Pennsylvania > Boston > Atlanta > Pennsylvania > Vermont > Pennsylvania > ......

/!\Blog Reboot /!\

Just a general announcement to share: My next big adventure starts today.

This year, I have made it to a few places locally in the states, but this summer I will be spending more than six weeks travelling across the United States.  Continue to follow this easy to post, journal/photo album for more updates!

Bekah and Ali Petroff - A class-A act coming soon to a city near you!

Work Work Work

Time is flying by.  At this point, I think I am ready to go home (eighteen days).  I never realized how much worse that "I just want this semester to be over" feeling could get when you are half way around the world.  With the three papers (two research and one in a foreign language), an annual report and my own research project at JJVS to complete in the next two and a half weeks, I am stressing out a bit.  Not to mention trying to figure out scheduling for next fall, employment and housing for the summer and everything else!  So much to do in so very little time (also THANK YOU for everyone who has helped me back home - especially my parents with taxes, FAFSA, and job forms).


Stressors aside, I have had a very low key couple of days.  Since getting back from my near week in the field, I have been on the computer everyday researching and trying to finish up one of my many projects and cooped up with a pretty badly swollen ankle.   Today was unique though because it rained!  It was the first time that I have seen rain in nearly three months!   As the three of us were basking in the freezing cold drops (compared to the 100 degree air), I realized how much I have missed it.  I miss all kinds of weather and would only be a little upset if it happened to snow the week that I return.


Because my last few days were so eventful, here are some of the highlights from last week in the field:  

Painting Jagron Jan Vikas Smirti School

We took the bus with a 10 gallon water jug all the way out the Vali office.   After a chai break, we helped make medicine for the gunis at the ashram.  One thing that I have learned is how much the amount of work declines as the weather heats up.  We would stop at least every two hours for either a nap, food, or chai break.    On top of that, we would start around ten am and finish by two.  This time around, we had a lot of extra time to read, look at the birds or watch the stars.


For the next couple of days, Jasper and I painted the facade of the school that is due to open in about a month.  It was so hot, painting up on the roof, under the midday sun!  Then, on Thursday, we were assigned the task of videography and photography at an event that JJVS was hosting.  At a building far away from the Vali office, we waited around for the members of the local Panchayat to come to the meet.  A panchayat is the village system of governing.  It is pretty much like any district governing system, but in India they specifically reserve one spot for a woman.  Also, the members of the board cannot have more than two children, to be good role models to the villagers.  This meeting took place was to discuss possible projects to help community development projects that could help employ people.

Girls at a hostel in the villages

After the 10:30 meeting started promptly at 1 pm (Indian Standard Time), I realized that lunch was not happening soon.  We left early, ate breakfast before 8 that morning and now were expected to last throughout the entire meeting (in very technical and difficult to understand Hindi) without complaining.  That was utterly terrible.  The entire time, I just wanted to sleep because it was so hot and my body had so little subsistence in it.  Alas, the entire time, there were a group of school aged boys, staring and giggling at me.  Somehow, I managed to make it through to dinner, where I ate more than my fair share of food.  We also got to meet girls at a local girls hostel (or boarding school).  They adorably showed me all of their rooms and we tried to converse in our broken languages.


That night, we also attended a culture festival, where there was a mini talent show followed with dancing and traditional music.  It was quite an event, but we were all exhausted.  After battling with some of the workers, we were allowed to go back to the main office for the night.  I took the next day off.

Crowd gathering for the cultural event.

It's a little sad to think about, but I don't think I will be going back out to the villages before I leave.  All the men who work at that office are so nice and are just fun to joke with.  One taught us the different noises that animals "say" in Hindi, and apparently donkeys vocalize with the phrase "tee bwhah."  Fits of giggles happened after hearing that.  Hopefully, I will get to come back to JJVS and all the branch offices one day.  

Intro to the Field

A local guni

Last Thursday, we all departed in JJVS's ambulance to a branch office in Vali.  I don't think I have learned so much in three days in a very long time!  After  a bumpy drive, we stopped at the site due to open in April as an elementary school which also operates as a guni ashram.  A guni is a type of village doctor who has mastered the ability to recognize herbal plants and use them in various concoctions to cure ailments of all sorts.  We saw the garden with over 100 species of various plants and talked one of JJVS's best gunis.  The ashram is the place in which they hold conferences to teach and share information between gunis across the entire district.  

Local dam that helps water animals

After this stop, we were lead across the countryside seeing many of the projects that JJVS, including the watershed development, dairy co-op, leather work, microfinancing, women's help, and well management.  If anyone really wants to hear more about any of these, I could easily go on and on (especially after I get done with my internship).  Please email me if you want to know more, or just look at all my pictures!

Hiding behind cati in the desert

On this trip, we also got a good taste of village life.  Three of us went to a ceremony that was described as "god-songs" and promised to be home by midnight.  When we got there, we found out that it was actually a celebration of a deceased family member's life.  We were then forced to listen to the same beat for the next six hours or so.  At one point in time, we all fell asleep on the floor next to a woman who had befriended us.  She told us a little about her life; she was married at age 12 (even though females are not legally able to be married until 18 in India) and had her first child at 15.  She was lucky that it was a boy, and has only had one other child since then, and is now 25.  She was also the first Indian I have met to dislike chai!  Even though I felt like I was dying because we were there from around 10 pm until 3 am, I am still really glad I got to see such a unique ceremony.

Puja tree

Also, on the last day in the field, we all participated in a puja surrounding this tree (I was never told the name of it, so if anyone can help me out, please do!).   We were instructed on how to do each step and got to tie a string around the tree and make a wish.  It was adorable how excited all the villagers were to include us in their celebration.  But what really struck me was all the colors there.  The mass of saris was simply stunning against the bright blue sky.  I really enjoyed this part of our journey.  It showed me a very different side of India.  I think my favorite discovery of the weekend was simply how happy every one in the village was - and no one was malicious.  Instead of being harassed, we were objects of curiosity. I was shown a picture recently that perfectly describes how many Indians see us: http://9gag.com/gag/2756774.  

A woman the puja eager to have picture taken

 Since then, we have returned to the base office outside of Udaipur.  Our projects were all assigned, with mine being the following: compiling and publishing the annual report, establishing a plan for the perfect herbal guni garden, making this plan into digital form and a 3-D model, applying the plan to the existing garden near the school and helping get the school ready for the children about to come. With less than 4 weeks left here, I certainly have a handful of projects to work on!  Wish me luck!

JJVS Life

I’m here.  It is well into the second half of the program, where I will be living at an NGO and operating as an intern.  I have been here for two days and am all settled in.  Staying with me are two other people from this semester, Rachel and Jasper, and one girl here for the whole year, Lauren.  It is really nice to have Lauren around because she bridges the gap between us newbies and the men who have been working here for decades.  They have even started calling her our “principle” or “headmaster.”  Though our sleeping arrangements are not ideal, (the three of newbies in one room, each sleeping on the floor with a couple blankets) everything else is fantastic.  The food is excellent, with plenty of it, and we are encouraged to help in the kitchen and do our dishes.  It is so much more comfortable being able to help out, instead of just watching our maid clean the entire house.   There are two teenage boys living here as well, and it is the nicest thing ever to discover that not all Indian boys my age are creeps and freaks.  They are both really funny and have yet to try and hit on any of us!  The staff here is also very accommodating.  There are so many of them, each specializing in a different area, but all of them love joking around and do their best to make us as comfortable as can be.  Lauren even jokes that she thinks of them like her fathers now.

We haven’t done much these past two days, but tomorrow we are leaving in the morning to stay in a field office for a few days.  The main office of JJVS is based just outside of Udaipur, a city that we have just begun exploring.  But they also have many projects about an hour away from here, in several small villages.  We will be staying for three days, in the hopes that seeing the hands-on aspects of different projects will help us identify what area we want to work on.  Because there are so many needs in India, most NGO’s tend to focus on improving the entire community through many different measures including but not limited to, health care availability, education, human rights, water management, sustainable agriculture, curbing pollution, and developing small businesses.  Here, there are so many different projects, so even though it would be very cool to work with natural medicine or sustainable agriculture, I am really looking forward to getting a taste of everything – even grant writing.  If anyone is looking to come and volunteer in India, I highly recommend JJVS.  Check it out - http://jjvs.org This organization has been accomplishing great things in surrounding communities for over thirty years now, and is always open to students who want to research and change how something works for the better.  Hopefully, my trip out into the field will help me decide which path I want to spend my month of volunteering doing.  I can’t wait to start helping people again – even just helping erect the public school building would be rewarding.  

For now though, I am just trying to help my roommates and myself get adjusted to living here.  It will be a hard couple of weeks, sharing the room with two other people, but I think all will work out in the end.  We all have papers to write and will soon be starting projects of our own, so I do not foresee any major issues.  Hopefully it stays that way! 

I have no JJVS pictues yet, so here are my awesome pants I am wearing.

And one last thing – I have free wifi here!  Though it is usually off for a couple of hours during the day because of planned power outages, it is much faster and more reliable than what I was using back in Jaipur.  Hopefully, this means I will be blogging a little more frequently!

Controlling Holi

Elephant paint

Last week, the end of classes was upon us.  After taking several exams and turning in papers, we had a very long holiday from Wednesday to Sunday.  I didn’t actually go anywhere, but celebrated the festival of colors, or Holi.  On Wednesday, the night before Holi, Jaipur has “elephant Holi,” where they dress up and parade what seemed like hundreds of elephants around the polo grounds.  It was an even strictly for tourists – I was in shock as to how many white people were there.  After watching the parade go by, there were several performances.  We had the opportunity to pet elephants and see their beauty up close, which of course ended in sexual harassment from several young, cocky Indians.  Because we were no longer to stay in the crowd, we watched the rest of the festivities from afar.  At the end of the night, they lit off fireworks and lanterns and a few lucky tourists got to play Holi on the elephants (playing essentially means throwing colored powder at other people and becoming covered with colors in the process).  On my walk home, I saw the stacks of wood set up to be lit at 4:30 a.m., the auspicious time of Holi this year.  When these fires were lit, my roommate tried to rouse me from my slumber, with little success to see the forty foot high bonfire lit right outside of our window. 

Lantern in the sky

In the morning, Bridget and I were excited to start playing.  As our family has never celebrated Holi, we were going to meet our friends around 11. Quickly we were ready in our white shirts, anxious to celebrate this holiday.  One thing led to another, and we didn’t actually get the chance to try and leave until around one.  As soon as we walked out of the gate, and started down the road, we were called back in by our host mom.  I had a bad feeling.  Apparently, her brother had convinced her that there were too many drunk men out for us to be safe (we later learned that there was actually nearly no one on the streets, as this is a holiday spent with family usually).  We were stuck at home for another two hours.  Fifteen minutes after this, our host mom came into our room and asked if we wanted to join the family at an aunt’s house to celebrate Holi.  I was pretty sure that this was going to be our only chance to celebrate, so I agreed.  We were off. 

When we got there, there were only a few other people, who had already played quite a bit.  Luckily, they were happy to see clean faces, and quickly colored ours.  It was so funny to see our host mom running from her siblings, trying to keep as much color as possible off of her clothes.  Bridget, Paige and I had a good time with our siblings and the other family we met.  We were certainly covered in color by the time we left.  After some sweets and a bit of chatting on their swinging bench, we were ushered back into the car, and driven home.  We all bathed the purple suds off our bodies, and slept well, full of Holi treats.  It was not exactly the way that I wanted to celebrate, and I am still a bit jealous of the girls who did get to go out, but it was still fun. 

Me, Paige and Bridget after being coated with color

The next day, we got to celebrate another student’s birthday.  Alex turned twenty one, and as a result, we were all surprised with cake and ice cream from the staff.  That night, we went over to a friend’s house, made far too many no-bakes, and danced on their roof at night.  It was fun, but Bridget and I had to be home by ten.  By this point in time, I was very sick of the lack of control I had in my life.  I was told what to eat, where to go, what to buy, how much to use, and how and when I could do all of these things.  Being a girl in India really sucks sometimes.  I was definitely looking forward to leaving and getting the chance to see a new part of Rajasthan.   Monday too far too long to come – when we finally arrived at the NGO, I was ready to start doing things my way (at least a little bit).

Living in the City

First off, let me please apologize for any grammatical errors and/or spelling mistakes that the computer does not catch.  It seems speaking in half English, half Hindi constantly really confuses the brain, especially since Hindi is opposite from in every way.  Even though I have only been here for a month and a half, its really sinking in quickly!  I truly believe that there is no better way to learn a language than to be forced to listen to it or speak it, all day,every day.


But apart from Hindi adventures, this week has been pretty tame.  On March 12, I leave to go to the Southern part of the state, to a city called Udaipur.  I am going to be serving at a community organization, specializing in sustainable agriculture and herbal medicine, called JJVS or Jargon for short (http://jjvs.org/). Also, because the festival of Holi falls on the week that marks the halfway point of my program, I get once less week at my field placement site. I am really excited but nervous about some things!  I am going to really miss my amazing family and roommate, Bridget, and am not ready to leave them for a brand new city and very nervous to live with two other people on my program who I am still not sure if they like me or not.  But I am really excited to see how an NGO functions in India, and learn some of the ways that Indians farm and live in rural India.  Hopefully, all goes well, and I can focus on learning more Hindi and all my term papers due when I get back!  

Kitty cat and Crocodiles!

For now though, I am enjoying my last week and a half with my family, working on papers and preparing for my mid-term Hindi exam.  This past weekend was very laid back.  Bridget and I walked over 20 km between Saturday and Sunday, exploring our city and (me) crossing out some of my final items I purchased for my family.  I was hoping to bring back more, but I am surprised at how much space everything takes up!  With gifts for my immediate family, grandparents, and close friends, I barely have any space for myself (though if anyone wants anything specific, PLEASE TELL ME!).   I have already purchased another bag to bring home on the plane with me.  On Sunday, we decided to venture to the overpriced zoo.

Indian Wolf Pack

Though it was nothing spectacular, I am certainly glad we went.  After paying 15x more than an Indian student, I got to see some pretty awesome animals!  The big cats (leopard, tiger and cheetah) were all being fed huge chunks of meat.  The alligators were living in harmony with the stray cats scattered across their pen.  It seemed that everything I saw was straight out of the jungle book.  From the Indian Wolf family that raised Mowgli, to the big sloth bear Bhaloo lumbering around (which means bear in Hindi and also my new favorite animal), all members of the cast were there!  All in all, it wasn't a terrible zoo for being in the middle of the city, although I do wish that some of the animals lived in better conditions.  

Pure excitedness with Sloth Bear

"Siva" in Kanta Dance

During the week this week, we got to experience the opposite ends of the spectrum of dance.  On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to have a dance guru come in and teach us about one of the nine forms of Indian classical dance.  She showed us how it evolved from folk dancing, into a dance that each movement and gesture has a different symbol and told us many stories about the gods and their consorts through her and her student's movements.  I was fascinated with the preciseness of each movement and am so interested in it now that I am writing a paper on classical Indian dances!  Last night, we also saw "The Bad Boys of Dance."  It was amazingly fun, but I was shocked at how sexual some of the dancing was.  In a country where kissing in movies is considered too explicit, I was almost appalled to see dancers on stage waltzing with blow up dolls and rolling around, male on top of female.  At one point, they even kissed each other on the cheek, leading to cheers from the crowd!

This week is the week that I have really just started to live in India.  Studying abroad cannot be one big adventure - there's massive amounts of schoolwork to do!  So though no major events took place, it was certainly enjoyable; introducing no-bakes to my chocolate loving host sisters, sitting in the cafe after school and researching for homework into the wee hours of the morning.  Hopefully, many good weeks (with the perfect weather we had) are to come!

A Pain in the Butt

Leigh with a foaming friend

I have a big pain in my butt.  I literally think my tailbone is bruised.  Let me tell you, riding on a half trotting, half walking swaying camel in the scrub land desert of Rajasthan is really not comfortable.  I think everyone on the trip left with a couple pains here and there.  However, that aside, the camel safari that I participated in over the weekend was pretty neat.  We were led out into what they try to advertise as the desert, but was really picture-esque African-like scrub land (still pretty cool).  Besides the awesome experience of riding on a camel and in front of a foaming camel in heat, I also got to see a lot of unique wildlife and add a few more species of birds to my life list.  However, I am not sure that I enjoyed it as much as some of the other girls.  What really bothered me was how the camels were treated. 

Maybe its just my inner animal rights activist coming out, but I feel as bad for the animals here (sans most cows) as I do for the beggar children.  There are stray dogs everywhere, and I have seen dozens of puppies too skinny to survive much longer.  The dogs are seen as such a nuisance that they are often kicked out the way, so they literally run away from any human.  Domesticated animals are generally treated much better.  The lucky purebred dogs that have homes are usually pampered - one of my instructors says his dog has his own bed and has to be pet for 30 minutes every night before falling asleep.  I have seen thousands of goats wearing sweaters that make me jealous (because 40 degrees is considered freezing).  Yet the camels and elephants that I have seen have not been treated well.  Some had sores on them, while all the camels had nose piercings all the way through the cartilage to tie reins on and better control the animal.  Out of ten camels, I would say that two or three were treated nicely by their drivers.  I was lucky enough to snag a camel with a kind driver, so I didn't have to subject mine to too much abuse.

Spit Bubble!

To answer any other questions about the camel safari, no I did not get spit on and yes my fascination with camels is very high.

To turn to a more positive note, I also got to experience a part of Rajasthan where a lot of organic farming takes place.  The larger farm we visited has been certified Indian organic (absolutely no unnatural products go in or around any plants) for over seven years.  The farm was bigger than any organic farm that I have ever been on, and EVERYTHING was beautiful.  There were mangoes, papayas, pomegranates, wood apples, tons of different beans, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, Indian berries, a wide variety of animals and two green houses filled with roses.  Seeing how well everything operates almost makes me want to become a farmer in the future!  We also got a chance to see a large scale vermicomposting research site and see how one of the NGOs can impact so many people in one area.  It was amazing to see the successful part that sometimes gets buried beneath the failures.

Sabeji!  (Veggies!)

Today was a holiday for the Lord Siva so we were lucky enough to have school off.  After a very chilly sleeper train back last night, my roommate and I decided to brave the crowd to try and get to Moti Dungri, the temple on the hill about a block away from our home that is only open once a year.  We waited in line for over an hour, and after we were sure we were not going to get it, moved to the front of the line (Indian style) and try to squeeze our way in.  Lucky for us, we were able to follow a mother and daughter who had a relative in the police force.  With the beautifully dressed mother leading the way and waiting for us to catch up, we made it past thousands in line to the top of the temple and quickly back down.  

Beautiful organic yellow rose

I am very happy to say that, in the past several weeks, the people who treat me nicely and sometimes go above and beyond nice are starting to balance out all of those men and women who disrespect me.  I am so grateful for anyone who does me the smallest favor.  I don't know why, but it has me paying a little bit more attention to karma.  I know that I should try and act as Indian as possible, stop saying please and thank you on the streets or to shopkeepers and pretty much ignore everyone in the streets, but it feels so much better to pick up the blanket that fell off a man's cart or thank the shopkeeper for getting me chai.  It feels wrong to just accept that people are obliged to treat me well because so many treat me poorly.  Though I will try and immerse myself into the culture as much as possible, I refuse to stop my pleases and thank yous...because when I say them, I mean them!


Thanks for reading today :)