Baby on Board

So, this happened a few weeks ago but I’ve been busy.  And I need to share…

I was in a rickshaw on my way to work when we pulled to a stop at an intersection.  A few feet to my left, sitting on the curb were a few women, a few babies, and several cows.  People (and cows) are always at this corner, so I typically smile and head-bobble.  This morning, however, after my smile, I received a visitor at the rickshaw.  A woman walked up, showed me her two month old baby, and handed her to me.  Let me at this moment remind you I am in a temporarily stopped vehicle.  So, I take the baby, smile, kiss her forehead, and try to give her back, but her mom walks away.  That’s when my oblivious-to-the-situation driver (or driver-who-was-trying-to-alarm-the-white-girl) drives off.  We take a left at the intersection as I’m screaming “BUS BUS BUS BUS BUS BUS!!!” (STOP!) Thankfully we hadn’t gone more and a few yards before we stopped, he laughed, I got out, identified the baby’s mother, and gave her back.  This whole ordeal didn’t last for more than 30 seconds, maybe less, but I really thought for a moment there I was going to unwillingly adopt an infant.  Thankfully that was not the final outcome J

A few clarifications

In a few recent blogs, I have referred to an NGO which I am volunteering for. The NGO is Swades Foundation  http://www.swadesfoundation.org/ 
The women in the community whom I called "health care team" (women dressed in pink saris) are in fact SwaRakshaMitra (community health workers).
And the "influential women" in the photo were women from various Self Help Groups around the area.

Let's talk about poop...

So many people in Mumbai are living without basic conditions, like a bathroom.  So every morning, people take to the streets/ train tracks/ ocean front/ allies for their morning deuce (I’m sure I’ve talked about this before- it’s quite alarming to all the senses).  Men and children are welcome to complete this act at any time of the day.  I have driven through town and seen lines of men and kids not 10 feet from the cars driving by, doing their business.  Every morning on my run down at the “ocean” (really I don’t know what to call it because it’s not the image you’re thinking of when I say ocean) I see upwards of 30 men squatting out there (I’ve thought of taking a picture to share but that feels more than weird). Women however are restricted to the hours of the night where they will not be seen by the men.  There is no such thing as privacy here.  Everyone knows your business, and your “business”.  (“Are you ok lately, Jain? I’ve noticed you’re a little loose in the morning…”).  I’m not sure how it works for other large cities in the world without decent infrastructure.  Maybe there are public toilets that are maintained by the government, I don’t know.  In rural areas, you dig a hole and bury your “business”.  In a city with +20 million people, the space does not exist.  So, you take all the thousands of pounds of waste from us humans, plus from the thousands of stray dogs, and from the cows, and scatter them throughout the city.  You cannot walk outside without being bombarded by the smell, (it doesn’t help that Mumbai is an extremely humid city).  There are certain areas of town worse than others (by the slums, typically, which seem to be everywhere), but without fail, you will notice it.

But I’ll be honest. Even with all the mess and smell, this city has its charm.  Yes, while you’re here, I’m sure you’ll see more than you imagined and your ideas of “privacy” and “socially acceptable” will forever be changed.  But you will leave with a huge appreciation of where you come from; the privileges you have and may take for granted, the idea of “alone time”, and the smell of fresh air. Mumbai will change you, whether you want it to or not.

Trash

India, like most of the world, has a problem with waste disposal. 

Many cities and countries throughout the world have been able to cover their trash, keep it out of sight, keep it from bombarding our senses.  India, or more specifically Mumbai, has not had this success.  You cannot walk down any street, ride in any vehicle, or visit any facility without this bombardment. 

So a little geography; Mumbai city is only 26 square miles (169 square miles including the suburban areas).  It is a harbor city, basically unable to expand horizontally so it expands upward, on top of itself.  There are more than 20.5 million people living here, the majority packed onto those tiny 26 square miles (close to 14 million people).  The average humane generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day.  Multiply that by the 20 million inhabitants of Mumbai, and you get 39,000 tonnes of waste per day.  However, a recent article puts Mumbai as generating 15,050 tonnes of solid waste per day, so let’s just stick with that number- 15,050 tonnes of waste per day.  And where does it go!?

As I’ve written before, human waste is not pumped underground like we would expect/like.  People without toilets use the train tracks/ ocean/ streets for their daily droppings. 

Mahim creek runs through the city and empties into Mahim bay.  You cannot get close to this creek (15 feet deep and a dozen yards wide) without the horrible smell coming upon you, forcing a gag reflex.  Yet this is where many of the slum communities have been established, on the banks of this creek.

There are several landfills in the Mumbai area, but the oldest and largest is Deonar, located just barely outside of the city.  The smell reaches miles in every direction and it is so impressive it can knock you down.  This is where the majority of the waste from Mumbai city ends up- thousands of tonnes per day.  This is also where many people, men, women and children, are living and working, digging through the trash to try and make money. 

The name given to these people is a “ragpicker”.  They literally live amongst our waste, sifting through it in search of something they can sell.  Many levels of ragpickers exist in Mumbai, from people sifting through street garbage to garbage collection pickers to landfill pickers, but to me, those living in the landfill are the most devastating.  Small children are born and raised in this environment.  They don’t attend school but instead spend their days (and nights) digging through hazardous waste and sharp objects that can be extremely harmful to their health (not to mention mentally unsettling) in an attempt to feed themselves and their families.  I can only imagine people living under these conditions understand the health risks they subject themselves to every day.  But maybe not to the extent the more educated population does- the implications on future health problems, the high risk of cholera or dysentery, respiratory problems, risk of infection… The list goes on and on.

It’s just alarming the severity of this problem.  It makes me sick to think the conditions in which many people in this city live.  It wrenches my heart knowing that life as a ragpicker is more profitable than many other jobs.  Or the only job opportunity someone may have.  I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m thankfully to be working towards proper waste disposal in rural India, hopefully building awareness about the harm of these landfills.  Hopefully, in the long run, reducing the mass quantities of waste, lowering the number of ragpickers.  It’s possible (Oslo, Norway produced 150 tonnes of waste PER YEAR!) but it’s got to start somewhere…

Outside my building- every day

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.

View from the drive

School

Preparing for rice harvesting

Waste management

Water project

After showing me around their homes

I got them to say "CHEEEEEEEEESE"

Preparing for harvest

Community leaders

Always prepared And thanks for the snacks!

Waste management vehicle 

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

Group shot

Lunch

Me and the health care team(*SwaRakshaMitras- community health workers)

So many kids! This is only the ones brave enough to pose for a photo

Influential women from multiple communities (*Women from various Self Help Groups)

Learning about vermi composting- I love how colorful they dress!

More Vermi

A smokeless stove- SO important for health reasons!

Beautiful Lisbon

My time here has been spent wandering around town and getting lost. Saturday I walked a fair amount- metro to dinner to apartment to bar to another bar to home.  We got somewhat lost on our way to the bar, winding our way through the alleys, and it was quite enjoyable. The streets are narrow with cobblestone and the buildings are covered in beautiful tile work.  The colors are yellow and blue and each window has a little balcony, typically with flowers on them.   Yesterday my new friend and I walked for hours around town, came across outdoor markets and giant squares, did some people watching, and ate and drank delicious food.  Today I´ve been on my own, getting lots through the winding streets. I had no idea how hilly the town was! My legs are going to be sore tomorrow... Lisbon is just so beautiful and calm and laid back. The people are friendly and helpful. The buildings are so colorful and well maintained. Everything is so clean and everyone is so put together.  I know that´s normal, but for some reason it´s taking a little time for me to get used to. Portugal seems to be the forgotten sister of Europe, but what a wonderful place!

A little Mozambique!

While walking through a mini flea market today, out of the corner of my eye I saw material I recognized.  When I looked I realized it was capulana fabric, and I have a dress that matches it! I turned around and went to the stall and recognized a few other patterns. I tracked down the owner and she told me a lot of what she had came from Moz!  Made me miss my old home a bit for sure.

Goodbye Morocco- Hello Lisbon!

My time in Morocco was not touristy- I was there to spend time with my family and it was amazing. Although I did not travel around the country or really even make it out of Rabat, it was a relazing and very enjoyable few weeks.
 My trip from Morocco to Portugal was pretty painless- train ride, plane ride, metro ride. Highlight- I sat next to a Brazilian lady on the plane so I was bale to practice my Portuguese a bit )and try to block out the French) before I landed.  Upon arrival in Lisbon and went straight to a Couch Surfing dinner, a monthly thing they do here. Perfect idea!  It only took me just over an hour on the metro, after getting off at the wrong spot, dragging my bags up and down stairs, finally finding where I was going and toting my bag down the cobblestone streets.  I felt a bit awkward about showiong up to dinner with a backpack and a suitcase but if anybody understands it´s other travelers.  Dinner was fun- I was sitting with an English girl, 2 Portuguese, a Lebanese, a Uzbek, and another American.  There were at least another two dozen people there from all over but our table was pretty small.  After dinner, my new British friend opened her home to me, so I dragged my bag down the cobblestone streets to her place and then she and I plus the other American and a Portuguese guy all went out for drinks.  The first bar we had cheap beer and talked about 80s music and the second bar was full of people playing the guitar (I do believe I was the only person in the bar that did not a one point during the evening play an instrument), singalongs, and flaming sausages (they bring you chorizo and a dish full of something on fire and you cook it at the table.)  By 330am we called it a night and finally went to bed.  I was surprised at how friendly everyone was, how laid back it felt, and what an amazing time I had.  I´ve spent the last few weeks with some great people, but this was the first time in a while I was surrounded by people like me- mid/late 20´s, adventurous and experienced travelers, comfortable meeting new people.  I look forward to what this town in store for me over the next 2 days.

Beer!!

At a going away party/happy hour on Friday, I met a couple that works for Peace Corps here in Morocco.  They are both RPCVs themselves and just wonderfully fun people.  On Sunday, the families got together for the afternoon- kids outside playing, moms drinking wine, and dads brewing beer. I mostly stuck with the guys (and the beer).  Steve has been home brewing since I've known him, but this my first time going from start to finish with him in the first phase of brewing.  We made a brown nut ale, which I'm pretty excited about.  Plus I was able to spend a lot of time talking about Peace Corps with our new friend.  I've really missed my Peace Corps family!!! And even though this couple was in PC over 10 years ago, I still feel a connection to them.  That's just how it is with PC- different generations, different countries, it doesn't matter, you're family.  I'm looking forward to meeting more people in the PC community here in Morocco.

He deserved it

So I've finally started running again, now that I have running shoes and plenty of down time.  I'm used to getting honked at or whistled at or whatever other clever way men try to get my attention.  Today turned out to be a bit more exciting.  I got two waves, a thumbs up, a honk, a drive by (drove by once, pulled a U turn, and came back around), a round-of-applause, and caused a man to crash his motorcycle.  Ooooooops!! He decided to watch me rather than the road and ended up running into the curb.  But don't worry, the bike was fine.  Maybe I should start wearing my hair up in a hat...

Wii!!

Everyone is at work or at school while I’m here at the house, but today I discovered the Wii.  After an hour of boxing and another hour of random other Wii Sports activities, I found Super Mario World.  Best part of my day!  Worst part of my day- developing a giant blister on my thumb from playing too long. Totally worth it.

Girls day

Tara, Dee, Lou and I all treated ourselves to a girly day today.  Started with mani-pedis (oh how the nail techs hated me! I haven't had a legit pedicure since before Peace Corps... ooops...), some delicious coffee and french pastries (pain au chocolate, thank you!), then "shopping" from a fellow ex-pat who is leaving the country.  I literally doubled my wardrobe in the span of an hour! (not that I had much to start with).  Once home I officially unpacked all my things and moved in.  Topped off the night with delicious food and great South African wine.  It was a good day.

Week One

The house is pretty much empty during the day- the girls at school and the parents at work.  That's left me with lots of time to read, nap, internet, nap some more, and try to brush up on my French.  The woman who works in the house doesn't speak much English, so I've been trying to practice my French with her, but all that ever comes out is Portuguese! I keep telling her, "I really did speak French! I promise it will come back!" I think I'm saying that more for my benefit than hers at this point.  Regardless, I understand everything she says just can't find the words to respond. Instead I stand there and stammer or mumble or open my eyes real big and open my mouth, like that will make the words come.  Yeah, I'm getting a bit frustrated.  And my brain hurts.  But it will come...

Morocco

I made it to Morocco! But let me rewind...

My last two weeks in India were wonderful! I went back to Bombay after Udaipur and once again got caught up in the restlessness and vivacity that is the city- the fast pace, brilliant colors, overwhelming scents, endless restaurants, perpetual parties, and constant entertainment.  I spent some more time at the brewery, watching everything fall into place for their grand opening.  The cooks made it their personal mission to make sure I ate at much food as I possibly could before I burst, each day. Lucky me I was around while they were trying out all the potential menu items!! On my last night, The Barking Deer had their first official tasting, so we had a table of 10 people attempting to eat everything on the menu.  I swear, they practically had to roll me out of that place. It was amazing.

It was hard to say goodbye to India. I really fell in love with the country.  I have no doubt that I’ll be back before too long.  Plus when I come back, The Barking Deer will be up and running in full swing, and will finally have delicious craft beer!!

I left India in true Indian fashion- a few hiccups and some frustration but help from strangers and smiles.  My rickshaw driver finally admitted after ten minutes that he didn’t know where the airport was, so I got out and finally tracked down a cab that would take me during rush hour on a Friday.  Once at the airport I was forbidden to enter the airport due to a lack of printed ticket, so I was shuffled to another terminal, then another.  Finally I found a man who decided I was not trying to trick anyone and he printed out my boarding pass inside, returning it to me to allow me entrance.  At security, they found something in my bag suspect, and took about 25 minutes going through my things, in the end finding nothing.  By the time I made it to the gate, I was the last one to board the bus, but hey, I made it!  I didn’t expect anything less from India ;)

My arrival in Morocco was everything I could have hoped for!  Tara and Steve both met me just outside baggage claim with huge hugs.  Even though I was an hour and a half late, they waited patiently and never waned in their enthusiasm to see me.  The ride from Casablanca (where I landed) to Rabat (where they live) was full of catching up and soaking up my first views of Morocco.  It was so much greener than I was expecting!  I was expecting desert and sand, not green rolling hills.  We swung by the market to get food (because they know how much I like to eat) then headed home.  Upon arrival in the house I was BOMBARDED by the girls, and it was fantastic!!  Hugs and giggling and more hugs and lots of love.  I’m so excited to catch up on everyone’s lives and share what I’ve been up to in the six months we’ve been apart. 

More PHOTOS

More photos- again you might have to go back through and read blogs for context.

Superbowl Monday- 4am

first view of the Taj

Agra Fort

Jaislamer

Cemetery, Jaislamer 

Marketing

View from hotel rooftop, Jaislamer fort

MJ!

I tried to write "HELLO FROM INDIA" but since it was on a slope... didn't work out too well

Sand dune angel

sunset on the dunes

sunrise

breakfast of champions

Me and Michael Jackson

Mango, our fabulous guide

this is shortly after I fell over trying to climb up... it's on video somewhere

lunch break

Udaipur

morning view from Udaipur

Lunch view

Monsoon palace

Dancing

New friends- Small world!