Chai?

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So this is the first week I began working at my NGO, Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti. The name means “People’s Awakening and Development Society”. It was created in 1985 and works to promote community development through many kinds of projects including traditional medicine conservation, women empowerment, education, water supplication, micro-financing, and other means. It is a relatively small staff of about ten people, with the assistance of only a couple interns.

One of the main focuses of this organization is its work with Gunis. Guni is a name recently given to a traditional healer found in the villages of India. They have extensive knowledge passed down through generations. In America there seems to be a stigma against the idea of herbal medicines, but usually for good reason. People will pay more money for alternate medicines that usually are moot or a scam. In India this system of herbal medicines is actually a fantastic source for people who are poor or live in rural villages where government clinics/hospitals are far away or poorly run. Gunis serve to fill the gap in a cheap or free manner and provide real treatment for common illnesses. Many Gunis often specialize in a certain area of treatment. Some are very good at rashes, some at bone placement, female health, etc. All are good at general ailments and help their family, friends, and neighbors in their respective villages.

Gunis are also very knowledgeable about herbs and plant life in India. Through talking to them around various villages JJVS has identified many patches of woods and land where many of these medicinal plants grow naturally. Healers had gone to these places for generations, and JJVS is still working to document all of them so they can be protected. JJVS has started many of their own gardens to fill them with these plants so that Gunis could gather from there for free.

JJVS is involved in helping to train Gunis around the state, helping them to earn certification that has recently been implemented by the Indian government, and helping to pass along their knowledge as fewer and fewer people choose to perform as Gunis. They also arrange for Gunis to train local people in their villages so they can better care for themselves. Educating people on the plants they use is also important for Gunis. If people knew how to take advantage of some of the herbs they could grow them themselves.

While we have not picked a project yet it seems pretty obvious that we should do something with the Gunis or with these medicinal plant gardens. The reason being is that the Gunis are already a very well-established resource for the communities in the villages all around Udaipur. If we work to strengthen this resource then long after I am back in the states my work may still be useful and flourish. Some ideas for projects may be to help people build their own medicinal gardens and train them in how to use the plants they can grow. We could turn some of the large plots of empty land in Udaipur (typically used as garbage dumps) into a large, communal medicinal herb garden. We could arrange educational groups so that local people can meet with Gunis when they normally cannot. There are about a hundred other ideas going through my head. For now we will continue to research and gather more information before deciding which direction to go.

Outside of work there is a lot going on. In my host family things are starting to get into a nice rhythm. I usually awake around 5:30 and get ready for a run. Just around my street there is a nice field that is free to enter before 7:30. I couldn’t imagine running after 7:30 in this heat anyway. I usually get there and run about 2 miles before I am soaked to the bone in sweat. My mileage is very low here in India but I think if I keep working at it I will be able to reach a 6 or 7 mile run like I do in the states normally. Maybe when I return I will be able to run much farther and sweat much less J At the park I almost never see someone else running, and if I do it is another foreigner. But I know that my host brother runs as well. People are either usually walking or just enjoying the scenery.

When I get home from the run I get into my bathroom. It is the size of an American half-bathroom with one toilet and no sink. But in this room there is also a little drain on the side. So I go to my bucket full of water, put a cup in, then proceed to fill the cup and pour it over my body. A bucket bath! These are great methods of conserving water, but sadly they are terrible ways of getting off soap. I am slowly learning what level of soap to use since too much means I am caked in it with no avail. From here I go outside my bathroom, outside my room, and out into the hall where my host father put up a mirror in order to shave and brush my teeth. Then it is up two flights of steps to my family’s home. The building we live in has three stories, and I live on the lowest floor. I’m not sure why there is so much space, but it can be nice to have my own door to get into and out of the house.

In the home I mainly talk to my host brother and host father. The host mother doesn’t speak English and usually only talks to me when the other two are around. Since I have only been here for a little while we mostly talk about things I do at home, how our college lives are different, what I think of the food, etc. Then it’s breakfast. I have had a couple of breakfasts. The first one was a plate of rice, with small wheat crunchies on top of it (think unsweetened frosted flakes crumbled up) along with a lot of onions. It was pretty good, but a strange taste to have first thing in the morning. Another breakfast is bread and butter. I didn’t say toast, I said bread. I think they give this to me because my roommate Ahemd (who is living in a village all week) suggested it once. But hey it’s still not bad. Plus there are plenty of bananas!

After breakfast I head off to Sukardiah circle, which is a big roundabout near my house that is part of the main road in Udaipur called Bahman. This is where myself and Victoria (my partner in the project this summer at JJVS) catch a rickshaw. This means we flag down one with a wave of the hand, then if we are lucky it will not be too full and we can squeeze in. From there it’s about five to ten minutes ride to JJVS. When we get off we give 10 rupees (about 15 cents) for the ride. This part can be tricky because for most people this distance in the rickshaw is 8 rupees. But we stopped waiting for change since like I mentioned before people don’t usually “have change” for foreigners. But every now and then a driver will try to ask for 15 rupees thinking this is our first time in the city. But if this happens I usually laugh and say “Nahi, dos rupees!” Which basically let’s them know I know the price and then walk away.

From there we are right at JJVS headquarters and spend our time working from 10 to about 5:30 or 6. Work environments in India are quite different. For one there is no set time to arrive. At 10am it’s usually only the foreigners who are there. Myself and Victoria are there from GESI. There is another intern, Olivia, who has been here since May. She is an FSD intern like myself and was part of the first wave of summer interns that I mentioned before. They are here from early May to mid July, while we are here from late June to mid August. There is another foreigner by the name of Gabby. She is a massage myotherapist from Australia that works with JJVS and helps in the clinic they have. She is basically in charge of helping the foreign interns and works with us a lot. We are all there earliest and as the morning rolls on the other folks come in. They are not considered late, it is just the atmosphere of work to come in at your convenience. I will talk about these people more when I know their names!

Another thing about the workplace is that it is very social. By the time lunch rolls around (three hours after arriving) I have spent a good thirty minutes total talking to people that come up and chat. Many of the workers here speak English and like to talk a lot. It’s very social, but that can be a problem when I just want to sit and work haha. From here lunch is taken around 1 and is whatever my host family placed into my lunch bin. If you can see in the picture I have one lunch bin featuring Pikachu from Pokemon along with Tai from Digimon together over a logo for Pokemon. I laughed a lot and thought of Mike J

After lunch we continue the pattern of working with a lot of talking, chats, and chai tea in between. There is always an endless supply of chai tea. And I just cannot get into it. I don’t drink hot drinks at home. It’s water, milk, or milk. I hope I am not being too offensive when declining (it is offensive) but I think it’s more offensive to take it and not drink it. We take off around 5:30 and catch another rickshaw back to Sikardiah circle where I live. I stop by my family’s door, drop my empty lunch pail, then head to my room and usually collapse. After a work day in Udaipur in the summer time most people are just beat. At this time I usually read or watch a movie since I have no internet where I am staying. Sometimes one of the interns and I will catch up, and sometimes go to each other’s homes to meet our respective host families. Dinner with my family is around 9 pm, a full 3 and a half hours after David Bennett’s dinner.

Usually I will go upstairs about thirty minutes before and chat for a while. I am learning a lot about Indian culture, day-to-day life, education, industry, and many other aspects just from speaking to my host brother and father. Then in the living room the host mother usually brings out the dinner. Many of our dinners are chibati (the indian bread) and various sauces. Sometimes it is mixed up. Sunday is considered a special day in the week and on that night we had chow mein (indian style). Just last night I tried a very sweet dessert called a Gulamesh (Don’t quote me on that name, there’s a lot of names to learn!). It looks like a doughnut ball, and is covered in sugar. But it is the richest desert I have ever had. I ate half in one bite and just felt the diabetes enter my veins. I later learned that Gulamesh is kind of like the American peeps, and there are many stories of people trying to eat 30, 50, or a 100 of these in one sitting. I shudder just thinking about it.

After dinner it is 9:30 or so and I take my leave. From here I grab my laptop and head about 100 yards down my road to a place called Brewmens. Brewmens is a coffee shop with free wifi, and the only one of it’s kind in this part of Udaipur. The next closest one is about an hour away. So I lucked out being one of the few interns within a minute walk to internet access. While I do have wifi at JJVS headquarter, that is during the middle of the night in Indiana. So by the time it’s 9:30pm here in India it is about noon back home. So here at the coffee shop at night I can chat with people on facebook, catch a skype call with the girlfriend, and chat with my parents. While the time difference was hard to deal with before, with the discovery of Brewmen’s it is becoming more manageable. I usually stay here till close if I am talking with someone, then walk back home quickly and get right to bed. There are only three employees here at Brewman’s and already two of them know my name. White people are easy to remember J

So that is my basic day. In between all of this we have had many fun activities. My host family took myself and Ahmed to the big lake of Udaipur. There is a road right along it that is blocked off so many people just walk along the street without worrying about the traffic. It is extremely beautiful and I am placing some of those pics into this blog. On another day the interns from Chicago and I went to the Udaipur mall. It is pretty much the exact same as an American mall, but with more Hindi, less beef, and just as many young teenagers. We went on a picnic with all forty FSD interns and went to a place called Gandhi park. It is like a normal park, but with statues of large animals all around. There is a lot to do in this city, and all of it involves beautiful views and landscapes.



For now it is enjoyable routine. I am starting to get a feel for this place and things are getting easier. I still miss milk, traffic lights, hamburgers, texting, and hugs. But now that a project is nearly chosen it will be good to dive into my work. I hope everyone back home is doing well. Remember that you can easily leave me a message on Facebook and I will get to see it in not too much time. So until the next blog, Namaskar!

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