The Life of a Researcher

I'm back to a normal schedule finally! No more exotic traveling or tropical diseases (hopefully).  I just have about a week and a half left of my internship and then presentations and then we’re done and I can come home! Crazy. Three weeks from today and I’ll be back in America.  It’s hard to wrap my head around it.

Things are super busy at the internship because we’re working on a case study of my organization and their experience with an empowerment workshop that was completed by the women.  We’re conducting interviews to gain an understanding of their life satisfaction before and after the workshop, as well as any major changes the workshop inspired in their lives.  It has been an emotionally draining but incredibly insightful experience and we’ve only conducted three full interviews so far.  I am overwhelmed by the information I’m learning from these women and the life experiences they have endured over the years.  Most of them have gone through a traumatic family experience, many of them having been disconnected completely from their families or the villages they grew up in.  Some of them were betrayed by those closest to them or have had to make difficult decisions to survive such as giving up their own children.  But while they share these awful things with us, they also tell us that they are completely satisfied with life and would not change a single thing if they could do it over again.

I am amazed by the strength I see in these women.  They are tough enough to sit in a room with an interpreter from the organization and two complete strangers (myself and another research scholar) and share their stories, their traumas, and their hopes and dreams.  They also share how they feel about everything they’ve told us.  I was surprised but encouraged by how open and willing to share they were.  I’m not sure I could share such personal anecdotes with a stranger, never mind a stranger who doesn’t even speak my language.  These women are incredible and I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to know them, spend time with them, and learn from them.  After getting to know some of them, it means the world to me that I can help them in some way, even if it’s just sharing their stories through our case study and hopefully getting more funding for the organization.

Acting as comic relief for our day of interviews, a couple of the children ran upstairs to harass us before lunch.  I was writing something on the computer and all of a sudden there was a tiny Indian boy jumping into my lap and slamming his hands down on the keyboard and then getting distracted before I could do any damage control.  Luckily, he didn’t do any serious harm but it was somewhat disorienting watching him dart around the room, playing with things, picking up things and putting them down in new places, and then coming back to poke us and prod our laptops.  They were little energizer bunnies and they were absolutely adorable.  Then our interpreter came back in and yelled at them to go downstairs and stop bothering us.  It was fun while it lasted! Back to work.

I felt exhausted at the end of the day and I still have to type up the notes from our three interviews today which will probably take several more hours.  Who knew research could be so much fun?! I know, I know, I'm serving my time in the field.  Someday I'll be important enough to send other people into the field and then use their research as my own after telling them how bad it is.  Until then, it's going to be a lot of late nights - just me and my computer.  It's a shame India has not discovered the benefits of a 24 hour coffee joint.

"There's just something about... cheese..."

Tonight, we had a 'girl's night out'—just me and two other girls.  It was kind of an impromptu decision to find a café with wi-fi because our internet was not working earlier in the day.  We headed to one area of Pune City, but the place we ended up did not have coffee (their machine was broken) and their wi-fi did not actually work... fail.  We decided to head to Koregon Park where there was a cheese festival... can't go wrong with cheese.  Especially considering real cheese does not normally exist in India.  I don't think the climate allows for it.  Anyways, the cheese festival did not disappoint.

We walked down a path littered with handicrafts and finally made it to a table full of cheese spread samples, including fondue.  They had garlic & herbs, smoked ham, and other delectable options.  But it got better.  Go to the next table and there were about 15+ giant hunks of cheese to sample.  This was the most random assortment of cheeses.  They had cranberry cheese, coffee cheese (yes, COFFEE cheese...), marble cheese, boursin with paprika, pepper cheese, and so many others.  We definitely tasted every single one until we made our way over to the Cookie Czar.

At the Cookie Czar, F and I got a cup of coffee to enjoy with our handful of cookies we purchased, after sampling nearly all of them of course.  They had chocolate orange, tangerine, apple walnut cinnamon, almond mocha, coconut macadamia and all of them were so soft and chewy! It was incredible. So we sat down to enjoy our snacks while H went to inquire about getting some fondue.  Apparently they don't normally sell it but we managed to convince them to give us an entire pot of cheese fondue with a basket of breadsticks over a flame on our table for only Rs 400.  That's about $7.  So, we settled in to enjoy our fondue, coffee and cookies.  We even had live music that was... interesting.  They kept playing the most random things like Africa by Toto... It was fun though and the lighting was perfect.  It was in an outdoor patio area with christmas lights in the trees and leaves raining down on us.  Such a silly romantic atmosphere.

Next, we headed to Shisha Café where we were disappointed to find they did not actually have any Shisha at the Shisha Café and on top of that irony, we found out it was a dry holiday so no, we could not have any drinks.  Well, why didn't anyone tell us? Apparently it was some sort of Iranian festival.  Not really sure but no one was serving anywhere in the city.  So we got some mint tea and settled into our cozy bench to chat for hours.  The mint tea was perfect... literally just mint leaves in hot water and our bench was large enough to stretch out and snuggle up to each other.  Yes, you can do both.  It was so relaxing, we could have spent all night there.  But alas, there's a curfew to keep! So strange living with a curfew...

Anyways, here's to more relaxing nights with the girls.  And more cheese festivals.
xo A

I've Got Jungle Fever...

I didn’t want to dampen my blog posts about traveling with the fact that I was miserably ill the entire time, so I am creating a separate post about my tropical disease.  Just so we’re clear, I do not recall being bitten by the mosquito that infected me, but he was a sneaky little bugger.  Just before travel week, I felt a little feverish but thought I was still good to go.  Upon getting to the mountains, I started having a really bad head cold which I assumed was due to the extreme climate change between the heat of Pune and the chilly mountain air.  I was wrong.  I spent the next few days blowing my nose and sitting in the sun to stay warm wrapped up in my yak shawl (new purchase).  But it wasn’t enough as we headed farther up north.  I started feeling feverish and dehydrated which I thought was a symptom of sitting next to the heater for too long to stay warm.  Wrong again.  By the time the last leg of our journey rolled around, I could barely stand up for more than 20 minutes before I started feeling top-heavy and had to sit down.  I nearly fell asleep sitting on the floor of the airport waiting for our flight home from Delhi.  Again, my fellow travelers and I just thought I was tired from traveling and needed some rest.  Wrong, so very wrong.

I texted my host-mom when we reached Mumbai that night to tell her not to worry about me the next morning as I planned to sleep in for a long time to recover from my journey.  She obliged but when I woke up around 12pm and walked out of my room with my face bright red to tell her I thought I had a fever, she was allowed to worry.  My fever darted around 100, 102, back to 101 all day and finally petered out the next afternoon.  The doctor gave me medication for my cold and fever but he thought I’d be fine in a few days.  And then came the rash.  Itchy itchy damned rash.  This was the last straw and I had to get my blood checked.  Officially my most efficient experience in India.  I went to the lab directly, got my blood taken, and they EMAILED ME my results about FIVE HOURS later.  I was extremely impressed.  Verdict? Dengue Fever.

Well, that’s half the battle.  At least I have a diagnosis.  Apparently in the past, students have had to take bed rest for 10 days when they have Dengue and some of my classmates are treating me like I have the plague or staring at me asking, ‘shouldn’t you be in the hospital?’  I know there are possible severe complications, but for now I’m okay and I am NOT contagious as I am not a mosquito and I do not bite nor do I suck blood.  My prescription is rest, liquids, rest, liquids, and a normal healthy diet.  I probably should’ve been restricted to my bed for the last week instead of traveling through the Himalayas... but you only get to be young and stupid once, right? How was I supposed to know?

I think I’ve also adopted a certain level of paranoia.  As I sat typing this post, I heard the notorious little buzzing in my ear.  I leapt out of my chair, grabbed the bug spray and covered myself head to toe.  You may have gotten me once my little friend, but not twice.

And for some reason I can’t get the song Jungle Fever out of my head... it’s just so catchy and it’s the same syllables as Dengue Fever...

City Travels: Amritsar and Delhi

On our way back to Pune, we spent a day in Amritsar so we could go to the Wagah Border Ceremony and see the Golden Temple.  The Border Ceremony was kind of like attending a big football game, if both teams had their home stadiums with them.  Or realistically, it’s similar to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace because it happens every day and does revolve around the guards.  There was loud music, cheering, home-team pride (national pride songs), dancing, and even a man in a white jumpsuit encouraging different sections of the crowd to cheer louder.  The guards wore funny hats and did really high high-kicks.  Even I was impressed and I was a cheerleader.  Beyond all of the fun and games of who-can-yell-louder, I’m not sure the ceremony really accomplishes anything.  It’s a fantastic opportunity for peace promotion and yet it seems like more of a contest between the two nations.  If you haven’t pulled out the map yet, the Wagah Border, just outside of Amritsar, Punjab, India, is the only road crossing between India and Pakistan.  Hence the ‘ceremony’ between the two countries.

Wagah Border, India-Pakistan

Next, we went to the Golden Temple late in the evening.  It was incredible.  The Golden Temple itself sits in a symmetrical pool of sacred water that is said to cure you if you take a dip.  Surrounding this sacred pool is a massive open-air marble palace.  It is truly breath-taking and strangely enough, many Indians I’ve spoken to say it’s better than the Taj Mahal.  I’d like to believe them since I shamefully missed the Taj Mahal on this India visit! Oh well, I think I’m getting plenty of other sites in.  The Golden Temple can be reached by a marble walkway out into the pool, and then, after standing in a pushy line, you may enter the impressive building.  Gold, marble, fresco paintings, any description I give it will not do it justice.  It was truly fantastic.  I just wanted to brush my fingers along it and sit and stare at its beauty.  Perfection.

The Golden Temple
Amritsar, Punjab, India

Unfortunately for me, the ceremony and the temple just about wore me out because I was in such poor health at this point so I went back to the hotel, ordered a mango shake, took a hot(!) shower and passed out.  Our flight to Delhi left early the next morning and then we had a few hours to kill so grabbed a taxi and headed to the old city.  We tried to visit the Mosque but the abrupt in-your-face man at the entrance insisted that we pay a foreigner’s fee of Rs 300.  HA! Nice try, dude.  Not worth it.  Then we found out the charge was just for cameras.  Well, what if we don’t take pictures? Nope, doesn’t matter... you have a camera in your bag.  We just couldn’t win.  So instead, we sat on the steps of the Mosque and chatted in the late afternoon sun.  We also grabbed a bite at a local eatery which was delicious (from what I could tell).  Freshly cooked roti and dahl and my ever-controversial cold drink.  I really just wanted something to drink since I wasn’t going to test my stomach by eating, but the owner refused to let me have it because he explained you cannot have cold drink with meal, only after meal.  No sir, I’m not eating! I just want cold drink.  But Miss, you must eat.  THEN you can have cold drink.  No.  Just.  Cold.  Drink.  This went on for a few minutes until he gave in and let me have my soda.

I accidentally fell asleep in the cab ride back to the airport and spent the rest of the trip homewards fighting with myself to stay awake when it was important.  We finally reached Pune around 1am and I managed to garner up the energy to take a hot bath before crawling into bed and sleeping about 12 hours.  Only to wake up with a miserable fever.  But that is for another day!

xo A

Himalayan Adventures: Dharamshala and Dalhousie

What a week.  With a 24-hour journey on both ends, myself and three other girls from the program managed to make it to the Himalayas and home again in one piece! Well, somewhat.  K and I were both victim to our body’s protests against the extreme cold.  I am just now feeling well enough to write about it after several day’s rest.  If only I had some honey lemon ginger tea! This was a favorite traditional “cure all” beverage up in the mountains.  I was first introduced to it in Dharamshala, where we began our adventures.

Upon arrival at 2am, the only thing we could focus our eyes on was the taunting stone staircase down the side of a steep hill that led to our hotel.  I’m actually surprised none of us fell to our doom that night.  It was freezing and we were all exhausted so we crawled under our fleece and duvet blankets and went to sleep.  Around 10am the next morning, we woke up to catch the last bit of breakfast on the rooftop restaurant of our hotel.  I threw on as many layers as I could and J and I ran upstairs to meet the other girls.

So, was the trip worth it? That morning alone was worth it.  It was beyond words.  Clear blue sunny skies and mountains for miles.  Evergreen trees, prayer flags hanging on the nearby buildings, and the temperature was perfect if you sat in the sun.  It was incredible, I never wanted to leave.  We spent the next two days in Dharamshala wandering through the town checking out the handicrafts, the old run-down St. John’s Church, and of course the Dalai Lama’s Temple.  Unfortunately, the Dalai Lama himself did not join us but the complex was exquisite.  It was a giant maze of layers and temples and prayer wheels and Buddhists of all ages doing their prostrations.  We also visited the Tibetan Museum which was the first time I had really bothered to learn anything in depth about the Tibetan struggle, if I’m being honest.  It really is horrifying to learn how Tibet has been, and continues to be, treated.  I have to wonder why the rest of the world does nothing.  I’m also very curious to talk to my Chinese studies friends to hear what they know/think about the situation.

The first morning in Dharamshala, we encountered a nice Kashmiri man in his 20s who was selling fur slippers, hats, gloves, etc. He was very nice and as we began chatting and trying on his slippers, he offered us tea and you can never say no to tea! We were very fond of him and chatted for a good while.  Later that evening, we wandered into a lovely shop with more Kashmiri goods and realized it was owned by his cousin.  Naturally, we were given a ‘good friend price’.  One of the Kashmiris, the Class Clown, extended an invitation to dinner and we tried to decline, explaining that we already had plans with three other friends for dinner.  That didn’t work because they invited all seven of us over for dinner! We descended some more rocky trails towards their flat and played cards and chatted while we waited for dinner.  We taught them how to play slapjack and one of them was very good at it! The game came down to just him and one of the other girls with us.  He eventually lost, but it lasted a good while.  Finally, it was time for dinner which was absolutely delicious.  Rice and some sort of paneer dish with fresh vegetables.  We all devoured it.

We had a lot of fun chatting with our Kashmiri friends, learning all about their family’s houseboat in Kashmir, their ability to speak about eight languages just from interacting with tourists, and of course their affinity for slapjack.  But alas, it was time to say goodbye! Next stop: Dalhousie.  Another hill station farther up in the mountains.  The drive was absolutely breathtaking.  Just mountains on mountains on mountains.  We reached our hotel a couple of hours before dinner and spent some time huddled near the space heater.  Unfortunately, there is only a few months of winter so none of these places have real heating systems - just tiny little space heaters that don’t actually heat the room.  I even spent one night sleeping on the couch huddled with my toes in front of the space heater because the bed was too cold.

If it hadn’t been for the cold, I would’ve absolutely loved Dalhousie.  There was basically nothing to do which was perfect for me.  We took a day trip the first day to Khajjiar, a beautiful meadowy area.  We even played frisbee in the middle of the mountains! Check that off our bucket list! Like everywhere else we went, we stopped for tea at Khajjiar and enjoyed the cool sunny day.  As we were enjoying our tea, I noticed one of the flower boys up close.  There were several boys carrying around baskets of flowers to take pictures with.  A nice idea, right? Well, it gets better.  They had bunnies in the baskets too! I tried to take a picture but I would’ve had to pay for it so I opted out.  Soon our time in the mountains had to come to an end, but not before we enjoyed some cheesecake made with yak cheese! It was actually delicious, although it sounds quite strange, I know.  I highly suggest yak cheesecake if you ever get the chance!

Although our time in the mountains came to a halt for now, our journey was not over yet! We had two more cities to explore: Amritsar and Delhi.  To Be Continued...

Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Prayer Wheels at Dalai Lama's Temple
Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Somewhere in the mountains :) Himachal Pradesh, India

Playing Frisbee!
Khajjiar

Lake Khajjiar

Statue of Shiva in the Mountains!
Himachal Pradesh, India

Somewhere in the Mountains :)

Just so you have an idea of the road conditions ;)

Bombay Part II: A Series of Misadventures

I have a wonderful friend, D, that I used to work with in D.C. who has actually recently relocated to Bombay for the next year or two.  Since I was in the area already anyways, it was the perfect chance for us to get together and explore a little together.  I got to her flat in Bandra in the evening and while she finished up with some work I walked down to the boardwalk along the beach.  Again, it was that twisted sort of beauty.  I love the ocean more than anything, so I was ecstatic to be near the beach, but I couldn’t ignore the waste around me.  The mangrove-like trees along the boardwalk could have created an entire new landfill on their own.  The beach was an expansive set of rocks and mushy mud that I did my best to walk through to get closer to the water itself.  It was so nice to feel that salty breeze, even amongst all the pollution.

Carter Road, Bandra West, Mumbai

That night, back at D’s flat, we actually cooked our own dinner.  What a liberating feeling.  We made pasta with chicken and tomatoes.  Delicious.  We chatted for a while then got some rest for our fun-filled day on Saturday.  The fun started with the shower.  I had been so excited that they had an actual shower head rather than a bucket bath, but alas I spoke too soon.  Friday night when D’s roommate came home and tried to shower, one of the knobs ripped right out of the wall.  This meant that water did not come out of any other tap besides the hole in the wall.  So not only did I get to take a bucket bath, but I got to fill my bucket out of a hole in the wall.  It was quite comical.

Then we took the train to the wrong station on our way to Colaba from Bandra.  I got really excited about the train because it was one of those ones you see in pictures with the piles of people hanging out the door.  We did not get squished in with so many people, but I did get to stand near the open doorway which was very exciting for me.  I felt like a five-year-old.  Anyways, after getting off at the wrong station, we finally found a cab driver who knew where we wanted to go and took us to Colaba.  We walked around and visited a handful of modern art galleries, refreshingly air-conditioned and a relief from the humidity outside.  They were really cool exhibits too.  After the art galleries, we headed over to Bungalow 8 to do some window shopping and/or drooling.  Apparently Madonna has frequented Bungalow 8.  It’s very NYC lofty and each floor gets more and more expensive as you go up.  I picked up a pair of cufflinks on the top floor, one said ‘Sell’ and the other said ‘Buy’, and the price was Rs 12,000 (a little over $200).

Exhibit for Olympic Losers

By this time it was late in the day and we were starving and in need of some serious rest.  The perfect solution: Suzette Café.  A crêperie run by three french expats.  I was in heaven.  It was an adorable little corner location, air-conditioned with comfortable benches and pillows.  They even had a book shelf with all of these french philosophers like Voltaire, authors such as Albert Camus or various french art books and other literature about french culture and people.  D and I split a crêpe with grilled chicken, caramelized onions and goat cheese for our first course.  And then our salad was apples, pistachios, and more goat cheese over a healthy bed of lettuce.  And just in case we did not have enough goat cheese, there were mini crêpes full of it on top of our salad.  I have never been happier.  We even got a free espresso after our meal because we sat there for about three hours.

Quiz: Which country am I in?

Finally, we decided it was probably time to leave and we went to sit along the wall on Marine Drive that looks out over the water.

As we were sitting enjoying ourselves, an old man struck up a conversation with me.  I will try to only include the entertaining bits of knowledge he shared with us:

What looks like a cat, but is not a cat?

A kitten

Never lose your ____________(he either said country dance or confidence...I’m not sure)

Why do they speak different Englishes?

In the U.K., they separated the prisoners then sent the good prisoners to the U.S., and the bad ones to Australia

How do you spell anger?

A-N-G-E-R

Now what happens when you put a ‘D’ in front of it?

D-A-N-G-E-R

What do you call an adult who still behaves like a child?

An adult child

What is the one thing you need to become the head of state/organization/etc.?

A head

When your boyfriend (his assumption) is angry at you and yells at you, don’t speak.  Who will speak to him?

Time.

We finally managed to escape his philosophical musings and went to check out the National Center for Performing Arts.  There was a free literature festival going on, but the monologue about to start was about euthanasia and we decided that wasn’t a very fun Saturday night.  We also met an Australian bookwallah traveling around India sharing his books and doing poetry readings etc.  We tried to go to the Jazz Festival but it was too expensive.  Around 7pm, we decided to head home for dinner.  Commence three-hour-tour.

We bought our train tickets, which said Bandra on them, and got on the women’s car ready to go home.  About 30 minutes into our trip, the girls next to us mentioned that we were not on the correct train.  They informed us we’d have to get off with them and take a bus back to Bandra.  Not realizing how far away we were, we agreed. So we got off with the girls, tried to get a rickshaw to the highway but no one would take us.  The girls then agreed to walk us to the highway where we would get the bus.  They even waited with us for the bus to come so they could point out the right one.  I’m constantly amazed by how far people here will go out of their way to help you.  By this time, we had learned that we somehow managed to make it to Navi Mumbai which is not even part of the city.  Here's a map to show you how off-track we got: Map of our Misadventure.  They pointed out the right bus, and we started running after it.  It never stopped and we went back to the bus stop, feeling defeated.  We asked another man since the girls had left, and he pointed us to the next bus.  We jumped on the moving bus and took our seats.  Our tickets given to us were in Hindi so I hoped we were on the right track.  We settled in for an hour-long open-air bus ride through the dark and dirty streets of Bombay.  Around 10:30pm we finally made it home to D’s flat, took a cold shower out of the hole in the wall, and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

The next day, we walked around, saw some street art and enjoyed a delicious traditional meal of peanut butter and banana sandwiches! Yum!

Street art on Chapel Road, Bandra West, Mumbai

Time to return to the real life in Pune.  It was an amazing weekend and I completely fell in love with Bombay.  We had so much fun the entire time, I can’t wait to go back at some point.

xo A

Bombay Part I: A Structured Program

Day 1: Arrival and Bombay High Court

As part of our program, all of us had a three-day scheduled trip to Mumbai.  Our train for departed on Halloween around 7am out of Pune Railway Station.  The station exhibited well every walk of life in India.  There were morning commuters, individuals and families sleeping on the streets and sidewalks around the station, beggars, hawkers, and I was even privileged to see a man pissing on a pile of stinking garbage.  What a pleasant start to the day.

My host-mom had warned me against eating train food so I had eaten breakfast at home and avoided the uneasy sickly feeling some of the other program kids had later in the day.  The train was pretty “normal” compared to Amtrak (the only US train I’ve ever ridden... do we have any others?) and I think it only took us about 3.5 hours.  Upon arrival, we dropped our things at the YMCA and YWCA in Colaba, Mumbai which is the Southern tip of the city, also where the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel are located.  It’s pretty much the nicest part of Mumbai.  Rickshaws aren’t even allowed within that part of the city.

Gateway of India

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

First stop: Gandhi Museum

It was somewhat underwhelming compared to the Smithsonian but it did have a few cool items like a letter Gandhiji wrote to Hitler basically asking him to please not invade Poland, and then apologizing ahead of time if this letter upset Hitler.

Next stop: Bombay High Court

We had a cool opportunity to walk around inside the High Court and step into a few courtrooms to watch the proceedings.  The grounds looked somewhat like Hogwarts, no joke.  It was incredible and would make an amazing location for a haunted house (we were there on Halloween, but alas, no haunted house).  Adding to the Hogwarts atmosphere, everyone was walking around in ridiculous robes.  Inside the courtrooms, there were papers everywhere and I found it difficult to tell who was arguing on whose behalf, especially given that the defendant and plaintiff were not actually present.  It was surprisingly informal, almost like a discussion at times rather than someone representing a case.  The lawyers did not always stand up to address the judge, and one of them even interrupted the judge.  Maybe I’ve watched too much T.V. but I feel like that’s the sort of thing you get in trouble for.

One of the main differences between the legal system in the U.S. and India is the idea of ‘trial by jury’.  There is no jury in India.  One of the judges explained that a jury of peers does not fly in India because the peers are not educated and qualified enough to make a proper decision.  I guess they’re not worried about biased judges... Of course, all of the answers we were given by lawyers or judges were extremely polished.  Apparently everything is hunky-dory with the legal system in India.  Oh and fun fact, their idea of a work day is from 11am-5pm.  Don’t worry, that’s not all of India but it did irk me to hear them mention that they were at the end of a long work day.

After the High Court, we headed back to our hotel and a few of us went out to eat at a local eatery.  The menu said ‘where you can mix music with beer’.  This sounded so new and exciting to us that we were sold! Music... AND beer?! We had a good time and may have broken curfew by a few hours but it was a great time.  We even got to choose our own songs on the jukebox machine and an old man kept telling me how ‘brown’ I was.  I never thought I was very brown, but thank you old man by the jukebox.

Day 2: Dharavi

As we drove through the city on our way to Dharavi which has a reputation for being the largest slum in Asia (although some sources deny that), I was struck by a funny thought.  All around me, the windows of people’s homes and flats had clothing racks with all of their personal laundry flying in the wind for everyone to see.  I then fondly remembered my Bonne Maman, may she rest in peace, who used to insist that it was unacceptable for us to lay our towels out to dry on the balcony railing when we were in Bethany Beach with the whole family.  I think she may find India’s lack of laundry privacy a little shocking.

Anyways, Dharavi is incredible.  We walked up to the eighth floor rooftop of a building in the middle of the slum to see the view (pictured below).  It was incredible.  Over 1 million people squeezed into those little disheveled stacked-on-top-of-each-other homes.  We had a brief discussion with the slum’s community leader and then headed down to visit a potter and the recycling unit in two different groups.

Dharavi

The Gujarati potter we spoke with was the most genuine man, he was fantastic.  We went up into his workshop in groups of five because there was not much more room than that.  Climbing up to his shop was like climbing into the hayloft at my grandparent’s house up in Maine.  So picture a pottery workshop in a hayloft and you’ll get the idea.  He even let us try our hand at some pottery, trying to teach us how to make a little pot or a flower pot.  I was pretty terrible at it.

Learning pottery from the Gujarati Potter in Dharavi!

The most incredible thing about this potter was his sense of identity and values.  He was very intent on explaining that foreigners, including NGOs etc., were guests and they would be treated so in his home.  He did not take anything from them.  He even hosted a man from the Discovery Channel for a three-day stay.  Now, on the other side of this, he is the last generation of potters in his family because they don’t have the resources to continue making a living off of the trade.  It was sad, but he said his kids are getting an education and he’ll still teach them the trade, it just won’t be their main profession.

Next stop: Recycling Unit

It was somewhat overwhelming, and somewhat beautiful and strange twisted ways.  Such as the tiny colorful particles of grounded up plastic.  Or the man who was like a human-sized ant carrying a pack on his head about five times his own size.  Most of the workers waved at us and said ‘hi’.  Others kept to their work, grinding and boiling and breaking down materials that we use in our everyday lives.  It was cool to see it but I could smell and even see the chemical particles in the air.  Let’s just say I’m not looking to work there anytime soon.

Man carrying his ant load

What a natural color...

On Day 3 we just had a handful of lectures on various topics of development and then we were free to go.  A handful of people headed back with the program, but a bunch of us stayed back to enjoy Mumbai for the weekend.  To be continued...