March in Mhaswad

Well, I’m now in the last big push of my fellowship. From now until I leave the village to travel, only 11 weeks remain. It’s pretty hard to believe. Being here 6 ½ months has the effect of all those hard-earned friendships, expanded comfort levels and acquired local understanding adding together in a way that makes everything more enjoyable. Mhaswad feels more like home than it did before (obviously), and my experience of things is increasingly less associated with its comparison to the U.S. or my norms back home. All this means that an adjustment period has reaped a lot of fruit that I’m beginning to now enjoy! In addition, having only 11 weeks left in my community makes me appreciate it all the more, knowing how quickly those weeks will fly by.

Here are some random updates:

Temperature:
I think we’re technically still in the midst of Spring, but a Northwesterner can hardly call 92 degrees F, INSIDE a cool building, springtime weather. It will reach up to 120 degrees in May and June, which I can hardly imagine surviving.

A Friend Arrives!:
My friend and former college roommate Rachel joined me last week for two months of interning with Mann Deshi, which has so far been great! I wasn’t sure how blending my home life and India life would change my experience of India, but luckily I think having someone to experience and process all the crazy and irrational daily stuff here helps me stay low-key and good natured.
So that brings us to three interns now—the third is Moniek, from the Netherlands, who has been with us one month and will stay until early April. We were recently invited to have lunch at our friend Archana’s house (see picture)—Archana’s mother made my favorite dish, grilled okra, and Archana drew sand designs around our plates with our initials! How sweet is that.

A Busy Week:
On Rachel’s first day, Mann Deshi was hosting a site visit for an RBI (Reserve Bank of India) conference on off-site surveillance (don’t ask me what that is). There were about 40 people from all over Asia, representing various microfinance and national banks, who came to Mhaswad to see our operations. We prepared as though the Queen was coming, with food and snacks on platters everywhere, many of our clients dressed in their finest jewelry to meet the participants, and even a local trumpeter to great them (see picture). One of the visitors, a man from Afghanistan, was trying to convince me to visit Kabul, which is apparently very safe so long as you hire a “shooter.” Convincing.
Saturday was World Women’s Day, and was an incredibly packed day. Rachel and I were honored guests at our friend Sejal’s free clinic day at her Ayurvedic clinic. Rachel, Chetna, a local doctor and I were given chai and breakfast at their home, and then we lit ceremonial candles at the clinic and said prayers to bless the day. We broke coconut over a stone to bless their renovated humidifier room, and then were given beautiful wool shawls as a gifts before we left. Once we got back to the bank, all the women were being given strings of Jasmine called “veni” to pin in their hair. Almost immediately after putting venis in our hair, our cook arrived at the bank to invite Rachel and I to eat at her house-- so off we went, following her down the winding and confusing alleys of Mhaswad, until we got to her little house and sat on her hot stone floor while she and her daughter cooked us absolute feast of a lunch. It was amazing. The final unexpected event of the day was being invited to attend an event at the police station after work. Rachel and I lugged our heavy bags to the station, assumed our seats at the front of the waiting room with Chetna, a politician and some police sergeants, and the hour-long event conducted purely in Marathi began. We were asked to speak a few words to the women, and got some interesting opinions from the police sergent about how America's society isn't as family oriented as India's, since Indian women stay loyally with their husband's family. He also chose that women's day event as the perfect opportunity to coach the women on the evils of girls running off with boys, thinking they were in love, and getting involved with crime. I wasn't a big fan of that guy, and Chetna was rolling her eyes through most of the event.

A trip:
I’m leaving tomorrow for a week-long site visit to Gujarat, a state north of Maharashtra made famous for a large earthquake that devastated the area in 2001 (which actually served as the impetus for creating the American India Foundation). My friend Brenna, who is also an AIF fellow, works there with an NGO called Khamir, which works with handicraft villages in the Kutch region. I’ll shadow her for a day as she takes some British researchers on a tour of various weaving villages, accompany her NGO co-workers on a retreat to the beach, and camp out in the desert with our friend Katy before heading back to Bhuj and departing the next week. My mentor, Chetna, is actually from this area and speaks glowingly about it, so I’m really excited to see it for myself!

There’s the update for now—I’ll write more after my trip to Gujarat and the holiday of Holi. I should have plenty of stories by then! Much love-

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