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!