Wedding Season

Wedding season has officially kicked off here in India. I am not sure about the details of the timing but have been told that it has something to do with the Hindu calendar determining the best marriage times. Every night the streets are filled with big parades following grooms on parades, all the venues are town are booked with wedding parties, and the skies are decorated with fireworks. It is quite a site and I was excited to attend a fellow work colleagues wedding a couple of days ago. The volunteer coordinator was getting married and invited the entire staff at Seva Mandir. It was a traditional Rajput wedding and most of the rituals were lost on us but it was still a neat experience.

As many people may know, Indian weddings can last for an entire week. We were invited to the night of the official ceremony. Upon arriving, we found the bride and groom in the middle of a large crowd of women. The bride was covered in a red sheet, the groom was having something poured on his feet, and the parents were sitting next to them. They were all under a tent with a fire in the middle and the crowd passively watched the scene.

A few minutes after arriving, my roommates and I were pushed out of the area. While focused on the ceremony, we apparently did not notice the lack of men in the wedding. Apparently this was only for the women, so we were guided to the appropriate tent. It was quite a different scene, with all the men sitting around at tables eating food and drinking.

So while the female volunteers sat around watching the wedding, the guys sat and drank whiskey. It was quite anticlimactic but a good experience nonetheless. With all the money and energy put into these weddings, I was expecting more of a party. I guess weddings are just another manifestation of the cultural importance of tradition. Disappointed that we did not get the bash that we were looking for, the volunteers took it back to the Love Nest and threw our own party. Though not what I was expecting for the night, we ended up having a great time and it was fun to dress up like a maharajah.

Life-Work Balance: Custard Apple Update

This year has already provided me with adventures traveling throughout India, new friends through AIF and in Udaipur, and plenty of time to reflect. Alongside all this personal growth, I feel lucky to have Seva Mandir to learn about the NGO/development sector and an outlet to focus my work energy. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I am working on two projects at Seva Mandir and continue to make progress on both. I will write more about the SHG project later but wanted to provide an on the custard apple livelihood project.

I am not sure where the initial idea for the custard apple livelihood project originated within Seva Mandir but I assume it was based on similar programs that have been implemented by other NGOs. We found one such NGO in the neighboring state of Maharashta. BAIF-MITTRA, the Maharastha arm of a much larger government development organization, created an umbrella brand to market a variety of fruits and vegetables, including custard apples in certain areas. Before Diwali, I contacted the program coordinator at BAIF-MITTRA, explained our plans to implement a similar program, and set up an exposure visit for Seva Mandir staff to learn about their NGO and program. A couple of weeks ago, I traveled down there with Sunil (my mentor) and five Seva Mandir staff members for an exposure visit.

After a very long voyage to the middle of nowhere in Maharastha, we arrived at the BAIF-MITTRA office and were given a brief introduction to the NGO, their constituency, and the projects they have been working on. The presentation materials were in English but the discussion was in Hindi so though I was unable to follow everything, I got the gist of what was being discussed and was free to ask questions.

The next day, we went into the field to visit a SHG that is currently participating in the custard apple project. One SHG member walked us around the forest area surrounding the village to show us their custard apple trees, how they marked which trees belong to the SHG, and how to know when to pick the custard apples from the trees. We then went to a meeting where the women showed us how they grade custard apples and pack them into the boxes for shipping.

After leaving the villages, we were taken around to some of the other projects that BAIF is working on in the area. We visited a wadi (orchard) where villagers grow fruit, vegetables and various spice. We also had lunch at the training center where they provide education on various agricultural issues such as water irrigation.


The trip was a great opportunity to learn from an NGO that has already implemented a custard apple marketing program and also provided me with additional exposure into the development sector. It was great to see the level of help that BAIF provided in sharing their expertise, the lessons they learned through execution, and the overall level of cooperation between the two NGOs during the exposure visit.

Unfortunately as winter approaches, it looks unlikely that we will be able to implement a pilot program during this season. For the custard apple project, I will be primarily be involved in planning for next fall (after I have left). Although it is disappointing that I may not be here to see the actual implementation of the program, this project has been instrumental in teaching me about the development sector and how success should be defined when working at an NGO. Where I once viewed success to be based on the completion or results of a project, I now see the value in the process of capacity building through training and spreading awareness.

Daily Life, Yaudaipur Style

Most of my posts have been primarily about the trips I have taken and the things I have seen so far. But in between the adventures, I have really settled into Udaipur, Seva Mandir, and life in India. So I thought I would post a blog entry about what the day to day is like. Since this is a pretty boring topic, I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

Work Life:
Welcome to my office. Ok, so not exactly an office, but rather the third floor of the Seva Mandir library. This is where they have set aside space for all the volunteers to work. You can also see the couches in the corner where many a volunteer have caught a quick midday nap.



This is the view outside the library window. The real offices are across the street and to the right. This is where my mentors work. I spend most of my work day on the couches mentioned above.



Food:
People often ask what I normally eat. At the beginning, my roommates and I regularly went out to the same restaurants. Our local favorite, Kuwar, has come to know us and now gives us the "Indian" menu, which is basically the same as the "Foreigner" menu but with cheaper prices. Recently though, my roommate Alvaro has begun cooking up some amazing dishes.


Salad with tomatoes, onion, pepper, cheese and oil and vingar dressing. The main dish is rice with fried egg and fried banana.







Shrimp and fish paella. It was delicious but Alvaro said he could do better so I'm not going to stop him from trying.






Social Life:
So there is not much of a night life here in Udaipur but we do have a movie theater. Last night I went with a few coworkers to see a recent Bollywood flick, Dostana. The entire movie (3 hrs+) was in Hindi but has such a basic plot that I was able to follow most of it without subtitles or a translator. I did miss a few jokes here or there but am pretty confident that I did not miss out on any deep dialogue. The movie wasn't great, but I really enjoyed the music and have since bought the soundtrack (this also the soundtrack that we listened to on repeat throughout my Kerala trip, so there is the added nostalgia element).

CAMELS!!!

Sorry for the late posting but I came down with something during the past week that put me out of commission for a while. I am much better now but never missed home more than when I was sick. There is definitely something to be said for the comfort of chicken noodle soup, a quiet bedroom, and familiar medicine. Prior to being sick though I had an action packed week with two trips worth writing about. Let me start with the fun trip (Pushkar) and then will post later about the work trip (Maharashtra).

One of the top “things to do in India” is to attend the Pushkar Camel Festival. The annual event brings hundreds of thousands of tourists and camel traders to the small town of Pushkar and is quite the site to see. I traveled there with my two roommates (Fizzy and Alvaro) and met up with three other AIF Fellows (Carolyn, Pooja, and Hemant). As always, it was great to see the other Fellows, catch up on work/life experiences, and see how views of India/development have changed in the past couple of months.

On Saturday morning, we went to the festival grounds to meet up with a couple of other Seva Mandir volunteers (Lizzy and Rose) who were also in town for the weekend. Unfortunately, upon arriving we found out that we had just missed the first camel race. There would be other ones throughout the week but none during our stay. We decided to stick around and watch the “camel dance” competition but this proved to be even more disappointing.


Camels are awful dancers. The competition basically consisted of the trainers pulling the camels around in circles and making them do tricks that look uncomfortable at best and unusually cruel at worst.




After we left this spectacle, the trip took a huge turn for the better. We found a guy to rent us camels to ride around the festival grounds. There was some back and forth with the negotiating but we eventually got him to agree to let us race the camels at the end of the ride. Hemant and I shared a camel (named Jimmy) and were given full reign of where to lead the group. Everyone seemed to enjoy the ride, though there was a bit of panic when I accidentally dropped the rope that controlled one of the other camels. All was fine though and no fellows were lost on runaway camels. The “race” at the bottom of the hour was quite exciting, though brief, I think only a picture is necessary to tell the results.


While the camel ride and race were fun, there was still something missing: more camels! We all piled onto a camel-drawn cart and sought out more camels. It was a nice ride and quite amazing when we saw the vast campgrounds that housed the forty thousand camels that were brought in for the festival.


We spent some time walking around the grounds and tried to buy a camel though the vendors did not take us very seriously. At the end of our trek, I thought it would be nice to give something back to the camel that had been pulling us around. I went with our “driver” and picked out something nice for our camel though I don’t feel he fully appreciated the bling.

The next day we started with a spiritual walk from one of the main temples down to the lake. At the lake were thousands of people bathing in the holy water at various ghats (steps into the the lake).

The three other Fellows then headed off and I went to check out Ajmer (a neighboring city that we were told was worth visiting). Since we only had the afternoon in Ajmer, we saw one temple (because that’s what you do in India) and then we went to a park by the lake to rest and watch the sunset.

Beef, Beer, and Bananas in “God’s Own Country”

Happy belated Diwali everyone. I spent last week in South India exploring the beautiful state of Kerala with some AIF Fellows (Rick, Natassia, Ekta, and Meera) and a couple of new friends (Chandni and Shan). Chandni is one of Rick’s old friends who has been living in India for the last year and wanted a big trip before she headed back to the States. Shan is probably the best driver you could ask for. He is instantly likeable, knows a lot about the area when asked, quick to fill requests, and probably the safest driver I have seen in India. Despite only knowing the AIF Fellows for two months now, it seemed like a reunion of old friends.

The short summary is that it was an amazing week of relaxing, hanging out, and exploring a side of India that I never knew existed. Because the week was packed with events and memories, I cannot begin to write a summary that would do justice to all the memories create. So I have decided to upload a bunch of pictures (see new photo album) and give a list of my Top Ten Highlights of the Diwali Trip:

10. Nature – Despite any rumors about me hating nature or trees, I actually really enjoyed the amazing natural beauty that Kerala had to offer. We saw a plethora of waterfalls, tea and spice plantations, backwaters (rivers and lakes), and a tropical rainforest.

9. Pictures of Ekta – I’m not sure if she likes to be in them or just was the only one asked, but it seemed like half the pictures we took over the week were of Ekta contemplating, questioning, or posing in some other fashion for the camera.

8. Bollywood Music on Repeat – The theme song of the trip was hands down “My Desi Girl.” Chandni rightly predicted that though we may not like it at first, it would grow on you. And it does. Like cancer. I think we heard the song about 500 times during the week.

7. Elephants – We saw elephants a few times in the wild, once grazing in a field off the side of the road and another time during a boat ride in one of the national parks. We also got to feed, pet, and ride some tame elephants through a spice plantation, which was probably more fun for us than it was for the elephants.

6. Jumping – After learning how to use the continuous shot setting on our cameras, we found it fun to jump around in our pictures, whether in a tea field, during a trek, or into the water.

5. Houseboat – At the end of the trip, we spent the final day and night on our own three-bedroom houseboat. The ship’s staff made us some great meals and then found us a nice place where we could jump in and swim around.

4. Swimming in a Waterfall – Even though it was rainwater, it was freezing, but swimming in a waterfall was definitely was one of my favorite memories of the trip.

3. Friends - Getting to know my friends better through various games, deep conversations, or meeting family members.

2. Traversing a Subcontinent – It was great to get down to South India, but the journey there really deserves another entry by itself. But since that probably won’t happen, here is the summary: I started with a long bus ride from Udaipur down to Ahmedabad, Gujarat where I was lucky enough to catch one other AIF Fellow in town. We all went out to dinner before the Kerala crew caught an overnight train to Mumbai. After arriving early in the morning, I went with Ekta to visit her family friend’s place where I found two of my favorite things in the whole world: a rain shower and people who will feed you good home-cooked food until your stomach hurts (and did it ever). They were incredibly welcoming and I hope I’ll be able to get back down to Mumbai to see more of the city.

1. Food – As many of you may already know, I live to eat rather than eat to live and this trip was a just what my stomach needed. While the food in the north has been great, it was a treat to get some beef and the quality and variety of seafood down in Kerala was delicious. There are also apparently over twenty types of bananas in Kerala though we primarily stuck with plantains and a variety of banana chips.