Alaska to Africa (and beyond...): Part two of my site visit

Day two of being in the rural villages has been just as wonderful as day one. It’s been packed full of new people and exciting possibilities for my work. This blog is going to seem super choppy and scatterbrained but stick with me- hopefully you’ll see what I did…

This morning started pretty calm- we left the hotel and headed to meet Vijay, a member of the Social Work team who will become my Go-To guy while working in the villages. Vijay works with dozens of villages, helping bring them clean water, supporting agriculture practices, training health care workers, and overall being a positive light of change for these communities. So, we met up and headed for a surprise visit to one of his villages. The drive out was spectacular! I tried to take a few photos but a camera cannot do this place justice. It’s mountainous with valleys of rich green trees and tiny clusters of hidden houses. The roads are terrible, broken and narrow with the occasional cow or group of students walking along, but of course there is little chance for repair from the government, being so far out in the middle of nowhere. Anyways, we arrived in the first village and Vijay took me into town to meet several community members and see the projects they have done. With two other young men, Vijay took me around, out to their water storage area (reservoirs they have built), into homes to see their smokeless chulas (stoves), into gardens, and into a cattle room. We sat on a porch, drinking tea and talking with the secretary of the water project (he couldn’t have been older than 22years old) and the expert farmer who works with cashew tree grafting. At one point, someone walked up and asked, “Is there a meeting today? Did I miss something?” The community (all 24 households) gets together once a month to talk about what’s going on in the village and what they want to work towards. Having a foreigner there made people think there was a meeting, that maybe they had miscalculated what day it was. I was so impressed with what I saw, how the men and women were working together to make it a more beautiful and comfortable place. Next we stopped by the school on our way to the next village. There are a total of 11 students in the whole 1^st to 4^th grade school, and they are so darn cute!!! There are two teachers, one of whom speaks English, so we were able to chat a bit. The kids were quite skeptical of me, but as we were leaving I was able to get photos with them, and they sang me a song, in English, showing their gratitude for having me visit. I don’t have a video now but next time I visit I will make sure to record it. So darn CUTE!!!

Our next stop was another set of two small villages down in the valley. We could see it from where we were, but without direct roads, it took us about 30 minutes to get there. Upon (surprise) arrival, the elected town official met us to show me around. She was lovely! (and a woman! The police chief of this area is also a woman!) She walked us through town, pointing out that each family is preparing their front yard area for rice harvest. Each year after monsoon, each family packs their yard with dirt, covers it with cow manure, and then places the rice stalks to dry in the sun. Without the use of any machines, this process is quite time and labor intensive. I was happy to see everyone, men and women, working together to get it all done. As we walked, more community officials joined us to help explain projects. I could see their sense of pride in what they were doing in the village. We stopped at their temple, a Buddhist temple where they hold their monthly meetings. Just behind it is their large farming area, which I was informed is important for the town, yet at night wild boars come in and destroy crops, so they are struggling to gain too much profit from their crops. As we started to walk back, one of the men with us presented each of us (Vijay, Nicola, and myself) with flowers from their horticulture project. They then proceeded to pick vegetables from their crop as a gift for me. I didn’t have a bag for it all, so I tied my capulana into a makeshift purse, surprising everyone with my resourcefulness. Yay me!

So, at this point we had to leave and head to our next meeting. In a larger town, we met with a young Indian woman who has started an NGO working towards waste management. She has a plan to work with the small villages, collecting dry and wet waste, processing it (minimally) and then selling it for a small profit. As waste management is part of my idea to becoming eco-friendly communities, we were able to talk details in how we may be able to partner- I bring the education and motivation to the communities while she takes away the trash. It was wonderful to meet a girl, whose background is chemical engineering, who gave up her professional career to start this project in the middle of nowhere. She sees the importance of stopping the waste problem before it’s a bigger issue, starting rural and building knowledge from the ground up.

After meeting with her, it was time to head back to the city. We ate lunch (the most amazing Veg dish I think I’ve ever had- I ate so much I was getting comments from the wait staff) and then made the 4+ hour journey back. The drive is just stunning, so green and fresh with the occasional monkey sightings. As we got closer to the city, the air got a bit heavier, things weren’t quite as lush, and more and more skyscrapers filled the horizon. As we finally entered Mumbai, we drove past the part of town where waste is dumped. The smell lingers for miles on either side, a smell of sour food, human waste, and devastation. I was reminded of why waste management is so important and why it is an enormous problem facing this country. (entire blog entry to follow on this topic)

I finally made it home around 830pm, still flying high from my experience. I can’t wait to get back out to the fresh air and fresh minds, to learn about these unique and beautiful communities, to talk about ways to improve the lives of those I’ve met and those I hope to meet, and to give everything I have to empowering and enriching the lives of the generous and inspiring people of rural India.