Alaska to Africa (and beyond...): India becomes Moz in my mind

Feels like I’m back in Mozambique. I’ve been in India on and off for the past 10 months, and it wasn’t until today that I legitimately felt like I was back in my/a friend’s village of Moz.

A little back story- I’m doing some volunteer work for an NGO (*Swades Foundation) in Mumbai that works with over 800 rural villages just south of the city. I’m helping put together a plan to help these communities become “Gender Sensitive”. In my mind I’ve come up with many ideas about lesson plans and community activities and school sessions and conferences, trainings, girls’ groups…. It wasn’t until today that I actually set foot in a community and had a better understanding of the people and places I will be working with.

This morning started by driving almost 5 hours outside of Mumbai, first driving past slums, giant trash hills, children and adults taking their morning deuce on the side of the road (literally feet from our car), immense traffic, honking, and skyscrapers nit which slowly turned to rolling hills and brown not-as-trash-filled rivers, and finally mountainous, green, lush terrain, forests, long distances without seeing another car (or person or cow or monkey), clay huts, and fresh, beautiful, clean, unpolluted air. It is such an incredible change between city and “country” (or urban and rural), it was a pleasure to watch things change right before me.

So, around 12:30 we arrived at our destination, a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere where the NGO was hosting a yearly showcase of events for the participating villages. Just over 160 people were in attendance, representing 100 villages from the area. As we approached from the back of the crowd, several people turned to see me, which caused a ripple effect, and by the time I reached the front of the space (of course they had us sitting up front) the entire group had their eyes on me- all the women on my left and all the men on my right. But props to the woman who was speaking - man she just kept on going! Thankfully her topic was captivating (the importance of breastfeeding and proper nutrition for a mother and child) so soon the attendees went back to nodding and head bobbling.

I couldn’t tell you too much about the actual sessions, as they were conducted in Marathi, but I’m sure they were informative and well delivered. At lunch, I sat on the floor to eat. Men were lined up on either side and the women along the back side. We ate rice and some sauce without hands as we attempted to make small talk in the limited English the few around me possessed. A cockroach crawled onto the arm of the man next to me, who flung it off and looked someone concernedly at me. I laughed, he joked the cockroach had come to meet me, and I replied that was nice but a risky move as I saw him as extra protein. The few who spoke enough English laughed at/with me for my attempted humor in a room full of gawking strangers.

At one point, after an expert in vermi-culture (worm harvesting) finished his demonstration, groups of people came up to take a picture with me or of me with their phones. After a few moments, all the women, roughly 80, had crowded around me, smiling and inquisitive. Of course only one out of the 80 spoke English so it was a bit awkward, but sweet.

After lunch and finishing the sessions, a social worker took me into the village to see the projects the NGO had implemented. As we started to walk, I noticed the roughly 30 children that had congregated and started following us. They helped show me a latrine that had been installed, the water reserve tank and how the spouts work (like any other faucet), and even led me into a house, much to the owners surprise, to show me the smokeless stove. As I walked, the kids grabbed at my hands and reached up to touch me, yet when I turned they would run away laughing and screaming.

Around 5pm we left the event and went for tea and sandwiches with the entire social work team to discuss final details of the afternoon and projects. And GET THIS! 2 sandwiches per person (vada pao) and soft drinks for all 12 of us cost a total of…. 4USD. 4 dollars for 12 people. Yeah. So, then onwards to the hotel. We made a stop at the reading center that was being constructed. Then a stop at a home in a tiny little town where the NGO is thinking about bringing Eco Tourism (rural tourism). They asked my opinion- would you stay here? OF course!! Bigger than my PC house, giant kitchen, adorable set up, quaint back yard with a porch and flowers everywhere, and back up to the house of a local social worker who is just plain adorable. I felt like it was the PERFECT PCV house and community. Onward! Final stop came to drop in on a computers teacher with the NGO, a lovely young, brilliant girl with a hysterical and likewise brilliant uncle. By this time I’d watched a magnificent sunset so I couldn’t see their 40achers of land or the immense garden hey had, but from what I saw it was spectacular.

So, now I’m in the hotel room, watching some random Bollywood film on a 32+ inch HD TV while I sit on a rock hard bed with stained sheets and a faulty AC unit, waiting for the fried rice I ordered over an hour ago. Seriously, besides the fact that I’m wearing a kurta, I could be back in Moz!! The erratic driving on horrible, narrow roads, the cows in the road, the children following me, the picture taking and gawking, the tiny hut houses and beautiful, quaint communities, the heat, the lack of ability to understand what’s going on around me, the bugs, the bucket bath I’m about to take, the capulana I will sleep on (no way I’m touching these sheets!)…. I’m back!!!! And I honestly couldn’t be happier with how good it feels. No, I’m not living in this environment, just here to visit. Maybe that makes it all the sweeter experience.

Oh and get this- I’ve been watching a bad movie for an hour (apparently) and a warning just came on the screen telling me to please protect my eyesight. How considerate J