Leaving India

This is a 5 minute overview of just part of the work I did this summer...
  I've spent 6 out of the last 14 months in India. My 8 weeks Mumbai  for this trip has come to an end. I found it hard to post during this trip for a few reasons. One, because our group was working so hard everyday. Two, we balanced the hard work with a healthy dose of social life in the Bollywood world. Three, because things just became so normalized that I honestly forgot I wasn't Indian some days.

Our partner NGO, PSI

I'd wake up, walk down the street, dodge some traffic (be it people,cars, buses, or cows)   grab some chai for 4 rupees from my favorite chai stand while reading the Times of India and holding an umbrella to hide from the monsoon, eating a Samosa Pav in my other hand (yes, that adds up to four hands but if Vishnu can do it, so can I). I'd walk down J.B. Nager (the neighborhood I lived in for 2 years) and wave to all the shopkeepers and ask them how their day was going before jetting off in a rickshaw to the train station to attend meetings with lawyers, college professors, teachers, doctors, college students, and kids. Everyday was a good 12-14 hour day but never was I ready to call it an end before that.
I loved working with Haath Mein Sehat- through this group I have learned the skills I need for the future, especially in the Peace Corps next year. I can't say that this will be my last trip to India because I love this city, this country, and this culture too much to move on. Bombay has a place in my heart now, another place I will call home and have to make visits to in the future (especially since I have a 10 year visa!)

Working on a school installation at Muktangan

I feel so fortunate to have experienced what I have this summer with such an amazing group of dedicated and passionate activists that were my room mates... will I ever be so lucky to work with such a great crew of people? I hope so because the happiness I encountered this summer shouldn't be a once in a lifetime deal- but rather a lifestyle.
I am excited for the future of HMS to partner with Tata, Teach for India, new NGO's and for the work I poured my heart and soul into to be carried out in the future.Although I have left India, I have not left the project. I still have so many ideas and energies I want to put forth. I am proud of what I've done so far and really impressed with everyone's dedication to the project as well. 

Awesome street food at Juhu Beach

1st grader in the 3 week program

Ganesh Shrine at train station

Crawford Market

Behrampada

Bandra-Worli Sea Link

This is an end to India for now... but not goodbye. I will miss the constant warmth, the coziness of no personal space, the rich aromas, the meaningful life lessons, new perspectives of where I place my values, the constant new conversations with new friends on marine drive, the friendly head bobbles on the trains, the hard bargaining, the chaat....ughhh... everything! Now I will be enjoying time with my family in Cleveland before heading off to South America in 3 weeks for a brand new set of stories, people and places to call home.

Back in Bombay... once again

Back  in Bombay for my third trip- I can’t believe that in the past year this is my third trip to India. I’ve grown to love this city, country, and culture. I’ve learned so much and questioned my assumptions and preconceived notions as to the stories I’ve heard about India. It was been two weeks since I arrived and it felt so great to land and know my way around the entire city. The weather is incredible hot--- almost 100 degrees everyday with the sun beating down on you. I am in my element, this is my favorite climate, the only thing to make it better is a hot cup of chai on the street corner. Life is good. What makes this trip so much better is that I can speak some hindi- it has made a huge difference in making connections and getting around. It always shocks the locals to hear me say a few phrases in Hindi. Little by little I am learning how to have a conversation in another language for the first time ever.

I am working again with Haath Mein Sehat (Health in your Hands in Hindi) for the summer and the project is going really well. We have an incredibly dynamic group of individuals on our team that work really well together and we are ahead of schedule in terms of our planning for the summer. I am so happy to be working on a collaborative group project as most of my previous work has been solo- this experience taught me the value of working and sharing ideas with people that bring you to think about things from such a different angle. This summer my role is to introduce all the new members to the city and the colleges we work with. It feels really great to be established in this city to show up to a college and have the professors know you and work together with them on a project that you have created.

The bulk of my summer will be split into two projects: carrying out a three week hygiene education program that we will be presenting to Teach for India and also conducting an ethnographic research on the use and storage of water in Behrampada- a slum in the Bandra East part of Mumbai. I am very excited with how well the programs have been designed, all of us in the group have spent countless hours putting together the programs by taking a holistic approach and applying the research knowledge we have gained from Berkeley to put it into action. This is my line of work- its right up my alley. HMS has prompted me to think about going into Public Health for my masters… but that will be down the line… after the Peace Corps.

Not only am I excited to work on our project but also to explore the city some more. My time in Bombay will be characterized by the long conversation while watching the sun set on marine drive, taking trains so packed that you think you don’t have enough space to take another breath, eating food so spicy and rich of flavor, and challenging my ideals of the value of money through understanding different perspectives. I never used to be a city person- in fact growing up you couldn’t get me out of the woods…. but Bombay has completely changed that in me. Now, I love cities- especially this one… the chaos, the hustle, the noise, the warmth, the crowds, the buzz, the dynamics of it all.

Leaving Berkeley

I just left Berkeley last night for what might be for the next 3 years. I have alot of traveling coming up in my future. Currently I am making my way back to India (Currently on a 14 hour layover in Chicago) to work with Haath Mein Sehat for 8 weeks in Mumbai. I am so excited to return to Mumbai for my 3rd time. I know the city know and know how to get around and even have a great group of friends in the city.
It was really emotional and intense leaving Berkeley- I have lived there for a quick 2 years while I was finishing up my requirements for the Bachelors in Anthropology and Global Poverty. My family was in town for my graduation which was awesome and I had to quickly wind up packing my bags and moving out of my apartment... My homebase is now Cleveland, Ohio again! It is tripping my mind out to think that if and when I return to San Francisco I will be turning 28.... When did I become an adult all of the sudden?! Do I really want to leave San Fran when life is so good there right now? Too many things going through my head but for one it feels so good to have finished my degree- I have been working on it since 2004 and now I've dont what I needed. The world is now mine.
It will be a great summer in Mumbai and then I will be heading back to Ohio for my sister's wedding before I again hit the traveling path for a 4 month trip through South America. Life is good. So good.

Understanding where this is going...

It has been a crazy week bouncing back into Bombay- It feels good to know my way around and have a network of friends in this city. I've been traveling around the city to each college and community HMS works with and it is amazing to see how our program has panned out. As I mentioned in the last post I couldn't help but feel out of place working in a country that is not my own on issues in poverty stricken areas. After seeing the effects of the work our team has put in- it is an empowering feeling to be a part of this program.
The importance of Haath Mein Sehat is for one, that we reach out to communities to we have worked with to spread the message of water storage and hygienic practices. The combination of these can potentially lead to a better quality of life, better access to an education, and less days of work missed due to preventable illnesses. The second important outcome of this project is that it empowers all the members who participate in the program. After talking to some of the college volunteers, it has been very inspirational to hear their feedback about participating with this program. Many of them are deeply involved with community service and youth development. Hearing what they've learned through this process and what they plan to do in the future to motivate more people on these issues.
So... I regained my understanding for way I need to be a part of such organizations.. to be a part of the whole system and to help outreach messages to others and the importance of youth development. I've learned more from this program than any class I've taken in the past and know that I will continue this work in the future. I've learned so much about the effects of lack of access to basic human rights and also gained insights to the politics that are involved in such processes.

1)Talking with the Students about their experiences with HMS
2) Presenting Certificates of Completion to the students and professors of SNDT college

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.

After spending two days exploring Mumbai and getting used to the city, Monday came around and it was time to get start with Haath Mein Sehat (HMS) Hindi for “Health in Your Hands”- The reason I am in India. We have really hit the ground running with meeting with college professors, students, and NGO's in the area- it has helped me to learn so much about Mumbai and India.
HMS is a student group that started in 2004 at the UC Berkeley campus that focuses its efforts on water, sanitation, and hygienic outreach programs. Right now there are 10 of us working on our project and we are split into 2 teams; Education and Evaluation. I am part of the education team and we are putting together a pilot program that we are going to try out this summer. Our plan involves a sort of networking practice. We are pairing up with college students that HMS has worked with in the past and using them to pair up with 8th graders to establish a mentoring program. The 8th graders are then going to be mentoring 1st graders about the importance of handwashing habits. Our aim is to make an impact on behavior changes- research has shown that the best times of making those changes are at earlier ages and at the start of a new environment. After meeting with the program manager of PSI, a network of education programs in the largest slum of Asia-Darvai, they decided to school to allow us to come into their school and take on our project. Our education model is based on around the fact that it generally takes three weeks to form a new habit so we have created a program that will demonstrate to kids the importance of handwashing in a fun way to help decrease the occurrences of diarrhea, which most people commonly think of it as just a normal part of childhood. The reason why this is so important is because many students become severely dehydrated from diarrhea and miss school or even work which will have an impact on their chances to a better livelihood. Studies have shown that just by using soap for 20 seconds with non filtered water can decrease the amount of diarrheal deaths by 42-50%- so this is why we feel as if we need to make an impact in the schools we are working with.
We have all been working together to make this project work and get through obstacles along the way. One of the slum communities we have worked with, Berhampada, had a devastating fire take a toll on half the neighborhood. Some of the families we have worked with lost almost everything- even members of their family and were relocated into temporary camps where about 200 people live in one room and they must all share one or two bathrooms. It has been a real eye-opener to understand the realities these people must come to face. Since most of the land they live on is not governmentally owned, they do not get any assistance for rebuilding their life back together and are left to figure out a solution to live with. The struggle for survival is strong in many aspects of life here, life gets competitive. With only being here 2 weeks I have seen more poverty than I have ever been exposed to in my entire life- it is sad but realistic. It brings many emotions to the table that you have to come face to face with.
It has been interesting putting our plans into action- all school year our group has been meeting and trying to figure out what we want to accomplish while we were back in Berkeley but now we are here and it is quite a challenge to put it into effect. Everyday we have meetings with some head of a school or college and for the most part they have all been very helpful and excited to have us here and have given us good advice as to how to tweak our ideas to fit in an Indian education system. I've learned so much already about the politics and infrastructure of the slums, the education system, family lifestyle, and just Indian life in general. By the end of the day I find myself completely exhausted- all the new experiences, crowds of people, new environments can really be draining- but all completely worth it.
Although we have been working non-stop, we have also been enjoying our free time non stop as well. Just the other day I realized how much I have come to love Mumbai. I think it was because I am finally gaining a grasp on the completely different pace of life. At first I was so overwhelmed by the amount of people that you are always surrounded by- it has now changed my outlook on the concept of space. The apartment we live in is in the middle of a huge suburb and we have begun to make friends with some of the neighbors- the kids love to play cricket with us which is the most popular sport here in India. Our apartment is like a co-op- all 10 of us live in a 3 bedroom place and we do everything together and for each other in a very democratic manner. It also has a great rooftop area to sit down and unwind at the end of the night (as long as one of the large bats in the air doesn't land on you). Everyday a variety of funny events occur- one day the rickshaw driver (A kind of motorcycle taxi with a backseat) allowed me to drive his vehicle back to my apartment- it was so fun to drive it around! We have been able to get to see some of the nightlife of Mumbai as well and I am learning how to dance to Indian bollywood songs. Where in America it is a faux pas for a man to dance with his arms above his head, in India it is almost mandatory. We also we able to see a Bollywood film in a theater- 3 of our friends were able to translate (though I am trying to pick out some words to understand the dialog. I am very slowly picking up some Hindi.... very slowly. Hindi, however, only gets you so far because many people speak Marathi or Urdu. Its all a learning process- I love figuring out all the little cultural things of the area. The best example is the head bobble every one does to agree with you and that saying yes means shaking your head no... it gets confusing when you ask a taxi to take you somewhere and they shake their head no so you think they wont take you but then they say get in. I started going to the worlds oldest Yoga studio- it was opened 91 years ago and focuses mostly on meditation but also how to focus your life. An 85 year old man sat me down and told me some of the greatest lessons he has learned during the course of his life... it was one of those great moments you never forget about your travels. The food here is so good, it is one of my favorite parts. You can go out for such a great meal for less than $2.50. All the spices, smells, and flavors are really growing on me. There are so many street vendors selling cheap exotic foods so everyday I try to taste something new- luckily my stomach has been liking it. Last weekend a few of us took a train to Goa- it was a 12 hour train ride that quite possibly might be one of the worst conditions I've been on in public transportation ever (well besides that boat ride in the Philippines). I bought the train ticket way late and ended up being stuck 3rd class in the luggage comparmnet that was so packed that you could barely breath.
This has all been one great adventure. It has given me time to think about where I am at in my life and the direction I want to take. I am enjoying my time here and am happy to be a part of Haath Mein Sehaat and I look forward to working with them when I return to the states in the Fall. For now it is back to the planning and preparations for our next meeting. For being just a bunch of college students at Berkeley, I am really impressed at how professional we have made this program- we've even come to the point of deciding whether or not we want to become our own NGO!
Students taking part in our education prgram at SNDT college


A view from the roof of our apartment


A rainbow appearinng after a monsoon rain


One of the beautiful churches in Goa


This is an Indian beach in Goa...with cows roaming