Welcome to Udaipur

I arrived in Udaipur last Saturday morning and was fortunate to find out that Seva Mandir doesn’t work on the second Saturday of each month. So the driver took me to the flat where I would be housed with the other Seva Mandir volunteers. The flat (aka “the Love Nest”) has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a small dining area. The flat is nice while never letting you forget that you’re in a developing country, with its non-western toilet (porcelain hole in the ground), cold “showers” (buckets of water), and sporadic electricity outages. It’s definitely a far cry from sitting on my couch, Internet at my fingertips, watching college football on my DVR, enjoying the AC in the summer and the heat in the winter.

I like the housing though and the best part of my living situation is the new friends that come with it. The volunteer coordinator told us that there are almost 600 volunteers that will come through Seva Mandir each year. Some will stay for a few weeks or a couple of months at a time, others for much longer. Besides the Love Nest, they have dorms for volunteers and I believe another flat somewhere else in Udaipur. The Love Nest is supposedly the best accommodations that Seva Mandir offers and currently houses three other volunteers.

The newest guy (besides myself) is Alvaro, or Al. He comes from Spain and will be working at Seva Mandir for the next eight months or so. Right now we are working on the same microfinance project, though that is subject to change over the next month or so. I’ll write more about my work as I figure out what I’m doing. Alvaro has lived in many different parts of the world, speaks very good English, and I’m looking forward to becoming good friends with him in the upcoming year.

The most tenured flat mate is Ron. He has been managing the microfinance project over the last year or so and is helping to transition Alvaro and myself onto the project as he winds down. He is actually leaving in a week or so but has been great in showing us the ropes at Seva Mandir and taking us around and introducing us to Udaipur.

Last but not least is Fiz. (Fiz is short for Fizzy, which I think is a nickname derived from his real name, but I may be mistaken) Fiz has lived in New York and London and has been in Udaipur for the past five months. He is working on a project with youth resource centers in the rural areas outside of Udaipur. He’s also been great with showing us around town and I feel fortunate that he’ll be sticking around for at least another month.

After settling in on Saturday, my flat mates and I went to celebrate Ganesh’s birthday on Sunday. It was a great way to experience both Udaipur and Indian culture, with crowds of people filling the streets, yelling and dancing, throwing colored powder, and just having a good time. We went to the lake where most of the activity was taking place. Basically people (families, neighborhoods or other groups) would get together and make a Ganesh idol, decorate it and throw it into the water. We somehow were able to navigate through the thick crowd of locals, pass the police line, and down to the lake where the idols were being taken by boat to the deeper part of the lake. Fiz “convinced” the police that we were international press so that we could get onto the boats and go out into the middle of the lake. It wasn’t so much that the policeman actually thought we were legitimate press, but I think he was just amused at the four westerners who wanted to go out on the boat. So he smiled, did the classic Indian head bob (mix between a nod and bobble, which means “yes”), and let us on. They even let Ron and myself help throw a large Ganesh idol into the water. Then we all did a dance and headed back to shore.


After walking around some more, Ron and Fiz took us to this great rooftop hotel/bar, where we relaxed, drank some chai, and watched the sun set over the beautiful city. It was a great day and a terrific beginning to my adventures in Udaipur.