Giving People Hope

Today I went back to one of the villages that has a problem with polluted water. I went with a video camera this time to interview people. Some of the questions I asked were more for my personal research, but most of the questions were concerning the polluted water and the petition I am helping Navsarjan draft. 

It was crazy how responsive people were from the village. They even invited me back later during day to meet with the Panchayat (village level government). It was crazy how much the people did know about. Most of them did not even know what pollution was. They knew the water was bad and which corporations were making it bad, but they did know how or what that means for them and the environment. Only 10 percent of the village is literate and only 5 percent can afford safe drinking water. 

 The water has been causing them health problems for the last 50-60 years. Most of them have skin rashes from bathing in it, and 90 percent of the people have developed kidney stones. One guy we met had a stone that was 18mm long. 

But as we explained to them about their rights and told them about past petitions that we had won successfully, we began to build up hope in these people.

They became animate about getting rid of the pollution and began asking us what we were going to do to help them. We told them that we are filing a petition, but now the pressure is on us. They do not know enough about the laws or even how to write to fill out a petition or application themselves. 

I am going to do all that I can to make sure that this petition has every possible piece of evidence so that the court cannot refuse it, but the truth is once I have finished gathering evidence the final decision is up to them...And in a country that cares more about increasing GDP then about saving the environment...And that is know for its immense amount of corruption...I am nervous that I may not be able to do enough. Even if the companies are forced to discontinue their work they will probably not be forced to clean up the mess they helped make. 

Giving people hope is good but also dangerous, because if you can't deliver then you may just risk the chance of loosing all the trust they have with you. 

But I have become a believer in positivity, and I am going to say hope is a good thing. It is the thing that makes us strive for something more, something better. 

So though I may be a little nervous about how much I hope I may have given these people, I believe in myself, and we should always end things with hope. 

A Brilliant Man

My father is really a brilliant man (and yes Dad if you are reading this, I mean it!). There are multiple conversation I can remembering having with my father throughout my childhood, that always made me realize just how smart he was. 

He is a man who realize that happiness is not drawn from material things, but from the simple things already given to us by mother nature....

He doesn't want a lot in life just a plot of land near the water that he can call his own, and the chance to tromp through the woods really in search of the peace that comes from being outside than any deer or elk (though he would take that as a bonus), and maybe a new ski boat....haha

But there is one conversation that I had with my Dad a couple years ago that I always return to. It was while I was home working for the summer. My mom was away on business so my Dad and I decided to go to Outback Steakhouse for dinner (we are real classy like that...haha). 

During dinner, my Dad looked at me and said (something along the lines of)

 "You know Jill, the one thing I worry about with you is that you are going to let your education go to your head. You can't ever thing you are better than other people because you are more educated than them. You were just given a better opportunity then most. But who knows what anybody else could have accomplished with your same opportunities"

Truer words were never spoken by my Father. I revisit that conversation and the lesson I learned and am still learning from it often. Its a story I often tell my friends to. 

As people become more and more educated they often fall victim to wealth of their own knowledge... they can't remember not knowing what they know now, they don't think about how much time and effort it took for them to learn...some people even become pretentious, condescending, and most of all inpatient with those supposedly less educated then them. 

Honestly these are problems we all fall victim to at times, me included. Being less condescending and more patient is something I have been avidly working on ever since this conversation, and it is probably something I will continue to have to work on until the day I die. 

What we don't realize is that the world is full of hundreds of thousands of different types of knowledge and understanding...and each person has there own wealth of knowledge to share, their own lifetime of experience. 

Its funny cause now I always think about how little I know, and much more I want to learn, and life will teach me. 

I look to the people I am working with and see how innovative they are, they learn whatever skills they have to make a difference in the lives of the people we work with. Even the girls at DSK, some of them might cannot even read or write, but then can sew the pants off of me, and definitely know how to handle village life far better then me. 

So Thanks Dad! You taught me more then you will ever know! 

The message stuck, and now instead of thinking in a condescending manner, I am thinking about what  it is that I can learn from the world and the people around. What is it they have to teach me. 

First World Problems

Lately, I have been getting extremely frustrated with my slow internet connection. While I would way rather be out in the field, the truth is most days I am sitting in the office on my computer perusing the internet... for articles on my capstone project, for background research on the reports I am working on for Navsarjan, on blogs (my own included), pinterest, facebook or just trying to stay connected to my friends and the world back home.

For whatever reason my email is particularly difficult and doesn't seem to like the internet connection I have. I actually spent four hours the other day trying to get my email to load so I could send Manjula (my boss) an email about what I had been working on....Needless to say I was super frustrated. 

 Though I am still loving India...I have been here long enough now that the feel good new glow is starting to wear off and I have started to truly experience and feel how different things work here. 

I am not sure who came up with the tag line "first world problems" but by now we have pretty much all heard it. They are problems that only frustrate people in the first world, the developed world, like a slow internet connection. The is a perfect first world problem because the fact not only do most people in third world's not have internet, turns out a lot of them have never seen a laptop either.  

(The girls from the village were shocked and confused to see me caring my computer... Sushma had to explain to them what it was) 

Internet may seem like a necessity in the U.S. but most places its a luxury, and I am starting to learn how spoiled/blessed I really am to have these luxuries. While I am complaining about how slow my internet is most of the other staff members have to share their internet flash drives, and turns out I even have the fastest model out of all of my coworkers. 

Taking a moment just to look at this personal frustration, and think about it within the context I am in, And from anyone else's position who I am currently living with...I have begun to realize that I really need to learn to let go of U.S. standards of perfection and immediate gratification, and start begin grateful for the fact that I even have internet. 

I truly am spoiled/incredibly blessed to have all that I have.

And the next time I begin to get made about my internet being slow I need to think about the bigger picture

...and use the time I am given to meditate, or go play with the girls, things will happen in their own time if you really want them to.

We expect to much from everything and everyone, but most of all ourselves...I am not saying having high expectations is a bad thing...as a girl who expect a lot for herself, I feel as though having expectations pushes me to do better...but honestly balance is better.
When we expect perfection then we will always be faced with disappointment, But when we can find gratitude instead we can be filled with contentment and satisfaction.

So Today's Lesson Is:
 letting go of my "first world problems"for a health dose of gratitude thus finding inner peace and contentment. 

Only in India!

Over the past two weeks I have slowly been introduced to the wildlife of DSK. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of all the animals to show you, but I was able to get some good photos of the family of monkeys that live here. The first time I saw them I was coming out for breakfast and they were just chilling on the top of the cafeteria, and I thought to myself "only in India!"...haha

Do you see the baby monkey attached to the mother's belly above? It is the newest member of the monkey family just born a little over a week ago. 

Besides monkeys there are also a number of cute but dirty stray dogs (whom I would love to adopt if I had the chance), peacocks, various other kinds of birds, mice, squirrel looking things, scorpions, lizards,  and snakes. I have yet to see a snake and I am praying that I never do, as they are pretty much the only thing I am afraid of...I know it is a stupid fear but what can you do. At least these snakes are not poisonous or so I am told. 

The most entertaining encounter with one of DSK's many animal inhabitants, happened two days ago. I was sitting in my office working at my computer with my headphones in, when all of a sudden Naresh (Manjula's secretary) came running in and told me I had to get out of the office right now. There was a giant lizard who had somehow gotten In when I wasn't paying attention. Turns out it was a Monitor Lizard and it was almost two feet big. It was literally right behind my desk when Naresh came to get me. All of a sudden my office was filled with the ground's manager, all of the accountants, and Naresh standing up on chairs with big sticks trying to scare the lizard out of hiding. By this point it had taken refuge under my desk. 

I just waited and watched as they kept moving my desk and poking the mysterious animal until finally it ran out from under my desk and into another corner of the office. At that point I went back into the office and collected my things and left them to it. It took over an hour for them to get the lizard out of the office. Sushma screamed as the farm hands waving long sticks scared it out of the office and into the auditorium. I heard a loud smack every time they hit the ground around the lizard trying to force its chosen direction towards the door. On more then one occasion the lizard played dead and they had to push it with the sticks they were using to get it going again. 

After that day Sushma and I made sure to push our desks closer to the wall, and fill in any places another giant lizard might try to hide in...haha 

Only in India must I learn to watch out for giant lizards in my office. 

My Beautiful Cohort

This past year I spent a majority of my working hours with the people pictured above. It is kind of crazy to think about how over half of them will no longer be there when I get back from this trip in October. All of the 12 month students finish the program in August, while the rest of us finish up in December. 

The end of the school year was such a whirlwind... with people just trying to survive finals while also preparing for their various internships and research projects all around the world. May of us really didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I didn't really get a chance to say bye. 

The people above were more then just my classmates this past year, they were my teachers, my supporters, and most importantly my inspiration. The amount of compassion, understanding, and drive the people above have for making a difference and helping those less fortunate then themselves is truly amazing. They made coming to class each day not only enjoyable but as educational as possible. I am truly going to miss their presence in my life, but I know that they are all doing wonderful things for the world...and I take them with me as I strive to do the same. I thank them all for their love and support...they will never know how much they meant to me, and how much I admire them all. 

Thank You Cohort of 2011-2012!

I love and miss you ALL!

Getting to the Heart of Field Work

I went out into the field again today...I left DSK campus at 8:45a.m. and returned at 8p.m. 

It was an especially long day...but every part of the day reaffirmed my passion for this work. 

The last day I spent in the field was documenting environmental issues, today I saw the human side of the issues we work with here at Navsarjan.

It started with a visit to meet the survivor of gang rape...She was 11, though she didn't look older then 8. On June 28th three men saw her walking from her school to the well to fetch some water. They offered her 20 rupees (28 cents) to sweep their house. Once she was inside, one of the men held her arms, another her legs, while the third had his way with her...then they switched positions until all three had their chance with her. They gave her 200 rupees (less than 4 dollars) not to tell anyone.

Have unconscious and profusely bleeding, she was too scared and traumatized to tell her family what happened. It wasn't until the next day, after she visited the doctor, that her parents found out she had been raped and they were able to file a police report. 

I sat in the room as Manjula and four of Navsarjan's field workers discussed the case with the girl's family. They were also speaking in Gujarati, but it wasn't hard to get the gist of what they were saying. The entire time they were talking I was watching the little girl hold back tears. She was on full time bed rest being still weak from the experience and healing from the injuries they had caused her.

My heart was breaking...I wanted so badly to talk to this girl... tell her it was all going to be ok...that the people I was working with were going to make sure something was done. But I didn't have the words, so I just sat there until they were finished talking. Manjula started showing the little girl some pictures on her phone, and the girl started to smile. I had brought my camera and had some cute pictures of the monkeys at our campus. I went and sat next to her and started showing her the photos, and when she looked down at the baby monkey her eyes light up, she smiled, and said monkey in gujarati. She wanted to see more and more photos, it made my heart melt that I was able to do something to bring a smile to her face once again.
 When we finally left she was sad to see us go and really wanted to see us off but could not leave her bed.

After that visit we went to another girl's house who was 16 and had survived a gang rape by four men. Her case was scheduled to go to trial within the next couple of weeks.
 From there we went to one of the poorest Dalit villages in all of Ahmedabad to talk about the discrimination they were experiencing and the water scarcity/pollution that was affecting them because of the discrimination.

As I said it was an incredibly long day and emotionally tiring...but overall I felt inspired to act, Now I have seen the human faces of human rights violations, I know there names, I have shared tea with them...and I will do as much as I possibly can to help them. 

Convocation

Currently there are about 150 girls taking classes and living on campus with me. They are enrolled in one of three classes: sari dress design and tailoring, punjabi dress design and tailoring, or beautician training. Their classes run for three months...during which time they are only allowed to leave for one weekend after a month and half to visit their parents. 

Then after three months there is a graduation ceremony with all of the girls. At the ceremony they are acknowledge for their accomplishments and then the ceremony is followed by an extravagant dinner. 

(The dinner was honestly some of the best food I have had here yet... Samosas so good)

The ceremony started with everyone following two drummers in one lap around the campus, then we all filled the auditorium. 

Above is all the faculty and staff who run the DSK campus and programs. 

The ones graduating are the girls with the blue sashes on.

 During the convocation they announced the winners of a number of contests they run throughout the course of the three months. Certificates and prize money is handed out to the girls who performed they best. The money the win will help most of them start their own businesses. The competitions include speech, essay writing, journal writing, reading comprehension, business ideas for themselves, and events in track and field. 

  

I unknowingly was included into the program. I had to hand out the certificates and prizes to the girls who were recognized for their journal writing. After I was done handing out the envelopes the girls were each given a chance to say a few words, then I had to say a few words. 

Talk about being put on the spot...I said something about invest in yourself...education will take you far...and finally if you believe in yourself and are willing to work then anything is possible. 

Not my finest speech, Martin had to translate it and I am not entirely sure the girls understood what I was saying. 

The entire event took a little over an hour and then we feasted. It was such good food, I really wish I had some pictures of it to show you. Oh well I will be here for the next convocation on August 15th and then I will know what to expect.