeneswar, the city of temples. It is full of tropical palm trees, awesome restaurants, strong Hindu tradition, old Hindu and Buddhist temples covering most of the city, ancient caves, its own script (Oria is the most beautiful written language I have seen yet!) and it is the hub for travel to the beautiful beach town of Puri (home of Jagannath, Hindu lord of the universe), national parks, artful creations of local Adiviasi (indigenous communities of India) and the sun temple of Konark (one of seven wonders of India). It was the perfect break from work and it was exactly what I wanted. Tata steel hooked us up with a free guesthouse stay with meals and a personal driver. The best part was Puri’s beaches. Aside from the scary current, swimming in the Bay of Bengal was beautiful! A funny story was how our nicknames were changed to Laxmi and Jaggarnath (two Hindu gods that were a married couple) by a Buddhist monk when we posed as a married couple to bypass strange questions of why we were traveling together. It was hilarious! He blessed us in this long ceremony when he also blessed our future children. Mini is Hindu and almost died afterwards in fear that we offended the gods! The whole situation was pretty funny.

The unfortunate day of the trip was Monday when we got stuck all day in Bhubeneswar in our guesthouse as there was a nation wide bandh (hindi for closed, but also a political demonstration where everyone closes up shop and heads to the streets). Every store, cab, rickshaw, driver, place and train shut down in protest to the increase of petroleum prices in India. There was nothing to do, so it was a bummer to waste a whole day in our trip. It was also crazy to experience a nation-wide protest. I spent most of the day brushing up on the issues around the bandh and learned that many people were passionate about defending lower prices for fuel, but many were also pressured into participating as they might encounter violence from protesters if they opened their business or continued train and flight services. All day, all over the news were crowds rioting, fighting and burning tires in protest. People were injured, airports shut down—the whole economy just stopped for a day. It reminded me of protests in Argentina, and protests I think I would never see in the U.S.

Bharat Bandh

Village Temple in the Jungle

swimming in the Bay of Bengal

Building of the "rath" (chairiot) for the Rath Yatra
celebration in Puri for lord Jagannath

Jagannath Temple

Playing with Pinky in the rain

I have been hard at work and adjusting to a lot of unfavorable and too favorable conditions here (like eating more food than I have in my life). Aside from work troubles, I have also been fighting a lot of presumptions people have of me based on what I look like and where I come from. Everyday someone says something like,

“you must be uncomfortable in this heat that you are not used to."

"The food must be too spicy for you."

"Do you miss your McDonalds?"

"Is sex really free in your country?"

"You probably have so many American girlfriends because Americans can see however many people that they want!"

"America is a very calm place and there is no crime or corruption, you are very lucky."

"Well you are rich, so you can do whatever you want in India!”

And if I say something simple, like the word “aloo” (potato in Hindi) instead of the English word, or “namaskaar” or “namaste” (greetings equivalent to hello) people go into a major fuss and want to know, “how have you learned these words!” After a month I have actually picked up a lot of vocabulary, but yet people still have the lowest expectations of westerners and their learning capacity for Indian culture. We will see how much I can impress them in the next month when I can hopefully speak an entire conversation in Hindi instead of just random sentences here and there! All in all, my Indian summer has been a time I will never forget. People are already asking me to come to weddings next summer or work on other projects. Third summer in India in a row? . . .

Although this entry is a rant of doubt and problems, I have had some pretty amazing moments here. Let the photos tell you what I can not.

Orissa

Bamboo Scafolds and
Building up Jamshedpur

Puri

Sahiyya Training in a village

Just another commute to work

Fresh Coconuts in Orissa

Vote For My Essay!

2010-06-30T21:47:00.000+05:30

1.) go to: http://www.tataises.com/essay/hot-bharat-summer-nights
2.) click 5 stars in the top right corner

A contest for TISES intern 2010, we each had to write an essay and the one with the most votes wins!

Hot Summer Nights in Bharat

2010-06-22T21:51:00.001+05:30

When I first got off the plane in Bombay, I could sense that I was in India through the immediate wave of heat, sights of vibrant saris and a savory and musty scent that filled the air. Vibrations of adrenaline moved through my body as I realized that I was on the opposite side of the world and about to start a summer of work and discovery. Now, after months of researching, preparing and day-dreaming possibilities of my Indian summer, I am finally immersed one-fourth of the way through the TISES program and surrounded by themes of development, community health and CSR that I have devoted my studies to. So how do I feel?

Ignorant! I am realizing everyday that I am not capable of making any conclusions about India, Tata, or about this TISES internship. The complexity of it all is over my head. I am lost amongst a pool of languages as people switch from Hindi, to Bengali, to Santhali and even to English that I cannot understand. I am with people who give so much to the poor, yet blame them for preventing Indian social progress. I cannot even grasp Indian politics at the movies while watching the new Bollywood hit Rajneeti (nor can I even understand the Hindi). I meet the marginalized and the proudest of Indian development. I spend time in the roughest communities—be it Hindu, Muslim or Adivasi—observing doctors giving medicine and advice to the poorest of the poor. In the same day, I find myself talking to people of unbelievable privilege: rich hotel owners and Brahmin elitists and I remember being in a busti meeting a child so malnourished that he may die in the next few days. I have no practical experience to help him or to modify such a corrupted system.

Yet, I feel more informed than ever. I remember that Slumdog Millionaire is all that I knew of India just two years ago. Since arriving, I have had tremendous contact with so many sides of this country that I am beginning to understand the issues and organization of the chaos. I now know how to bargain on the streets. I learned how to survey communities. My preconceived notions are dissolving on a daily basis as they meet reality and I experience elements of India and Tata previously undiscovered by myself. I am learning realistic skills on health projects, behavior change and evaluation. Mostly though, I am becoming more aware of my skin color and what it represents to many other people, and the value of my perspective and approach as an anthropologist.

For my project I am focusing on creating an evaluation for the reach of health competencies offered by the Tata Steel Family Initiative Foundation to its beneficiaries. I am using qualitative methods of ethnography and interviewing to see how much they actually play a role in people’s lives and their needs and whether or not they actually reach the targeted populations. I am spending time documenting personal case studies through profiling and photographing specific community members I have contact with to create a better understanding of who the poor are that Tata assists. Everyday is a new struggle, whether it is inefficiency slowing us down, Moaist rebel activity interrupting our schedule, or the color of my skin causes too much of a stir to get work done. But with enough chai and persistence, I will surely get the most I can out of the TISES program!

Mujhe bharat pasand hai!: Slow Lessons of Culture, CSR and Community Health

2010-06-17T15:29:00.000+05:30

First off: Congratulations to my younger brother Jimmy who graduated from Ohio State University last weekend with a BA! First one in the family to finish a Bachelor's degree! Wish I could have been there.

It has already been over two weeks since I landed in Mumbai. It has also already been two weeks since I was introduced to Tata, the company I am working for this summer. Our second day in India was occupied by our orientation to Tata and the Tata ISES internship program. It was a long day, from 9:30 to 5:30. We were finally introduced to the women who had been coordinating our entire stay for the past semester, Lorraine and Shernavaz. My project manager in Jamshedpur Dr. Mohapatra was also there to greet me, along with a few other Tata CSR team members. It was all beginning to feel more real and my purpose in India was becoming more solidified. I was getting so stoked as I learned more about my site and about Tata. The beginning was marked with them giving us our summer stipend in a lump some. They handed us each an envelope of Rs. 12,000/- . I have never seen so many bills together! It was a lot for here, enough to last the summer for sure. In dollars, it is about $266, but things are also cheaper here than in the U.S. so it should go far. After that shocker, the day was long, from a presentation on the history of the Indian economy, a history of Tata and all they do, to an explanation of the TISES program and past participants, to all of the different companies we would be working within, and finally more information on what kinds of projects we would be doing. A few parts stood out to me. The fact that Tata was established before India was as a democracy was interesting. This kind of explained why Jamshedpur was left alone to be maintained by Tata after India gained its independence since they had already been maintaining it. The presentation on the Indian economy also interested me, especially as an anthropology student. It was so loaded with ideas of growth models that reminded me of Laura Nader’s discussion in our Energy, Culture and Society class of capitalist growth models being an unsustainable and unstable ideology to follow. After all, how can a system based on increasing consumption patterns and growth in economic activity last forever? She highlighted that such systems perpetuate high consumption patterns and depend upon an unlimited amount of resources. Also, another big problem is including everyone in economic growth, especially in India which boasts some of the greatest class disparities compared to the rest of the world and where the poor are neglected and marginalized from accessing decent financial security.

The rest of the day consisted of learning that Tata makes everything here, from Tea, to water, to cars and trucks, to steel production, to cell phones. . . I mentioned my apprehension coming from an American point of view and the model of monopoly that Tata follows that can not exist (outwardly anyway) back home in the U.S. We also heard from past interns in a documentary from last summer and each of out site coordinators. I learned a bit more on what I would be doing and was getting more excited. I would be working close with Dr. P. C. Mohapatra in the Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundation to evaluate the reach of various health services that Tata Steel offers to communities. I would travel with him to various field sites and get a feel for the people receiving the services and whether or not their needs were being met.

The next day I flew King Fisher Airlines (an airline company and a beer company…random) to Ranchi, the capital of the state of Jharkhand with Dr. Mohapatra. This is about 140 km from Jamshedpur by car. I was pretty exhausted and felt a flu coming on, but maintained my poise as we arrived and drove to the Ministry of Health for Jharkhand Office in Ranchi. We had a meeting with the Director of Health for the state in her office. This was an interesting preview to the rest of the summer. We waited for over two hours, despite having an appointment. In the middle of talking to anyone, without hesitation they would answer their loud ringing cell phones and start talking. Answering a call would be so taboo and rude for a lot of people, but people keep doing it without shame here. I am not sure if there is an explanation why, but it is definitely not considered rude! We eventually left and stopped for some awesome street food at a little “dabba” (roadside eatery) and made it the Jharkhand two hours later in the dark. It was my first long distance car ride on Indian terrain and the sites were incredible.

As we drove into Jamshedpur, I started getting really excited. I had been anticipating this city for months, studying and reading up on it, asking people about it, wondering what it was like. We drove through a busy part of the city that could have been anywhere in India for all I knew. Then we started to drive to the area more that is more maintained by Tata Steel. It was plush with tons of green. There were well-paved streets and nice houses. Eventually we arrived at my very fancy guesthouse that resembled more of a hotel than I imagined. I found my room, a single to myself in a white tiled building. The room is nicer than my own in the U.S. I don’t think people here realize how low my standards are for an American and how nice this place is for me. I get fed three meals a day in a very nice dining hall, with daily cleaning services and everything is air-conditioned (my room has an air conditioner, but I just usually use the very strong fan that blows all possible heat away). Jharkhand is an extremely hot state though. The first week or so that I was here the average temperature was 105 F degrees during the day and about 90 at night.

Bistupur Market

Outside the local drug store. . .

Work:

The first few days at work were slow. I was so excited to get started and see what they had planned for me. That would eventually fizzle once I realized that wasn’t the case. . . My first day I met with everyone in the CSS division of Tata Steel (CSS= Corporate Sustainability Services, Tata’s CSR department and the first of MANY acronyms I would learn). There were about 20 people that shuffled in and sat around me at a table and introduced themselves. I was happy to see so many women. My presumptions about India were already beginning to come into conflict with reality. They were all very interested in me, and kept asking, “what kind of research are you doing? What is your profession? What skills do you have?” This made me begin to think about why I was here and what I had to offer, hard questions to answer when you are still in school and haven’t worked so much on projects like these at a professional level. “I am an anthropologist. I mentor and teach adolescents from marginalized backgrounds in the U.S. and also focus most of my studies on public health related issues around development and poverty.” Whoa, I could feel myself becoming more narrowed into my own place in society, a weird feeling between self proclaimed empowerment and a coerced shove into a box too small for everything I have in mind for this lifetime.

The rest of the first few days involved me reading up on Tata and all of the projects under CSS. I went to every department and met every person to further understand the composition of the CSS Division. There are basically four that offer services to different communities: Urban Services (for residents of Urban slums in and around Jamshedpur—even here in this nice city there are around 40), Tribal Cultural Services (for indigenous tribal populations, known as the “Adivasi”), TSRDS (The main one, Tata Steel Rural Development Society for rural populations), and TSFIF (Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundations, a health focused program for all three populations and my home for the next two months). The people were all interesting and like-minded passionate people for assisting poorer populations.

Saturday was my third day in Jamshedpur and at work (it’s a 6 day work week here). It was also World Environment Day, equivalent to Earth Day in the U.S. It was a huge day of celebration for Tata and my first day experiencing contact with the actual people. I went to a few basti areas (slums) and met with residents in free clinics and at local events celebrating the holiday. I met a bunch of teenage boys that pulled me over by them to hang out. It was funny actually; they were so interested in me. They didn’t really speak English, so communication was mostly done visually. One of them did tell me they loved me though. Another pulled at my blonde arm hair and white skin in fascination, and then laughed at me. All of them took photos with my and fought over who would get me as their “life partner” (best friend). Afterwards, a few took me for a ride on their motorcycles and we stopped and had drinks and ice cream at little street food stands (I broke my rule of ‘no street food’ on the second day). The rest of the day was filled with me giving unexpected speeches to people about the environment and planting trees in commemoration of World Environment Day. I got to work in a few of the clinics and observe how they run. It was amazing actually; all free for the poorest people, prescriptions and all. Women kept approaching me asking me if I was married. One of them told me I had beautiful eyes and asked for my phone number. Once again, presumptions proved wrong- some women here have been pretty forward!

Can you find me? This is a group of children either living with HIV/AIDS or has a parent that does. This was a summer day camp we had for them one day during my first week.

Project Kavach ("safety" in Hindi) for migrant truckers. Here is their "body map"

Some young cadets doing yoga with me

The following week was not as productive. I met with various people in the TSFIF office to learn about different health projects and interventions, ranging from child and maternal health, to HIV/AIDS programs, to adolescent sexual health projects, to health interventions for long distant migrant truckers. Some of the days were frustrating. It was such a long introduction period with unnecessary meetings about projects I already read up on, and some people being late or not showing up for meetings. I am coming to see the CSS division here as a product of lot of passion, but seriously lacking in organization. I am becoming skeptical on what exactly I will do, and I am starting to realize that I will have to be pretty proactive to get what I want out of this internship. I also got a pretty cool tour of the factory itself, and a view of the Center For Excellence, a museum in ode to the Tata’s and to their CSR work. It is crazy to learn about the Tata Corporation’s close connections to modern Indian history and its development. I am coming to see how proud people here are about development. They see big cities and more expensive lifestyles as a representation of progress. They even celebrate liberal policy and welcome American Corporations coming here, like Dominos Pizza and Baskin Robbins (there are 3 in Jamshedpur. . . creepy). Thursday, Friday and Saturday were the best days last week. On Thursday I got to see a peer support group of young women speak openly about sex and STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and learn about sexual health. You could see discomfort for some of them, but genuine interest and concern for most of them. It was a shocker when the peer supported whipped out a pamphlet with penises and vaginas infected with STIs. On Friday I visited Kovach (Hindi for “safety”), a health project for migrant truckers. In Jamshedpur, so many trucks come in and out that they have to filter how many drive through the city. So many of them wait at a trucker parking lot where Kovach sets up. They offer free health services and the project focuses mostly on sexual health as well. They distribute condoms and free counseling on sex, as well as counseling to discuss issues some of the truckers may have, such as if they have sexual identity issues (truckers spend a lot of time with other men, and not women). Men who have sex with men (MSM) tend to be at higher risk in general here for sexual illnesses. Since homosexuality is so scrutinized and not accepted here, they tend to take more risks sexually and lack education on safe sex. Kovach also provides peer support groups, where I got to see their funny “body maps” to explain sexual topics to the men. Saturday I went to a clinic and talked with families on the services provided. I went with another intern, Mini, and we met some fun kids that are social worker cadets. They were the most disciplined kids I have ever met! I exchanged their lessons of cadet drills and exercises with my kick boxing knowledge. It was rewarding to talk to some people via interpreter (Mini), but frustrating to not speak the language and have a more concrete and practical role. Yesterday, Monday, was even worse for that. I visited multiple maternal and child health clinics and met with various women going through antenatal check-ups. I could feel that many of the women felt uncomfortable having a man there. There was so much wonder and confusion on both sides- mine and theirs. I feel like I am learning a lot, but more frequently I feel like I know nothing. Today I felt more empowered as Mini and I visited other clinics and conducted one on one interviews to get a more qualitative perspective on their needs and how well the services were treating them. I am working on a more ethnographic approach and want to eventually follow some of the same people through the summer to get a better idea of their stories. Some patients surprise me. It was pretty shocking that so many elderly people walk so far in the heat for basic services. Other families needed more help than the clinic offered, but appreciated the free basic services they received. It definitely makes me grateful for the health standards we have in the USA, but again ashamed by how much resources I use for my health compared to what they use. All in all, it has been a learning experience, and I am finding more and more that it is truly hard to make such cross-cultural comparisons.

Me interviewing muslim clients at a clinic in Bagbera

Youth Resource Center in small village outside Kadma where adolescents teach and talk about sex

Peer educators for RISHTA

A community meeting in Adityapur on environmental and health issues. I had to give a speech to these people!

Fun:

The first few days I was worried that I would not meet many people. I was also kind of looking forward to summer of work experience with the clinics and self-reflection on my projects, so I wasn’t too worried when people told me there was nothing to do in Jamshedpur. Yet, as I ate alone in the dining hall the first few days, I still wondered if I would meet friends. I kept seeing younger people living there, but felt like such an outsider since I always heard Hindi and watched people as they stared at me. I knew I just had to be patient though. Within a few days, I broke the distance and began to meet people by eating with them. They are a group of younger people, 22-27, here in my guest house that are right out of college and into their careers with Tata Steel. Ankur was the first friend I made. He invited me to his table for lunch one day, than took me on his motorbike for a tour of Jamshedpur. We smoked bidi’s (tabacco wrapped in tomato leaves) and drank a bottle of whiskey one night. I can’t say no in India- I feel like my health is already declining everyday with strong pollution and encounters with strange bacteria, so I gave in to the funky cigarettes. I found out it was Ankur’s birthday the night I met him, and learned the Indian tradition on birthdays. I came to his room at midnight to celebrate, when everyone came in and picked him up and began kicking him in the ass! It was crazy, they kicked him until her screamed stop! He seemed to think it was funny though, and everyone laughed. Then, they took his toothpaste and shaving cream and covered him with it. It was painful to watch, but I couldn’t fight custom! They asked me to kick him, and I decided to stay out of that one. . .

Amazing food everyday. . .

I have also made a pretty good new friend in the office. Her name is Mini. She is originally from Jamshedpur, but her family and her moved to (of all places) Ohio when she was 16! She is older now, and has been living in New York for the past 9 years. She came back to Jamshedpur to intern with Tata and get in touch with her roots. She is the most contact I have with the Western world, as everyone here is Indian. Yet she is still very Indian; she knows her way around and speaks the language. I am always the only white guy. It’s interesting to experience that feeling that so many people of color feel in the U.S. at times in white dominated situations. It is also interesting to feel such strong and unforgiving racism as people say rude things to me about my race, and have crazy presumptions about me based on their general ideas of my culture. It is hard being the ambassador for such an imperialist country like the United States. I remember this feeling in South America. Back to Mini though, she’s great. Here in Jamshedpur, there is not much to do besides shop, go out to eat and go to these fancy “clubs”, which are member-only country clubs. She takes me to her club where we swim and drink beer, and meet funny locals. Everyone knows each other here; it’s that small! She lives with her 81 year old grandmother in an oooold huge house that looks like a museum. They are really sweet to me and have invited me over for dinner a few times. And just when I thought there was not much partying here, she introduced me to the richest people in Jamshedpur for their weekly party last Saturday. It was actually uncomfortable for me how rich they were! The hosts own one of the nicest hotels here and we had a good time in their nice house attached. It is interesting to see the extreme sides of Indian society: the poorest of the poor, whom I feel more comfortable talking to, and the ridiculously rich. Mini has also been my translator on site in some of the bastis. Without her, I would be lost right now! I am stoked to have met a good friend here.

Street food

Statue if the Hindu god Hanuman at a local temple

Eating panipuri! Enjoying the amazing local street food here

It is hard to write more updates since I don’t have my own internet connection. I am trying to shorten my blog entries, so hopefully I can achieve that next time. My feelings about everything are always mixed; everyday they change. Overall though, I am still working out the kinks in my internship and still have high hopes for my experiences here. I definitely will not leave here unchanged. The constant contact with so many poor communities and immersion in Indian culture really make it impossible to not enjoy my position here. I am learning so much more about India that I didn’t see last summer. This place is really hard to summarize and make generalizations on. There are people from every walk of life. What I hope for most is to pick up more Hindi and get a better grasp on my role here and undertake a project that I can learn from. I feel confident in my knowledge of this place so far. I am loving everything, even the dripping sweaty days in the blistering heat, the Indian food for every meal, breaking assumptions, and having contact with so many kinds of people. I am working on an visual photo story of my experiences and the people I meet. We’ll see how it all works out.

Some of the people I have interviewed:

Visual Reflections: India & Nepal Trip, Summer 2009 July 15-August 21.

2010-06-03T19:34:00.000+05:30

Since I didn't have much of a chance to blog last summer, here are a few photos from my trip. Looking back on the amazing time I had gives me high hopes and big expectations for this summer! These are only a few that I have on my computer, so I don't have many of the first two weeks I spent in Mumbai. There are also some Nepal shots in the mix. Updated blog for this trip coming soon!

-Ryan

Mumbaiking: First Days Back in India

2010-06-02T10:12:00.000+05:30

Kate and I on the plane going to Mumbai,
Tata ISES interns 2010!

Back in India! After over 24 hours of commuting by plane, I finally arrived back at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. The ride was way longer than I remember it being last summer. Despite the length and extreme time difference of nine and a half hours from Ohio, I was surging with energy as soon as we began our descent into the megacity.

Mahim - Mumbai

The moment I stepped out of the airport, the feeling of strange familiarity swept over me. I could actually smell that I was back in India. There are distinct smells of India for me. Given that most of India is so hot and humid, especially the parts I have been to it could be that the smells are enhanced by the heat and moisture. The combination of both good and bad smells—like rotting trash, cow dung and thick smog mixed with aromas of incense, frying food and boiling chai—seem to mesh together to fill the air with a spicey musty scent. I can’t really describe it much better than that, and I am not sure if those things were causing the air by the airport to smell that way that night, but I definitely sensed that same smell in the air that I had only experienced here. A driver met me and the other three interns outside and within a few minutes, we were zooming through the streets of Bombay. It was pretty overwhelming feeling of excitement and melancholy. I was thrilled to be back; I began recognizing a few sights and kept pointing things out to the others (Kate, Marie and Neda are their names, although at this point Neda had separated and went with some friends for the night). I actually felt a little annoying, but didn’t want to hold back information and tried to uplift the mood since it was the middle of the night. I stared out at the urban landscape, scattered with rotting Bombay architecture, next to shiny new skyscrapers and business buildings. Rickshaws zoomed by, huge trucks marked “Tata” on the back above the weird expression “Horn OK Please” rode alongside us, along with funky taxis painted black and yellow with personalized expressions on the back windshield. It was after 1am though, so the streets were relatively quiet. After over an hour of driving and getting lost from our very quiet and confused driver, we arrived at a fancy guest house where a young Indian men welcomed us and brought our bags to our rooms and even gave us sandwiches with Coca Cola. It was nearing 3am and we itching to sleep, but I think out of courtesy we all just accepted and managed to each eat a sandwich half. It was funny, because then the guys interpreted that we were very hungry and brought us another full plate of sandwiches! To hell with manners!

Mumbai Colors

We woke up the next morning with just four hours of sleep and ready to take on Mumbai in an attempt to conquer jet lag. I was ready to run around, but after a slow start, we only managed a short walk in the blistering heat. Since monsoons have not begun yet in Mumbai, some days, like this day, can melt you. Within 20 minutes I was sopping in sweat. I ignored it thought, as I was so preoccupied with the streets filled with people and buzzing rickshaw engine sounds. “Why wasn’t anyone else sweating under the blistering sun,” we kept asking ourselves. As soon as we made it to a main road, I recognized the area. We walked to the nearby train station, Mahim Junction, and crossed over the tracks where we saw just a glance at a small entrance to Dharavi. I stared at it from the bridge cross-way. I couldn’t believe that I was back here, staring down at the largest slum in Asia once again. It should not be some attraction for tourists like me, but everytime I saw it I was intrigued and wanted to explore. Dharavi is a basti (slum) area and it is only about .67 square miles large and holds over 1 million residents (10 lakhs in Indian counting). It is an unauthorized basti, meaning it does not have government permission to exist or formal recognition to hold the land it does.

One edge of Dharavi

What is always hard to see though that is immediately apparent in Mumbai is the widespread poverty. I was eager to see it, as it was some sort of affirmation for my presence since I came to India to study and enact methods of poverty alleviation. Yet, my honest eagerness was countered with shame, as we had just spent so many resources flying half way across the world. No one ever forgets or escapes the poverty of Mumbai. It is part of its landscape. Seeing Dharavi reminded me of this, as it was just one of many slum neighborhoods in Mumbai. The city is actually composed of over 55% slums. The night before, we drove past dozens of people sleeping on the sides of the road, some resting on top of benches, cars, metal containers, or just laying on a thin blanket on the ground or the concrete itself. On the right we would see rows of nice shops, large illuminated advertisements and business buildings, and on the left would be shanty slum housing made of scrap metal, tarps, old Coca-Cola banners and cheap concrete. Sometimes, the slums would be right next door to modern looking structures. The juxtaposition of the two different worlds is what makes Mumbai so intriguing for even its own residents. Standing at the foot of Dharavi, I was reminded of the organized chaos of the bastis. They were not all just piles of trash with people running around desperately searching for food and water. They actually have closer resemblance to neighborhoods. There were shops and stores, chaiwallahs, places for worship, families living together; there was some order to the basti social system. As we learned in my Globalization in India and Global Poverty courses this past semester, this is the product of neglect. If the poor don’t have access to formal needs that is affordable on their level, they will create it themselves with the informal. It is the same with ghettos in any country. So instead of staring ahead at Dharavi like it was a sad picture of desperation (which some aspects may still be), I stood in wonder of its complexity; of all the informal work and actions that were going on to maintain and operate the Dharavi system that was the largest slum in Asia.

Later in the afternoon, we moved to a completely different neighborhood of Mumbai: Colaba Causeway in South Mumbai. It is funny how tourists are dumped off here and expect to find “the real Bombay.” It is so different than most other neighborhoods. Last year I remember not seeing the different so clearly, but this time it was like black and white to me. For one, there were no rickshaws, only taxis and cars. There were more Western and American institutions, like CitiBank, McDonalds, Regal Cinemas and

tons of hip restaurants with beer and Western food. We were put into this super fancy YWCA hotel thatcosted Rs. 2000/- per night (note, the highest price I paid for a room last summer was in Kolkata for Rs. 500/- per night and this was expensive to me). We had a driver take us there. This one was nicer; he showed us important landmarks like temples, neighborhoods and movie star’s houses. He was also patient with my crappy Hindi and spoke with us. It was nice to be driven and to have air conditioning-but I was itching to hop on the trains and have the excitement of figuring things out on my own. Unfortunately though, after that not much happened for the rest of the day as we battled jet lag and heat, except for a nice night walk to McDonalds for frozen yogurt (I gave in. . .) and to the Gateway to India and Taj Hotel. We were so close to going swimming at the Taj until we got caught!

Taj Hotel

The next day we spent in our orientation. I will get into that next post when I talk more on

Tata and the work I am doing here. After the orientation though I was able to meet up with my friend Eddie and some of my other friends from Berkeley who are new group members of Haath Mein Sehat, the group I had visited last summer. I was worried that I wasn’t going to get to see them while I was in Mumbai, but sure enough I found them! It was fun to finally take the train alone and find them in Bandra, an area north of South Mumbai crammed with shops and markets. It was so weird to see Eddie in India again. The strangest part was that it felt normal. This is where I saw him last summer and as ambitious travelers, it doesn’t feel all that surprising to see each other in foreign lands. After India, I will only see him for a day in Ohio in August, then he goes to Brazil for a semester and then to Africa for the Peace Corps. It was good to catch up and conent with someone who loves this place even more than I do. We hopped in a rickshaw (my first so far!) and wound up at a rooftop “Shisha” bar taking hookah hits and enjoying beautiful Hindi music from a live band playing tablahs (well known Indian

drums). We exchanged some funny stories and I heard all about the reactions of the new group members to India, I felt so happy to be with other cool Berkeley students such an awesome place. I knew that the summer held so many crazy situations for all of us. I also felt compelled to stay in Mumbai! Afterwards, we wound up in some strange bar with American posters and American 80s music. It was awesome! We requested Lady Gaga, something they searched for and tried to figure out for almost 20 minutes. It was great to get my only night of drinking and socializing at a bar in for the summer since I was going to be in the eastern state of Jharkhand for the rest of the summer, a dry state with no alcohol.

I was ready to take on the summer after that. It was good to connect with HMS before leaving, since they were the only people I knew in India last summer and I had some of my first experiences here with them. Now I am eager to get on that plane and head to Jamshedpur for the summer. Who knows what I am getting myself into. . .

Streetside

Back to India

2010-05-31T16:11:00.000+05:30

5/28/2010

I just had a great dinner with family and friends in North Olmsted, my hometown in Ohio. It is almost as if I fell into a time warp sitting in my Mom’s house in Ohio, as I finally finished my hardest semester as an undergraduate, graduated from U. C. Berkeley, had my Mom and brother come visit me in Berkeley, and now I am getting ready to fly 18 hours east back to India for the summer. I feel mixed with relief, nostalgia, anxiety and excitement all at the same time!

One year later and I am headed back to India. Who would have though it? After my four-month journey around South America a year and a half ago, I never would have guessed I would be on the opposite side of the world any time soon. I though my life would be centered upon Spanish and Latin American culture and politics after that trip. Yet, as of right now I am returning to South Asia for my second summer in a row and looking forward to giving India another shot after a crazy adventure last year involving roof-top bus rides, explorations of informal communities (“slums”) and a acquiring a nasty parasite that took 10+ pounds of my body weight!

Things are a bit different this time: I actually have a plan (somewhat) and a more concrete reason for going than last year. For the past semester I have been preparing myself for a summertime internship with Tata, Inc. Tata is a massive Indian corporation that yields a large production for various goods and services that support Indian infrastructure. The program is called TISES (Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme) and the company is hosting four U. C. Berkeley students to work in various sectors within Tata Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Division in different Tata locations all over India. I will be going to Jamshedpur, a small corporate cite four hours east of Kolkata, to work with a doctor on a public health service project to evaluate the reach of health services to the communities that Tata’s CSR division serves.

It should be interesting, to say the least. This experience is part of my practice experience required for my minor, Global Poverty and Practice. I will also use it as field work for my career in anthropology. I have spent all se

mester learning about globalizing India today, Hindu and Muslim philosophy, Indian geography and politics, poverty in India, small Indian cultural lessons here and there, and a very small amount of Hindi. My semester has been surround by Indian themes and now I am here to see them all play out. This will be totally different than last summer, when I jumped aboard a plane knowing nothing more about Indian culture than tikka masala and chai tea. I am nervous, but so ready to learn as much as I can and put to practice all that I have learned about India, poverty and development.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks; moving out of another apartment, hiking in Santa Cruz 20+ miles in one day, saying goodbye to roommates and good friends, finishing a year long Americorps service project, showing my brother my life in the Bay Area, graduating, spending time with family. . . I got sick in Ohio before I left and was worried I wasn’t going to make it. Traveler’s diarrhea in Cleveland? Go figure! Now I am going to embark on a long plane ride and a big project in that will carry me through the summer. The horizon that marks the end of my journey here is two and a half months away. I have 8 weeks in Jamshedpur, then two weeks to travel where I want. Then, after this summer, I return to the States for my last semester at Berkeley. It will be a weird one, as many of my friends will be gone and I will be living somewhere new. I am excited to have an adventure this summer, and arrive back in Berkeley ready to conclude my undergraduate experience after nearly 7 years! Then, maybe Brazil for a semester? Maybe Ghana, Africa? Then: who knows? But right now, it’s all about India! Chalo chalo!