My first visit to a rural village

It’s so hard to put into words what I am feeling and my mind is constantly racing with things I want to share and reflect on so I apologize in advance if these posts seem scattered and gets longwinded. Skip whatever is not interesting to you!

Yesterday, when I first arrived at the village I was sad and a part of me just wanted to quit and come home. I was feeling really lonely and isolated and initially the living conditions, particularly compared to my life in the US was quite a shock. The thought of having to live like that for another 3 months was so overwhelming. But I got myself together, indulged and watched a little Sex and the City on my laptop (which as many of you know, always helps) and woke up to a new day.
Today was my first official day of work and it was amazing! I felt so much better coming to work and knowing I have something to do and everyone in the office I work is so nice and friendly. I think simply being around people, even if I don’t understand 80% of what is being said is really nice.

I was lucky enough to start during a week in which a team of researchers from another state in India are at the organization conducting research on aging issues in rural villages that utilize and have benefitted from self-help groups and microfinance. The particular issue they were interested in exploring was the potential to introduce micropension for women in these communities through in-depth interviews and focus groups (BTW, for those of you who I took research with, I realized how much I learned and how important basic research principals are).

To set the foundation for the focus group research tomorrow four of us went to the village today which was my first field visit. This visit has been the hands down most amazing part of my time in India so far. We met two woman who are the prominent leaders of the self-help groups in the village and have created interventions for many of the social problems in the village and also started the microfinance program along with Chaitanya (the org I am working for) and have benefitted greatly from this. Although I could not understand exactly what was being said during much of our visit, seeing the enthusiasm the woman in the village had about their role in the community and their accomplishments and the way in which they passionately described their experiences made my eyes well with tears. I felt so extremely lucky and fortunate to have the opportunity to experience something like this. In this village one observation I made is that elders were so highly regarded and respected. In the US I think we often discount elders and see them as a burden but these women basically run this whole village and are given so much respect for their contributions and in turn, they embody such a strong sense of pride and empowerment. It was really amazing to see.

An aspect of the self-help model that I am really interested in exploring through my project is a concept called Jankars who are basically either government, legal, social or financial literacy advocates within a rural village. These individuals are trained by the organization I work with to be experts in one of the 4 areas who then help those experiencing problems of that nature within the village. For example, I read a story about a women being burned by her husband and the village level legal jankar helped this woman file a complaint against her husband and get her medical bills and medication paid for by her husband’s family. I think I was particularly amazed by this concept because it is such an innovative yet practical way to tackle social problems within a community as opposed to traditional social work interventions in the U.S

In addition to this work, the women in this village also started about 10 years ago with each saving 1 rupee a week and as their saving grew they were able to use this to get collateral from the bank for a loan. Along with expanding their agriculture, they also used this loan to start a new business in which they sculpt and paint statues of the Hindu god Ganesh and then sell these for the upcoming Ganesh festival and parade in late August which originated in Pune the city close to the village I am staying in.

During our visit, I also had the opportunity to hang out with some toddlers and young children at a small school (which was more like an open air concrete room). They were so beautiful and full of life and I would take pictures of them and then show them and each time they saw their pictures they would squeal with laughter. Although it’s hard to really know, these children seemed so content, cared for and loved and appeared to have such a song sense of community as they related closely to all people in the village.

Knock on wood…so far I have not gotten sick which I think is partly due to the fact that all our meals are vegetarian and I have not eaten out since I have been here. I am kind of on carb load but its better then getting sick. Also, hunger is definitely not an issue. I don’t think I have ever been so well fed in my life. We have three big meals a day and everywhere we go people want to give you either a treat (bananas, peanuts, biscuits) or chai to welcome you. People are so hospitable here. Like just right now as I am sitting here typing and the caretaker of our office who we call Moshee (meaning auntie) gave me a piece of raw coconut while I still have a cup full of chai in front of me. This is after I had breakfast less than 1 hour ago!

For our meals we go to an area they call “the mess” which is basically a concrete room with a kitchen in the back and the other interns and staff at Chaitanya all go there and eat together while sitting on the floor. Another huge cultural difference is silverware is not used and all food included rice is eaten with your hands. At first this was really odd for me but after few times I got the hang of it and now even the Indians are impressed with how comfortably I eat with my hands. Some other cultural differences that have taken me a while to get use to are here shaking your head no actually means yes. This really confused me at first and still trips me up. I find myself confirming that they actually mean yes several times and I think Indians find it weird that I do so. Also, every time we enter a house room office etc. we take our shoes off at the door before going in and walk barefoot (Haleh you would hate this). Even at the office everyone is barefoot all day. I am not sure of the exact origin of this but I think it has something to do with respect in Hinduism.

As far as language goes, I find it really hard and I am already overwhelmed so retaining the words I learn is difficult. I even have trouble remembering people’s names which I am usually good at. Also there are so many different languages spoken here even just within the organization I work for. Local people speak Marathi, the staff from Mumbai speaks Hindi, the research staff speaks Guajarati, others speak Bengali and the villagers speak Marathi but the village dialect.
As far as my status as a foreigner, although people can tell I am not from here, I don’t get as many stares as expected because in the village most people think I am just an Indian from Mumbai or another part of India especially when I dress in Indian clothing. This helps me to fit in a little better and avoid the stares as long as I stop getting lost and looking around like I have no idea where I am going (which happens frequently).

In other news, I took my first bucket bath today! Yes, me who spends 30 minutes in the shower washed and conditioned my hair with 1 bucket of water. Although I am sure I committed some major bucket bathing feux paus, it definitely was not as bad as I anticipated. If I can do it anyone can. More to come…