Jaipur Week 3 and 4

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Today is the first day of our last week in Jaipur and bits of "America-sickness" believe it or not, are hitting my in small rushes. I would say that this is only in regards to my making better sense of both cultures--not trying to place one above the other. Plus, frankly, with Diwali holiday coming up, i'm missing the festive season of what I'm used to---knowing me this is probably 90% food and 10% location. Plus, when the middle class here talks to me about the strain of having only one servent or the intense pressure they are under if one is to go away for a short period of time--i start to get a bit agitated. If you can imagine. It's amazing to take part in intense cooking all day and to be able to walk away from the mess at the end...knowing the servent will come to clean it up. One of the host families actually lost a maid--they were in such shock that they had to hire someone for the 3 day interium--unsure of how to function otherwise.

To leave off from last journal, I was able to meet with the International Development Economist in his office, but only after spending other quality time there. The day I went in to meet with him I went to a female professor to talk about setting up an appointment, and ended up with 3 different appointments with other professors in the building. They also have a great library with tons of materials that I poked around in for some time--aquiring two great Gandhi articles in the first 10 minutes I was there. Prof Voshi, who studies Women in Rajasthan and especially female nutrition was a great source for the academic journals I have been doing for class. I have been present for two fasts of my host mother as well as numerous talks about her daughter's upcoming arranged marriage---and we discussed for some time how marriage, female fasting, and the feminist movement are present in Indian culture. After, I met with a Prof who helped me make some great links between Gandhi and Adam Smith for my Independent Project. He found much more pleasure in trying to give a pop quiz of sorts...excited each time I voiced a macroeconomic principle in our chat. Though he hasn't been INCREDIBLY helpful and keeps you meeting with him way past what is necessary--hes oddly a pleasure to be around and full of other information.

For my 2nd weekend in Jaipur we left for Tilonia--Barefoot College, to receive another glimpse of village life and seeing what grassroots development is being done by this distinquised Social Work and Development Organization (http://www.barefootcollege.org/). After we arrived we had a tour of the campus--including a look at the solar pamels that women scientists are making on the village level---with limited "education." The College has amazing water resource management and is environmentally conscious on other more in depth levels. I'll admit I didn't get the full dose of the entire tour (including the health facility, garment 'industry' and other electronical sections). This is because we had it mid day with the sun beating down on us--there is a reason why many Indians take mid afternoon naps--it is almost impossible to function in such heat.

After showing us a short puppet act, exemplifying the ways in which they bring messages to the community (this is their "publicity" department that brings health issues, women's empowerment issues, etc to the villages they speak in)--it functions as a facade of sorts, allowing issues to come to the table that may otherwise be socially unacceptable to talk about straight forward--they broke us into 3 small groups to travel to different village sights for the reminder of the night. My group drove about an hour and a half to our sight. Coming off the dirt road we were led through a large door into a big open area, walled off on all four sides. To our right was a staircase leading to an upstairs with 3 rooms (the banister open to the middle downstairs area). In front of us was the large open space and to the back two large rooms, one of the rooms with a small area and roof in front of the wall (where we would sit and eat our meals). To our immediate left was a fire pit where some of the food would be prepared and further up a door that led to the outhouse outside. After a cup of tea and seeing the other group that had traveled with us off, we were told that we would leave shortly for nightschool. About 15 minutes later the 6 of us in our group climbed onto a large tractor for our trek to nightschool--10 km and 45 minutes away. The ride there was desolate, but beautiful---if you can imagine the desert--with greenery and a full moon in the dark. We spent much of the time passing nothing...I'm still quite unsure of what marks were available to the driver to find his way. We then passed thru two small villages and again came into an open field where at a far far end we could see a small object, that coming into focus we discovered was the school house. About a km away we passed a young boy washing himself in the pump by the road. Upon seeing us he began running, full force,--and shoeless behind the trailor---hardly spotting for breath. I can't really describe the whole image, so I won't. When we arrived at the school house, we went into the small open room where about 16 girls sat with their colorful clothes and shawls on (it was quite cold--being in the desert) in a large circle with books and pencils in their laps. The walls were uncovered except for one blackboard standing upright against one wall in front of their half circle. In the middle sat a lantern, the only light. We sat in one corner and through the interpreter began a short conversation with the girls. We found out they are between the ages of 8-14 and in their primary education. They come from a mostly shepard class--their jobs in the morning sheparding the goats. Most of them start their days between 4:30 and 7 and end after their night class ends at 9. A few of the girls are already married, though they will not move in with their husbands and their families until they turn 18. They introduced themselves in a line, giving us their name and village. Our speaker and their teacher then explained to us a bit about Tilonia's role in the village. The students here (it was our luck that boys were not there that day, as they normally are in equal attendence to the girls) participate in what is called a Children's Parliament. They elect a Prime Minister (and most of the time across villages this has been a girl) whose role it is to tell the village leaders what they like and do not like with the school/their teachers. If they are dissatisfied with a teacher, the village responds immediately. Our guide explained that especially in the village, where hierachy is so present (respect for elders, etc), this gives children a chance to feel empowered in their lives, the ability to voice their needs and wants in their education process. And, our guide explained, it has worked...with the village responding immediately. Additionally, the night school teachers meet once every 24 (or so) days to discuss curriculum and what things are/are not working.

After all this, the girls asked us to give our names and village. They asked us what we do during the day and we explained we were students..this confused them a bit as they were expecting a different answer--so they asked if we milked our cows. We explained that we didn't have cows...that we buy our milk in the market. Dissatisfied again, they asked how many liters of milk come from one cow--telling us the number they get (i forget as I write this). We explained again that we are removed, mostly, from the production of our food. So they asked what kind of food we eat. We named a few things--though even our interpreter was surprised at our lack of consistency in diet (as well as the cow ordeal). At the mention of fish, the girls broke down in laughter--exclaiming amoung themselves "How?!?" After, we sang each other songs. They shared an old song about a father telling his daughter that although she is married she does not yet have to leave the house--that she can get her education there first. We sang itsy bitsy spider and Lean On Me.

Boarding our transportation and leaving this place was probably the most surreal experience yet in India. I truly felt I was leaving one world and entering the next. We sat in silence for the most part on the way back...all of us in our thoughts--this being one of the first times that we truly understood that the whole world doesn't live like us--or try to.

The next day we woke up early for a field trip to a midwife and child care center. We met the midwife at her house, again with translator, and found that she had been working in the community for 25 years (as a midwife---she lived there all her life), having to only send one woman to a hospital for serious labor complications. She received her training from Tilonia, and frequently goes back to talk to other midwives and receive renewed training. She brought out an emergency birthing kit for us, containing gloves, cotton, antiseptic--all sterilized in the chance that the birth was immediate. She walked us through the schedule of when women came to see her--Her compensation came from Tilonia, not the women--except for gifts she may receive from their families.

After leaving her we went to a childcare center--a simple two room house where two women worked watching babies while their mother's worked in the field. They also had received training and compensation from Tilonia---and often received visits for the child to receive their immunizations. They kept the children fed and happy. They ranged from small babies to perhaps 5 year olds, the older ones recited for us their parents names and village heads as well as nursery rhymes, numbers, and the alphabet...all things they learned there. While we were visiting, a mother also came in from the field to feed her baby before going out again. While stopping to go to the bathroom at a secondary school right next door, Hallie(who had to go too) and I were called over to try our limited Hindi on the principle, we brought out chairs and water for us, asking us where we are from and what we study. After this, we napped for a bit and then left to meet the bigger group back at the Barefoot College where we went to their shop (selling villagemade projects) and had a debriefing of our session there--where we could ask additional questions about what we had seen.

Later that week in class, we had a lecture by Arjuna Roy, whose husband started Barefoot College. She is part of an organization that looks into transparency in the Indian Government. The level of corruption here is pretty great in some regards---with so many laws on the books that people have no awareness of or that are completely disregarded leaving people with no means of support. She left her kushy government job and now lives with many of these villagers and "untouchable castes," making minimum wage and speaking out all over the country. She took time out of her busy schedule (leaving the Dalit march that just happened to Delhi) to see us for a class.

This past week I was also part of two fasts with my host mother: one for husbands and one for children. She took to fasting when she got married, after discussing it with her mother-in-law. They talked about the different stories behind all of the fasts (some women here actually fast 4 timse a week---the host of two of the women on my program has been fasting every day on the advice of her guru). My hosts are in a love marriage, Prahaba a Brahmin and Lalit from Punjab--(which is not a caste but she hasn't mentioned him). Nanny, Prahba's mother had never fasted, her husband saying she could if she wanted to but he didn't really agree with it. (The more I talk with Nanny the more insight I get into how progressive her family was for their time--all of the daughters were among the first women to go through college, her father adament that she always had the resources to take care of herself if the need arose).
Anyways, back to the fast, Lalit is not at all into the idea of fasting, seeing religion as a more internal, private awareness of self--and when any comments are made on it he says "Shes doing it for herself not for me". Towards the middle of the day we went a community puja. There were about 8 women from the community there, all dressed in either red of pink saris (wedding colors) with elaborate wedding-type jewelry, henna and bindis on. They brought puja material (flowers, fruit, nuts, etc), said prayers, dressed the (alter? type area) where Ganesh was placed and then together went through the seven steps (that are performed during marrage) passing their offering plates around in a circle 7 times. Later that day, Prahba had tea and fruit, having been preganant the first time she fasted she took these foods--and you are supposed to follow the schedule you kept the very first time. To break fast, we had to let her know when the moon was out....all following a traditional story that I'm not going to reiterate here...we let her know and she came up to the roof to meet Lalit, who had to hold a screen in front of her and the moon because she could not look on it directly. After they laughed a bit and did puja together, after which he offered her a glass of water with which she broke her fast.

The second fast I was privy to was for children (Prahaba chose after hearing the stories that I'm not writing here to do these 2 fasts as she appreciated the concept behind them). She explained that this fast was not as long, she was able to break it as soon as a star was visible (about 2 hours prior to when we could see the moon for the first fast). When I saw a star, I notified her and she called her son Aiush home from work. We had to wait outside and ring the doorbell, as the way to break fast is to feed 6 children (in this case). We were invited in, in a performative way--hello sir..oh please come have some food. We sat on a mat on the floor of the kitchen, Prahba walked around and did blessing over us then offered us a huge great meal.

In other news, we visited the Amber Fort as a group this past Sunday. On the way to the bus in the morning I got my food stuck in the cattle grates--yes stuck. A rickshaw driver got out of his transport to try and help me while I hung on to one of my group members for support. We had to actually take off my shoe, take my foot out, and then grab my shoe from inside the grate--luckily I've been cold lately so I was wearing socks--AND luckily those things don't go too deep! The Fort was really beautiful, with a great view of the city---we were able to witness Mogul blended with Rajastani architecture, as Raj Man Singh was a ruler in his own right under the Mogul Akbar.

Otherwise, there has just been preparation for Diwali here. I have been pretty loaded with work with our numerous lecturers and Hindi. On my off time i'm trying to visit different people for my Independent Project--spending time at the Gandhi Institute, with a Hindi time reporter and more than enough time at the Development Institute. When i'm not doing that i'm helping Prahaba with wedding shopping, as her daughters ceremony is coming up in August. In other news, word has come from a Christina missionary that there could be a potential wife candidate for Abishake the full time cook/staff in the house. He has been going into and out of bad moods about wanting to get married...and this announcement has been putting him in much better spirits...In some ways I start to feel uncomfortable of the bond he thinks we have over being Christians. He gets a bit visibily agitated when Prahabha has him participate in some Hindu holidays ---they celebrate Christmas also for him. Each time, when we are alone, he shows me a crucifix or points to the calender at a Christian holiday. I try to explain to him in my limited Hindi that to me its all the same---but if you can imagine, i'm probably saying something completely different like religion is here. Oh language barriers.

We leave for Varnasi in 1 week. We've been told to get any open wounds taken care of and to get prepared for the most strenuous part of our stay---dead bodies, feces, intense spirituality and a crazy busy schedule.

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