Back to Bombay

After traveling for 3 days, I arrived in Mumbai- it's a strange feeling to be back. On the flight here I got stuck in Kuwait for a day. We were sitting on the place on the runway for an hour and a half when the engine turned off. We were stuck in the airport for 6 hours and then they finally gave us a hotel room and we all got visas to enter into Kuwait and waited for them to stamp our passports. I spent the day roaming around the downtown portion of the city and couldn't help but notice the large south and south east Asian population living here amongst the Kuwaitis. The buildings were all very modern in the downtown area but as you looked out into the horizon you quickly saw how the desert hugged the city. I went back to the hotel and washed the dry dust off my clothes and grabbed a meal that was all olives, hummus, pita, and feta- it was great, and all payed for by Kuwait airlines.
On the plane back I met up with my GSI from Berkeley, Aditya- we knew that we were both going to be in Bombay over the break but didn't expect to be on the same flight, let alone sitting behind each other. I was glad I met up with him to have someone to ring in the new year with. We landed in Mumbai at 5 am on New Year's Eve and immediately all my senses were bombarded and every memory from last summer came back to me. I smelled the paan, the masalas, and the pollution and saw all the vibrant colors that I forgot India projects.
My first day, like most other peoples first was pretty memorable- it felt great to know my way around the city- hoping on trains, picking up passes, recharching my phone. It was a comfortable feeling, especially since I am here alone, whereas I was with 10 other students last summer. I cannot explain enough what a change I just went through by coming to Bombay. I spent the previous 2 weeks in Cleveland, Ohio visiting my family and left the snow for the heat of Bombay. Two completely different worlds.
My objective for this trip is to keep Haath Mein Sehat's (HMS) contacts with all the colleges we work with and conduct focus groups with the students. This will help us to gain a better understanding of how our education programs are fitting into their curriculum and determining the efficacy of our education and outreach programs. Although I feel quite comfortable here there is still the feeling lingering that I am an outsider coming to work on Water and sanitation issues in urban slum areas. When I meet knew people here and explain what I am doing here I can't help but feel as if I am just some colonizer trying to fix certain situations. I try to remain humbled and make sure that the program I am working with is working in a way that is sustainable in India without my presence once I leave.