Playing Magi on Christmas

Margaret, Elliot, and I spent Christmas like the three wise men: riding dromedaries (one-humped camels) across the desert. We joined Victor and Charles from France and Jessica from Germany via the U.S. on an overnight camel safari starting at about 6:45 a.m. on December 25. We slept on the sand dunes under the stars, but (Pam, don’t be too jealous) the nearly-full moon blocked out the stars for most of the night. Fortunately, I woke up for about a minute after the moon had set, though I was too tired to really spend any time enjoying the stars. We had enough clothes and blankets that pretty much only my nose was cold.

Sunrise on the sand dunes!

After we got picked up in the Jeep from the camels, our driver stopped by his family home to show us around. He showed us this room with this display shelf that was clearly handmade (but looked pretty nice), and was telling us all about it. The plaster was made with cow shit (his word) and there was wood underneath. At this point, he broke off some of the plaster to show us the wood, while we’re all trying to stop him from breaking the frame. He said, “No, it’s okay” with the attitude of ‘a woman will fix it,’ which is really just my reading into his nonchalance knowing that most probably a woman will be the one who has to fix it. He then took us to the roof of the house to see the rest of the village and the calf they had tied up in the side yard. When we went down to the side yard, I asked if I could go up closer to the calf, so he went to try to capture this terrified young calf who was already tied up by his/her leg. I tried to get him to stop – I know full well that calves tend to be scared but curious, so if you just approach cautiously with your hand out, you might get to pet the calf. When I tried to say, “No, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that,” he wouldn’t stop, so I had to pet the calf so that he would let him/her go. But then he went around to this little room and pulled out a baby goat. I got to hold the kid, but I accidentally put her back before Charles got a chance to hold her, not realizing anyone else wanted to. So I went into the room and got the other goat, which was slightly bigger, out for him to hold. Then we briefly had both of them out at the same time. I was right in my element! Now I want a goat (Dad, it would reduce your lawn-mowing requirements)!

Prior to our camel safari in Jaisalmer, we stopped in Jodhpur. Our train was running about four hours late, so we spent a lot of time at the train station. We both, however, got a lot of reading done: I would really recommend My Spiritual Autobiography by the Dalai Lama. In Jodhpur, we stayed in this guest house that had a rooftop restaurant. The food was awesome (dal fry, mix veg curry, parantha, omelets, nutella banana crepes, and muesli with homemade curd), and the view was even better. We were just outside of the fort (this one is the fort featured in the latest Batman movie), which was wonderfully visible from the rooftop. We even got to hike to the fort over the rocky hills that surrounded it – twice. It was wonderful to walk around outside of the city, where there weren’t constant honks from the TookTook (autorickshaw) drivers or motorbikes passing. The concept of noise pollution is thoroughly acceptable in India, and it is quite stressful actually. It is wonderful to escape into nature, and fortunately our destinations had enough of that. Also fortunately, I will only be staying in Dehli for a few days, so I can quickly escape the noise and air pollution. As Elliot said last night, those who don’t think there should be regulations on pollution should spend some time in Delhi to see what the outcome of lack of regulation is.

Hiking back from the fort.

As I write, we are aboard a 14-hour overnight train back to Delhi. We have beds, and unlike the overnight bus, we are very confident about the cleanliness of the beds on the train. Elliot, because he joined us on the trip at the last minute, had to get a ticket in sleeper class, which has more beds, no bedding, and is not air-conditioned, but he seemed comfortable with the cleanliness of his compartment.

This trip to Delhi will be as short as our previous stop – just a couple of days – then we’ll head on to Dehradun and the farm for New Year’s. I’ll stay as Margaret returns to Delhi to work on her research with her advisor then head out for her field work. I’ll dig in to the farm work and studying some of the other stuff that Navdanya has done. While in Delhi, we will be staying with Elliot and his roommate Brian. His other two roommates will be out of town. They even have a washing machine, so we can very easily do our laundry!

Photos!

So Margaret is posting a bunch of photos from our excursions to her blog. Instead of posting those same photos here right now, I will direct you instead to her blog: margaretindia.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Defying the Mayan Apocalypse (title stolen from Margaret)

India has been as inspiring as I expected. It has also been overwhelming and intimidating. I’m developing a lot of food for thought for my return home. Good news: Today’s supposed to be the end of the world, and the day is nearly over in India – the world is still around!

After leaving Mussoorie, we started the first round of traveling in Delhi, staying with the sister of one of Margaret’s professors from Xavier. Olina and her husband, Sri, were incredibly welcoming. Margaret had stayed with them briefly during each of her two previous trips to India, so she knew them pretty well. We hit some major sights in the city: the Red Fort (we might have overdone it, spending about four hours in this one location), Qutub Minar, and the Lotus Temple. We also had two rounds of Italian food: an Indian version of Italian food at The Big Chill, where they serve the pasta with a phenomenal spicy tomato sauce and pizza (supplemented with a Mediterranean sampler platter) when we went out with Margaret’s Fulbright friend Josh and a few of his other friends. In Delhi, we also endulged ourselves a little bit in Western economic imperialism: Masala Lay’s chips and McDonald’s. The Spicy Paneer wrap was quite good.

On Monday, we left Delhi for a conference in Alwar, Rajasthan, with the National Council of Applied Economics Research (NCAER, Margaret’s affiliate institution), on Decentralization and Rural Governance. The conference took place at the Dadhikar Fort, a beautiful old for converted into a hotel near Alwar. The research was related to the devolution of power to the local governments (Panchayats), the reservation of seats in the Panchayats for women, and the effective delivery of services. Though I have only a basic introductory understanding of economics, I found the presentations and discussions very interesting and illuminating. We also had the opportunity to meet many pretty impressive people. The good news is that an economics professor at Brown University also feels like he made some bad choices in his undergrad days and is now very happy (and very successful) in his current place.

At the end of the conference, they took us on a trip to the Sariska Tiger Preserve, and we actually got to see one of the tigers. I’m excited to say that I was able to catch a few pictures of it. The danger with focusing on taking pictures, however, is that I didn’t get the time to just watch the tiger. As we were driving around in the sunny, near-70-degree weather, I turned to Margaret and said, “Close your eyes, feel the wind in your face, and imagine how cold it is back home.” 

I really know how to travel: mid-to-high-60s when I landed in Alaska, and similarly beautiful weather most of the time so far in India.

When we returned to the station where we met the safari cars, I spent some time hanging out with this bull on the side of the road. I just miss home and the farm so much!

Following the conference, we left the group in Alwar for our own adventures: traipsing around Rajasthan through three cities: Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer. Right now, we are in Jaipur. We hopped on the train from Alwar to Jaipur without tickets after being told at the ticket counter to buy our tickets on the train. We couldn’t find seats, so we ended up sitting on a box in the galley area for the trip (which only lasted about an hour and a half). When the conductor came through asking for our tickets, Margaret told him that we had been told to buy our tickets on the train, and he tried to get us to pay 1250 rupees each for tickets that should have cost about 330 rupees or so. After arguing with him in Hindi for several minutes, Margaret negotiated a cost of 400 rupees apiece. After taking the money, the conductor had a pleasant conversation with us and wished us well. (For a price conversion, estimate that 50 rupees = 1 U.S. dollar.)

We arrived in Jaipur and spent some time sightseeing and shopping. Rajasthan is known for its tie-dye and hand print clothing styles, and we found a few awesome items. We then had our third Italian meal, again due to the choice of a Fulbright friend of Margaret’s. But the pizza at this restaurant was also really good. Thin crust pizza seems to be the crust of choice in India. Tomorrow morning we leave for Jodhpur, arriving around 5:00 p.m. We will be joined by another Fulbright student for the last two stops on our Rajasthan trip.

I will leave you with two quotes for now:

“We also kept hens for their eggs, which I was in charge of gathering from the chicken coop. I often amused myself by climbing up to the nest-box, where I liked to perch and cluck like a hen!” –H.H. the XIV Dalai Lama

 “If the Dalai Lama can go to sleep and sleep every night for eight hours when Tibet is in the hands of China, we should not be worrying.” –Margaret

Three Cups of Tea

Today, we shared three cups of chai with members of a small village in Uttarakhand. Those of you who are familiar with Greg Mortensen's semi-fictional work Three Cups of Tea know that the first cup means you are a stranger, the second cup means you are an honored guest, and the third cup means that you are family - what an honor!

As part of Margaret's research project, she reached out to Rajinder, who is coordinating efforts through the Landour Community Hospital to develop water programs in the area. Today, we drove about 60 km through the mountains, which took about two and a half hours each way. Our maximum speed (rarely reached) was about 40 km/hr due to all the turns and switchbacks along with the narrow roads. But our driver was excellent, and the scenery was gorgeous.

We even got stalled briefly behind a donkey on the road (and cows, too, but I didn't get a picture of them).

We got to the village and spoke briefly with some women who were washing clothes at a water source just outside of the village, then entered the village itself and spent some time with a couple of the male leaders on the roof of a building, where we were offered our first round of chai. The village was quite small and quite beautiful, especially with the mountains surrounding us.

We left this village after a simple but fantastic lunch of corriander-flavored eggs with chapati and our second round of chai, heading to a second village where we met with members of the Panchayats of both villages. There we shared our third cup of chai, while Rajinder presented the ideas for water management to the community, contingent on the grant from Samaritan's Purse. The leaders present at this meeting also gave feedback to the ideas presented. While I didn't understand the conversation, it was interesting to watch the dynamics. Although I was just tagging along, unable to contribute anything or communicate with them, the people in these communities welcomed me with open arms.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will go back to the Landour Community Hospital to meet with Rajinder so that Margaret can give feedback on his grant proposal for this project so that he can submit it tomorrow evening. Among the considerations we discussed as important to this project are the roles of women and the complete cycle of water. (We even briefly discussed the impact of farming issues on water because of my plans later this month to spend some time working at Navdanya's organic farm outside of Dehradun.)

Water is an issue that affects women in many ways - from cleanliness to the amount of time they must devote to the collection and transportation of water. In the village we visited, we found out that they spend about 30 minutes each day collecting water (about 20-30 L each day), and they must wait up to two hours for their turn to collect water. This takes a lot of time out of other activities, including economic activities within the family. Water is worldwide one of the biggest barriers to education for young women. Thus, it is one of the biggest issues in closing gender gaps (and reducing population, since well-educated women tend to wait longer to have children and give birth to fewer children).

Another issue related to women and water is the Panchayat, literally "assembly." The Panchayat is the local governing structure in India, and it is important for the community to be involved deeply in any project that comes from the outside. Many organizations require a significant percentage of the resources (up to 60%) to come from within the community. In 2009, the Union Cabinet approved a requirement that 50% of the seats on Panchayats be reserved for women. In some cases, the women basically serve as puppets for their husbands in these positions. In some cases, they are less effective because they have not been properly trained. It just goes to show that a simple requirement such as this reservation cannot be implemented without allowing the people to gain the necessary tools for successful implementation. It's not that they are incapable, just as it is not true that people are incapable of using water sanitation systems properly if they stop using them after getting sick because healthy practices were not taught to them as part of the installation of the water system. After all, each of us had to be taught these things from our communities before us.

The other main issue of concern is the entirety of the cycle of water. There are many ways to provide water to communities; some are more effective than others. Some work in mountainous regions; some work in flat regions. Each project has to be tailored to the community that receives it. Furthermore, part of the discussion included waste disposals, and Margaret introduced the idea of eco toilets, which are basically just simple composting toilets. Pollution in water is one of the major sources of sickness in India, and reducing that pollution to begin with would help greatly. Once the human waste is fully composted, it can be returned to the soil as fertilizer, becoming a resource for the people of these farming villages. We even talked about vermicompost as part of the waste management system. I do love worms!

Though exhausting, and although I couldn't understand most of what happened, today was a great day to see the real India, not just the tourist locations. 

My 35.5-Hour Day

Leaving from Chicago, the total time change to Mussoorie this time of year (because of Daylight Savings Time) is 11.5 hours. I left Chicago at 10 p.m. Chicago time, and slept most of the plane ride, so my 35.5-hour day began following that flight, upon my arrival in Istanbul, Turkey at 4:45 p.m. local time. I left Istanbul a mere three hours later, after it had already grown dark. Since that was so close to my morning, I slept very little during the five-hour flight to Delhi, arriving at 5 a.m. From there, I transferred to the domestic terminal at the Delhi airport (which was more like a separate airport), where my five-hour layover for my flight to Dehradun became a seven-hour layover due to a changed flight. Fortunately, I met a nice 21-year-old Australian named Alex. His flight also was later than expected, so we hung out for about five hours until I had to leave. Upon my arrival in Dehradun, I collected luggage and walked out to meet Margaret, who had been waiting quite patiently for two hours because I could not get a hold of her to inform her of the flight time change. We drove through Dehradun, stopping for some fantastic Dal Makhani, Vegetable Jalfrezi, Garlic Naan, and Pistachio ice cream at a local restaurant and driving up through Mussoorie to our home base for this week – the Landour Language School. As I write this, it I 7:10 a.m. in Indianapolis, and I have not slept more than briefly since approximately 9:00 a.m. Indianapolis time almost 24 hours ago. I’m very surprised that I am not more tired than I am.

Comments on traveling:

Those of us from the United States and other English-speaking countries are quite fortunate because so many people around the world speak English, making it much easier for us to travel around the world with minimal problems.

When traveling internationally, I think it makes sense to notice and even reach out to those who you think (even sometimes erroneously) to be similar to you. On my first flight, I was sitting next to a white man. My first reaction: gladness that I was sitting next to a fellow American. Turned out he is Russian. He has been living in the United States for a while and was traveling to Russia for the holidays. We were able to talk for a little while, and he asked to carry my extra carry-on luggage off the plane for me. My connection to Alex (the Australian) developed when we were both standing at the ticket counter trying to sort out our various issues for our flights. As a white man, particularly one with a plane ticketing problem, it was pretty clear that he was a tourist. I think these experiences display reasons we as humans tend to notice various social categories (such as race). In doing so, we are attempting to use surface judgments to find someone similar to us. Obviously, we then take the steps to move beyond these initial connections and develop connections with those who are different from us, from whom we can learn a great deal.

First impressions of India:

It’s exactly what you picture in many ways. Transportation beyond the airport is exactly how it is described: chaotic. People who know what they are doing have a handle on the situation, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be driving around India. And there is a lot of honking, but it’s used as a form of communication rather than in anger. Some trucks even have “BLOW HORN” painted on the backs of their vehicles. Perhaps Americans can learn from Indians about the use of horns for communication, although I wouldn’t suggest quite as frequent use.

In the places I’ve been so far I’ve seen a lot of the little roadside shops you see so many pictures of. And nearly everything gets repurposed. So many things are made of repurposed objects. It tends not to suit our American perceptions of what is good and aesthetically pleasing, but it has a certain beauty all its own.

P.S. When I arrived and walked out of the airport, I thought I had packed too much in the way of warm clothes, but now I'm starting to think I did just fine.

Here I Come!

Fear. It's a kind of pervasive emotion. As my trip approaches (now less than a week away!), I have started to develop some anxiety. Yesterday, I decided that I was going to avoid it, so I spent some time watching tv. While reactions like this can be helpful temporarily, they are only useful in moderation.

This thought helps me with several things. I spent some time a few weeks ago planning for my return - for my goals and dreams back home. I've reached the point in my life when stages aren't just handed to me like high school and college. There is no graduation that comes from completing a set number of courses in real life. I have to choose and create my own transitions and my own pathways. Even this trip to India wasn't really the creation of my own pathways. But when I return, it's time for me to start working on those things. That's a good thing. A great thing, really. The planning and pondering makes me feel alive. It motivates me to do things, even though fear can come in as a paralyzing force as those plans are played out.

The biggest challenge right now is dreaming for things I can't quite plan yet. Things such as moving into my own place, building a garden or more, looking into grad school options, finding new supplementary jobs, etc. I don't yet know which of these things I'm going to pursue, or which order I'm going to pursue them in. What I do know is that thinking about my future and ways to live out my dreams makes me very excited. It makes me feel alive. And I can't let fear take that away from me.

So here I come, India! And soon enough, here I come, Indiana!