I’ve nearly finished my project at Sambhali Trust. For the past weeks I’ve been preparing a 6 month report on the Sheerni Microfinance Project, which has three self help groups in Setrawa village. The village is about an hour from Jodhpur and for an exciting day I visited the field to interview the women involved in this initiative. I’ve learned a fair amount about microfinance in India, about how it operates, its strengths and weaknesses. My Sheerni report begins thus: “The Sheerni Project is a leading example of the power of microfinance in India. Microfinance, the practice of extending small loans to individual borrowers who have traditionally lacked access to credit, has become one of the most popular antipoverty strategies in the world. The Sheerni Microfinance Project has made progressive steps towards lifting poverty and ... read more

A warning to my dear friends, If you see a boy run into the street at night amidst an Indian wedding party, place something on the concrete, light it, and run, then it will probably explode in your face. In a terrifying moment, I was momentarily deafened and blinded. Amidst the singing and music accompanying the mounted bridegroom, a flash of light filled my vision, quickly replaced with pitch blackness; my hearing was assaulted by a roar, and then an eerie silence of aftershock. This slowly faded into a harsh ringing as my eyes slowly regained their sight, but my heart continued pounding. It only lasted a few seconds, and my fear was so great that I couldn’t process what I was afraid of (blindness? Death?) until I’d already begun to recover. The following explosions were ... read more

When I was younger, about 15, I kept a black marble journal filled with my own philosophical musings. Once I had a friend write a response in it, but mostly I worked through ideas with private words. It begins with the question of whether there is a right answer for everything, if there is such a thing as the right way to go about change, the ultimate solution. If there is some decision, some right choice that would end the war, that would fix the fight, that would feed the poor forever. A right choice that only G-d can know, until someone chooses it. I think I came up with some contradictory answer, about circumstances, after many, many pages. Looking back, it wasn’t really the answer that mattered. Now, I wonder about this question, but changed; ... read more

Namaste, Today I had an exciting meeting with Govind and the interns at Sambhali Trust. Megan has just arrived, and the four of us discussed our projects and were assigned some further work by Govind. I will be writing a report/proposal for the Sheerni Micro Credit Project with our three Self Help Groups in Setrawa. Of course I have not forgotten that this is where the Emory graduate (tear) Surbhi worked last summer. I’m currently working on getting translations for past reports and financial books, and looking over Sambhali’s past work and relations concerning the project. I’ll be evaluating how the SHGs have progressed in the past 6 months since they were formed and what needs and potential there is for the future groups. Sambhali Trust also has 10 SHGs that the government has assembled and ... read more

Hello All! It’s only been three weeks, but it feels like forever! Things are happening back in home in Atlanta- the house is undergoing a design transformation, and Kendra has a killer job at the Atlanta Aquarium. I just returned from a camel safari in Jasailmere, and I fear my life has changed forever. My new favorite animal is, without a doubt, the dung beetle. Not only do they serve a magnificently honorable role of cleaning up all the poop from the desert, they do so in the most admirable way: by running with their tiny beetle legs and rolling the poop along the desert floor. The camel poop (as it most often is) obtains a lovely coating of fine sand. When the beetle has found the proper ground, he or she then proceeds to dig, ... read more