Monday and Tuesday were crammed full of working on the award application I was helping GV prepare. It was due Tuesday and we worked for hours each day solving the puzzle of what GV does and what the awarding organization was looking for. I love the exercise because it gave me so much insight into the process of writing applications and also working with an international organization. Learning a different form of English and a mix of customs and sayings through this process was really wonderful. My bosses here at GV gave me so much direction in both areas and were so patient in teaching me. I felt very much in my element working with them on this project so now we just have to wait to see how it went! Either way I really appreciated the chance to craft a paper like that, learn so much about water and sanitation, and most of all to learn how the business world works in India.
On Wednesday morning, after hours and hours of office work on the award, I went on a field trip with Marijn and Roelof and their newly-trained water quality testers. It was another incredible adventure. There were 21 of us in total and the only bus available for the trip held 14 people! I looked at the packed bus (we even had a bench from the dining hall jammed between the seats in the aisle to provide extra seating room) and offered to get off since I was only along for the ride and they were working, but no one would hear of it!
Marijn, me and the campus nurse, Sunjita, shared a seat for two by balancing our bottoms on all edges of the seat. Roelof and one of the other teachers, Bubana, shared the front passenger seat. I have no idea how everyone else managed to pack in the back, but eventually we were all in and ready for the hour and a half ride to the village. Of course the ride was bumpy and winding and I was seated right behind the driver. Sometimes Marijn literally had to grab me to make sure I didn't go flying forward and the driver kept swatting at me not to hold on to his seat! I think any ride at an amusement park will forever be dull after bus rides here in India!
Everyone was laughing the whole ride and pointing out different water systems and wells along the way. It was a beautiful ride into the mountainous regions with lush hillsides and quirky rock croppings dotting them. Once at the village we broke into three groups to draw a map of the village and its current water sources. Then we tested the water for carbonate hardness, iron, nitrate, chloride, and other chemicals. Most of our readings showed the water from the current sources was very polluted, most likely because the village sloped downward and one of the main wells was positioned downwind surrounded by cows and goats. Through all of my research for the award application and my field visits, that is the number one thing I have seen and learned about the water world - water and sanitation go hand in hand and until you solve the sanitation problems in a village the water will never be clean.
It was a great chance to work with the newly-trained water testers who would take their knowledge back to the villages where they worked and begin to test the water more frequently to assure its safety. Of course during our testings, some of the senior village members brought us chai and snacks and tons of kids came up to giggle at us. The village school was located right next door to the main water tower and at one point I wandered over to have a look. The kids were all standing outside watching us and when I showed up it was another smile contest where they all stood their smiling at me and I smiled back but we ultimately had no way of communicating anything past basic hellos! The teacher came up to me and tried to tell me something in Oriya but I couldn't really understand. He lead me in to the school building and all the students followed. He pulled up a chair for me at the front of the classroom and all of the kids sat in rows on the floor waiting for me to teach them something! It was hilariously silent as I tried to conjure up anything to say to a whole room of kids who had no clue what any words that came out of my mouth could possibly mean! Eventually I introduced myself and pointed out the US on the map in the classroom and Roelof came in and did the same. Everyone seemed happy with the impromptu lesson and of course the teacher took a picture of us with his cell phone camera!
We finished up our testing and scoped out a location up the hill from the village for a new well. Then we piled back into the bus for the return journey. Much of the same on the way back- jostling and balancing. Only this time we stopped at a vegetable market for some reason so in addition to balancing myself on the seat, I had a bundle of radishes teetering on my lap! At one point a man in back began to sing a song and everyone on board joined in laughing and singing.
Eventually all 21 of us and all the vegetables arrived safely back at the dining hall. After lunch everyone showed off what they had learned through the training in a game-show like quiz. Another fun-filled, crazy day in India!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Hydrogeology and Golpapur
There are so many great people coming through the campus all the time- Indians and foreigners from all over the world working on various projects in the villages. Getting to the dining hall everyday is so exciting because there is always a new face to meet and with each introduction I seem to learn of an amazing new project in the villages, an awesome graduate program or an organization doing really cool things with a new idea to help the world. It's awesome too, because from South Korea to the Ivory Coast I have not only been meeting cool people doing cool things but also getting to learn a little bit about their home and customs!
Two such new friends, Marijn and Roelof, are hydrogeologists staying here for about two weeks to train people in the villages to test water quality. From the Netherlands, Marijn and Roelof have shared a culinary tip from their hometown showing me how to turn every Indian dish into something sweet by adding jam or sugar! Besides amusing the dining hall with our strange creations, they invited Misha and I to go on an explorer mission with them last Sunday!!
They explained to us the adventure they were planning: GoogleMaps shows the earth in this part of Orissa as being darker in a western part and lighter in an eastern part, pretty much separated by a distinct line, they imagined was a different kind of rock or deposit from a river or the ocean. Armed with a large print out of the area, a jeep and driver from GV, and a GPS system we were going to figure out why. They tried to play it off as though it sounded boring, but Misha and I thought they were essentially proposing an exploration mission that would rival that of Christopher Columbus!
I could see so much potential for adventure and didn't dare pass that up! First there is the idea of a map in India: it's pretty nonexistent! There are some maps around, but no one ever seems to use them. If a map is even at all accurate, often people can't really orient themselves on it so explaining directions or trying to use one to get somewhere specific using our googlemap would surely produce some crazy adventure! Secondly the mission would take us through tons of little villages to see parts of the land I would otherwise never see. Also there was the whole notion of learning about rocks and water and how water projects are made...all things I have been wanting to see and understand first hand. And as if all of that doesn't sound fun enough, they promised us lunch on the beach at the end of the day!
So with excitement in the air and our explorer's gear in hand, we climbed into the Qualis around ten in the morning ready for a day of real, live exploring! The four of us and our driver, Babolo took up all of the seats in the jeep so it was a little crammed especially as we wound around the dogs and people in the streets. Mixed with lots of trying to explain to our driver where we wanted to go, Marijn explained to me so much about water projects and the science and engineering about how water actually arrives to most of the taps here. I was ecstatic all day long! I have been working around water- fundraising with BPR and now here, for quite some time, but something about seeing the projects and hearing about the processes from my new Dutch friends really illuminated the world of water to me.
One especially fascinating thing I learned during all of this was that for most water projects implemented in this area organizations hire a "water definer." Apparently these people bring eggs and sticks and other special objects to locations to find out where in the area there will be water underground. According to my new hydrogeologist friends, a water definer will hold two items in their hands and walk around the proposed site. The point at which the items cross is where there is apparently water. Well, the only exact science to this method is that there is some water anywhere really, but to imagine that organizations really build wells and projects in places where definers have pointed them using this method...wow!? Later in the week I attended a water quality testing workshop that the Dutch people held and I watched brand new trainees choose probable well sites with more common sense than this method seems to hold.
Throughout the morning, we stopped at a few sites where holes had been dug in the ground for random purposes and surveyed the soil. Marijn and Rudolph showed us how and why certain parts of the earth were red and others gray. We took pictures of the rocks and mine and Misha's specific job was to make GPS readings at each site so we could make a more accurate map to compare with the google image. Everywhere we went a crowd of confused Indians huddled around us really baffled as to why four white people were maneuvering around piles of poop to pick up dirt and take pictures of holes!
We stopped at one of the GV villages where our organization has a water tower and in addition to surveying the area, picked up about four new members to our team who were to help us navigate the tricky roads in that part of the region. So, for the next hour or so, nine of us crammed into the jeep and drove looking for differences in water sources and rock and earth colors. Most of the time we were going a different direction than we had planned because of road blocks and communication barriers but the adventure didn't disappoint in showing us great new things like long-tailed, kangaroo-like monkeys and all kinds of mountainous and rocky terrain from rock quarries to brackish water bodies. It was wild and fun and fascinating!
After some photos and marking a few more points we returned to drop off the extra people at their car. The villagers were waiting for us with sodas and tons of kids crowding around the jeep looking at us. Even though our communication with the kids was limited to, "How are you," and "What's your name," they were thrilled to hear us try to speak to them. Most of the 20 minutes we sat with them was just us smiling really big at the kids and them returning the gesture! It was such a fun morning!
The next few hours continued with much of the same, convincing our driver to take us down certain roads to spots we thought would lead us to a point on the map, making some notes and pictures, then continuing on. From the highway our driver turned down a tiny narrow street totally covered in foliage which eventually lead us to a huge lake. It was amazing that he could ever know that that tiny road from the busy highway could lead to the lake! There we took a water quality reading and got back on the road.
Our last stop was Golpapur. In the spring Golpapur is known for giant sea turtles mating and laying eggs on on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Now in December it was still quite crowded even though most people are wearing winter hats and other bundled-up gear to combat the "winter weather." I try to tell some Indians at my office that it is freezing and snowing at my home these days and they are amazed that anyone could live in such conditions! Here it is seriously hot in the afternoons and we need fans most days, but to them it is definitely winter - phew, if this is winter, I think I definitely need to get out before summer!!
Anyway, in Golpapur we ate at this delicious Indian restaurant. We had my favorite, Paneer Butter Masala and another mushroom dish with hot, puffy naan. Misha also introduced me to sweet/salty lime sodas. These are just club sodas mixed with lime juice, salt, and sugar. At first I was leery of the salt, but the combo was excellent!
After the late lunch we strolled along the beach for a bit. We took photos and walked in the water and spent a decent amount of time hiding from people trying to take our pictures- as can be expected anywhere we go outside of campus really. Many times I felt like I was hiding from the paparazzi as people would very obviously run up around us and hold their cell phone cameras pointing directly at us. No discretion, just clicking away. Sometimes if it is a family or something it is good fun and interesting, but a lot of times it is young men and then the picture taking is just gross and frustrating. Luckily there were four of us to fend them off!
We left the beach and drove the hour-long drive back to campus. It was dark by the time we got back and I was so tired from our day of exploring, but I still had tons of laundry to do. I walked back to my room wishing for some coffee to push through the tireless task of laundry and, as if my day could get any more perfect, I opened the door to my room and my wonderful neighbor Gloria came by with tea and cake! I sat in my room sipping my chai and loved being an explorer.
Two such new friends, Marijn and Roelof, are hydrogeologists staying here for about two weeks to train people in the villages to test water quality. From the Netherlands, Marijn and Roelof have shared a culinary tip from their hometown showing me how to turn every Indian dish into something sweet by adding jam or sugar! Besides amusing the dining hall with our strange creations, they invited Misha and I to go on an explorer mission with them last Sunday!!
They explained to us the adventure they were planning: GoogleMaps shows the earth in this part of Orissa as being darker in a western part and lighter in an eastern part, pretty much separated by a distinct line, they imagined was a different kind of rock or deposit from a river or the ocean. Armed with a large print out of the area, a jeep and driver from GV, and a GPS system we were going to figure out why. They tried to play it off as though it sounded boring, but Misha and I thought they were essentially proposing an exploration mission that would rival that of Christopher Columbus!
I could see so much potential for adventure and didn't dare pass that up! First there is the idea of a map in India: it's pretty nonexistent! There are some maps around, but no one ever seems to use them. If a map is even at all accurate, often people can't really orient themselves on it so explaining directions or trying to use one to get somewhere specific using our googlemap would surely produce some crazy adventure! Secondly the mission would take us through tons of little villages to see parts of the land I would otherwise never see. Also there was the whole notion of learning about rocks and water and how water projects are made...all things I have been wanting to see and understand first hand. And as if all of that doesn't sound fun enough, they promised us lunch on the beach at the end of the day!
So with excitement in the air and our explorer's gear in hand, we climbed into the Qualis around ten in the morning ready for a day of real, live exploring! The four of us and our driver, Babolo took up all of the seats in the jeep so it was a little crammed especially as we wound around the dogs and people in the streets. Mixed with lots of trying to explain to our driver where we wanted to go, Marijn explained to me so much about water projects and the science and engineering about how water actually arrives to most of the taps here. I was ecstatic all day long! I have been working around water- fundraising with BPR and now here, for quite some time, but something about seeing the projects and hearing about the processes from my new Dutch friends really illuminated the world of water to me.
One especially fascinating thing I learned during all of this was that for most water projects implemented in this area organizations hire a "water definer." Apparently these people bring eggs and sticks and other special objects to locations to find out where in the area there will be water underground. According to my new hydrogeologist friends, a water definer will hold two items in their hands and walk around the proposed site. The point at which the items cross is where there is apparently water. Well, the only exact science to this method is that there is some water anywhere really, but to imagine that organizations really build wells and projects in places where definers have pointed them using this method...wow!? Later in the week I attended a water quality testing workshop that the Dutch people held and I watched brand new trainees choose probable well sites with more common sense than this method seems to hold.
Throughout the morning, we stopped at a few sites where holes had been dug in the ground for random purposes and surveyed the soil. Marijn and Rudolph showed us how and why certain parts of the earth were red and others gray. We took pictures of the rocks and mine and Misha's specific job was to make GPS readings at each site so we could make a more accurate map to compare with the google image. Everywhere we went a crowd of confused Indians huddled around us really baffled as to why four white people were maneuvering around piles of poop to pick up dirt and take pictures of holes!
We stopped at one of the GV villages where our organization has a water tower and in addition to surveying the area, picked up about four new members to our team who were to help us navigate the tricky roads in that part of the region. So, for the next hour or so, nine of us crammed into the jeep and drove looking for differences in water sources and rock and earth colors. Most of the time we were going a different direction than we had planned because of road blocks and communication barriers but the adventure didn't disappoint in showing us great new things like long-tailed, kangaroo-like monkeys and all kinds of mountainous and rocky terrain from rock quarries to brackish water bodies. It was wild and fun and fascinating!
After some photos and marking a few more points we returned to drop off the extra people at their car. The villagers were waiting for us with sodas and tons of kids crowding around the jeep looking at us. Even though our communication with the kids was limited to, "How are you," and "What's your name," they were thrilled to hear us try to speak to them. Most of the 20 minutes we sat with them was just us smiling really big at the kids and them returning the gesture! It was such a fun morning!
The next few hours continued with much of the same, convincing our driver to take us down certain roads to spots we thought would lead us to a point on the map, making some notes and pictures, then continuing on. From the highway our driver turned down a tiny narrow street totally covered in foliage which eventually lead us to a huge lake. It was amazing that he could ever know that that tiny road from the busy highway could lead to the lake! There we took a water quality reading and got back on the road.
Our last stop was Golpapur. In the spring Golpapur is known for giant sea turtles mating and laying eggs on on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Now in December it was still quite crowded even though most people are wearing winter hats and other bundled-up gear to combat the "winter weather." I try to tell some Indians at my office that it is freezing and snowing at my home these days and they are amazed that anyone could live in such conditions! Here it is seriously hot in the afternoons and we need fans most days, but to them it is definitely winter - phew, if this is winter, I think I definitely need to get out before summer!!
Anyway, in Golpapur we ate at this delicious Indian restaurant. We had my favorite, Paneer Butter Masala and another mushroom dish with hot, puffy naan. Misha also introduced me to sweet/salty lime sodas. These are just club sodas mixed with lime juice, salt, and sugar. At first I was leery of the salt, but the combo was excellent!
After the late lunch we strolled along the beach for a bit. We took photos and walked in the water and spent a decent amount of time hiding from people trying to take our pictures- as can be expected anywhere we go outside of campus really. Many times I felt like I was hiding from the paparazzi as people would very obviously run up around us and hold their cell phone cameras pointing directly at us. No discretion, just clicking away. Sometimes if it is a family or something it is good fun and interesting, but a lot of times it is young men and then the picture taking is just gross and frustrating. Luckily there were four of us to fend them off!
We left the beach and drove the hour-long drive back to campus. It was dark by the time we got back and I was so tired from our day of exploring, but I still had tons of laundry to do. I walked back to my room wishing for some coffee to push through the tireless task of laundry and, as if my day could get any more perfect, I opened the door to my room and my wonderful neighbor Gloria came by with tea and cake! I sat in my room sipping my chai and loved being an explorer.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Snackathon Saturday
Saturday Misha, Christine, and I went into town. Saturday's are shorter work days where the office closes at four so we can go into town for about four hours instead of the usual evening trip which lasts only an hour. From our village to town, it's about a 30-minute bus trip each way. While the driving itself is the same as all of the other roads and driving in India, the bus is really nice because it is run daily by our organization so usually there are a lot of people aboard that I know instead of random strangers.
We had errands to run in town - buying a few groceries like soap and fruit and things for our rooms, but our main goal on Saturday was to eat! Everyone around says that Berhampur is known for its food and the street vendors are always cooking up the most delicious looking things so we decided we would have a snackathon and eat all of the street vendor foods that looked like they wouldn't make us sick!
It was a great success since we didn't get sick at all! We sampled some fresh juices first and fresh juice here in India is so different from the juices I have had in America. Fresh apple juice in Manali was so fresh it had apple pulp in it! Who knew apples could even have pulp? I don't think I can ever go back to drinking Treetop after tasting that delicacy! Well these fresh juices were equally as delicious. Misha tried orange and I had pomegranate. We were leery of the water situation, since that is always something you have to take into account here. Christine speaks Hindi and translated for us that the water comes straight from the well for this stand so Misha and I decided to go for it. We're still not sure if that means it is safe at all and after spending some time this week studying water quality in the area I'm really not sure it is as clean as it sounded but, when in Berhampur... The juice was pulpy and fresh and wonderful!
Next stop? Somosas! We got our Somosas from the same stand where we have been getting our Jalabeis (the deep fried sugar dough pretzels we can't leave town without). The boy that works at the stand is only about 13 or so and each time we come and try to speak to him in Oriya or Hindi he just smiles and gives us this look that seems to be perfectly clear in all languages and means, "Oh great here are these crazy girls again." We had a piping hot Somosa and for good measure, a Jalebeis. Of course, yum!
Onward to the bakery! Recently there has been construction going on at the bakery and now that it is fully open there is a cakes and sweets counter and a savory side. We tasted paneer rolls, veg puffs, and an egg wrapped in puff pastry. Again, we discovered that India really doesn't go wrong with any kind of food!
Then on our way back to the bus stop we got a paneer pizza straight out of the oven. We had it wrapped and split it on the bus on the way home. Even pizza India does well! The sauce is a little spicier and this pizza was loaded with veggies and cheese and cooked on more of a pita bread than crust - different than home but so so good!
In other town visits these past two weeks we've also sampled the most amazing lassis: buttermilk, sugar, yogurt drinks with coconut and cashew crumbles on top- and dare I say, the crumbles on top are a better sweet topping than whipped cream! From the sweets shop we got a kind of sweet called barfie that is kind of like a coconut cookie wrapped around almond paste. Again...certainly not disappointing!! Lastly and perhaps most tasty of all street treats we've tried so far was a cabbage, carrot, and ginger pakora in green chili sauce. One word: yum.
In conclusion, everything in India is delicious. And those were only the "safest" looking ones! Pretty much all street treats are served on big leaves on top of newspaper so even the packaging is unique and cool! We have plans to go into town later this week with one of the staff at the office who promises to take us to all of the best food stalls in Berhampur! I'm particularly looking forward to a special kind of yogurt served in a clay pot and a special dish called chatt which is sort of a potato mash up with chutneys! Could it get any better than this snackathon?! We will dare to find out!!
We had errands to run in town - buying a few groceries like soap and fruit and things for our rooms, but our main goal on Saturday was to eat! Everyone around says that Berhampur is known for its food and the street vendors are always cooking up the most delicious looking things so we decided we would have a snackathon and eat all of the street vendor foods that looked like they wouldn't make us sick!
It was a great success since we didn't get sick at all! We sampled some fresh juices first and fresh juice here in India is so different from the juices I have had in America. Fresh apple juice in Manali was so fresh it had apple pulp in it! Who knew apples could even have pulp? I don't think I can ever go back to drinking Treetop after tasting that delicacy! Well these fresh juices were equally as delicious. Misha tried orange and I had pomegranate. We were leery of the water situation, since that is always something you have to take into account here. Christine speaks Hindi and translated for us that the water comes straight from the well for this stand so Misha and I decided to go for it. We're still not sure if that means it is safe at all and after spending some time this week studying water quality in the area I'm really not sure it is as clean as it sounded but, when in Berhampur... The juice was pulpy and fresh and wonderful!
Next stop? Somosas! We got our Somosas from the same stand where we have been getting our Jalabeis (the deep fried sugar dough pretzels we can't leave town without). The boy that works at the stand is only about 13 or so and each time we come and try to speak to him in Oriya or Hindi he just smiles and gives us this look that seems to be perfectly clear in all languages and means, "Oh great here are these crazy girls again." We had a piping hot Somosa and for good measure, a Jalebeis. Of course, yum!
Onward to the bakery! Recently there has been construction going on at the bakery and now that it is fully open there is a cakes and sweets counter and a savory side. We tasted paneer rolls, veg puffs, and an egg wrapped in puff pastry. Again, we discovered that India really doesn't go wrong with any kind of food!
Then on our way back to the bus stop we got a paneer pizza straight out of the oven. We had it wrapped and split it on the bus on the way home. Even pizza India does well! The sauce is a little spicier and this pizza was loaded with veggies and cheese and cooked on more of a pita bread than crust - different than home but so so good!
In other town visits these past two weeks we've also sampled the most amazing lassis: buttermilk, sugar, yogurt drinks with coconut and cashew crumbles on top- and dare I say, the crumbles on top are a better sweet topping than whipped cream! From the sweets shop we got a kind of sweet called barfie that is kind of like a coconut cookie wrapped around almond paste. Again...certainly not disappointing!! Lastly and perhaps most tasty of all street treats we've tried so far was a cabbage, carrot, and ginger pakora in green chili sauce. One word: yum.
In conclusion, everything in India is delicious. And those were only the "safest" looking ones! Pretty much all street treats are served on big leaves on top of newspaper so even the packaging is unique and cool! We have plans to go into town later this week with one of the staff at the office who promises to take us to all of the best food stalls in Berhampur! I'm particularly looking forward to a special kind of yogurt served in a clay pot and a special dish called chatt which is sort of a potato mash up with chutneys! Could it get any better than this snackathon?! We will dare to find out!!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Website of Gram Vikas
Hello!
Sorry I don't have more pictures to update today, but I found this video of the organization where I'm staying and volunteering now and I wanted to share. Click the link below to see what I'm up to and I will post pictures of the campus on my other site soon!
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHj5p9tMYVA
My other site with photos to come: www.mytb.org/Meggotothemoon
Keep checking back with the photo site too because I will periodically update photos there!
Sorry I don't have more pictures to update today, but I found this video of the organization where I'm staying and volunteering now and I wanted to share. Click the link below to see what I'm up to and I will post pictures of the campus on my other site soon!
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHj5p9tMYVA
My other site with photos to come: www.mytb.org/Meggotothemoon
Keep checking back with the photo site too because I will periodically update photos there!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Business as Usual
I've been working in the office for about a week now and it has been more of a fun and wild learning experience than I would have ever imagined! Aside from Joyo bringing me and the other two Canadian girls in my office chai two times a day, there are also some other very Indian - and very interesting - things happening throughout the day.
The sun and the craziness begin pretty early around here. It is usually dark around 5:30 at night, so on the flip side the sun is up before 6 in the morning. At that point, water buffalo are cruising along outside my window and my neighbors are up banging pots and pans, so the day has begun! I get my water for a bucket bath from a tap in the middle of the dorms along with everyone else in this part of campus. Then I have to bring the bucket up the stairs to my room and use a measuring cup to wash myself - needless to say, I don't really shower very often ha ha!
We start the day at about nine after having breakfast in the mess hall next to the office. Breakfast is the meal of the day where we have the most variety, ranging from a sort of rice-compressed ball called idlly with chutney to spicy chowmein with ketchup? Yes! Ketchup right on top of chowmein, for breakfast! Like I said, very Indian and very interesting happenings! Though definitely different from breakfast at home, it is delicious and of course, accompanied by sweet, hot chai so I am happy!
Once at the office I work on my project- uploading water project information to the peer water exchange site. The organization I'm working with here has installed toilets and brought piped water to almost 50,000 families in the area! It's nice to be able to see their records because as I sift through a lot of the paperwork I really get to see how their projects were accomplished and an awesome feel for the world of rural development with a really successful and mission-driven organization. I had the opportunity to help with an award application for the organization also - which had to be written in Indian English, naturally, so some of my spellings and sayings had to be updated to fit a different style then I'm used to!
Throughout the morning there are often power outages and other incidences that remind me that I am indeed in a village in the middle of India! One strange office practice I'm trying to get the hang of is shoe removal. The main office is a circular building with a grassy area in the middle and the offices around the outside. It seems that with each office the rules are different about whether or not it is ok to wear shoes inside. Some offices allow shoes and some simply do not, and the only way to really distinguish between them is the pile of shoes outside the door of an office. I have no idea why this is really - at the printing room door, there is a pile of shoes, but in the records room it's no problem to wear shoes. Beats me! Anyway, that has really taken some getting used to.
Then there is the printing itself. I've been really amazed that this organization is so technologically advanced. They have dozens of computers, wifi, laser printers, even Apple computers for some of the big wigs. But when it comes to printing, it is quite an interesting process. First none of the computers in the office have internet connections, even though there is wifi available in the whole building. That is so strange to me! Everyone who has a laptop and the assistant to the Executive can use the wifi on their own computers, but for some reason all of the desktops cannot access the internet. Anyway, to print I have to put my information on my jump drive, take it to the printing room (with my shoes removed of course), and give my drive to a lady at the desk. She then has to take it to the back room, scan the jump drive for viruses, take it to her computer and copy the document I need to the print folder. Then we have to stand by the printer and load each piece of paper into the printer for it to print the correct number of pages. It is quite the process!
My new friend Misha and I have also been trying to master the ways of the post office here. We have been asking around for the best way to send something back to the states or Canada and we were once told, "If you send it by India Post, I can guarantee you that it will not arrive to your destination!" Well that is faith in the social systems! Oh the things I've learned to appreciate!
We have lunch at one in the afternoon, usually rice and vegetables of some sort, and then it is back to the office until 5:45 when the office closes - and oh yea, the chai wallah brings chai again at 4pm so there is that to look forward to as well! I
n the evenings we sometimes watch movies or play cards, but there is a lot of reading and down time which is nice too. There is a bus from the village we are in going to the nearest big town that leaves at 6:15 each evening and comes back at about 9. We have taken that a few times also, running errands or picking up any thing we need in town. We make sure to get a special treat called jalebis each time we get to Berhampur. These are essentially deep-fried sugar candies and while my teeth actually rot while I eat one of the little twisted sweets, it's absolutely delicious and only costs two cents! If we don't go into town dinner is at 8:30 at night which is just so late, but it does provide some evening entertainment. There are about 10 to 15 people that eat at the mess hall and everyone else that works here eats with their families or lives in a near by village.
The head chef here, Na Na, is such a nice man and is always taking really good care of me and the other interns here, laughing at all my horrible attempts to speak Oriya! Actually everyone here has been so outstanding - Jacob is the head of "hospitality" making sure everything is always taken care of with our room, his wife Gloria even sewed me a curtain (they are also my next-door neighbors and were very concerned about the "wall-breaking exercises" I was doing last night - jumping jacks ha ha) and Donald is the assistant to the Director and he has been so wonderful in helping me understand all of the work I have to do here. Basically everyone I've met here is so welcoming and helpful and everyone is doing such great work. I love being a part of it all!
The work week here is Monday through Saturday, so the weekend is really only Sunday. This past Sunday we walked around to some of the neighboring villages in our area and I tackled some laundry, but in one of the next two weekends I think I will try to get to a wildlife park nearby. That's pretty much the typical week here it seems. I will keep posting pictures of my adventures on the other website: www.mytb.org/Meggotothemoon so check that out soon to see what my "home" here looks like and some other photos of the rest of the trip!
The sun and the craziness begin pretty early around here. It is usually dark around 5:30 at night, so on the flip side the sun is up before 6 in the morning. At that point, water buffalo are cruising along outside my window and my neighbors are up banging pots and pans, so the day has begun! I get my water for a bucket bath from a tap in the middle of the dorms along with everyone else in this part of campus. Then I have to bring the bucket up the stairs to my room and use a measuring cup to wash myself - needless to say, I don't really shower very often ha ha!
We start the day at about nine after having breakfast in the mess hall next to the office. Breakfast is the meal of the day where we have the most variety, ranging from a sort of rice-compressed ball called idlly with chutney to spicy chowmein with ketchup? Yes! Ketchup right on top of chowmein, for breakfast! Like I said, very Indian and very interesting happenings! Though definitely different from breakfast at home, it is delicious and of course, accompanied by sweet, hot chai so I am happy!
Once at the office I work on my project- uploading water project information to the peer water exchange site. The organization I'm working with here has installed toilets and brought piped water to almost 50,000 families in the area! It's nice to be able to see their records because as I sift through a lot of the paperwork I really get to see how their projects were accomplished and an awesome feel for the world of rural development with a really successful and mission-driven organization. I had the opportunity to help with an award application for the organization also - which had to be written in Indian English, naturally, so some of my spellings and sayings had to be updated to fit a different style then I'm used to!
Throughout the morning there are often power outages and other incidences that remind me that I am indeed in a village in the middle of India! One strange office practice I'm trying to get the hang of is shoe removal. The main office is a circular building with a grassy area in the middle and the offices around the outside. It seems that with each office the rules are different about whether or not it is ok to wear shoes inside. Some offices allow shoes and some simply do not, and the only way to really distinguish between them is the pile of shoes outside the door of an office. I have no idea why this is really - at the printing room door, there is a pile of shoes, but in the records room it's no problem to wear shoes. Beats me! Anyway, that has really taken some getting used to.
Then there is the printing itself. I've been really amazed that this organization is so technologically advanced. They have dozens of computers, wifi, laser printers, even Apple computers for some of the big wigs. But when it comes to printing, it is quite an interesting process. First none of the computers in the office have internet connections, even though there is wifi available in the whole building. That is so strange to me! Everyone who has a laptop and the assistant to the Executive can use the wifi on their own computers, but for some reason all of the desktops cannot access the internet. Anyway, to print I have to put my information on my jump drive, take it to the printing room (with my shoes removed of course), and give my drive to a lady at the desk. She then has to take it to the back room, scan the jump drive for viruses, take it to her computer and copy the document I need to the print folder. Then we have to stand by the printer and load each piece of paper into the printer for it to print the correct number of pages. It is quite the process!
My new friend Misha and I have also been trying to master the ways of the post office here. We have been asking around for the best way to send something back to the states or Canada and we were once told, "If you send it by India Post, I can guarantee you that it will not arrive to your destination!" Well that is faith in the social systems! Oh the things I've learned to appreciate!
We have lunch at one in the afternoon, usually rice and vegetables of some sort, and then it is back to the office until 5:45 when the office closes - and oh yea, the chai wallah brings chai again at 4pm so there is that to look forward to as well! I
n the evenings we sometimes watch movies or play cards, but there is a lot of reading and down time which is nice too. There is a bus from the village we are in going to the nearest big town that leaves at 6:15 each evening and comes back at about 9. We have taken that a few times also, running errands or picking up any thing we need in town. We make sure to get a special treat called jalebis each time we get to Berhampur. These are essentially deep-fried sugar candies and while my teeth actually rot while I eat one of the little twisted sweets, it's absolutely delicious and only costs two cents! If we don't go into town dinner is at 8:30 at night which is just so late, but it does provide some evening entertainment. There are about 10 to 15 people that eat at the mess hall and everyone else that works here eats with their families or lives in a near by village.
The head chef here, Na Na, is such a nice man and is always taking really good care of me and the other interns here, laughing at all my horrible attempts to speak Oriya! Actually everyone here has been so outstanding - Jacob is the head of "hospitality" making sure everything is always taken care of with our room, his wife Gloria even sewed me a curtain (they are also my next-door neighbors and were very concerned about the "wall-breaking exercises" I was doing last night - jumping jacks ha ha) and Donald is the assistant to the Director and he has been so wonderful in helping me understand all of the work I have to do here. Basically everyone I've met here is so welcoming and helpful and everyone is doing such great work. I love being a part of it all!
The work week here is Monday through Saturday, so the weekend is really only Sunday. This past Sunday we walked around to some of the neighboring villages in our area and I tackled some laundry, but in one of the next two weekends I think I will try to get to a wildlife park nearby. That's pretty much the typical week here it seems. I will keep posting pictures of my adventures on the other website: www.mytb.org/Meggotothemoon so check that out soon to see what my "home" here looks like and some other photos of the rest of the trip!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Living the Life!
I have had these moments over and over for the past day where I ask myself, “Is this really my life!?” Orissa is pretty much my paradise so far and I’m so happy to be here!
Like I mentioned before, the office is based on a campus outside a city on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and at the foothills of some pretty great mountains, but the campus is by no means a small space. It is actually really expansive and covered in palm trees and other Aspen-like trees, grass, and tons of other wild fauna. I went for a run this morning here and in 30 minutes I still could keep going on one end of the campus without hitting the end! It’s a beautiful spot with clear blue skies, peaceful, quiet walkways, and butterflies floating all through the grass…and the occasional scorpion! The main office is about a ten minute walk from my building down a dirt path surrounded in palm trees and cute little houses.
I have two nice neighbors in my building and all of the employees, volunteers, and interns in this part of campus eat at the “mess” just next door to my building. Yes, it is dining hall food, but it is Indian dining hall food which translates into pretty darn good! Tonight we had this fried banana dish and paneer and/or mutton and of course the normal rice and naan. In general I have pretty much decided that naan is the perfect food and I can’t really get enough of it, so I’m really happy with the dining hall choices! We can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner there and morning tea before breakfast if we want too, and yes tea means delicious Indian chai J
I’m also really, really happy with my work here. I am indeed working on the Peer Water Exchange project like I thought and working to convert a lot of the paper documents of the organization into online files for the public to easily see and the organization to easily keep track of and organize. In addition I have started working frantically on an award application for a water award. Both projects are giving me so much insight into yet another aspect of the development world and the people I’m working with are truly incredible! The head of Peer Water Exchange is one of the most inspirational and motivated people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and all day he is sending me tidbits to show me how much the project has the ability to change the world of water implementation! I’m really excited to be working with him and also all of the Indians that are doing so much great work in rural development here! The organization helps over 200,000 people in villages all over Orissa and there model is very well planned and executed. Another awesome perk of the job is that each day at 11 and 4 a man comes around and brings cups of chai to all of the employees! Gosh, if we got that kind of treatment in the US, I think we’d all be happier at the office! I’ve also met some really cool interns and volunteers from Australia, Canada, and Korea that I’ve been hanging out with a bit outside of our work.
This evening an amazing thing happened. After dinner I was leaving to go back to my room and some of the chefs started making a big hoopla over something. They started to run toward the path with a flashlight and telling all of us to come with them. We walked down the path about 50 feet and there was a baby python right next to the road! It was about five or six feet long and just sitting there frozen still. It had just eaten something so you could see strange lumpy shapes inside of its thick body too! It was really cool to see although terrifying especially because no one caught it or anything so it could be anywhere now! They said it is pretty rare here, but they also said it has happened twice in the last month! And the last time the little cat that lives around here (and is always hopelessly meowing at my door) went up to the other python and started fighting with it. The amazing thing about that, is that the cat actually got away alive to meow another day!
Tomorrow morning I will be off to a site visit for the morning. These sites are close by the main campus, where as some of the others I will be visiting in the next few weeks are much farther so that they can’t even be reached by phone! I can’t wait to see how the projects are actually working in the field and what village life is like here! Thinking of everyone on Thanksgiving back in the states! Eat some pumpkin for me and sure, twist my arm, I’ll have some naan for everybody back home!!
Like I mentioned before, the office is based on a campus outside a city on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and at the foothills of some pretty great mountains, but the campus is by no means a small space. It is actually really expansive and covered in palm trees and other Aspen-like trees, grass, and tons of other wild fauna. I went for a run this morning here and in 30 minutes I still could keep going on one end of the campus without hitting the end! It’s a beautiful spot with clear blue skies, peaceful, quiet walkways, and butterflies floating all through the grass…and the occasional scorpion! The main office is about a ten minute walk from my building down a dirt path surrounded in palm trees and cute little houses.
I have two nice neighbors in my building and all of the employees, volunteers, and interns in this part of campus eat at the “mess” just next door to my building. Yes, it is dining hall food, but it is Indian dining hall food which translates into pretty darn good! Tonight we had this fried banana dish and paneer and/or mutton and of course the normal rice and naan. In general I have pretty much decided that naan is the perfect food and I can’t really get enough of it, so I’m really happy with the dining hall choices! We can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner there and morning tea before breakfast if we want too, and yes tea means delicious Indian chai J
I’m also really, really happy with my work here. I am indeed working on the Peer Water Exchange project like I thought and working to convert a lot of the paper documents of the organization into online files for the public to easily see and the organization to easily keep track of and organize. In addition I have started working frantically on an award application for a water award. Both projects are giving me so much insight into yet another aspect of the development world and the people I’m working with are truly incredible! The head of Peer Water Exchange is one of the most inspirational and motivated people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and all day he is sending me tidbits to show me how much the project has the ability to change the world of water implementation! I’m really excited to be working with him and also all of the Indians that are doing so much great work in rural development here! The organization helps over 200,000 people in villages all over Orissa and there model is very well planned and executed. Another awesome perk of the job is that each day at 11 and 4 a man comes around and brings cups of chai to all of the employees! Gosh, if we got that kind of treatment in the US, I think we’d all be happier at the office! I’ve also met some really cool interns and volunteers from Australia, Canada, and Korea that I’ve been hanging out with a bit outside of our work.
This evening an amazing thing happened. After dinner I was leaving to go back to my room and some of the chefs started making a big hoopla over something. They started to run toward the path with a flashlight and telling all of us to come with them. We walked down the path about 50 feet and there was a baby python right next to the road! It was about five or six feet long and just sitting there frozen still. It had just eaten something so you could see strange lumpy shapes inside of its thick body too! It was really cool to see although terrifying especially because no one caught it or anything so it could be anywhere now! They said it is pretty rare here, but they also said it has happened twice in the last month! And the last time the little cat that lives around here (and is always hopelessly meowing at my door) went up to the other python and started fighting with it. The amazing thing about that, is that the cat actually got away alive to meow another day!
Tomorrow morning I will be off to a site visit for the morning. These sites are close by the main campus, where as some of the others I will be visiting in the next few weeks are much farther so that they can’t even be reached by phone! I can’t wait to see how the projects are actually working in the field and what village life is like here! Thinking of everyone on Thanksgiving back in the states! Eat some pumpkin for me and sure, twist my arm, I’ll have some naan for everybody back home!!
Tales of Train Travel
After a 24-hour long train ride from Varanasi to Bhubaneswar, I feel inclined to write about a few of the hilarities and bizarre occurrences of the trains and train stations here in India!
For starters, just a little description of the train system. First, booking a ticket is really a cloudy process. There are “travel agents” on pretty much every corner, but after using one of these a few times early on, we quickly discovered that the extra three dollars or so that you pay one of these travel agents is silly because they just log onto the internet and book the reservation for you. One time I was working with an agent who essentially turned the screen to me and told me to type in my details on the website, press purchase, and then press print and oh yea, then pay her for her work! So, logically we figured we’d go ahead and surf the net for our tickets. Well this is interesting because no where does it really tell you all of the trains, when they leave, how much they cost, and also let you book on the same site. There are hundreds of sites with ideas about this. There are people who have taken a particular train and written about it so when you search, these things come up, but the information is not centrally recorded at any reliable source and the site where you actually book your ticket only allows you to put in the exact train number, date, and departure/destination information and if you don’t have the tens of hundreds of train routes and numbers memorized, this can be quite a confusing and hopeless process. There is a book about the trains sold at some street stands, but even this book is huge and confusing!
The best thing we’ve found is to go to the train station and talk to an agent and book your train there. This way you don’t have to pay the booking fee and you can just tell them where and when you want to go and then they will pretty much do everything for you and just give you the ticket. This does have one added hassle and life-threatening hazard though which is that you have to take a rickshaw to the train station! For some reason the rides to and from the train station are the most wild and seemingly near death experiences, like the recent ride I had in Varanasi! I was with a new friend Sarah and her and I both actually screamed “Stop” at one point!
So anyway, if you are lucky enough to get a ticket and actually arrive at the station, then there are the waiting areas at the station and the boards telling you where and when trains arrive. Now every train is late. In fact, while there isn’t a central internet database for the train info, there is one site I came across that tells you on average how late each train usually is! Not a very good track record, but at least it’s consistent, so whenever you get to the train station you can pretty much be assured you’ll have to wait. There are some food and book stands usually, but mostly no matter if you arrive at four in the afternoon or four in the morning, there are tons and tons of people! Seriously, every time I’ve gotten to a station it is packed, no matter the hour or the station. So with all of these people and all of this waiting, the railways have very brilliantly created waiting rooms in all of the stations. But all of these waiting rooms are just empty concrete rooms with people just sitting and lying on the floor! By now if you’ve been reading the other posts on this blog, I’m sure you are very aware of the gross things that are always on the floors here and frankly they just aren’t places I would lay myself down on and wait for hours on end. There are about six benches per station on average I’d say, but sometimes those benches have been used as toilet areas for some reason and so a few times I’ve seen piles of poop around them deterring (some) people from even using them.
So then eventually you’re train comes. Most of the time I’ve been able to find the train, the number, and the platform it will leave from on the rotating boards in the main rooms…most of the time. But once it arrives, late, everyone pushes and shoves and rushes and jumps to get on the train as it approaches. It seriously doesn’t even stop before four or five men are pushing through the doors as though the train really might not stop at all! And then, once the train does stop, it sits there for fifteen minutes or so…every. single. time. Yep, every stop we go to, we wait at and not just for 2 seconds, but at least a few minutes throughout the whole journey and especially at big stations, yet still, all the passengers push and shove to get aboard so quickly! It is truly baffling to me as to why they do this and actually quite funny to watch if you aren’t brave enough to fight to be the first one on board! It is amazing too, because finding the car you want to get on can be quite the challenge. Often the tickets are printed very fainly so reading them can even be difficult and if the ticket is ripped or torn in any way, you might have a rough time getting the conductor to accept it! But anyway to find the car you are in, just walk up and down along the platform looking for that number. There is usually no order to the numbers on the trains and certainly no connection to the numbers on the platform so you just have to walk back and forth until you find it. Luckily there are usually numbers on the individual seats so you can find your spot once in the car and lock up your bags and sit. And wait. Again.
Ok so you have a ticket, you’ve made it to the station, you’ve waited, you’ve found your train, and you’ve even managed to get on board. Great, right? Well now comes the excruciatingly long journey!! The trains are arranged by class but the one we’ve taken so far is sleeper class. It is organized so there are three berths- upper, middle, and lower. At night all of the beds are properly pulled out and everyone sleeps (and snores). During the day the middle one collapses and the middle (and sometimes the upper) sleeper sits on the lower berth bed. So the lower and middle berths kind of suck because you don’t have the choice to sleep or sit or to make sure no one else sits by- which can be a very important thing sometimes!
Now throughout the whole ride, however many hours you are lucky enough to be aboard the train, there will be people walking through selling things. All kinds of things. There are the chai-wallas, people walking through with steaming hot kettles and cups calling “chai-ya chai-ya” kind of like a beer man at a baseball game. The chai-wallas come all throughout about every five minutes or so. There are similar wallas for all kinds of food from samoas to bananas to peanuts to candy...you name it. Then are the salesman that get on at each of the stations selling other stuff. I’ve been asked to buy books, magazines, and whistles. I’ve been asked to give money to blind people, prostitutes, men scooting along on wheel board with leg problems, and even obvious trans-gendered Indian people!
With all of this the trains are obviously loud and busy, and with all of these products you can buy, you can imagine there are chai cups and peanut shells and tobacco spit and human waste to dispose of. Well all of this goes on the tracks…yep all of straight out the window (or toilets) onto the tracks! It has actually been one of the hardest things to adjust to here…there just aren’t trash cans. There aren’t trash cans anywhere and the only thing to do is to toss your garbage on the ground! Ugh it is so hard to even think about. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it with the ease an Indian can and I always save all my trash in a bag and set it next to other trash somewhere, which I guess ultimately ends up in the same place! The bathrooms are really downright disgusting too, but that will be a story for another time!
So that is the intricate web of train travel here in India as I’ve experienced it! While chaotic and messy, the train system here is amazing in that you can truly get anywhere in the entire county on a train. You can go from North to South, East to West and eventually arrive at your destination. This is wonderful and amazing to me because India is HUGE! If I’ve learned anything being here it is that. Seriously, it is one country but it is so big and diverse- and all connected by trains! What an inspiration for mass transportation! If India can do it…
For starters, just a little description of the train system. First, booking a ticket is really a cloudy process. There are “travel agents” on pretty much every corner, but after using one of these a few times early on, we quickly discovered that the extra three dollars or so that you pay one of these travel agents is silly because they just log onto the internet and book the reservation for you. One time I was working with an agent who essentially turned the screen to me and told me to type in my details on the website, press purchase, and then press print and oh yea, then pay her for her work! So, logically we figured we’d go ahead and surf the net for our tickets. Well this is interesting because no where does it really tell you all of the trains, when they leave, how much they cost, and also let you book on the same site. There are hundreds of sites with ideas about this. There are people who have taken a particular train and written about it so when you search, these things come up, but the information is not centrally recorded at any reliable source and the site where you actually book your ticket only allows you to put in the exact train number, date, and departure/destination information and if you don’t have the tens of hundreds of train routes and numbers memorized, this can be quite a confusing and hopeless process. There is a book about the trains sold at some street stands, but even this book is huge and confusing!
The best thing we’ve found is to go to the train station and talk to an agent and book your train there. This way you don’t have to pay the booking fee and you can just tell them where and when you want to go and then they will pretty much do everything for you and just give you the ticket. This does have one added hassle and life-threatening hazard though which is that you have to take a rickshaw to the train station! For some reason the rides to and from the train station are the most wild and seemingly near death experiences, like the recent ride I had in Varanasi! I was with a new friend Sarah and her and I both actually screamed “Stop” at one point!
So anyway, if you are lucky enough to get a ticket and actually arrive at the station, then there are the waiting areas at the station and the boards telling you where and when trains arrive. Now every train is late. In fact, while there isn’t a central internet database for the train info, there is one site I came across that tells you on average how late each train usually is! Not a very good track record, but at least it’s consistent, so whenever you get to the train station you can pretty much be assured you’ll have to wait. There are some food and book stands usually, but mostly no matter if you arrive at four in the afternoon or four in the morning, there are tons and tons of people! Seriously, every time I’ve gotten to a station it is packed, no matter the hour or the station. So with all of these people and all of this waiting, the railways have very brilliantly created waiting rooms in all of the stations. But all of these waiting rooms are just empty concrete rooms with people just sitting and lying on the floor! By now if you’ve been reading the other posts on this blog, I’m sure you are very aware of the gross things that are always on the floors here and frankly they just aren’t places I would lay myself down on and wait for hours on end. There are about six benches per station on average I’d say, but sometimes those benches have been used as toilet areas for some reason and so a few times I’ve seen piles of poop around them deterring (some) people from even using them.
So then eventually you’re train comes. Most of the time I’ve been able to find the train, the number, and the platform it will leave from on the rotating boards in the main rooms…most of the time. But once it arrives, late, everyone pushes and shoves and rushes and jumps to get on the train as it approaches. It seriously doesn’t even stop before four or five men are pushing through the doors as though the train really might not stop at all! And then, once the train does stop, it sits there for fifteen minutes or so…every. single. time. Yep, every stop we go to, we wait at and not just for 2 seconds, but at least a few minutes throughout the whole journey and especially at big stations, yet still, all the passengers push and shove to get aboard so quickly! It is truly baffling to me as to why they do this and actually quite funny to watch if you aren’t brave enough to fight to be the first one on board! It is amazing too, because finding the car you want to get on can be quite the challenge. Often the tickets are printed very fainly so reading them can even be difficult and if the ticket is ripped or torn in any way, you might have a rough time getting the conductor to accept it! But anyway to find the car you are in, just walk up and down along the platform looking for that number. There is usually no order to the numbers on the trains and certainly no connection to the numbers on the platform so you just have to walk back and forth until you find it. Luckily there are usually numbers on the individual seats so you can find your spot once in the car and lock up your bags and sit. And wait. Again.
Ok so you have a ticket, you’ve made it to the station, you’ve waited, you’ve found your train, and you’ve even managed to get on board. Great, right? Well now comes the excruciatingly long journey!! The trains are arranged by class but the one we’ve taken so far is sleeper class. It is organized so there are three berths- upper, middle, and lower. At night all of the beds are properly pulled out and everyone sleeps (and snores). During the day the middle one collapses and the middle (and sometimes the upper) sleeper sits on the lower berth bed. So the lower and middle berths kind of suck because you don’t have the choice to sleep or sit or to make sure no one else sits by- which can be a very important thing sometimes!
Now throughout the whole ride, however many hours you are lucky enough to be aboard the train, there will be people walking through selling things. All kinds of things. There are the chai-wallas, people walking through with steaming hot kettles and cups calling “chai-ya chai-ya” kind of like a beer man at a baseball game. The chai-wallas come all throughout about every five minutes or so. There are similar wallas for all kinds of food from samoas to bananas to peanuts to candy...you name it. Then are the salesman that get on at each of the stations selling other stuff. I’ve been asked to buy books, magazines, and whistles. I’ve been asked to give money to blind people, prostitutes, men scooting along on wheel board with leg problems, and even obvious trans-gendered Indian people!
With all of this the trains are obviously loud and busy, and with all of these products you can buy, you can imagine there are chai cups and peanut shells and tobacco spit and human waste to dispose of. Well all of this goes on the tracks…yep all of straight out the window (or toilets) onto the tracks! It has actually been one of the hardest things to adjust to here…there just aren’t trash cans. There aren’t trash cans anywhere and the only thing to do is to toss your garbage on the ground! Ugh it is so hard to even think about. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it with the ease an Indian can and I always save all my trash in a bag and set it next to other trash somewhere, which I guess ultimately ends up in the same place! The bathrooms are really downright disgusting too, but that will be a story for another time!
So that is the intricate web of train travel here in India as I’ve experienced it! While chaotic and messy, the train system here is amazing in that you can truly get anywhere in the entire county on a train. You can go from North to South, East to West and eventually arrive at your destination. This is wonderful and amazing to me because India is HUGE! If I’ve learned anything being here it is that. Seriously, it is one country but it is so big and diverse- and all connected by trains! What an inspiration for mass transportation! If India can do it…
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