One Week Check In

Holy Cow (lol), have I been in India for a week already?!  That's pretty crazy, because I feel like it has been a lot longer in some ways.  So, I believe that I last posted on Sunday, which is perfect because I have been going to work at my organization for three days now.  Why not four?  Well, today, everyone in GSE has been working from home because their is a national strike by the opposition parties to protest the sudden increase in petrol prices.  Lots of shops were going to be closed, and the public transportation systems were supposed to be running, but with double security, so I think an executive decision was made that for safety reasons, we wouldn't be traveling to our work sites.  It is actually surprisingly quiet on the streets today (yes we did venture out to buy snacks, I'm actually quite fond of Indian snack food, perhaps a little bit too much, and we were fine).  Normally, you have to be super vigilant walking along because you could either fall into a hole on the sidewalk (not ideal, they're quite deep), or get run over by a motor vehicle (also not fun), but today I could walk and cross the street with ease because I saw almost no cars, which is HUGE in India.  I usually walk around with my face covered by a scarf to mitigate some of the adverse effects of inhaling car and bus fumes.

Anyway, on Monday, Navee, Parisa and I got on the G4 bus to J P Nagar and made it to Premavidya 15 minutes early!!!  I was also happy to note that on our way to work, we passed by a lady who was mending shoes.  On Saturday, someone stepped on the back of my sandal as I was exiting the bus, and pulled the strap out of the sole (sad times), so I was happy to see that I wouldn't have to go out of my way to get my shoe fixed!  So, Premavidya does not have a project for us to do yet, I believe they would rather give us an orientation week so we could know all and see all things Premavidya.  We were shown two videos about the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (the umbrella organization of Premavidya), and one video on Premavidya.  Then we watched the same two movies over again, this time with live commentary by an HR representative who was late into work because his motorcycle got a flat tire.  Midway through we were served tea (win!), and then we were escorted upstairs to sit in on a lecture by the field coordinator Murali about Project 1947, which is a project through Premavidya which produces academic videos to schools for children in 8th, 9th, and 10th standard so they can pass their SSLC exams and get a certificate.  We were listening to this lecture with a bunch of graduate students from Mysore.  We ate lunch with them (delicious South Indian food, with our hands of course!), and then we went on a site visit to two different government high schools where these Project 1947 videos were being used.  At one site, we saw the SaATh model (Student Advancement Through Teacher Help), also known as the iSSS (technology student support services).  Children sat in groups together on the floor and used portable DVD players to view the videos.  The classroom had a facilitator that monitored the classroom and distributed self evaluation cards so the students can track their own progress and confidence levels for each subject area.  The second model was the SSS, which was a classroom with a single projector that the teacher used to play for the whole class.  These videos used a question/pause/answer format where the teacher could allow for class participation.  If any students had questions in either class, they could write down their questions on "Doubt slips" and give them to the teacher.  This is designed to boost confidence, and to get the children to ask clarifying questions so they don't fall behind in their studies.

Fun Fact:  In India, when you have questions, you have "doubts."  Instead of asking "does anyone have any questions?"  a lecturer will ask "does anybody have any doubts?"  Parisa, Navee and I had a lot of doubts during the presentations, and Murali spent a lot of time clarifying doubts for us.  It was good though, he appreciated how many doubts we had, it showed that we were thinking.

Parisa (left) and Maddy hard at work!

Navee and I working on our video.

The past two days Parisa, Navee, Maddy (who finally joined us!!!!!!), and I have been working on developing our own videos!  The folks at Premavidya wanted us to be familiar with the production process of these videos, so their having each team create a video (on WHATEVER we want) as practice.  There's actually a lot of work involved in making these 20 minute long videos.  You need content experts, who are well versed in the curriculum content and area studies.  These are usually teachers or people who've spent a lot of time working in the education sector.  Then they go to subject matter experts (SME), who put the content into a spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation.  The quality team checks the SME's work, and changes are made if necessary.  Then the PowerPoints are sent to Techies who synch the PowerPoints with voice overs that are recorded from people in the film industry.  Those finished videos are sent back to Quality again, where they are fixed if needed, and then they are sent to schools for testing.  After the student and teacher feedback, they go through another round of editing where they are finally ready to be distributed to schools.  It's a very intense process.  Navee and I spent the greater part of the first day creating our PowerPoint about tourism in Vermont.  I wanted to do something on Malaysia, since Navee is from Malaysia, but she said no, and Navee is very persuasive.  Parisa and Maddy were doing their video on different types of humor (hey, we were told it could be on anything we wanted).  Yesterday, we recorded the voice overs for our videos.  It was super fun and exciting!  I got to sit in the recording studio and read my script, which I and written the day before.  They told me I had a good "bold" voice, and if I was going to be here for longer they could use me in some of the videos.  I feel that if any of my future career plans fail now, I can always do voice overs for academic videos.  Professor Moledina was on site visiting that day, and he had quite a good time, I think.  He was all smiley, and even did some of the voice over work for Parisa and Maddy's movie.  Now, all we have to do is finish up synching the voice over and the slides, something that Navee and I have been working on today.

Navee and I inspecting our PowerPoint

For a video on Humor, they sure look serious!

I want to talk about public transportation in India, because it's very interesting.  In the morning, I take the G4 bus to work.  It costs 11 rupees.  Most of the time I have to stand because public transportation, especially the non-air conditioned buses, are crowded with people trying to get to work in the morning.  Riding on the bus is fun because it forces me to really wake up.  I have to be alert so I don't go flying through the windshield as the bus bumps and flies down the road.  Anyway, you think that if I take the G4 bus in the morning, I can take it back right?  Apparently, not.  On Monday, we tried taking the G4 bus back to Shanti Nagar, but the conductor got mad at us because apparently Shanti Nagar is not on their route.  So, we got off the bus up the road (free ride, we didn't buy a ticket) and got on a 365 bus to Shanti Nagar, only this Shanti Nagar wasn't the same stop we got on at in the morning.  It was a huge bus station with lots of people and buses, and everything was completely crazy!  So, we got off and took a rickshaw back to Mathyoo Suites, where we are staying.  One of the problems with the rickshaws we've found out is that none of the drivers know where Mathyoo is, nor do they all know the same landmarks around Mathyoo.  It's always a challenge figuring out what to say to them.  We did make an important discovery though on Monday.  Navee speaks Tamil, and we discovered that many people in Bangalore (including rickshaw drivers, and the Uncle who serves us tea at Premavidya) all speak Tamil, so we have a secret weapon.  Navee has been hugely helpful in translating and clarifying our directions to many rickshaw wallahs.  It's been great.  However, taking a rickshaw is much more expensive than taking the bus, so if we could find a direct bus route back from J P Nagar, that would be great.  Okay, so the next day we ask around at the bus stop in the morning to try to find out how these people get home in the evening.  We discovered something important.  The stop we get on at in the morning is called Tollgate.  That would have been helpful to know a few days ago.  Here in Bangalore, none of the stops are labeled, so you have to ask around a lot to be sure you are at the correct place.  We're also told the 365 bus would take us to Tollgate.  That evening we find the bus doesn't go to Tollgate, but it can, take us to Richmond Circle, which is better than the Shanti Nagar bus station, but still about a 15-20 minute walk back to Mathyoo along very busy roads.

Next try: we asked a passing G4 bus if it went to Tollgate.  We got a nod from the driver and attempted to board.  I say attempted, even though we all manage to get "on" I wouldn't consider myself actually "on" the bus as most of my body was hanging out the door as the bus rolled down the street, cars and motorists breezing past me.  The the conductor asks for my bus fare.  Sorry sir, not happening yet, I don't feel like dying right now.  The bus stops then, and of course there's someone in the middle of the bus who wants to get out.  So I have to leave the bus, and get back on, but not without battling my way passed the 10 women trying to squeeze in the front.  I got up a few stairs, which was much better than last time, but still not great.  I had to take my backpack off and put it next to the driver to free up space in the aisle.  More squeezing.  Lost sight of my backpack as the traffic flow pushed me down the bus.  Perfect.  On the plus side, there was no way I was getting pick pocketed since there was no way anyone was moving anything anywhere.  It's also readily apparent in situations like these that I'm a lot bigger than a lot of Indian people.  I often find I'm several inches taller than even the men, and in situations like these, I'm sure they just loved the fact that this white chick was taking up twice as much space on the bus as any one of them.  I'd shrink if I could, but I don't think I can actually pull that off.  Anyway, my backpack comes into view again (courtesy of my height, tiptoes does wonders sometimes), everything was ok.  I was still packed like a sardine onto that bus, and it's only now as I write this that I really appreciate the "women only" section on the bus.  I think this situation may have been about 20 times more awkward if I had been jammed in the bus amongst a bunch of men.  By the time I get of the bus, I'm absolutely soaked with sweat, but the bus took us to the CORRECT bus stop!  So, in the end, that journey was actually a raging success, and I got to have another interesting adventure in India.  You never have fun stories like this if you just drive your car everywhere!

Good Morning Bangalore!!

Wow.  I wish I could have blogged about this sooner, but there was this jet lag, and the fact that our days here have been absolutely packed with stuff that I've neither had the time, energy, nor willpower to sit down and write something comprehensive and interesting about my time spent here.  So, it only seems fair to start ALL the way from the beginning...

Monday, May 21st:

 I got up early, and my parents drove me to the Royall Tyler Theatre on the UVM campus where I boarded a Megabus that would take me all the way to Manhattan!  I was excited to be starting my journey to India!  The plan was to arrive in NYC at around 4:15 pm, and then take New York's excellent public transportation system to JFK international airport.

Vermont Landscape (near Quichee?)

So, as I was on the Megabus, I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of the lovely Vermont landscape that I love so dearly.  I knew it would be a big contrast to the urban areas of Bangalore I would be living in for the next few weeks.  At this point, I think the bus is in the South Eastern part of the state near Quichee or thereabouts...

More Vermont Landscapes (Quichee, I think)

I'm sorry the photos are a bit blurry, but it's pretty difficult to take a really good picture with an "ok" camera from the tinted window of a moving bus.  After leaving Vermont, we had a couple stops in Massachusetts, and then we changed buses in Hartford, I'm not really sure why, but I believe their was an issue with the first bus.  I didn't really mind all that much because the second bus we got on had WAY better seats.

Anyway, the bus arrived at the stop in Manhattan about an hour late, probably due to to extremely awful New York rush hour traffic.  An hour late?  Wouldn't I miss my flight?  Nope.  My flight wasn't leaving until 11pm that night.  I could have gone to see a Broadway show and still probably arrived in plenty of time to check my bag, go through security, and have a cup of coffee.  After a fun and stimulation ride on the subway (I actually think subways and trains to be one of the coolest things on the planet), I arrived at JFK, checked in with no problems, and boarded my plane.  I booked a flight with Emirates, which was a really nice airline.  I was very impressed with the in-flight entertainment especially.  I was served vegetarian airplane food, that wasn't bad, by an Australian Scarlett Johansson lookalike, and I alternated between eating, sleeping, and watching movies during the 13 hours flight.

Tuesday, May 22nd:

I didn't have much of a Tuesday.  I arrived in Dubai at 8pm local time, took a shower (for free!!), found a sleeping chair in a random part of the airport and claimed it as my own.  I spent the hours of 11pm-5am at this particular spot, dozing off and on, and waking up for the mad 2am rush hour.  People watching in the Dubai International Airport is great!  You get such a diverse array of people from all over the world!

Wednesday, May 23rd:

The Dubai International Airport

I walked around the Dubai airport, taking in all the swanky shops (Gucci, Dior, etc), and taking pictures of in the indoor fountains and gardens.  I read a little bit, but mostly I was just biding my time, and waiting for my flight to depart at 11:45am for Bangalore.  I must admit, I thought I would be able to post something from Dubai, but the "free" wifi was not working well, and I could not for the life of me find an outlet with which to plug in my dying computer, so unfortunately, no posts :-(

West End of the Airport

East End of the Airport

For some reason, this picture here on the left was taken inside the airport.  It's an odd blend of North America coniferous trees and a tropical palm tree scene.  Go figure.






When I arrived in Bangalore that evening I was jolted smartly awake when one of the immigration officials pointed out that I didn't have the proper address of the place I was staying.  Uh oh.  I had only written down the instructions I was supposed to take to the taxi driver, and those directions were only arbitrarily descriptive (ie: Langford Town, by the Hockey Stadium).  He called Mathyoo Residency, where I would be staying, and finally got the proper address, but by then I was close to tears.  I think it was the almost 48 hours of straight travel that I had undergone.  To top it off, the taxi driver got lost on the way there.  I felt bad because I was absolutely no help at all.  We kept having to to stop, and then he would get out and walk completely around the corner, out of eyesight, to ask somebody for directions.  Let me tell you something about driving in India.  First of all, you drive on the left side, just like in the UK (colonial influence of course), secondly, the rule is, if you see an empty space, drive in it; if you don't see an empty space, make one, and drive in it.  It was an almost harrowing experience, there were so many cars, trucks, and buses all trying to squeeze into the three(?) lanes of traffic on the highway.  The the motorcyclists, bicycles, and auto-rickshaws would squeeze in between the cars, trucks, and buses.  To top it off, pedestrians would be walking nonchalantly along the side of the road, sometimes in between the cars that were all jammed together.  It was quite an adventure.  I don't personally think I could ever drive there, ever, and I applaud those souls who do.  It's really like being in a video game, you have to weave in and out and between things, and you have to make sure that nobody else hits you.

I finally do however, get to Mathyoo Residency, where everyone from GSE was waiting for me!  By that time I was tired and ready to go to bed, but I ate a lovely dinner and unpacked my suitcase (in my very nice room I may add).

Thursday, May 24th:

Up and about already.  Our first task was to find the NGO where we would be working.  Parisa, Navee and I had the address, and then we had to figure out how to get there.  I had been in India less than twenty-four hours, and was quite glad when Parisa, who had been there for a few days already took the lead in searching for buses.  Riding a bus in India is pretty exciting.  Since were really didn't know which bus to take, we would just ask the driver before we got on.  If it was going in our direction, we got on it and away we went!  In India, you board the bus first, and then a person comes, and you buy your ticket from them.  The price of the ticket is dependent upon how far you are traveling.  Also, in Bangalore, the buses are segregated: women in the front, men in the back.  Since we were all women, my workmates and I could sit together on the bus, and it was easy to communicate when we were going to get on and off.  In one of the groups, there was only one girl, and she had to sit by herself in the front of the bus, while the rest of her group held back.  That was interesting to see because it was something I hadn't even thought about until she had said it.

OK.  So we ended up finding our NGO before noon!  Prof. Moledina had told us the night before that Premavidya was very far away from where we were staying, and had said that if we hadn't found it by 12:30, then we should think about heading over to our rendezvous place for the afternoon.  Haha!  Not only did we find it before noon, but we only need to take one bus!

Later this afternoon, I had my first taste of fresh lime soda, a popular drink in India.  I think I know why it's popular: it's freaking delicious.  It is light, refreshing, and you can get it sweet or salty.  We all had sweet sodas, but sometime I would like to try it salty.  I also accidentally drank unfiltered water.  Oops.  When I studied abroad in Morocco, we were able to drink the water in Rabat, so I didn't even think when the waiter filled our glasses with water.  I just drank it.  I took some preventative Pepto bismal, and so far, I've been fine (knock on wood).  After lunch, we went to Sattva, one of the organizations that one of our GSE groups will be working with.  Sattva is a media and consulting organization that basically helps other organizations solve their problems.  After leaving Sattva, Samantha, Navee, and I took a rickshaw to 100 Foot Road where we were supposed to meet everyone at a North India vegetarian restaurant.  Fun Fact:  South Indian food is rice based, while North India food is bread based, and is probably what most Americans are familiar with.  Anyway, we got lost and walked up and down 100 foot road for over an hour.  Our issue was that nobody we asked knew where the restaurant was, and in India, nobody wants to admit they do not know where something is, so they'll make something up.  That's why it is important to ask AT LEAST THREE people for directions before heading anywhere.  Regardless, we made it, and had a lovely dinner with SO MUCH FOOD!

Friday, May 25th:

We visited two very different social venture organizations today.  We visited the Association for People with Disability (APD).  APD is a purely non-profit organization that works with people with physical disabilities.  They provide vocational training and job placement for young adults, run an integrated school for children with disability and for able children.  They also provide physical therapy, and a wheelchair and prosthetic center.  It was all on a beautiful little campus that's kept up by their horticulture training program.  Unfortunately, school was out of session, and we did not get to see all the children, which would have been fun.

Secondly, in the afternoon, we went to visit Selco, a for-profit organization with a social mission.  Selco in part works to dispel three common myths:

1) Poor people cannot afford sustainable technologies;
2) Poor people cannot maintain sustainable technologies;
3) Social ventures cannot be run as commercial entities.

It was a very cool organization!  It was a pity that my jet lag kicked in halfway through their presentation.  I could barely keep my eyes open.

That night, a few of us stayed in to cook dinner.  Even in India where the exchange rate is about 50 rupees to the US dollar, eating in restaurants gets pretty expensive.  Even 50 rupee rickshaw rides add up eventually.  Therefore, we stayed in and cooked Tabbouleh, which was easy, and a nice break from spicy Indian food.  As you can see from the pictures below, our living conditions are extremely nice.  The fans cool  you off very nicely, and we have two balconies that allow a lovely cross breeze through the entire suite.  

Enjoying the morning paper before breakfast

Sam and My bed!

Our own bathroom, television, and balcony (behind the blue curtain)

The dining room

The living room

Grocery shopping!

Sam and Laura hard at work cooking our dinner

Abby and her (frozen) watermelon

Saturday and Sunday, May 26th and 27th:

Basically, on Saturday, I went shopping for some Indian clothing.  I got two full Punjabi suits, in a variety of colors, and another shirt to go with the pants and dupata (scarf) that were lent to me before I came to India.  Today, I've been pretty much writing this blog post and bumming around.  I'll readily admit it, I am a little bit culture shocked and really need some space to hang around and get centered.  Alright, I know that was a laundry list things in this post, and next post I hope will be a little more detailed and reflective.

Safe Arrival

Well, I have a lot to say, but not really the energy to stay up to write it all out what with the jet lag and all.  I really will write more in depth reflections and pithy anecdotes about today, and I already have a whole slew of them, even though I've only been in India a little over 24 hours.  I arrived in the early evening yesterday after about 48 hours of travel through New York, Dubai, and finally Bangalore.  I've been very overstimulated these past 24 hours, and am super tired tonight, but I promise this weekend that I will sit down and write an in depth post about my experiences so far.

P.S.  I can't believe I'm actually here!!  So many good thoughts!

Group Fundraising Conclusions

Wow, I'm so sorry I dropped the ball on updating this past week.  To tell you the truth, it was just a crazy busy week, and not all of it was related to GSE (gasp!).  Much of it was, but not all of it.  Well, I've got some really great news!  Our Silent Auction Fundraiser brought in $1,073!  That's incredible, and we couldn't have done it without all the wonderful, generous support from the community.  Our fundraiser at the Wooster Jam was less successful, it only brought in around $70, but with all three fundraisers (auction, mocktails, 50/50 raffle), and some private donations we made over $1,400.  That's absolutely fantastic, and it means that each person in our group gets about $117 towards the $750 matching grant that the college so generously gives us.  Our biggest challenge now is to deliver the goods to everyone who purchased them, and to write thank you notes to all the businesses who donated goods to the auction.  Did we make some mistakes?  Definitely.  I have a very long list of mistakes/things-that-we-could-have-done-differently-to-make-it-easier-or-better from this whole fundraising experience, and I think it would be in the best interest of the GSE program in general if we put these tips in a special binder to be handed down to each upcoming GSE group.  That way each new team can (hopefully) be just as successful, or even more so in their fundraising efforts.

Let's see, what else can I mention that's related to GSE.... VISA APPLICATIONS!  Take heed my friends, it's not fun.  We are all filling out employment visas, because that's the proper and legal visa you need to fill out if you are volunteering with an Indian non-profit organization.  You need a bunch of extra documents to attach to your visa application, and it is confusing as *insert swearword of choice here*  So, I actually shed some tears over this, angry, frustrated tears, but at least it's over now.  My visa application has been mailed into the Travisa processing sight, and now all I have to do is wait for them to mail my passport back.  That's right,  I had to mail my entire passport into the Visa service, and then they will hopefully mail it back to my home address in Vermont (*fingers crossed*).

Fun fact of the day, I just turned in my second paper for the GSE seminar.  My senioritis must be worse than I thought, because I had a really hard time trying to articulate exactly what I wanted to say for this 10-page paper.  My paper is on the characterization of livelihoods among persons with disability in India.  Unfortunately there's not a ton of information out there (surprise, surprise), but I'm not writing an I.S. about this, just a 10-page paper.

Also, some of my other GSE teammates are keeping blogs about their travel experiences in India as well.  I have links to all their blogs on the right side of my blog page.  You should check them out!