I'm Alive!

Hello, finally! There has been such a whirlwind of activity in the last two weeks, and internet has been so few and far between, that I’m only just now able to take a breath and try to condense it all down in about five minutes. I hope you’re all doing well, first off, and I miss you all A LOT!

As you might have noticed, the description on the top of my blog has changed because my assignment details have fleshed out to be very different from what I was originally told. Far from being in a large town, I’m actually in a large village, 4 hours from the city of Pune (6 by bus, which is my mode), and the only internet access being at my NGO. The village is very isolated, very rural, and yet, for what it is, fairly developed with roads and buildings. But I’m ahead of myself:
All the AIF fellows had a fantastic, 12-day orientation in Delhi where we networked with really interesting and prominent people, ate fantastic food, met with our stodgy Bush-appointed Ambassador, took tours of the city, and attended daily lectures on current issues in India including social exclusion, education, politics, the development sector, corporate and financial issues, and general fellowship details. It made for long days, but a great crash course, topped off with periodic Bollywood dance lessons from a dance choreographer- which was hilarious J We also went on two field visits to NGOs, one to HIV/AIDS clinics in Delhi, and the other a two day trip to Rajasthan to visit an NGO-run school and an agricultural project for vermicomposting and horticulture (which I LOVED!). We were able to visit with a women’s self –help group, which is a really interesting and fairly Indian approach to building women’s capacity and providing microcredit by forming groups of women and larger federations of groups, which allow women to share their struggles, successes, provide social support surrounding issues such as domestic abuse, and also partake in group-saving and –lending schemes. Very interesting. The women we visited with were the most animated, friendly women, and embarrassed me the entire time with their fascination of my blond hair and unmarried status. Sometimes a language barrier can be a good thing!
Overall, the orientation period was a really valuable time to adjust and bond as a group, and we were all SO sad to part ways last week when it all ended.

Now, as of three days ago, I am in Mhaswad, working with an NGO that is also part of the Manndeshi Bank and that oversees the Mann Deshi Udyogini Business School for Rural Women, which is most likely the project I’ll work most on throughout the year. For now, however, as they ease me into program work and probably get a feel for my level of (in-)competence, I have the pleasure of organizing a taste-testing contest for regional farmers in the noble pursuit of Maharashtra’s most delicious pomegranate. Changing lives, and only here three days ! Ha.

Despite having a concrete project, I am solely occupied right now with learning patience. My mentor, the president of the NGO, has left for the week to give a lecture in Michigan, and all the other English-speaking staff apparently didn’t feel like coming to work. I’m sitting here, with nothing to do, no direction, not even a novel to read, and can only imagine the week will be more of the same. I just spent the weekend, my first two days out of orientation, on an unexpected road trip to Hubli, a city 6 hours south of here, to inaurgurate the business school on wheels I referenced and all the elaborate and ceremonial details that went with it. Thank god I brought a book, because I understood only about 5% of what was said the entire weekend and was pretty much left to entertain myself and stay out of the way. We then left, for reasons I don’t know, at about 9 pm to come back to Mhaswad last night and arrived at 3 in the morning, driving all the while in an SUV filled to capacity of people who do not wear deodorant. “Be flexible” was the overarching theme of our orientation, and flexible I will try to be J

That’s it for now…I will try to add some new links about my NGO and the Manndeshi Bank. Please start booking your tickets for India. I can’t wait to see you!