Jen's Indian Adventure

Continuing the saga...... aka More Books

2010-09-26T23:00:00.000+05:30

The Holy City of Varanasi

2010-08-24T23:32:00.000+05:30

I was in two minds about visiting Varanasi, and to be honest still wasn’t sure as the taxi brought me to my guest house from the airport. But I’m very glad I did.

Varanasi is an amazing place. Being one of the oldest cities in the world, and probably the oldest city in India, approx 5000 years old, it is full of tradition and custom (most of which I either don’t understand or don’t agree with) and I now say it’s a ‘must see’ for anyone visiting India.

I only had 2 ½ days there so when I discovered that my accommodation was in just the right location to see everything on my ‘to do’ list I made the decision not to venture too far. I stayed in Scindhia Guest House, basic, clean and friendly on Scindhia Ghat, right at the edge of the old city.

I loved the old cty. It is full of narrow streets and pedestrianised (and more importantly no incessant and pointless beeping car horns). The streets were too narrow for cars but not too narrow for cows. It was not as dirty as I had expected, but very smelly. Most of the streets smelt of urine. The shops, small, pokey and on top of each other looked like they may have been there since day one.

And the steps. Oh the steps. I have never seen so many large, steep steps in one place. Considering the average Indian person is not as tall as I am I do wonder how they cope with the steps ?!

And in Varanasi the shop keepers knew how to treat potential customers. I won’t say there was no shouting, but much less than Jaipur. On the negative side there seemed to be a lot of extreme poverty and child labour. I bought from a shop ‘manned’ by a boy named Suhail age 14 (he looked like he was no bigger than my 8 year old nephew). He had perfect English so when I asked if he went to school and he said yes, I hoped he was telling the truth. I just had to buy from him as he did everything he could to sell me a t-shirt. I think even if I didn’t like anything I would have bought something from this kid. He is a brilliant sales man. I just wonder what kind of future he has….

I spent my first day strolling around the narrow streets with a French couple, N and F, (or should I say N et F) I met in the guest house. They had just arrived in Varanasi too and had been travelling around India for the past month. I think they were just as happy with the interruption as I was with the company. We spent the day browsing around the shops and spending some time in roof-top restaurants overlooking the Ganges and the ghats. They had a Garmin route-finder so we never got lost in the crazy maze of small, narrow streets.

My second day in Varanasi was a bit more chaotic, getting lost frequently and probably seeing more of the city than the average tourist.

My guest house was quite near a burning ghat and on Saturday morning I found myself climbing some steps I had seen other foreigners at the top of, simply out of curiosity. It was only on reaching the top I realised I was in the area where Hindu cremations are carried out. I was standing in an area where there had recently been three cremations as the fires were still hot. When I looked over the edge I saw a ceremony taking place for a recently deceased gentleman. He was just being laid out on a bed of timber logs (70kg worth of logs) having been dipped in the sacred waters of the Ganges. I witnessed his brother praying around him as other male family members observed. I was extremely uncomfortable watching this (and still am as I type it to tell you) but as I knew I would never be back I had the compulsion to stay and watch until it was time to light the fire and then I walked away.

I have never been comfortable with the caste system here and never will be, but was even more disappointed to find that even in death the Brahim caste are treated differently. They are cremated in more expensive sandal wood in a separate area.

I was also disappointed to see that no women attend the ceremony. As I walked through the streets that day many funeral processions passed me by on the way to the cremation grounds, but only men ever accompanied the bodies. The dead were wrapped in red and gold it all seemed quite normal.

Each morning I sat out on my balcony and watched as 20 – 30 men came to the water’s edge and shaved their heads. This is traditional for Brahim men who have recently lost a relative and is a mark of respect to the Gods.

I was also amazed at the number of people who washed and swam in the Ganges every day. To a westerner looking in from the outside the Ganges is an extremely dirty river. To a Hindu they are sacred waters. I watched with interest as children swam and had competitions to swim against the flow which looked impossible. I have to ask are they so used to swimming in this dirty water that they have become immune to the dirt in the water? Or is it that we are so used to taking pills for everything we are prone to picking up germs more now?

I was equally intrigued by the number of young boys and men, ranging from 7 years and up wearing orange. It was explained to me that they are training to be Brahmin priests, very often sent by their families who are unable to feed them. Training to be a Brahmin priest gives them shelter, food and an education. Brahmin priests can marry and have families, however if they chose to take it a step further and become a Sodu they live a truly religious life. It became very common to see them walking around the town in groups, in bare feet as is the norm. Despite the religious nature of the city it was disappointing to see the armed police on guard at entrances to the Golden Temple and the city’s mosque due to trouble between the two communities over 20 years ago.

I loved Varanasi, but like my trip to Karanjia I have far more questions than I’ll ever have answers.

The Lone Ranger

2010-08-24T20:36:00.000+05:30

I’m just back from a week travelling to Jaipur and Varanasi on my own. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it. I’m used to travelling with company, but to be honest I enjoyed being able to decide my own routine and being able to be completely selfish for a bit.

I flew to Jaipur on Sunday 15^th August (Indian Independence Day), which included a 5 hour lay-over in Delhi airport. I know 5 hours sounds quite long, but I enjoyed the solitude in a busy airport, minding my own business and ensuring Costa Coffee’s profit for the day.

I finally arrived to Japiur on Sunday evening, just as a heavy down-pour ended, to the Umaid Bhawan hotel, a traditional Rajastani house. Beautifully decorated I fell into a four poster, double bed, after having a shower with hot water (life’s little luxuries that volunteers don’t have).

I was up bright and early on Monday morning to visit the City Palace and take some time walking around the old Pink City. I’m afraid to say that the Palace was like any other old house (Rajasthan Tourism forgive me) but it was. I didn’t get to see the house pictured on the tour guides. Even though I showed my Indian residency papers to the ticket office I fell for the ‘if you pay the tourist price it’s overall better value’ line as it included an audio guide and a entry ticket to another tourist attraction. Unfortunately I wasn’t impressed by the display of old clothes, armoury and chess sets, but others may be.

I later went across the road to the observatory which this year has been declared a World Heritage Site. This time I decided to stick to my guns and only pay the Indian entrance rate, and was nicely impressed (Rs 20 compared to Rs 150). In this case a lot of the explanations were in Hindi but I got enough out of it for me. A certain astro-physicist (L that’s you) I know would have been far more impressed. But it was impressive to see what could be created in the 1800’s.

I spent a lot of time walking around the Jaipur bazaars admiring all the silk items, carved wood and blue pottery. Jaipur is well known for it’s availability of well-priced silver and gold so some Christmas shopping was done while I was there. I didn’t like being constantly shouted at by the shop keepers ‘Mam come into my shop, just looking…’. Jaipur shop keepers have a lot to learn if they want Europeans to spend more money in their city. The positive side of this is I got to see quite a bit of the city as I chose to walk around it instead of paying the crazy prices auto drivers were quoting for short rides. If I had been a regular tourist I may have been saying ‘oh that’s so cheap compared to Euro’ and happily pay their rates. But I’m an Indian resident and it really made me mad that they would quote such ridiculous rates. In once case I was quoted Rs 200 for a Rs 30 journey.

On my last evening in Jaipur I got to experience my first proper monsoon shower. The heavens opened for less than an hour on Wednesday evening, but due to lack of drainage in the city the water rose to over 27 cms in some areas. At the time I was in an auto which eventually gave in to the rain and so I had to give in too. I rolled up my trouser legs and walked through the flooded streets back to my hotel. Rolled up trouser legs or not by the time I got to my hotel I was soaked. But considering the serious lack of rains here this year it was good to see some. Unfortunately I read on a news website the next morning that a Jaipur resident had fallen into a drain the city authorities had opened to alleviate the rains and has since died.

Would I recommend Jaipur as a place for tourists? It depends on what you want to see, but for me it wasn’t really worth the trip. The only saving grace was the smile on the face of the porter / housekeeping assistant that I met in the hotel each day. When I found out it was he who spotlessly cleaned my room every day I left him a ‘thank you’ tip (my friend F is now thanking the heavens that someone recognises back of house staff). Thankfully my luck was about to change with my visit to Varanasi

Indian Trains

2010-08-24T17:02:00.000+05:30

Always late

Dirty

Crowded

Heavily armed guards

People throwing rubbish on floor

All male staff

Blankets distributed by under age boys who sleep on the floor beside the toilets at night time

Very dirty toilets

Yet

Exciting

Novel

Interesting

Will always have a story to tell

Interesting friendly people

And lots of chai.

I love them.

August Interview

2010-08-10T22:38:00.003+05:30

I was asked by VSO Ireland recently to do an interview for the Limerick Leader newspaper. For whatever reason it hasn't yet been published (and may never be), but it has managed to find it's way into the August edition of VSO Ireland's newsletter.

So here it is.

Limerick girl working as a VSO volunteer in India speaks about her placement as Human Resources Advisor in Orissa

Whereabouts in Limerick are you from? I’m originally from Bruff, but am a resident of Annacotty

What brought you to India, why did you choose India? I have wanted to volunteer for as long as I can remember but never actually did anything about it until I was made redundant last year.

I didn’t actually choose India. India chose me. I was accepted by VSO as a volunteer through their interview process last March (2009) at which point my CV was put in circulation to be matched against a role that may come up. I was offered this role in May (2009) and having read the placement outline and done some research on the NGO, the location and India in general I was happy to accept. I have never been to India before and consider myself very lucky to have been offered this placement.

How long have you been out in India?

Every year VSO has 3 intakes of volunteers into India. I came with the group that arrived last November. Now that I have been here through the summer season I appreciate how lucky I was to come in November during the Indian winter. It gave me an opportunity to build up to the heat and the humidity that I have been experiencing for the past few months. Since March my bed has been right under the fan in my bedroom – the only possible way of getting any sleep in the summer months. No air-con out here !

What have you seen to surprise you? Has anything 'opened your eyes'?

India is very different to life in Ireland. I live in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the state of Orissa. Orissa is the second poorest state in India and is classified as a starvation state. Bhubaneswar has a population of 1.6 million of which as a large proportion of people living in the city slums (unofficial figures are around 40%) some of which I walk past every day going to and from the office. It’s not unusual to sees people collecting water from road-side pumps, washing children in the street and even children walking around naked.

The slum-dwellers are mainly tribal people who have come into the city looking for work. The tribal women in particular amaze me. As well as being the home-makers they can often be seen working on construction sites carrying the bricks on their heads, mixing the cement.

Within the tribal culture there is an obvious gender divide. The roles of men and women are very clear, something I personally find quite frustrating.

This is a vast country and as I get opportunities to travel around and see some of it, it is very interesting how different people and their circumstances are from place to place.

I can’t say that anything surprised really except the level of poverty. I have listened to many speeches by Indian politicians in my time here mentioning how India is a world economic super-power. I don’t see any of that here in Orissa. And of course the caste system is more obvious than I thought it would be.

Everything was new and interesting, and very often frustrating. But over time I adapted and got used to it eg being stared at as I walk down the street, men urinating on the road side, cows walking through the traffic, eating rubbish. I have had to learn to understand and accept that although it may not be acceptable behaviour in my culture, it all happens here for a reason.

The trickiest thing was getting used to eating with my fingers when out with Indian friends or in remote locations. It took me a while to master it and sometimes left me hungry, but I eventually cracked it. It’s also been challenging living on a mainly vegetarian diet. I have also gotten used to telling people I don’t like spices. I do, just not the level of spice they put into dishes out here.

What activities have you been taking part in?

VSO’s motto is ‘Sharing Skills, Changing Lives’ and that is what volunteers do. I’m currently working with 2 NGOs. I’m here as a HR (Human Resources) Advisor, so most of the time my job is quite similar to what it was in Ireland. Since my arrival I have been working with CYSD (the Centre for Youth and Social Development) in Bhubaneswar. CYSD is a large, well-established NGO working to improve the lives of poor tribal and rural people in Orissa. My role here is mainly assisting them with updating their HR practices to bring them in line with best practice.

In recent weeks I have also started working with a smaller NGO, Adhar, in a remote part of the State of Orissa called Balangir, 7 hours from Bhubaneswar by train. Adhar focuses on social, economical, political and cultural inclusion of the excluded social groups like children and people with disabilities. My role here is foundation HR, developing basic policies and procedures with them. I’m very happy working for both as I get to see two different levels of NGOs

The pace of work here is very slow compared to Ireland and this can be quite frustrating, but I have to get used to it and accept it. After all I am a guest in India.

I have recently also been able to spend time in remote Orissa meeting some local tribal people and learning about their lives, traditions and culture. An amazing experience which I would recommend to anyone. I even learned to sew banana leaf plates.

I’ve made an attempt at learning some of the local state language, Oriya, but am not very good at it. Thankfully most of my colleagues speak some English so we get along fine. Even the local auto-riskshaw drivers quote their prices in English, but from time to time at the vegetable stalls we have to resort to ‘sign-language’.

What is the single biggest thing you will bring back to Ireland with you? (as in a change of outlook, an appreciation for what we have here, etc.)

I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. I have made some very good volunteer friends here in Bhubaneswar, some of whom will be finishing their placements in the next few weeks. So, this is a popular conversation topic right now.

I’m very conscious about the difference in the cost of living and am determined not to mention it too much when I get home. I’ve been thinking about how I will describe my experiences to family and friends without making them feel guilty about what they have.

This experience has definitely made me appreciate what I have, so much so I will probably volunteer again next year – home for Christmas first though.

I’ve found I have become a very patient person. Indian people are not famous for their time keeping so I have learned to not expect anyone to arrive when they say they will. IST is no longer Indian Standard Time, but Indian Stretchable Time.

I’ve also decided that I’d like to stay working in development or in the charity field and have recently been researching some distance learning courses to give me a more rounded understanding of the main areas.

What is your educational background? Have you completed a degree, or are you taking part in one?

I have a post grad diploma in Personnel and Development from the National College of Ireland and am a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Chartered MCIPD)

Did you travel to India alone?

Yes and No. Yes in that no friends or family came with me. But no in that I knew a few other VSO volunteers on the plane as I had met them on the pre-departure training courses that VSO run. When volunteers first arrive into India we spend a month in Delhi on an in-country orientation programme and in this I also got to know 2 other volunteers who were coming to Bhubaneswar.

Could you see yourself working full time in India eventually?

I don’t think so. India is an interesting and colourful country and I am very glad I came out here. But I think the culture is too different for me to live here permanently.

Karanjia

2010-07-18T14:59:00.001+05:30

My first field visit.

What an experience.

Tuesday 13^th July:

We travelled on the 4.30am bus from Bhubaneswar on the morning of Rath Yatra, the most important festival for honouring Lord Jagganath, the God of Hindu Gods.

On arrival we went to visit the Santali tribe in the village of Digposi approx 8km from Karanjia. The village is divided into 4 hamlets and I have the good luck to spend time in 2 of them over the few days.

I travelled with C who was known to the community so when we met an elderly lady holding a baby she welcomed us into her home. It turned out she is the wife of the Ward Member, the elected representative of that particular hamlet, who was inside in the courtyard weighing up a tiny amount of home grown vegetables so he could sell them. In total he had no more than Rs50 worth of produce.

Naturally being two white women we drew attention and within minutes we had approx 12 on-lookers from the immediate family. I was given the baby to hold. This is done if you want your baby to turn out like the person being asked to hold your baby. I’m sure this was a compliment to me, but it made me think about how they were comparing themselves to us. Are they happy, sad, envious of this difference? At this point I asked C to take a photo of me and this immediately triggered a request for more photos. The little girl is 5 months old and still has no name. It is traditional to name a child within 20 days, so I wonder if she was a boy would she have a name by now.

They live in extremely basic houses. The pictures give you the impression that they have more than that. They are built from cow dung, and then painted. Some outside walls have local tribal art painted on them. Inside there is little but a few mattresses and I saw one bed.

The ladies lay out rice on the road front of their houses to dry in the sun, ensuring the chickens don’t take too much. After approximately 2 days the rice is then tread on to de-husk it so it can be eaten. Looking at the amount of rice on the roads I wonder how long it will last, particularly if it is to be used to make alcohol. Driving through the countryside we saw plenty of rice alcohol stills – made and sold by the women, drunk by the men.

During our few days around the village we questioned what people are paid for working in the paddy fields. We were told by the Ward Member it is Rs50 for both male and female which is the government recommended daily rate, but different women gave us different answers up to a difference of Rs for women and Rs100 for men.

Paddy is the main crop grown here, but this provides employment for only 3-4 months of the year. The local tribal families may have up to 2 acres of land, which sounds wonderful, but it is uncultivable if the rains don’t fall. As I write this the fields around me all look beautifully green and the women are working in the paddy fields, but only 25% of the expected rains have fallen, so it needs to be asked where this leaves the local families work-wise and food-wise for the coming year.

Wednesday 14^th July:

Due to a sudden heavy downpour of rain on Wednesday afternoon we sheltered under the roof of an outside barn in the home of the local Santali Priest and spent time speaking with his wife and family. It was very interesting, if somewhat sad, learning about their way of life. They have 3 children – a boy 8, a girl 6 and a baby boy just over a year old. Despite a father educated up to grade 3 (6 years old) and an illiterate mother the 2 older children attend school. However that seems to be where anything in common for a boy and a girl end. The girl, at 6 years old, is expected to fetch water daily from the local pump. Her container is small, but she still has to go. C and I both had a go at carrying the child’s water container on our heads. The six year old made it look easy, but we didn’t think so. At least it gave them some entertainment for a while. The container carried by her mother can hold up to 10litres of water. Her brother can cycle the family bike but she will never be taught how to. Her father collects timber for the fire using his bike, but if her mother collects the wood she will carry it on her head. She does not know how to cycle and seems to accept this.

When the rain finally stopped we walked back over to the other hamlet to attend a Santali wedding, just in time to see the marriage parade. The bride was being carried in a basket on the shoulders of approx six men and the groom sat on the shoulders on one other man.

Both threw rice at each other as they were carried around in circles. At one point the groom also ‘threw’ rice at his bride-to-be with his mouth. Then using some form of a grass brush they threw water at each other. Finally the circling stopped and the groom painted red vermillion on the bride’s forehead and in the parting of her hair (the sign of a married lady) and that was that. They were married.

A lot of the female wedding guests wore saris with Santali design, dyed in turmeric, which is meant to bring the couple good luck.

I was introduced to the Sarpanch, a lady, the elected head of the Gram Panchayat (representing approx 5000 villagers) who has responsibility for the villages modernisation, and the Tribal Chief, who is responsible for all matters cultural, was pointed out to me. I wonder if they ever clash.

Thursday 15^th July:

In the morning we went to Golkund village to see an Early Childhood Care and Development centre (ECCD). It is open 6am – 10am Monday – Saturday. We met the coordinator and some of the children who attend. The centre is for children 3- 6 years and currently is attended by 6 girls and 12 boys. The village has a total of 32 school age children and all go to school.

In the ECCD the children are given a very basic breakfast of jura and mixed wheat powder. The walls were brightly painted with important message pictures eg a bed with a mosquito net, how to wash hands etc. Initially the children were very shy and when I tried to say hello to the first group who came to see us as we arrived they all ran away. But bit by bit they got curious about my camera and their pictures on it. They had never seen a camera before. They told us their names, with a lot of encouragement and over time we played some games with them which were a great experience.

We later returned to the the Ward Member to learn about the construction of the local water tank. Only half of the houses currently have access to running water. Latrines had been previously built but were no longer of any use and people were returning to their old habits. The Ward Member told us that all of the community had agreed to contribute labour (5 days) but during the water tower’s construction some pulled out. The funding for the materials was provided jointly by CYSD and another NGO, Gram Vikas, who are experts in sanitation projects. The shortage in funds means that currently over 65 families out of 105 cannot get pipe connections to their homes. This needs to be completed soon otherwise the villagers will lose faith in modernisation.

After lunch we went to visit what is becoming a model private school for girls in 8^th, 9^th and 10^th grade. This school only has 3 classrooms and is attended by 150 girls, 100 of whom are full-time residents. They are mainly tribal girls who would normally be expected to drop out of school around this age. The advantage of this school is that the six teachers are all from the local community so they can go speak to parents about the benefit of education. Some of the residential girls have come from miles away. They do pay fees - Rs 50 per month for grade 10, Rs 40 per month for grade 9 and Rs 30 per month for grade 8. This covers their meals, books and accommodation.

Meals- they share the cooking themselves

Books – they share them as they don’t have enough

Accommodation - approx 45 share the floor space in each of 3 small rooms that also contain their personal belongings. They don’t yet have mosquito nets, but that money has been issued by CYSD and the nets will be bought soon.

The school also has a kitchen garden that the girls attend. They all looked very happy when we were there. It is clearly run by a great set of teachers. The teachers themselves funded an external wall and will fund a door to keep the girls safe at night.

The good news is that Plan International has agreed to fund another 15 of these schools, thanks to the dedication of the teachers and the support received. The six teachers have even funded a security wall from their own meagre wages.

On our journey back to the office we stopped in the village of Osanomani and called into a local house to see their recently built external toilet. It felt a bit odd just walking into someone’s property without an invitation, but M from CYSD was known to the family and he explained to them that he wanted to show us their new toilet. Out of the 75 families in the village 41 currently have new toilets and the rest are being built.

I’m delighted to have had this opportunity to visit Karanjia and meet the dedicated NGO workers and some of the local tribal people. However this week has left me with more questions than answers about –

the tribal people themselves
their way of life
the women in particular and their acceptance of their ‘place’ in society
a system that allows this poverty to continue
a system that replies so heavily on the generosity of NGOs to do what they should be doing themselves.

On our way back to Bhubaneswar on Saturday evening as we drove through the Simpali forest I saw a sign that was new to me. In Ireland we have signs saying ‘Danger. Cows crossing’. This one said ‘Beware. Wild Elephants cross here’. Unfortunately I didn’t see any. They were all sheltering in the in the dense forest waiting patiently for the paddy to be fully grown before they come out for a hefty meal.

Birthday Blog

2010-07-08T00:30:00.002+05:30

I’ve been so interested recently in when the monsoon will start, how heavy the rains will be, by how much will the temperature drop, I forgot to blog about my birthday.

As I was on a train to Balangir on June 21^st, my birthday was celebrated on Saturday 19^th June along with the other Jen here in Bhubaneswar.

Jen G’s birthday falls on the 22^nd so since we first met last December we agreed that we would hold a joint celebration.

I had been out sick from work the previous week as I had pulled a muscle in my back trying to move a gas cylinder (the joys of being a volunteer) so my name-sake kindly offered to take responsibility for the party preparations. This was definitely a good thing. Jen G is a far more talented chef than I am (not that I can actually call myself a chef). She was ably assisted by her Sous Chef A. All I had to do was turn up at the right time.

It was a great evening. All the Bhubaneswar volunteers got together. We had party hats and balloons. We had veg and non-veg dishes. We even had a few beers. And P played the guitar.

And as with all good parties we even had a birthday cake – mind you ‘Jen’ became ‘Jain’ on the cake. And of course we ate the cake in traditional Indian style – ensuring a bit was rubbed into everyone’s face.

It was a great evening. I’m not very much a party person, particularly when it comes to my own birthday, but I really enjoyed the evening. Thank you everyone.

Raining Cats and Dogs?

2010-07-04T17:24:00.000+05:30

So, finally I got caught for the first time since arriving in India 8 months ago in a substantial rain shower on Thursday evening. I didn’t mind as I thought it was the start of monsoon and that would mean the temperatures would start to drop so in fact I was delighted. It has been a bit cooler in recent days but the humidity seems to be rising in the evenings - this was not part of the plan. However the rain only lasted about an hour and that was it. So if I’m honest I was a bit disappointed.

But I have realised that my ‘raining cats and dogs’ umbrella will not keep me dry when the heavy rains start to fall. I predict a season of evening sessions of washing clothes, particularly trousers, coming up. The era of a weekly wash load is about to end.

I had been out after work, meeting friends for coffee and we had noticed lighting in the distance. As it was quite faint I thought the rain would end up someplace else, but half way home the heavens opened and that was that. Not a good idea to have been wearing white trousers. Due to the volume of construction currently taking place here in Bhubaneswar the roads are laden with sand, often making it feel like I should be on a beach. Of course sand and rain mix into mud. And then the lack of foot paths leads to lots of puddles and dirty trouser legs.

The temperature here for the last few days has certainly been dropping. www.timeanddate.com is predicting a mere comfort level of 38 degrees Celsius for today (Friday 2^nd July). That’s at least 10 degrees cooler than it has been. Bhubaneswar is blessed with a cooling breeze that starts most days by lunchtime. The disappointing thing about this is that in the evening the humidity rises, often up to 80%, and then it’s back to feeling like the heat of the summer with the sweat dripping down my back even though I’m sitting under a fan (no air con unfortunately).

It did rain for three days solid last week (23^rd/ 24^th/ 25^th June) but as I was in Balangir I was not here to experience it. So for me Thursday night’s rain was my start of the monsoon (I think - it’s difficult to know really as it’s not at all what I had imagined). We have just had the hottest summer on record, so maybe we’re about to experience the driest monsoon season on record. My colleagues were certain the rains would start gushing down on 15^th June. It amazed me how precise they could be. But alas, they were wrong.

However, looking out the window now I do suspect that I’ll be doing my ‘Singing in the Rain’ song and dance routine, just like Bing Crosby, in the not too distant future.

Just as I finish writing this the skies have opened and it is pouring down outside supported by a symphony of thunder and lightning. I hope it stops by 5.30pm…….

More books

2010-06-27T00:46:00.000+05:30

Balangir

2010-06-27T00:21:00.001+05:30

21^st June 2010, a.ka. my birthday

Not like any other birthday before now I was up at 5am to get the 6.45am train to Balangir in the western part of the state of Orissa. Unusually my regular auto driver was 15 minutes late and with no apology. I suspect he may have slept in. I on the other hand had not slept at all. The last time I was up at that hour was for a DM shift in my hotel days.

My train left early, only by 3 minutes, but still early to arrive one hour late in Balangir. I visited Balangir at the request of VSO India to carry out an HR audit for a local NGO, Adhar.

Adhar is a grassroots level development organisation working in the Bolangir district of Orissa on issues of land rights, natural resource management child rights, livelihoods and disability. Gender equity is a cross cutting theme across all its programmes. Adhar's partnership with VSO has led to them to take up disability as a programmatic mandate. Specifically it has led to the formation of the Bolangir disability network or the Zilla Viklang Adhikar Manch. It is a platform whereby disabled people in the district have organised themselves to take up issues for advocacy, create livelihood options, facilitate access to government schemes and form a support circle for a better quality of life.

I was of course happy to assist. I was warmly welcomed off the train by S and asked if I was ok travelling by motorbike. Of course I said yes, having been on a motorbike many times since arriving in India, but I was forgetting I was carrying two heavy bags. I had packed everything from a mossie net to my laptop and all associated gadgets. Thankfully one of the bags was a back-pack and S took the other one on the front of the motorbike between the controls (to any biker reading this I have struggled between using the word ‘controls’ and ‘handle bars’ and ‘control’ has won, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

A few minutes later I was being dropped off at the local Trivani Hotel to spend the evening reading up on some Adhar materials, eating a lovely lunch, relaxing, walking around the streets of Balangir, and believe it or not watching some TV. I spent the evening flicking between Tom Cruise in Cocktail (English language movies here are sub-titled in English - no I did not get this wrong) and

Portugal

beating PRK 7 – 0. What a choice ! What a birthday !

22^nd June

My last year before the big 4-0 begins. Crikey !

Had a great day today with Adhar. I learned a lot from meeting with 13 of their staff and they were all eager to meet me. I then spent the afternoon with Sa the HR assistant and we discussed in detail how I could help her and the organisation as a whole. A busy day. In fact the busiest in a long time thankfully. Tomorrow it’s all about the paperwork.

23^rd June

Well, yes today was all about the paperwork. I spent the morning with Sa going through what HR information Adhar has at this time. I learned a lot from her and I hope she learned a little from me too. The afternoon was spent back at the hotel making some notes while everything was still fresh in my head.

24^th June

I was very kindly taken on a field trip around the Balangir district today which I thoroughly enjoyed. The first stop was 80km from the central office to the Hindu temple of the god Hanuman at Hari Shankar. A beautiful building, I was delighted when I discovered that as a non-believer I was to be allowed inside the main area of the temple. However we did not get inside the inner sanctum which was closed at the time as it was explained to me that ‘God had gone to lunch’.

The temple is located beside a small waterfall which while I was there was filled with local people both bathing and having a good time. One family were being terrorised by a hungry wild monkey. When I first saw him he was digging into a crisp packet, but by the time I reached for my camera he had gone over to a bench which contained a family’s belongings and was literally tearing through the bags searching for food. Being a wild monkey I was advised not to get too close. But I was interested to watch him or her as it’s not a sight I often get to see.

After our visit to the temple we then went to the town of Patnagargh where Adhar has one of its field offices. There we met some field staff attending a course on Comprehensive Services. Basically what they were doing was learning how to deal with the blind in the local districts and give general health advice to them and their families. Unfortunately the handicapped in Orissa are forgotten about and treated as second class citizens. There is little help or assistance for them apart from what may be provided by local NGOs. Families with handicapped children are not accepted in some local tribal communities and NGO staff has to spend time teaching communities it is ok to have handicapped people amongst them.

This particular group of field workers found 120 blind people in their local 2 districts, with 292 villages and 45000 residents. They work with:

- reversible blindness (eg cataracts)

- irreversible blindness

- social inclusion and general health issues

It was great to see the staff taking time out for further study.

25^th June

My last day in Balangir. I only had a half day before having to get the return train to Bhubaneswar but again it was spent with the Adhar staff. This time the senior management were providing orientation training to 13 new staff. It may have been in Oriya but in any language it was clear to see the enthusiasm of both the trainers and the trainees.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the staff of Adhar in Balangir. A great bunch of people doing a great job. Hopefully I’ll be able to spend more time with them and help them improve their HR structures in the few months I have left in India.

Saturday 29th May 2010.

2010-05-30T14:49:00.000+05:30

I was just walking home from the shops this afternoon – another glorious day – when I started thinking about how much the street where I live is starting to change.

Recently a local slum farmer has started walking his buffalo down our street in the late afternoon. I don’t know why for sure, but I’m assuming it’s for the exercise and for the little bit of grass we have on the side of the road. I see the buffalo every day tied to posts in the local slum farm and in some cases the rope is so short the buffalo have no option but to sit down. But not in all cases. I have seen the same man play with the buffalo calves and rub their backs in the morning as I walk by on the way to work.

I’m getting used to scenes like this over here in India and taking it as part of daily life. I’m sure it will seem odd when I return home not to see cattle walking through traffic in Limerick and again it will take a while to adapt to the change of scenery. Although I’m bound to be so cold I may not even notice !

The construction workers over here are very different to those at home - typically small, slight women with a male supervisor. A new house is being built around the corner from mine. It’s just gone 4pm in the afternoon and I have walked past a group of 5 ladies working under the sun, while the supervisor sits in the shade of his jeep. One of the women was hosing down the stone, 2 others were opening bags of cement, and the last 2 were mixing the cement. Inside the wall 4 other women were moving the bricks around on their heads.

The women out here amaze me. They are so physically strong. A few weeks ago I was walking down from the 3^rd floor of a local shopping centre, when I had to step back to give space to a women carrying 3 grey masonry bricks up the stairs, again on her head. I doubt she was being paid anything more than the minimum wage for a long day’s work in this soaring heat. The minimum wage is Rs100 per day (or less in some cases for unskilled labour). Rs 100 is approx €2 per day.

Now I do understand that it is far cheaper to live out here. But still €2per day for such physical labour is still only €2. Compare that to Ireland’s minimum wage and it really does make you think. Mind you, I have just handed over Rs80 for a cappuccino in the local coffee chain, so I need to make it clear that the VSO allowance is a very good allowance. In a lot of cases it’s far more than some of my colleagues wages - and they have families to support.

I’d love to have photos of these women to show you, but I have to respect their privacy. It wouldn’t be very nice just to walk up to them and start taking snaps. I wouldn’t like it if they did it to me while I was doing my job.

However, it’s not just my street that’s changing. I’m changing too. Apart from the obvious loss of weight – I can’t tell you how much as I’ve yet to find a weighing scales – there are so many other things.

I’m accepting that being sweaty is ok. It’s a part of daily life now to sit in the office, even under a fan, to have a river flowing down my back.
I’m liking the taste of water – never did before – but then without it I wouldn’t get very far. It’s great that the office has a filter system on each floor. We even have a colleague who fills our water bottles every morning for us.
I’m understanding that saying ‘Namaskar’ to someone you walk by on the street will probably get you more of a return stare than a return greeting. But thankfully people are also finally recognising me and I’m being charged regular prices at veg stalls and for autos. Last week I told one auto driver that the price he quoted me for a straight run home was too much (and it actually was compared to other journeys) but he replied to me ‘Mam you paid this much last week’. I’m sure he was right. There are times when I’m too tired or too hot to argue the price and I just want to get home. There are other times I’ll get the best value I can.

But there are people who will smile at you and return your greeting. A few days ago on the walk home from the office I changed where I bought eggs as my usual guy hadn’t set up his stall and had to wait until I got nearer to home and buy from a lady I had never bought from in all the time I have been here. In addition to it being unusual for a stall to be manned (excuse the pun) by a women, she was very friendly and even though I only have a few words in Oriya, I’m sure her final greeting to me was ‘Please come back again’. So I will.

Recently Bhubaneswar has been hit by the end of Cyclone Laila. I have never seen or heard sun thunder and lighting as I have over the last week. On Monday evening I went out onto our balcony to watch it closer but then the next flash of lightning encouraged me to step back inside. As soon as there’s any sign of bad weather the electricity goes off so we get out the torches and generally sit in the dark. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that we lose power during every storm as the electric system here is in such bad condition that it’s safer to turn off the power than have someone hurt, or worse, by a faulty system. On the plus side it has given me a brief introduction as to what the monsoon may be like – and that’s only 2 weeks away.

I’m looking forward to the rain lowering the temperature a bit, and it will only be a bit I’ve been told. But I’m not looking forward to being constantly wet for two months. Who knows but I may get used to that also !

As I finish writing this it has started to rain, and I have lost internet access. So it will upload as and when…..

(Another thing I'm getting used to)

Namaskar.

Indian weddings - my personal thoughts

2010-05-26T05:28:00.001+05:30

I was walking home yesterday evening, taking my usual route - first past two 5 star hotels and then in through a city slum, when I started thinking to myself about Indian weddings.

The reason for this is that a friend had said he’d been invited to a wedding in one of the hotels and then as I was walking through the slum I saw a typical banner that is used to identify a wedding in progress - ‘A weds B’.

Apart from the obvious difference of the amount of money spent on them, how different are they really?

Weddings in India, or at least here in Orissa, are traditionally arranged marriages. Now I’ve had this explained to me it actually it seems like a good idea. The parents of the couple do seem to put a lot of effort into finding the perfect ‘someone’ for their son or daughter. Girls, and sometimes boys, have their ‘for sale’ pictures taken which can be placed in various newspapers, but more often than not it is word of mouth that finds the perfect partner. Some young women wear a lot of white makeup as seemingly Indian men are looking for whiter brides these days. An ex-colleague got the chance to meet and turn down four possible husbands before eventually saying yes (she marries this weekend). Parents are met and interviewed about their child. The children then meet for one or maybe two hours before they make the final decision. Then that’s it until the wedding day. No dinner or movie dates. Just hello and next thing they’re married.

The wedding dates are generally chosen by a respected priest and last three days – after all the couple need to get to know each other before finally taking the ultimate vow.

Having been at an Indian wedding I get the impression that the people who least enjoy it are the couple themselves. They have to meet and greet everyone at whatever time their guests arrive. Very often the bride has had the greater hardship as she could be left waiting for the groom to arrive for hours after she arrives. It is traditional that the bride ties herself to her soon-to-be husband’s father and therefore his family first. And very often the party is for the guests. Sometimes the couple themselves don’t get to eat any of the meal.

Traditionally brides move into their in-laws house. Very often extra rooms are built on for the occasion (if the family can afford it). Brides may be expected to move hundreds of miles away from home and in some cases never see their own family again. Their role then becomes that of cook, cleaner and general house-maid, even if they do work outside the home. Up by 6am it is their role to cook all meals for everyone in the house.

Many families insist that the new bride wear saris even if she prefers to wear the more comfortable salwar kameez. I know some women who change in the office so as not to insult their mother-in-law. But I do question the women who were lucky enough to have ‘arranged love’ marriages. Why don’t their husbands stand up for them so that they can wear whatever they want whenever they want?

Having been very sceptical about arranged marriages before coming to India I now have more faith in them. The families do seem to put a lot of effort into making the match. And it has to be said at this point that Indian marriages have the same problems as European ones, just more of it is behind closed doors.

But would arranged marriages be accepted in Ireland ?

Maybe.

Home is where the heart is

2010-05-24T11:21:00.002+05:30

I’d been wondering what to blog about until my sister-in-law commented that it was a quite ‘Facebook day’ due to the sunny day yesterday in Ireland. Her comment made me think of home and my current connection(s) to it.

I may be living 7173 kilometres from home (Ireland to India – couldn’t find Limerick to Bhubaneswar on Google) but where exactly is home?

Nearly every evening I get to speak with my parents and Bailey (the love of my life) thanks to the wonderful invention that is Skype. We generally have very little to say. The conversation usually goes ‘Hi, any news?’, ‘No, you?’, ‘No’. And then we move on to the hot topic of the weather. But it is very nice to speak with them. And more importantly keeps the contact constant. I can only imagine what it must have been like years ago before Skype and the cell phone.

Last week I had the great privilege of being able to sing (wrong word really but you get the idea) ‘Happy Birthday’ to my niece, E, who turned 5 the previous day. I was also read a lovely story by her older brother J (7 to be 8 in June, so there’ll be another wonderful rendition soon), who was doing his maths homework when I first placed the call. Within a few minutes he had interrupted E’s and my conversation with the very mature comment ‘E be quiet. I’m trying to run a business here’. I didn’t get much out of their older sister A as she was quite depressed. Her hero and the current poster pin-up, ROG (Munster rugby player) is seemingly moving to France – so what to do ? !

It may only have been 10 minutes of me speaking, them shouting and their mum trying to get a word in, but it meant a lot to be able to spend this time with them. They don’t understand why I’m out here in India (and why would they?) only that their aunt is out here for a year but will be home before Christmas.

It is interesting to experience people’s reactions when you make a decision to leave home, your normal routine and volunteer as a development worker.

Some friends are amazing and keep in regular contact. Others contact you now and then with one or two line emails just so that they keep in touch. Others unfortunately (and understandably) just get on with their lives and I spend time wondering if I’ll be a part of it again when I get home.

But whether long or short all contact means a lot. And to be still getting emails that start with ‘Hey Boss…’ even though it’s been a while makes me smile.

Those who keep in touch really have no idea how much their contact means. I previously mentioned this to the one who will be known from now on as ‘The Trouper’, but her reply was very honest – ‘Jennifer I know what it’s like having lived abroad’. So I guess you have it. You have to have experienced living away from home to understand how important contact with home is while you’re away.

So to answer the question I asked at the start – where is home? That’s easy. Where the hills are green, there are four seasons in one day, and of course, family. (That includes you Bailey)

Hello Readers ! (again)

2010-05-07T22:23:00.000+05:30

Hello to everyone who is reading my blog

It's great to know so many are reading it and I hope you are enjoying it.

If you'd like to learn about anything in particular please send me an email or post a comment and I'll do my best to oblige

In the meantime I'd like to know who is reading the blog. I hear from home that a good number of you are reading this but haven't signed up as followers.

Can I ask you please to do this so I know who you are?

It's easy.

Click on the 'followers' bar in the left column. It may have the word 'Google' under it.
This will take you to the next page where it will give you an option of signing in through your preferred email provider - Google, Yahoo, Twitter
Click on your choice. All you have to do then is type in your regular password and put in your name.
This will then tell me who you are

Danyavad !

Summer in India

2010-05-07T11:53:00.000+05:30

Every month the NGO I am working with issues a newsletter, not only for the staff but for all the people CYSD reaches out to every day. As I was asked to write something for the April edition I thought I'd share it with you. A colleague even went so far as to compliment my knowledge of the English language !

Summer in India

When Sarita asked me to write something for ‘Our Voices’ I struggled to come up with a topic. And then I was inspired to go back to my Irish roots and talk, as we Irish tend to do a lot of the time, about the weather.

Let me start off by saying I’m coping with the heat far better than I had ever expected to. My friends and family all think they’d never cope with 40 degree temperatures, but I believe now that they would.

In Ireland the climate can be summed up as being mild, moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. We receive generally warm summers (up to a max of 27 degrees Celsius approx) and mild winters (usually no less than -5 degrees Celsius approx ) and is considerably warmer than other areas of the same latitude. Typically we joke in Ireland about experiencing all four seasons in one day.

The winter this year in Ireland, like across a lot of Europe, was colder than it had been for over 60 years thanks to climate change. This year it dipped to -10 degrees. So while I spoke about the temperature climbing up through the 30s here my family was telling me about how cold they were. I can Skype home most evenings and until recently I was speaking with family members all wrapped up in warm, woollen jumpers. The temperature is now rising quite rapidly and it has already reached 16 degrees Celsius.

I know I was lucky to be a part of the VSO group that arrived into Delhi in November. I appreciate that I arrived when it was much cooler and I have been able to build up to these high temperatures. It would definitely have been a different story if I was one of the VSO group that arrived in March!

There is a saying ‘only mad dogs and English men (or Irish!) go out in the mid-day sun’. Well, I’m being very sensible and don't go out in the mid-day sun most days. On days off I tend not to go out before 3pm in the afternoon unless I really have to or have planned a tourist trip somewhere. I was delighted to hear that the cool breeze I experienced on a walk home one evening is part of the Bhubaneswar summer. So now I walk home every evening and enjoy the breeze.

Night time is the difficult time for me. Do I sleep with the windows open and then wake at a very early hour due to the noise on the street? Or do I sleep with the fan on and then wake early thanks to a power cut, the fan not working and the temperature rising in the room? Decisions. Decisions.

I’ve heard a lot about the monsoon, but have never experienced a monsoon. And I have certainly never experienced an earthquake, so when there was one on 31st March I didn’t realise what was happening. I simply thought I had had one glass of water too many than evening.

I’m enjoying my time here in Bhubaneswar and in India. I’m delighted I made the decision to come. India is such a fascinating country, with lovely, warm people and lots to see and do.

My Island Paradise

2010-05-01T17:47:00.012+05:30

Sunday 18^th – Saturday 24^th April 2010

So what about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? What about Havelock Island? What about paradise in general? Well, all I can say is ‘it was fabulous’ and ‘I want to go back and just live there forever…’.

After a 7 hour train journey , followed by a four hour wait at Kolkata airport, 2 hours on an aeroplane, 2.5 hours on a boat, my friend Sheila and I finally arrived at our home for the next week.(Sheila started with a 21 hour train journey, Rayagada to Chennai). And boy, was it worth the journey? Definitely - yes !

Havelock Island is part of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago at the south east of India lying between the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea.

We arrived on Sunday evening just in time to see the beach and the sea that would become our home for the next week before the sun set for the evening. We had booked ourselves into Island Vinnie’s on the recommendation of other VSO volunteers who had stayed there in February. (Thanks guys – good choice). The accommodation was a tented cabana (including a western toilet, shower and a fan) as well as fabulous food – lots of fish and chicken. Being the end of season it was very quite, but just what we were hoping for. Wasn’t it nice of the clouds to give me an Irish welcome?

The resort is typically geared towards scuba divers and snorkelers so we were a bit out of place but that didn’t seem to matter as everyone shared their experiences with everyone else anyway. We spent our time between lying on the beach, enjoying the warm Indian Ocean, (yes Mam, I did spend time in the sea – photos available as evidence) lying on hammocks, reading lots, eating lots and yes generally relaxing. We spent some time exploring the main market square on the island, but that was so small it didn’t take very long. Many of the market traders are Kashmiri so the shops were not very well stocked as they were also at the end of their season and mostly closing down that same week. I managed to find a few beach dresses – nice when you’ve been wearing trousers continually for six months. It was also nice to feel a bit girly for a few days.

Having moaned about not being able to find a hairdresser who will cut western hair since I arrived in Bhubaneswar, I met Uma, the Havelock hairdresser on Tuesday evening. Now to say this was an experience is an understatement. I only wish I had a video camera with me to record it. The last time I had a dry cut was as a child. She had two hair clips and told me she would ‘step’ my hair. It quickly became apparent that what I wanted was not relevant. So for the next 15 minutes or so I was told to hold clumps of hair while she cut and then drop it. Hold it and drop it. I was a bit worried throughout the process that I was either going to end up with a Mohican or entirely bald. But by the end all was well. Not the tidiest cut I’ve ever had but the result was fine (for now). And it cost me a whole €1.50.

On Tuesday evening I may have set the world record for mosquito bites on the backs of my legs. I never feel a mosquito biting me and the first hint I get is usually the next day when I have to scratch. I have taken pictures (not for public viewing) but in total I must have been bitten 100 times. I applaud myself for my willingness not to scratch for the next few days. But thankfully by the time of writing this there is little evidence of that eventful evening.

We spent Wednesday morning on Beach no 7 (yes, they put a lot of thought into naming the beaches on Havelock). It was so beautiful. Just having the place to ourselves was amazing. Sheila went off to find a lagoon that had been recommended for snorkelling while I sat on the beach all by myself and contemplated life, love and generally just about everything else! It did make me wonder what’s next in life. Do I want to return to the hotel industry? HR? Ireland? Quick answer is I don’t know, but I guess I still have plenty of time to work it all out. It’s very easy to think when you are all alone surrounded by natural beauty.

And Havelock is a beautiful island. The locals are clearly very aware of tourism being their main revenue generator. The island was not over-crowded. Permits are limited, although I don’t know to how many and many of the Andaman Islands are off-limits to foreigners or a specific permit is required due to their protected natural status. The Nicobar Islands are completely off limits to all foreigners. The immigration office on Havelock is a straw hut. Now that I write this I wish I had taken a picture of it – but I didn’t.

All over the island you see signs about being clean and green. Plastic bags are banned and so when I went clothes shopping I was given a bag made from old newspaper and some string. (A can of diet coke is in this picture as it’s something that’s hard to get in Bhuba, so while on Havelock I made sure I had my fill

We decided to go see the elephant training camp on Thursday morning, but unfortunately there were no elephants there at the time. We had been advised that timing there is hit and miss. The elephants must come first and depending on the temperature they may be in the sea or being brought for a walk through the jungle. So I still have to achieve my goal of sitting on an elephant. Some other time – hopefully.

It was a shame our week finally came to a close. It was actually very difficult facing back into a boat and two planes (no train this time thankfully) to get back to Bhubaneswar. Due to the timings of the boat and airport schedule we had to spend the final night in Port Blair. It’s a typical island main town. Not very attractive, but it does what is says on the tin. We even managed to find a beer in the darkest, dingiest pub I’ve ever been in. But the beer was cold and the crowd of men didn’t seem to mind two foreign women joining them in their space.

We had a great time in Havelock thanks to Adil, Niamh, Evelyn, Priti, Binu (never got to meet Vinnie himself as he was on the mainland doing his other job) with Sam, Frodo and Teabag (the dogs)

I can highly recommend Havelock to anyone who is looking for a quiet, relaxing break. I’d like to return before leaving

India

, so watch this space.

P.S. I wonder if the A&N tourist board are hiring tourism professionals at the moment?

Odissa New Year (14th April)

2010-05-01T17:47:00.000+05:30

Why is it that the week you’re due to go on holidays you always seem very tired at work and the last 5 office days take forever to complete? Well, when I say ‘you’ I actually mean ‘me’.

The week before my island adventure was, thankfully, broken up by the Oriya New Year (Wednesday 14^th April). Vishuva Sankranti is the traditional Oriya New Year and generally falls on this day each year. It coincides with the traditional New Year in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal and Tamil Nadu - in short the solar Hindu New Year.

All of CYSD staff got together in the afternoon and had a drink traditional to the day, but historically drunk to re-hydrate on the first summer day each year. (Question: Have they not noticed the sun high in the sky for the last 3 months?) The drink was a mixture of liquidised fruits, loaded with banana, cashew nuts, coconut, paneer, milk, curd, sugar (lots) and black pepper (lots of lots). As my colleagues happily asked for seconds I wasn’t sure if it was too sweet from sugar for my taste as it hit my tongue or too hot from black pepper as it hit the back of my throat. As it took me so long to decide I had to go back to work before I had an opportunity to finish my drink.

(As I write about food, my friendly, neighbourhood gecko has arrived on the outside of my bedroom window for his evening meal –nice chap, never complains about the menu !)

Some home truths

2010-04-03T10:23:00.001+05:30

So far my blogs are telling of my time in India – places I’ve been and people I’ve met. I’ve been receiving emails and messages on Facebook from friends saying ‘it looks like you’re having a great time’. And I am.

But the realities of India and why NGOs operate here are as follows:

450 million Indians live below the poverty line, $1.25 per day – that’s 1/3 of the world’s poor
1 million women die in child birth here every year
Due to urbanisation the urban poor are traditionally forgotten
Dalits (low caste) and Adivasis (indigenous, tribal people) make up 24% of the population
Every hour 1 person dies in Delhi due to air pollution
40% of the population are between 25 and 30 years old
This week the Indian government started working on the 2011 census - the first time they will ever attempt to count every person living in this vast country. In my opinion this is unrealistic. As it is many government officials don't even know the location of every village in their state some as so remote.
This week (2010) the Indian government passed the ‘Right to Education’ bill. Fabulous. But will this end the culture of girl children staying at home to mind the family if for whatever reason the mother is unable to do so. Having a right to eduction will not change thousands of years of culture.
Everyone here has a ‘Right to Work’. To work you need to have a work card. To know about this you have to be able to read, or at least afford a radio. You also need to be able to sign your name on the application form and the card itself. What happens if you haven't had any eduction?
9% of GDP comes from money brought into the country by INGOs
99% of money given to the state of Orissa by the national government never makes it to the people who need it
Less than 1/3 of the population have access to toilets
According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India's population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India.
In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males. In India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population.
The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide in India, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.
Orissa (the state where I’m based) is still in 2010 a ‘starvation state’. As recently as last week it was reported that 50 people starved to death in Bolangir in the west of the state

I could go on, but at least this gives an impression of why there are so many NGOs and INGOs throughout India.

If you have some spare change.........

2010-04-02T19:34:00.000+05:30

Easter Sunday is fast approaching.
You're looking forward to your Easter eggs - lucky things
But hopefully you've been putting a few cents away during Lent for those in need. If anyone is still deciding what charity to give to please think of VSO. It costs the organization over €30,000 per year to train and provide living allowances and accommodation to each volunteer overseas.
You can donate throughhttp://www.mycharity.ie/ and put in my name. Thank you

25 things to do while in India (a.k.a the reason they invented chocolate !)

2010-04-02T10:45:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: This list was written as a Word doc when the author was having a very bad day, but now sees the funny side of it and has put it on her blog. Therefore no correspondence will be entered into etc etc etc

Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Taking a deep breath when your internet service provider promises you internet reconnection in one hour and eight hours later you’re still waiting.
Trying not to scream when your internet service provider tells you for the seventh time in ten days you have used your monthly download allowance when you’re only calling to explain you will pay them if they provide some more.
Laughing out loud when your internet service provider asks you to email a request for more download when your internet is down and that’s why you’re speaking with them in the first place. (Note to self – don’t download during day time hours anymore. Not worth the hassle)
Smiling when you’re with a group of people who refuse to speak English when you’re with them even though you don’t speak their language and they all speak English fluently.
Getting used to the idea that the shop assistants have to go through your shopping bags before you leave the shop even though they know what they contain as they have packed them only ten seconds earlier.
Trying to understand how men find it acceptable to urinate in the street without any sense of the need to be discrete (I say discrete as expecting it not to happen at all is not an option).
Trying to understand why people spit in the street, constantly. (ditto)
Trying to understand why motorbike drivers have to practically drive over you even though there’s nothing else on the road apart from you and them.
Holding on for dear life when your auto driver chooses to drive against four lanes of traffic in morning rush hour to get you to the office in the fastest possible time (the alternative and safer route would add a whole 30 seconds extra to the journey).
Trying to work out why auto drivers at the other side of the road, going in the opposite direction, with passengers already, stop on the road and wait for you to cross even though you have made no indication to them that you intend using an auto - it’s a lovely cool evening and walking is just fine, thank you.
Pretending not to notice men staring at you.
Accepting that it’s ok now and then to lose your cool with the more obvious ones (although I don’t think the four guys who got off their motorbikes a few weeks ago to stare understood I was being sarcastic when I decided to do a little pirouette in front of them). Now I just wear my sunglasses and stare back.
Accepting that no matter what time you go to bed you’re going to wake at 5.30am as all your neighbours are on a different timetable to you.
Understanding that the answer ‘yes’ is just a three letter word with little meaning.
Accepting that when you book a maintenance man to come to your apartment (having waited six weeks already) and been promised a particular time, he’s not actually going to turn up.
Waiting
Waiting
Accepting that being sweaty is ok.
Travelling nearly 10km (and maybe 15km depending on availability) across town just to buy toilet paper.
Accepting that your local ‘bakery’ never actually has any bread when you go in to buy some.
Drinking water. Lots.
Oh yeah – and WAITING

The moral of the story?

Patience is truly a virtue.

City Life

2010-04-01T20:35:00.002+05:30

Bulls and cows, water buffalo, birds (very loud), dogs (everywhere), goats, birds, gheccos (in my bedroom – a good thing as they eat mosquitos), mosquitos (not a good thing as they like me tooooooo much), ants (big and small – they like me too but not as much as mosquitos), spiders (lots), cats and little striped squirrels (cute) and the odd monkey.

They’re all here.

Happy Birthday CYSD

2010-03-25T22:13:00.010+05:30

March 24^th is CYSD’s birthday. Yesterday we were 28 years old. And boy, do we know how to throw a party. I have organised a few parties in my time, but not one that goes on from 10am until nearly midnight.

Every year, the NGO I am currently working with celebrates it’s Foundation Day.

The day started with the lighting of the celebratory candle, a key feature in all Indian celebrations. As it was not just a puja for CYSD staff, but their families also the morning followed on with dance competitions for the children, aloo and spoon race (not as interesting as our raw egg !) and a hotly contested cricket match on the front lawn. I was asked to present the children with their dance prizes and actually had predicted the winner - an up and coming young John Travolta, with his white head band and gold trousers. There was also a photo exhibition showing events and staff from the past 28 years and stalls full of freshly grown produce were being sold by people from the areas in which CYSD works – Koraput, Sundergarh and Keonijar.This was followed by a lovely lunch on the lawn enjoyed by everyone attending.

The event of the afternoon was a lecture on ‘Citizen’s Rights, Voters Education and Good Governance’, offered by Dr S.Y. Quarishi, the Election Commissioner of the Government of India. A very experienced, informed man, he made a very impressive speech on the area of Indian government for which he is responsible. This was followed by a response from Jagandanda, CYSD’s founder, but now the current state Information Commissioner (who later in the evening stepped on stage to lead a sing-song)

Up to this point of the day I had been wearing my usual clothes, but had been advised that a sari should be worn for the evening events, so I duely obliged.

After more food (though it was called a light snack, it was so much more) we all moved into the main auditorium where the main event of the evening was the recognition of long serving staff (20, 15, 10, 5 years service) as well as the 2 VSO volunteers. When I was called to the stage to receive my gift I held onto my sari for fear it would fall off – thankfully it didn’t. I was delighted to be presented with my gift and have a chat with Jagandanda, a man I have heard so much about but until last night had only said hello to on the bottom of the office stairs. In between each session we had a formal dance event performed by many of the children who had been in the morning competition to the now famous song ‘Jai Ho’ (needless to say lead by Mr Travolta himself) as well as tribal dances performed by some of the staff from both the Koraput and Sundergarh field offices.

The day finished by a lovely dinner served out on the lawn – at this stage there must have been 500 people there. And then this morning some of us were in for a full day manager's meeting.

What a puja !

Weather update - it hit 44 degrees celcius today. Yikes !

Books, books and more books

2010-03-19T20:58:00.007+05:30

I have just been asked (thanks Mam) if I have enough books to read while I'm out here in India.

Thankfully previous volunteers have left books behind and most of them have ended up in my apartment - lucky me !

I had always thought I'd let you know what I am reading once I had ten books read so here goes:

I won't comment on whether I'd recommend them or not as each to their own.

I'll update again after the next ten

Happy reading

Puri, PAR and Pasta

2010-03-15T20:36:00.013+05:30

I’m just back from a lovely few days in Puri, a beach resort on the Bay of Bengal, on the coast of Orissa. I attended the VSO Programme Annual Review (PAR) which was held 10^th - 12^th March at the Holiday Resort Hotel. It was great to see the old faces again, and some new. In all there are currently 60 volunteers in India, but unfortunately due to financial cut backs that number will start to seriously drop from next year.

We had great discussions on each of the topic areas – Participation and Governance, Disability, HIV/AIDS and Volunteering.

We worked hard during the day, but VSO had arranged for us to play hard in the evenings – the first evening we had dinner on the beach, and on the second evening we were entertained by Gotipus and Odissi dancers. Gotipuas are generally young boys, dressed up as girls. From the 17th century onwards Gotipua dance spread as part of the temple culture of Lord Jaganannath in Puri.

The third and final day of the conference was run by the volunteer committee and as a group we found that there was a lot to discuss. But not so much we spent the whole day locked into a room. The committee had very kindly arranged a choice of outings for the afternoon and I chose to go see the Sun Temple at Konark, a local World Heritage Site.

A13th-century Sun Temple (also known as the Black Pagoda) it was built by King Narasimhadeva-I(AD 1236-1264) of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The temple takes the form of the chariot of Surya(Arka), the sun god, and is heavily decorated with stone carving. The entire complex, most of it now gone, was designed in the form of a huge chariot drawn by seven spirited horses on twelve pairs of exquisitely decorated wheels. The entrance is guarded by two lions, which are each shown crushing a war elephant. Each elephant in turn lies on top of a human body.

The temple symbolises the majestic stride of the Sun god. All around the temple, there are various floral and geometric patterns. There are also human, divine and semi-divine figures in sensuous poses. The carvings contain couples in various amorous poses, and are derived from the Kama Sutra.

I had previously decided to then spend the weekend in Puri with two other VSO volunteers and I’m delighted I did. Not only was it lovely to catch up with them, but other volunteers had also decided to stay on in Puri for a few extra days.

We just spent the weekend lounging around, spending lots and eating lots. We were spoilt for choice in Puri with pizza, pasta, good fish and proper coffee – all things we generally can’t get in our placement areas. We ate in restaurants called 'Peace’, ‘Xanadu’, ‘the Pink House’ and the now famous ‘Honey Bee’. Some money was also spent on clothes suitable for hot weather (and tall people) - something else I can’t find in Bhubaneswar.

I stayed in the Z hotel for the weekend, an old quaint, basic hotel, but one which was very clean and had lovely, friendly staff.

I don’t have any interesting or funny stories to tell about my few days in Puri. It was simply a nice, relaxing break.

A few thoughts......

2010-03-07T14:33:00.001+05:30

India is a country (or at least Bhubaneswar is a city) of contradictions.

For example it’s expected, even for foreigners, to keep legs and shoulders covered at all times, despite the heat, yet every day I walk past billboards with half-naked women advertising a Sony laptop or the local gym.

The tag line of the local coffee chain is ‘a lot can happen over coffee’ yet it is unacceptable for non-married persons of the opposite sex to hold hands while walking down the street.

Homosexuality was illegal in India until May of last year and yet it is common to see men holding hands – although this is more the culture of getting lost in a crowd here, quite different to home.

Everywhere I look there is rich and poor, and even sometimes very rich and very poor.

The caste system is alive and well over here. Even today I saw a man leave his office and wave to his driver who was no more than 10 feet away from him, and waited for the car to come to him, not he walk over to the car.

Personal space is not something that is understood. Only last week whilst browsing around a local supermarket shopping for a white t-shirt for Holi I was literally stalked, and yes I do mean stalked, by a young male shop assistant. I do understand that it is because it is his job to ‘serve’ the customer, but it can be very annoying and frustrating when you’re not used to it. At least in Ireland when a shop assistant asks ‘can I help you?’, at least you can say ‘no thanks’. Here they just follow your every step and even sometimes get so close they even step on you.

I thought I was getting used to the ‘staring’ thing – men staring at you as you walk by. And not being subtle about it in any way. Well, I’m not. I am learning to adapt to it, but don’t believe I’ll ever accept it. An Indian friend tried to teach me to say in Oriya ‘have you never seen a woman before?’ but I wasn’t really paying attention, so I think I’ll have to ask for lesson no 2.

Holi, Holi, Holi – I escaped being Holi’ed:

2010-03-03T11:08:00.006+05:30

The colorful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in late February or early March. This year it was on 1^st March in most of India, but it was celebrated on 28^th February in the state of West Bengal (Kolkata) which we discovered only when we arrived there.

Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of 'good' over 'bad'. The colorful festival is meant to bridge the social gap and renew relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other 'Happy Holi'. If only it were that simple !

There are many explanations as to when or where this festival started and it can be traced in some places back to B.C. The most widely accepted modern-day explanation is the legend of Lord Krishna who is said to have started the tradition of playing with colours by applying colour on his beloved Radha. Gradually, the play gained popularity with the people and became a tradition.

It’s called the festival of colour for a reason. People throw paint at each other and complete strangers. Neighbours usually agree to ‘play’ Holi in plenty of time before the day itself. There is big revenue to be earned in the sale of paint and water pistols in the week or so leading up to Holi.

My original plan was to hide for the day when I heard about this festival, but then my flat mate and I planned our weekend in Kolkata. Accepting that there was no way to avoid Holi then – 2 foreign women walking down the streets were bound to be a popular target – I accepted my fate and bought a plain white t-shirt.

One of my Indian colleagues had us pre-warned that the paint is difficult to get off and can often stay on your skin for days afterwards, so recommended we buy baby oil before venturing out into the unknown. I did what I was told but by the end of the day the result for me was my lovely, traditional farmer’s tan !

As it turned out it was not quite as mad as anticipated. We went out into the streets of Kolkata on Sunday morning, wearing white t-shirts, to come upon a group that were truly celebrating Holi – there was paint and water everywhere. They even had some music and drummers to throw paint to. But I decided to stay back a bit and watch for a while amongst a group of photographers which was to my surprise respected. At one time a young boy came over with paint in his hand and gestured to ask if he could rub it on my face. I hadn’t realized at the time that this must be how it starts. But not really wanting to have to scrub my face for the next three days I offered him my t-shirt instead, but he politely declined. It was only afterwards that I realized he did not want to touch a woman (and of course, traditionally could not).

I was relieved not to have to been covered head to toe in paint, but in a way a little disappointed that I don’t have a multi-coloured t-shirt as a memory of the day.

The guest house in which we stayed in Kolkata had a very interesting sign on their front door in time for the celebrations. Were residents meant to arrive back without their clothes ?!

Calcutta / Kolkata : Sat 27th February - Mon 1st March

2010-03-03T09:33:00.009+05:30

Calcutta or Kolkata as it is known these days, is an amazing city. With a population of over 15 million there was plenty to do and see in the 48 hours we had there.

We got the overnight train so arrived in a 8.30am ish, into the second largest train station in Asia, and saw big yellow taxis for the first time since arriving in India. As we drove to our guest house we passed many old, beautiful buildings that clearly were there since the days of the Raj – the time of British rule.

Kolkata is a far more modern city than Bhubaneswar. It has all the trimmings of a large, industrialised, western city – it was once the capital of India. Once we had checked into our guest house our first stop was the Victoria Memorial. On arrival we were told that the museum itself was closed for Holi but we could spend time walking around the grounds. After a pit stop for a real cappuccino we headed off to the local race track to spend Saturday afternoon in a very civilised manner. Our car, kindly donated for the day by a friend from Bhubaneswar, dropped us off outside the member’s circle and we pretended not to know where we were, expecting to automatically be let in as we were tourists. It didn’t quite work out like that as we were told to go to a different gate. Just at that time a lovely man came up to us and offered to sign all 4 of us in – usually wanting nothing in return. He showed us around the course and brought us to VIP seats right in front of the race track, where staff came to take orders for drinks and even took our bets. Now, don’t get excited when I say I was betting on horses. I bet on a horse to win in each of 3 races, and in each case my chosen horse came second. So I lost a whopping total of Rs 60.

We went back into the city just as it got dark and spent some time looking around the local markets and getting a feel for Kolkata city life. Then we ventured off to a restaurant that served steak for dinner, and yes, I do mean steak. You should have seen the smile on my face when it arrived. It was the first time I have seen beef (apart from all the beef walking down the street every day) since I arrived in India 4 months ago. (Note: I can’t believe I’m here 4 months already )

Sunday morning was Holi, so we walked along the streets and came upon many groups of multi-coloured locals and tourists. We walked along the unusually, very quite city streets and through Maiden Park. I was told the park was the largest in the world, but the Phoenix Park is bigger.

We spent time sitting by the edge of the ocean, at Babu Gaat, where the local Brahmen met to wash off their Holi paint. No one seemed to mind us just sitting on the steps watching a cultural phenomenon new to us. In fact some were happy to pose for photos so they could see themselves in the camera.

Sunday afternoon was spent sitting in a local café talking with an Irish doctor who was on a 3 month volunteer placement with a local charity and then we headed, as girls do, to the main large shopping mall. To get there we took the underground rail system – all exceptionally clean. I was surprised how clean it was compared to the streets above us and it was explained to me that people who use the underground are seen to be wealthy and so behave better there than they would above ground. The 2 stop journey cost Rs 4. Great value.

That evening we found a lovely Italian restaurant that served real pasta, real home-made sauces and deeeeeeelicious apple pie with a toffee sauce and ice-cream.

Monday morning was a bit different. We decided to visit the Missionary of Charities house - founded by Mother Teresa. We were warmly welcomed by a nun on arrival who told us where to go. We had access to the museum within the house – a display of pictures of Mother Teresa and the history of the order. The display included a letter found only after her death requesting to be released from the Loretto Nuns in Rathfarnham, Dublin for a period of one year. The response was that she would be released for one year and longer if required as the Order Head understood that Sr Teresa (at the time) had another calling. When the nun in the museum realised I am Irish, she gave me a medal, explaining that it was different from the one I would be given when leaving and I was not to tell the other nuns that she had done so ! I’m sure she does this with everyone but it was a lovely thought. We were then sent up a stairs to look at ‘Mother’s Room’, a very small space with a simple single bed, a plain desk and chair, a cross and a black and white picture of her with Pope John Paul II. The only place we were permitted to take a photograph was at her tomb, which is just inside the main door. As we sat in the room there was a constant trickle of nuns coming in to pray, including two novices.

Our final destination in Kolkata was Mc Donalds. Every trip to a large city has to include a visit to Mc D’s – no ¼ pounders though – just chicken, chips and a very hard to get Diet Coke. Lovely !

On the journey home we passed through the train station that boasts the ownership of the longest platform in the world - 1072.5 metres. We hopped off after 6 hours, but the train was to continue all the way to Kannyikumari (right at the southern tip of India) a total of 3 days. So as I write this the train still hasn’t reached it’s final destination.

I really enjoyed my weekend in Kolkata. Apart from all the trappings of city life I found the people to be much happier and more open to looking at you when talking than those in Orissa. I’m not quite sure what makes the difference.

A bit of this and a bit of that

2010-02-13T16:09:00.016+05:30

It’s 34 degrees Celsius today with only a small breeze going through my home even with all doors and windows being open. I tried spending time earlier sitting on the balcony hoping that the breeze that was there last Saturday would be back again today but unfortunately not.
I wonder if the young boy I saw wearing a ski mask last week is still wearing it today ?

Having walked back from the shops yesterday with 3 bags of groceries, slower than I have ever walked I was ready to drop by the time I got home. I had even had the sense (I thought) to go before it got too hot. On arrival home, going straight to the fridge, for a cold drink I decided the next time I would see the shops in the daylight would be next winter. Even though it’s still hot and sticky in the evenings once the sun goes down (only to get hotter and stickier over the next few weeks) I am going to postpone all necessary shopping until early evening from now on.

It’s at times like this I wished my placement involved the need to be able to drive a motorbike or scooter. As I walked home yesterday I was jealous of all the people that whizzed past me on their two-wheelers (as they are called around here). When I first arrived in India I used to think how insane it was to see everyone on the back of scooters without any helmet, completely against everything we believe in Ireland for health and safety. Actually, correction needed here – the men who drive the bikes wear helmets, but the women and children sitting on the back don’t. And yes, I do mean children. But safety aside, at least there is a cool breeze if you own a motorbike or scooter in this weather. This is important particularly if you’re wearing a sari which covers right down to your toes.

January 20th was Republic Day here in India. Republic Day is the annual celebration of India becoming a republic having once been under British rule. Every city has it's own parade and Bhubaneswar was no different. Because of the heat here the parade began at 9am to be sure it was over before the mid-day sun. A bit different to home where parades start well after mid-day.

The Republic Day parade here in Bhubaneswar was mainly a display of the military and police, as well as groups of Red Cross first-aiders and local school children. At the start of the parade everyone was marching in a straight line but somewhere along the middle, someone must have gotten tired, as the march that had started in the centre of the road, had swung right over to my side of the road by the time it finished.

Something completely different …

A few weeks ago a group of us went to visit Rushikulya, approx 2 hours by car from Bhubaneswar. We went to see some Olive Ridley turtles. Olive Ridleys are an endangered species and land en-mass in 3 main locations within Orissa every year to lay their eggs. All the eggs then hatch around the one time and I believe it’s an amazing site to see all the baby turtles attempt to make their way to the sea in the moonlight.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any eggs hatching as we were a few weeks early, but we did get to meet some of the local tribal fishing community and meet some of the children. As I don’t swim I wasn’t brave enough to go out on the boat that my friends hired to see the turtles in the ocean. I spent over an hour on the beach on my own, well me and all the locals, who left me alone to enjoy the peace and quiet, while they continued mending their nets.

It was only when I decided to try to take some discrete pictures of the fishermen working that a lady who had been sitting with them approached me to see my camera and the photos I had taken. I then went over to the men to show them the pictures and even though the only word we had in common was ‘camera’ we managed to spend a lovely few minutes in conversation.

Clearly a very poor community, they all seemed happy in their work. The local children were as children are on a Saturday- all playing on the beach or out in their family boats. The best part for me and the memory I will hold of my visit to Rushikulya is when, who I can only imagine as the older brother of two, slapped his younger brother on the back of the head for forcing his way through the group of young boys to see the picture I had taken of them. But in his defence he had to force his way through – he was smaller than any of them. That and the time I spent on the beach on my own (with all the fishermen).

It’s a beautiful, unspoilt part of the Indian coastline and I can only hope it remains that way.

A little bit about where I live

2010-02-10T22:44:00.015+05:30

Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the state of Orissa, on the east coast of India, lies beside the Bay of Bengal. My home for this year has a population of just under 2 million people, a population that is growing rapidly thanks to the increase in the number of third level education intitutions that have been opening up here over the last 5 years. The main department stores that I have been visiting since arriving in December were not here 5 years ago and I have been told that a large proportion of the current road system is new as well.

Orissa is the second poorest state in India, the poorest being West Bengal, and this is why so many NGOs and INGOs operate here today.

Bhubaneswar is a city of contradictions. I mentioned before that I live in what is known as the wealthy side of town. However just around the corner is a slum. I walk past a very old, poor farming community each time I go to the local shop. It is honestly a bit weird walking home with a bag full of groceries past people who clearly could not afford in a month what I have in one plastic bag. But that’s life here and something you have to get used to, even if it’s not a pleasant experience.

On a happy note I often get a big wave from 2 young boys who are getting their daily wash from their father at a pump on the side of the road.

Every morning on the walk into the office I pass traditional women who have come in from the countryside to work in the city. Typically they are construction workers of some kind – the menial tasks like sweeping up the loose gravel, washing walls etc - but all done using their own tools that they carry to and from work everyday on their heads.

The two main methods of carrying anything around here, if you are a member of the lower castes, are your head and a bicycle (if you are fortunate enough to own one).I have seen entire shop-loads of stock on people’s heads, never mind on the back of a bike. But, so far I’ve never had a camera with me when I see half a shop coming at me on the morning walk into work.

Poverty here is not as obvious as it was in Delhi. It’s rare to see someone sleeping on the street here, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t. The fact that the populated areas here are more spread out than in Delhi is probably the main reason for this. Due to the recent demand in accommodation property developers are building up houses and apartment blocks wherever they can find space. I don’t know if I am right in saying this but it looks like either planning permission is not required to build or that no planning is done on where buildings should go up. There is no clear centre to Bhubaneswar – just a bit here and a bit there. Also this is the reason there is so much sand on the side of every road. I did wonder where the sand was coming from considering we’re at least 2 hours from the nearest beach. This makes walking anywhere a bit of an adventure. You can never be sure how much sand you’ll have to walk through to get from A to B. There are no footpaths in most areas so you have to watch your footing as you avoid the traffic.

I don’t want and don’t mean to make my new home sound sad and poor. It is a city of vibrant colours and so much culture. Everywhere I go there is a reminder of Indian’s religious beliefs and history, one which they are proud of and are happy to share. I’ve gotten used to the constant celebratory music coming from one direction or another – a simple thanksgiving prayer or a large wedding. It is quite common to see incense burning in front of a small religious symbol on the side of the street at which people will stop and pray as they walk by. Yesterday evening I attended the annual ‘Adivasi Mela’, the annual celebration of Orissa’s many tribes. Tribal villagers get together once a year to display and sell their wares to the city dwellers. A few weeks ago I went to see Ekamra Haat , a local market that focuses on the sale of local handloom products, the city boundary walls are painted featuring local traditions and the city can claim to being one of the greenest and cleanest in India.

Bhubaneswar is known as the ‘city of a 1000 temples’ (there are only now approx 600) or as ‘the temple city of India’ as it has such a religious and colourful history. There always seems to be a party going on. When I was in Delhi I had been told that December was the month to get married, but it’s not the same here. It comes down to what date your priest advices is a good day, no matter what day of the week it is. And of course weddings here last 3 days so the party goes on and on. There constantly seems to be a stream of Guru’s coming to the local hotels to share their religious advice. I’ve had the pleasure of being invited to a wedding today. Putting on the sari was a big adventure and our kind neighbour had to show us how to do it. Thankfully it stayed on for the wedding and didn’t fall off. It was a lot more comfortable to wear than I had imagined it would be.

The weather here too is a constant topic of discussion (mind you only amongst the ex-pats). Whilst sitting on our balcony last Saturday afternoon, at which point it was approx 32 degrees, a mother and son walked past us on the street below. Nothing unusual with this normally, except that the child was wearing a woolly jumper and a woollen ski mask (I was sitting on the balcony to claim the one tiny breeze I could locate at the time). I guess when you’ve experienced 40+ degree temperatures you can get a little bit cold when it comes down to 30 !

Apart from that the scene was as it would be at home- that and the wild dog chasing a large monkey who would have won the fight if he’d had the sense to turn around.

Everyday life in India

2010-01-18T18:14:00.002+05:30

OK.

So life is very different over here, but there are two things in particular that fascinate me – shopping and mobile phones

Shopping

As previously mentioned shops do not make life easy over here – well easy compared to shopping in Ireland. In Ireland we have large supermarkets that will sell you just about anything all under one roof. In India every shop sells something different. I have identified which shop sells coffee, which has toilet roll (sometimes – although this shop is closing down so the hunt begins again), which sells milk etc.

The best part of the whole shopping experience is the shop security guy.

All the major chain stores have security at their entrance and exit points (usually two separate doors). At the entrance point you must leave all bags outside. There must be a big problem with theft over here. I can understand with such a large percentage of the population being below the poverty line that this is possible. The security guard will give you a tag which allows you reclaim your personal property once you have finished shopping. But generally they don’t take responsibility for mobile phones, Ipods etc, so I have learned to leave these at home if shopping as without a bag how are you supposed to mind them? !

It’s when leaving a shop that the real fun starts. Firstly at the check out all plastic bags are sealed – again to ensure you steal nothing on the way out. This of course is one of the many reasons Indian streets are so dirty - there's no recycling as it's impossible to re-use some stores plastic bags. The staff member at the till then stamps your receipt to say ‘paid’, even though it’s clear from the receipt that you have. You then have to produce your receipt to the exit security guard to prove that you have paid for the bags you are carrying. This is the funniest bit as generally the security guard is standing so near the cash point that they actually watch you pay in the first place. Again then they stamp your receipt to allow you to exit the shop.

I don’t know for sure but I am assuming this is some way of giving people employment. Here in India anyone with a work card (a registration card that gives them the right to work) is entitled to a minimum of 100 days paid work per year. If they apply to the government to find them a job and they cannot be found one in a certain period of time they are then entitled to a social welfare payment. This is also one of the reasons you see so many female construction and road-side workers.

Mobile phones

Over 5 million people sign up for a mobile phone every month in India. The competition between the various brands is intense. Every shop front (small traders in hut-like premises) here advertises one brand of mobile phone or another, even if they don’t sell phones or credit. But most shops do sell credit – grocers, pharmacists, even the bakery sells phone credit. The commission must be great !

I’ve signed up with an Indian mobile phone company as I got a lot of free texts at the start (all now used up), but their service is quite different from what I’ve been used to at home

Firstly, every time I text or make a call I immediately get a text from them updating my credit balance – a really good idea. But then it’s all down-hill after that.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I get at least 10 texts or calls every day trying to sell me more credit, internet access and even a dating service. Generally they are all in Oriya or Hindi, but as I’m seeing them so often I am getting used to them.

When you phone another Indian mobile phone with the intention of speaking with someone you have to hear a marketing sales pitch in Hindi, with beautiful background music, before the phone actually starts to ring.

With my network I get quite philosophical messages from them on a regular basis such as ‘Imagination in the one weapon in the war against reality’ which arrived this morning. From time to time I even get a text wishing me ‘good night’.

And then – the icing on the cake – there is no voicemail set up on the Indian mobile network, so everyone just answers their phone whenever it rings, even in the middle of office meetings.

Some Lingo !

2010-01-12T19:47:00.002+05:30

Well having sat through a very long 2 days of a senior manager’s meeting I have decided to sit myself down and properly try to teach myself some Oriya

The meeting itself was very interesting for the most part – the most part being the part in English- but it was always the bits I was looking forward to, mainly the bits that would effect my role in HR, when people decided to speak in Oriya. In most cases this happened in the afternoon sessions, when some of my colleagues were starting to get tired and it was easier for them to turn to their native language. Even though it was frustrating I could completely understand, as I would probably have done the same.

I’ve had an Oriya book since leaving Delhi, but had thought I’d be ok for a year with my few words of Hindi. But in reality that hasn’t been the case. The people I meet every day, rickshaw drivers, shop assistants all speak Oriya. I’ve been getting away with bargaining the cost of a rickshaw journey in English and mostly numbers here are spoken in English mid-sentence and saying ‘thank you’ (danyavad) as it’s the same in both languages. But apart from that I am beginning to realize it could be worth forcing myself to learn some Oriya for the next 10 months. I definitely need to know the different fruit and veg in Oriya as most market traders trade in Oriya, having no English due to their level (or lack of) education.

And this week I have no excuse as my flat mate is gone on a field trip and so there’ll be no opportunities for gossiping in the evening. I am slowly realizing that Oriya will be more difficult than Hindi. In Oriya they rely heavily on a long ‘aw’ sound, which I sound very funny saying. It is already springing up in a lot of the vocabulary I am learning.

This coupled with 3 ways of saying ‘you’ I do wonder if I’ll ever get it.

My book says to leave the book at home and go out and practice so I guess I’ll have to.

I have also been advised that I will need Oriya if I get to go on a field trip to see a CYSD project which I hope to in the next month or so. CYSD work with remote tribal communities and it would be great if I could speak to the people I will be spending a few days with. One of my colleagues had advised me that the tribal communities would be able to understand my Hindi, but would not be able to reply to me in Hindi – so Oriya it is.

And then is it ‘Oriya’ or ‘Odiya’?

Am I living in ‘Orissa’ or ‘Odissa’?

It’s all down to where I am and to whom I am speaking. ‘Orissa’ and ‘Oriya’ is Hindi, but locally it’s ‘Odissa’ and ‘Odiya’. Most states here in India, and Odissa is no exception, are quite territorial and prefer to use their own native languages.

India has many languages, and yes I do mean languages, not dialects. Odiya may be a bit easier to learn if it was a dialect of Hindi, but unfortunately for me it’s a completely different language.

But just to confuse me I’ll have to keep up some Hindi. If I ever leave Odissa and decide to travel, being fluent (I wish !) in Odiya will be of no use to me whatsoever. I may as well be speaking Irish if I try Odiya outside the state. The official national language is Hindi, and most people in larger cities will understand, but after that having the state language is the safest bet. Unfortunately it’s a misconception that everyone here in India speaks English. Offices, Banks, Hotels are all fine with English, but after that it’s just pot luck.

On a final note – I wonder if my brain will ever start to register that when someone shakes their head from side to side they are saying ‘yes’. It’s still taking me a few seconds to realize they are agreeing with me and not saying ‘no’ as it would mean at home.

2010 begins ......

2010-01-05T19:58:00.013+05:30

2010 started out with an office sport’s day. I went into the office on 1^st January and proceeded to get some work done, when bit by bit my colleagues started arriving into the HR office to say ‘Happy New Year’ in English and to each teach me a few words in Oriya. When one realized I was actually working, he told me I should stop as no work is ever done on 1^st January. It’s a pity I wasn’t told that the day before as I had been in the office since just after 8am and the first visitor I had to the office was after 10.30 !

It was explained to me that all they do here on 1^st January is wish each other well, have a communal office lunch and play sports in the gardens for the afternoon. And to top it all off the person telling me this was handing me his resignation so he could go off for a year to be a VSO volunteer.

The afternoon was great fun. It was hilarious to watch a group of adults fight over the chairs in musical chairs. The way people walked slowly, then ran to be sure they were at a chair when the music stopped, just as children do was very funny. But then the real rivalry started – India vs Pakistan in a cricket match. The rules were changed slightly to ensure it didn’t go on forever, but as could have been predicted India won by 6 wickets (You will know that what I know of the rules of cricket could be written on the back of a postage stamp, but saying ‘won by 6 wickets’ sounds like I know something about the game. Damien if you’re reading this and a team can’t win by 6 wickets please let me know).

Naturally when the result was announced by our very fair referee it was time for chai. We all sat around the garden and it was after chai was served that the sign-song started. Soon enough there seemed to be a sing-off starting up from opposite sides of the circle of chairs – mind you this is a pure guess as it was all in Oriya or Hindi and my morning lessons wouldn’t have been enough for me to work this out, so instead I just sat back and enjoyed.

At the end of the afternoon we were all presented with our new year gift of a water bottle, a very important thing to have when in approx 6 weeks we’ll be facing into the summer heat over here. I’d like to say I’m looking forward to that, but I’m not sure. And this is coming from the girl who has been cold the last few evenings when it has dipped below 20 degrees !

That same afternoon I got very excited when having applied for a bank account 4 weeks ago a couriered envelope was sitting on my desk. I joyfully opened it thinking ‘finally my debit card’ to find the envelope contained no debit card and a cheque book which I will never use. I phoned my bank contact on Monday morning who 4 weeks earlier had told me how great the banking system is over here and that I’d have everything within 7 days to ask what had happened. As it turned out he was on his way to meet me at the office – quote ‘I’ll be there in 5 mins’ which actually was 1 ½ hours later - to then tell me I had to reapply for the debit card and sign another form. When asked for an explanation there was none. Thankfully my office colleagues were as annoyed as I was and I think he got the message, assuring me it would be couriered over to me within 7 days (I’m not holding my breath). It had all started out so great when he arrived to the office on my first day here with all the necessary forms and I didn’t have to go looking for a bank. Ah well, I guess it was too good to be true.

I had my first trip to Puri on Saturday. Approx 2 hours from Bhubaneswar is the coastal town of Puri. We traveled by bus and believe me when I say I will never complain about Irish busses again. All the busses here are from times past, but having the habit of being early paid off as I got a seat. There is no particular schedule to busses over here. They just go when they are full – and I mean full as in no standing room left.

Puri is not really a seaside tourist resort as we’d know it. Certainly nothing like Goa which is further north. But tourists are discovering bit by bit it as it is meant to be good for surfers.

As it was just a day round trip we found a nice fish restaurant and shopped for some locally handmade nic-nacs to decorate our apartments. Naturally being a sea-view restaurant it was a bit pricy for the local market, but it sold fish. You need to be here to understand how excited I now get when I see fish or meat on a menu. My body won’t know what hit it when I come home in November and get back to eating a non-veg diet.(Still not brave enough to buy chicken from the local stalls!) Before heading home we took time to dip our toes in the reasonably warm water and watch the sun set.

Getting home was the adventure of the day. We had approached the bus from the rear and did not see the destination sign which would usually be on the front window. We confirmed that the bus was going to Bhubaneswar and just assumed it was going to stop at the bus depot where we had started out from. Of course nothing is that simple over here. My friend, AnnMarie got off the bus early as it passes her house, but I stayed on it until it stopped approx 300 metres further in. The driver got off and I thought maybe he’s gone out for chai – which wouldn’t be unusual. But I was completely wrong. They were changing drivers as the bus was going to Cuttack, not the local bus station. When the Indians on the bus saw me patiently sitting at the back they tried in their best Hinglish to advise me to get off. At this point it was after 9pm, very dark and I had no idea where in the city I was. I then passed a shop and bought some chocolate knowing that I’d be grateful for it by the time I reached home.

I then found an auto rickshaw and told him I needed to get to Ekamra Gardens (the local site auto drivers would know and from where I could then walk to my apartment). He quoted me Rs50 which was reasonable and off we went. He then brought me to another road and I finally worked out that he didn’t know where he was going. When it seemed to register he asked me for another Rs150. Even though he had very little English he understood the words ‘ripped off’ and ‘traffic police’ at which point I got out and walked away, not paying him a penny. He must have known he was in the wrong as he just drove away.

I then found another auto driver who told me he didn’t go to that side of the city but proceeded to flag down another auto and negotiated the trip for Rs80 for me, which considering the distance we then drove was very good. To be honest I would have paid Rs800 as I was at the point of needing that bar of chocolate. One of the good guys. And more importantly ‘thank you Cadburys’.

Normally I would have no issues with not knowing where I am, but over here it is rare to see a woman out after 9pm and even though it’s actually safe to be out, it just adds to the staring, which I have gotten used to in the day, but have yet to get used to in the dark.

My flat mate, Anouck, returned from her Christmas break, just in time for her birthday on Monday. We had a great night out at a city restaurant. It was very reasonably priced serving a mix of Indian and Thai food. Being Monday it wasn’t a mad night out. But plenty of those to come. We’re already arranging a Valentine’s Day party, a St Patrick’s Day party (of course!) the Jens’ birthday party (there are 2 Jens here and our birthdays are one after another) and I’m sure more birthdays throughout the year. Well, you know what they say ‘all work and no play makes Jen a dull girl’.

And all of this on top of 30 days annual leave and 13 public holidays. Really explains why they work 6 days per week over here.

2009-12-30T20:37:00.002+05:30

Happy New Year

Short blog today

This is just to say 'Happy New Year' to everyone

I had said I'd know how to say that in Oriya by today, but when I asked my colleagues they didn't see the point of translating it for me as everyone here just says ' Happy New Year' in true Hinglish style.

Christmas - a bit different from year's past

2009-12-28T20:01:00.007+05:30

It’s always nice to be at home for Christmas but if you’re going to be away then the best thing to do is to be sure you enjoy it.

Christmas started on a very high note for me. The one evening I was hoping to get away from work early to kick start my first Christmas in the sun, I was asked to be sure I was still in the office at 4pm. It turned out that my Hindi colleagues were planning a surprise Christmas party for me. It was a big surprise and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. Despite being the only Christian in the building they went ahead which is now a four year tradition in CYSD. For the past few years they have recognised Christmas as a special time for their mainly VSO Christian colleagues.

I was invited up to one of the conference rooms to find approx 30 of my new friends and colleagues all gathered in a room decorated by balloons, with a cake, flowers and a gift on the table at the top of the room. As guest if honour I was invited to sit in the chair next to the Chairman of the organisation and he opened the hour by explaining to his team the reason we were all gathered. Some of the group then started singing some Indian tunes as everyone got into the party spirit. When asked to return the favour I politely declined, and then was asked to tell (thankfully not sing) the story of Christmas.

As a reward for my story-telling talent I was then given a Christmas gift of a lovely kurta, a pair of handmade earrings, a bouquet of flowers and a cake and sweets which I shared with everyone. Then later hot appetisers were brought in by CYSD catering staff. I was asked to model the kurta and earrings which I due obliged and as you can see plenty of photos were taken, by the unofficial office photographer, Ganesh.

I was then put on the spot and asked how many of my colleagues’ names I could remember. I have said many times in the last 2 weeks that I am struggling with Indian names, not just hearing them, but remembering them and I had to be honest and say not many. But despite that I was challenged to name the ones I could remember, and thankfully in most cases I got the pronunciation correct. I had to admit that my challenge would be to remember everyone’s names by the end of January (I hope no one remembers I said that and decides to quiz me in 5 weeks time)

Once the party ended I trotted off to the lovely Mayfair hotel, 15 mins walk from the office and approx 30 mins walk from home, to spend the next 2 days with my new friends from Canada, UK and Kenya. We started with dinner in the Thai restaurant on Christmas Eve. I was delighted to be able to tell my 7 year old nephew the next day that I had ‘Poo’ for dinner. Thankfully that’s the Thai word for Crab.

Christmas morning was not a traditional Christmas. We all started off by spending a few hours in the hotel spa, massages all round, followed by a buffet lunch. We hadn’t planned on lunch after such a lovely breakfast, but when the maitre d’ informed us turkey was on the lunch menu we had to return if only to see turkey on an Indian menu. It wasn’t as we would know it at home, but it was turkey. It was great to have it. It's been difficult buying meat out here. On my walk home every evening there are two stalls that have chicken for sale -but they're a bit fresh if you know what I mean !

The afternoon was spent lounging by the hotel pool only to be followed by dinner in the same Thai restaurant. We decided to return to the same place as the other restaurants in the Mayfair are all around an Indian theme and we thought it would be a nice break from Indian food just for the few days. Apart from that the food was delicious.

Later in the bar on Christmas evening (yes, unlike at home bars still do open on the 25^th over here) we met a lovely group of people who we will certainly be keeping in touch with.

Unfortunately on the morning of the 26^th our Christmas came to an end as we had to check out of the hotel and return to our homes, and back to living on our volunteer’s allowance. But naturally we did hold onto our room as long as we could and only checked out at the last minute, to be soon followed by wrecking the head of the hotel receptionist as we tried to split the bill into 3 so we could each pay for what we had had. A great 48 hours for €130.

And to put the icing on the cake we finished off the night by finding our first cinema since arriving in India to see the film 'Avatar'. We just assumed it would be in English but of course it was dubbed in Hindi. A great film despite understanding approx 5 words. The moral of this story being I must take out my Ipod and listen to my Hindi tutorials again. At the rate I'm going I'll never master Oriya as well !

As I write this it is definitely back to normality as the daily dog chorus is tuning up for it’s evening performance !

2009-12-22T15:45:00.003+05:30

‘Christmas time. Mistletoe and Wine……’

Well, this year there’ll be no mistletoe or wine, but maybe a Dosa and some Kingfisher beer. No snow either (typical it’ll be a white Christmas the year I’m not at home) but basking heat.

It doesn’t feel a bit like Christmas over here. Hinduism is the main religion here in Orissa and Christians are in the minority, but on saying that the 25th December is recognized as a national holiday all the same. For most it’s back to work on the 26th, even though it’s a Saturday. Offices here open Monday – Saturday, except the second Saturday of the month.

There are small signs of Christmas to be found if you look hard enough. The local supermarket is selling Santa hats and the recent trips to the local coffee shop have included the staff trying to sell me a Christmas pudding. I don’t know if the shops close on Christmas Day, but I’ll find out soon enough.

The big festivals here are Diwali, which celebrates Lord Ram, Republic Day and Holi, the festival of colours and water throwing. For Holi I have been warned to wear whatever I don’t mind throwing away as people will throw paint and water at you as you walk down the street. That’s in March so I have plenty of time to prepare.

So ‘Christmas kyi shubh kam nayen’ (Happy Christmas’) from a sunny Bhubaneswar

I’ll have learned how to say ‘Happy New Year’ before the 31st.

Jen

PS If anyone is still deciding what charity to give to this Christmas please think of VSO. It costs the organization over 20,000 per year to train and provide living allowances and accommodation to each volunteer overseas. You can donate through http://www.mycharity.ie/ and put in my name. Thank you

Hello Readers !

2009-12-20T11:02:00.003+05:30

Hello to everyone who is reading my blog

It's great to know so many are reading it and I hope you are enjoying it.

If you'd like to learn about anything in particular please send me an email or post a comment and I'll do my best to oblige

In the meantime I'd like to know who is reading the blog. I hear from home that a good number of you are reading this but haven't signed up as followers.

Can I ask you please to do this so I know who you are?

It's easy.

Click on the 'followers' bar in the left column. It may have the word 'Google' under it.
This will take you to the next page where it will give you an option of signing in through your preferred email provider - Google, Yahoo, Twitter
Click on your choice. All you have to do then is type in your regular password and put in your name.
This will then tell me who you are

Thanks again and warm, sunny (30 degrees plus !) greetings to everyone

First full week in Bhubaneswar

2009-12-20T00:56:00.010+05:30

Well, it was an exciting week this week. I found good coffee, pasta and peppers that weren’t green in the shops. Mind you I did pay quite a lot for them. A bit different than going to the local market stalls. But never mind, I’d rather pay for them than not have them at all.

The idea of being vegetarian was very nice six weeks ago, but I am missing meat (apologies to all you veggies out there). Here in Bhubaneswar it is possible to buy chicken pieces but they tend to be covered in a spicy batter (chicken pakora) so they are generally eaten with another dish, rather than being a part of a dish.

As you know there are plenty of cows around here but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your beliefs, beef is not sold. I did see a pig on a farm earlier, but also just like beef I have yet to see pork for sale. There are no butcher shops as we know them at home – in fact no shop is like a shop at home apart from the chain store supermarkets – but even they don’t stock everything. You really need to shop around.

This can then end up being a bit costly as they are spread right across the city and I have discovered there is no point into telling an auto rickshaw driver ‘Me volunteer hu. Mere pas zada bese nahi hai’ (I’m a volunteer. I have no money) as most of them wouldn’t know what a volunteer is and will only see me as a westerner who must have lots of money. This is where the will power in bargaining must kick in and I’m getting very good at walking away when I have to argue a price. In most cases I get called back as the auto driver will eventually give in to what you originally offered for the journey, except for rush hour when they don’t have the time to bargain. But I don’t mind that as I’ve started to walk to and from work, and despite the lack of foot paths and walking in the dark in the evening I am quite enjoying it.

Walking anywhere here is an interesting adventure in itself if somewhat stressful. Unfortunately the novelty of having every man on the street, and I do mean every man (at least that's what it feel like sometimes), stare at me as I walk by is becoming a bit tedious. I appreciate I’m in a poor state and the most of the locals have never had the opportunity to leave Orissa, never mind India but they have seen a woman before, even if she’s not European. I have stopped counting the number of times men will shout out of cars or vans as they drive by, that stare from buses as they’re stuck in traffic, that stop their motorbikes and make up some feeble excuse to talk to you (yesterday one guy pretended he was doing a college survey before proceeding to ask me for my friends’ contact details), never mind the bikers and cyclists who will slow down and continue to look back at you while their vehicle is moving forward. I’m surprised that no one has gotten injured yet. I’m getting good at pretending I don’t notice, but it’s hard to avoid, and quite annoying.

And the big news of the week is I have finally managed to source toilet paper. All individually wrapped rolls so it was important to buy a good few in case there are none available when I need to go back for more. I never would have thought it would be so hard to find. I had been warned but thought I’d be safe coming to a city – so wrong. I’ll never take a roll of loo paper for granted again.

I’ve been struggling to find trousers since I arrived in India. Indian women are generally not as tall as I am so all trouser legs are too short and in a lot of cases too narrow. I’m enjoying shopping around for kurtas (the long shirts) but in most cases the colour schemes are a bit mad for my taste. They all look lovely on Indian skin, but really don’t do anything for my pasty white arms. So I’m generally sticking to plain colours and hoping for the best. It’s also been difficult to find clothes that fit into our volunteer’s monthly living allowance, but persistence does succeed. I’m looking forward to receiving a package from home in the next few weeks as it will contain some of my trousers I left in my wardrobe when packing my suitcase 7 weeks ago.

Can’t wait for Christmas. I and two other volunteers have booked into a local hotel for Christmas Day. It will be a bit different this year. Christmas Day is recognised here as a national holiday, even if Christians are in the minority. After breakfast we will venture to the hotel spa for some luxury treatments, and relax for the afternoon. No turkey this year for any of us. We have yet to decide whether to target the southern Indian food restaurant or the Chinese restaurant. Both have been recommend so I think we’ll have to wait until the day itself before deciding. We’re all living in lovely accommodation but who doesn't like a treat now and then?

Work has been quite this week. Unfortunately my manager is out of the office, so I have just spent the time finding my way around and meeting my new colleagues. I don’t mind really as I’m sure there’ll be lots to do once Christmas is over and I am told what the targets for 2010 are. I’m getting the impression it will be quite busy.

A final note on my four weeks in Delhi: Just before leaving Delhi, I went to see the Mahatma Gandhi memorial. It’s in the grounds of the house where his life ended.
I thought I’d share some of the pictures with you.

The pictures show:

the cane he used to support himself on his famous salt march
his few personal belongings, including his famous glasses
his last foot steps
his bed
and a note written in his own hand in April 1930 'I want world sympathy in the battle of right against might'

Here at last

2009-12-15T22:34:00.001+05:30

After a 31 hour train journey (which was meant to take on 24 hours) I arrived in Bhubaneswar at 12.30am last Wednesday 9th December. Thankfully a car had been sent by CYSD, my new employer and my flat mate had waited up to welcome me to my new home.

Despite it’s length, the train journey was fine. We never went hungry. No sooner had the train pulled out of Delhi station we were served chai, followed by more chai and a sandwich, followed by dinner, followed 6am chai, breakfast, lunch, afternoon chai and more dinner before arriving in Bhubaneswar. Sleeping on a train was more comfortable than I had imagined it would be. Sheets, blankets and pillows were handed out in time for bed and most people had lights out by 10.30pm. They must have known about the 6am chai. I stayed up a while reading only to be tapped on the shoulder next morning by one of the train staff asking me if I wanted to sit up and take some chai. Naturally at 6am I turned down his very kind offer. And I was so lucky. Despite being told I was on the top bunk of 3, which would have been impossible to reach in a lady-like fashion, none of my carriage compatriots turned up and I had 6 bunks to myself. Lucky me !

I’m living in an area called N3 Nayapalli, IRC Village which is a residential area – actually it’s practically the Irish quarter. There are 4 Irish on this small street alone, as well as a Belgian and Italian national. And a few Indians of course.

I went into the office on Wednesday afternoon as they had an induction arranged for me over the next few days, during which I had the pleasure of meeting most of the CYSD staff and had briefings from each of the programme managers. The CYSD building is a busy spot as it’s also a conference centre and provides accommodation, so there’s always something going on.

I live approx a 40 min walk from the office, and only 10 mins as the crow flies through the lovely botanical gardens. My first attempt to walk home on Friday evening however took me 1.5 hours as I took a wrong turn, and then while walking down one of many wrong roads there was an electrical power cut, so I couldn’t see where I was going. Thankfully I finally found a nice man who pointed me in the right direction. But I did look a bit untidy by the time I got home. Walking on dirt roads in the dark was not as much fun as I had imagined.

Unfortunately for me there is only one way in and out of the gardens so I have to walk around it to get to the office. The good news is that I get to pass the best bakery in the city on the way to work and on the way home. It’s the only place for fresh bread so it’s a bonus I have to pass it every day.

The Centre for Youth and Social Development has their hands in every pot. They are a 27 year old non-governmental, non-profit organisation working to improve the lives of poor tribal and rural people in the state of Orissa. Currently they are helping 30,000 families in nearly 900 districts across the state. Please see www.cysd.org if you’d like to learn more. I have discovered that most of the senior managers are there since the beginning so I’m sure they’ll have some stories to tell over the next year.

My role with CYSD is HR Advisor, and I’m here to help introduce new and refine current HR practices within the organisation, both in head office where I’m based and across the rural sub-offices. I’m joining a team of 2, so I’m sure it will be a busy year. I’ve also been told I’m needed to help the communications team, which I already think will be great fun.

I’m starting to settle into life in Bhubaneswar. It’s nothing like Delhi. Much quieter, only approx 1 million people. And I have yet to see ‘horn’ and ‘no horn’ on the auto rickshaws. Instead they have ‘I love you’ and ‘Peace is Good’ as well as words in Hindi or Oriya. Everyone still insists on beeping, but I don’t notice it as much. The road layout is quite funny and drivers often have no choice but to go down the wrong way of a one-way system.

Bhubaneswar is very spread out. To find any selection of shops you have to go in different directions. All a novelty for the first few days, but I’m sure I’ll start to find my way around over the coming weeks. The big adventure this weekend was to find sheets and a blanket for my bed. It proved difficult to get my hands on a sim card when I was told my passport was fake ! Of course it’s not but I will have to get my colleagues to assist me in getting a phone number.

Bhubaneswar is known as ‘the Temple city of India’. At one point there were over 1000 temples here. I have yet to do the tourist thing and go see some of them, but I have plenty of time for that. It’s only the capital city of Orissa since 1948 after India declared their independence from Britain.

It’s definitely warmer here than it was in Delhi by at least 5 degrees on average. The average temperature here for December is 28 degrees, so I’m really looking forward to the summer sun ! It’s not as difficult to get around in this as I thought it may be. I’d say it’s because I arrived into Delhi in the ‘cooler’ month of November and have had time to build up to this. Mind you I could be taking this back from March when it starts heading for 40 degrees.

I witnessed my first CYSD intervention this morning and I was amazed by it. Twice a week they run a Village Resource Centre (VRC) in which they have training sessions via video camera to remote areas of southern Orissa in areas such as financial planning, HIV/AIDS and farming methods. This morning I watched as one of the CYSD finance team explained to people in 3 districts the basics of budget planning. Most of the tribal people have never had the opportunity for education and this is a vital part of their livelihoods today. Today most of the ‘students’ were tribal or village seniors, who have responsibility for their village budgets but don’t understand how budgets are devised, or how the Indian government allocate money.The trainer can be CYSD staff or an expert from outside. The centre is run by a very efficient lady, Pragna from the MIS department and Manaswini from Communications. Today the teacher was Praves from Accounts. (Yes, before you ask I am having fun with Indian names) It was great to see the volume of questions that came from the group.They can speak to people in 8 villages at anyone time, but only 3 logged on today from the villages of Panchapedi, Kinjirhela and Mundaguda all in southern Orissa.

I’ll hopefully have more great events to see like that over the next 12 months.

Still not quite getting used to seeing cows fight the cars and motorbikes for space on the roads though or the masses of hungry wild dogs. My dog,Bailey,has no idea how lucky he is.

Memories of Delhi

2009-12-06T12:05:00.004+05:30

International Volunteer Day

2009-12-05T23:37:00.004+05:30

Today, 5th December, is International Volunteer Day. To mark the event, all of the new VSO intake, attended a Yamuma River clean-up (the main river that flows through Delhi), organised by a number of organisations, including Swechha, an NGO who specialise in this area. Gerry, one of our group, will be spending the next year with Swechha, so it was important we all support him.

The sun was shining as we pulled up to the river bend chosen. We were then met by Vimlendu (the MD of Swechha and the event organiser )who explained that as adult volunteers we were there to supervise the secondary school children who were being bussed in from all parts of Delhi. The organisers had been expecting approx 1500 to attend the event, but it was more like 3000 that turned up. With our blue rubber gloves on and some shovels in hand we found our way down to the river bed and started picking up rubbish that was lying on the river banks, while others brought in some of the rubbish that daily flows down the river.

Delhites are becoming very aware of their city with the 2010 Commonwealth Games fast approaching and this was one of many events taking place throughout the city today. Being the main event it was streamed live on NDTV and the head of the UN in India as well as American Embassy Cultural attaché made a speech on volunteering. This was followed by the main event – Liam from Canada, a fellow VSO volunteer made every effort to encourage the students attending to consider volunteering again, tomorrow, next week, next month.

We were entertained royally while we worked. The live music was provided by 3 great sessions – Indian Ocean, Terra Naoimi and Menwhopause. Everyone seemed to enjoy the music, with people dancing while they worked, and some who just danced.

Today wasn’t about the amount of cleaning up that was done. Today was about the spirit of volunteering. If only 20% of the students who were brought here by their schools told their friends about volunteering or got involved themselves it would be the great achievement of today.

Tonight we had a party in the VSO office to mark the day and to also send our group off to the various parts of India from tomorrow – Jarkhand, Chennai, Orissa and some are even going as far as …… Delhi.

The Delhi Symphony

2009-12-05T23:07:00.002+05:30

Picture the scene -
Your worst traffic scenario at the Red Cow roundabout during the construction of the new roads. Traffic built up. Drivers losing patience.

Well, that’s nothing compared to every day traffic here in Delhi. I only recently worked out why all the honking of horns. I had initially thought it was a status thing – ‘look I have a car, so I’ll tell you by honking the horn’. I was wrong.

A lot of the cars and vans are quite old and therefore don’t have any wing mirrors, so cars behind them have to honk to let them know that they wish to pass them out.

On the back of lorries you will regularly see, painted in nice colours, sometimes with flowers the words ‘horn please’ or ‘no horn please’.

There are white lines on the roads here, but they don’t mean the same as in Ireland. White lines in Ireland generally show the lanes on a road. Here they’re just decoration. I have regularly been in a taxi or rickshaw, one of 4 in a row, when there are clearly only two lanes on the road. It’s all about getting the last inch over here.

As I am not a technical person I have little evidence to show what I mean, so I’m redirecting you to the blog of another volunteer – Sheila – www.ashramblings.blogspot.com. On our way back from the Taj Mahal last week Sheila was able to record some of the scenes we encountered in regular Saturday evening motorway traffic.

But lots of cars are also a good thing when you’re walking around in the evenings to the shops or a restaurant. There are no street lights so to get around safely you really do need to have the lights of the cars to show you the route. The flip side is then you have to put up with honking horns.

And I’m pleased to report that at the end of week four I’m getting used to it. It may even be odd to have less of it in Bhubaneswar next week. The honking of horns is, funnily, growing on me.

Add to this the constant fire works as it’s wedding season and the barking of the stray dogs at night time the Delhi Symphony is alive and well.

A recipe for a good night’s sleep !

AAA in Delhi - a positive story

2009-11-30T15:04:00.004+05:30

Last Friday night, 27th November, we visited the AAA homeless shelter for men and boys in the heart of Delhi. It is an amazing place. We were all made feel very welcome – difficult to do when you feel like an intruder.

Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan is an organisation run by 34 year old Sanjay Kumar for homeless men and boys in Delhi. The city has a huge homeless problem, seen every day by us as we walk past men and women sleeping on the streets, under trees and very often in the centre isle of a road – anywhere they can lay their heads.
‘Triple A’ as it’s commonly known invited us to see one of their ten shelters that houses 400 pax in total. This includes 65 boys, all of whom have Sanjay as their legal guardian. There are currently approx 100,000 homeless in Delhi.

Across the city they can accommodate over 1000 men and boys in 15 shelters. They used to have one shelter for women, but that was torn down for development purposes. In addition, during the winter they put up many tents around the city in order to prevent people dying from the cold.

Sanjay gave up his well paid job as a government employee over 7 years ago and has achieved so much in the meantime. Through lobbying of the state and national government his tenants now have ID cards, a major achievement for the homeless, as it gives them the right to vote. He has even managed to get them ATM cards into which they can lodge their meagre earnings from driving rickshaws, carrying wedding procession lights, working on the many construction sites across Delhi in preparation for the Commonwealth Games next year.

The accommodation is very basic – a blanket on the floor, but they also have access to drinking water, a hot meal, a TV, a library and 24 hour medical care. All staff are volunteers and some of them were homeless once themselves. There is a menial charge for 12 hours in the shelter, 4 rupees for working men, 2 rupees for the older age group, but only if you can afford it.

The children get access to education every day and for them lights out is 10pm. So we were invited to see them first and received a great welcome. They were delighted to show us their books, in Hindi and English. They told us their names and ages and then asked us where we were from and why we were in India. Every time one of us said we were a volunteer we received a big round of applause. The biggest reception was for Evans from Kenya who told them he was is a football coach – in fact he’s an engineer.

A lot of the men were already in bed when we went into that section, but it was not as packed as it would be later that night. Sanjay was very proud to tell us that a lot of the residents were out working at the time. We met one man, aged 72, who had been there 7 years. He was very proud to show us his ID card and we were told it has allowed him vote in the last 2 elections, something he had never previously done due to lack of identity. It was wonderful to see the respect the younger men had for the older generation, always leaving them a particular section of the floor to sleep on no matter how crowded their own section may be.

A trip I’ll never forget.

If you’d like to learn more about this great organisation take a look at www.homelesspeople.in

Or www.actionaid.co.uk from whom they receive some sponsorship

Honking horns, traffic jams (and the Taj Mahal)

2009-11-29T13:12:00.000+05:30

Yesterday we visited one of the greatest pieces of archicture I have ever seen – the Taj Mahal, in the town of Agra, approx 4 hours north of Delhi

We got up at 4.30am and relied on a very competent taxi driver to get us there. Through all the ducking and diving between cars, lorries and auto-rickshaws, while getting value for money from the car horn, we arrived at the Taj Mahal to be told that if we went through the gates by 10am we’d be admitted for free (the usual fee for foreigners being Rs 750). So naturally we ran to the gate as the parking area was some distance from the palace itself. We had picked the right day to go. It was the Muslim festival of Bakr-Eid, and as a good will gesture everyone entering before 10am was admitted free. We just made it.

Was it worth getting up in the middle of the night for the trip? Absolutely !

The pictures we all see on the web, or on the TV don’t do it justice. The grounds are an amazing piece of 17th century Mogul architecture. It’s just fantastic what you can build with over 10,000 men and a 1000 elephants. It’s a pity that queen in whose memory it was built never got to see it.

The words ‘Taj Mahal’ means ‘golden palace’ and even though there was little gold to be seen the symmetry of the buildings stood out. It’s funny really that the only thing breaking the full symmetry of the palace is the tomb of the king who built it (he was later buried beside his wife who was laid to rest in the centre)

It was a great day and the grounds were not as crowded as we had expected. We then went on to see Agra Fort, which was very busy. We spent an hour there, but by then the tiredness was setting in and as we had all seen what we came to see it was time to return home to ISI – and straight to bed.

Food Glorious Food (and a few other things)

2009-11-21T17:13:00.000+05:30

We went on a trip around ‘Old Dilli’ today and saw one or two interesting places in between eating and eating. We started as a group in taxis from our residence and sped through crazy Delhi traffic and honking horns until we got to the area known as ‘Old Dilli’.

On arrival we were immediately surrounded by cycle rickshaw drivers, which was a good thing as we needed 10 between us, and we paired up for a day of adventure.
The old Delhi streets are very narrow and packed with people so after a while we realised that the best and safest way to get around was to let someone else take responsibility. Anyone walking would really have to watch their feet.

I saw my first wild monkey today on the roof tops as we walked to see the local spice market. Very cramped and very smelly(spicey smelly) we pushed our way through the crowds as our guide, Liam, current VSO volunteer, guided us in the direction of the steps that would take us to the top of the spice market and we were able to see a great view of all the hustle and bustle. The spice market, though vast, was not what I had expected having seen spice for sale in Morocco. Each seller seemed to specialise in a particular family of spices so there was no array of colours in any one place.

We then went to see a Jain temple with it’s beautiful colours and glass windows, followed by speeding our way through the streets again in our rickshaws. Shopping in this area would be interesting if I had been there to shop. The streets are laid out according to what is being sold ie on one street it’s all saris, the next all glasses, the next all shoes etc. Not like shopping at home the locals have to walk miles to get what they may need.

We then had our first stop for food – the famous Pawartha Wala - in the same place since 1875. Basically a pawartha is a form of flat bread, with just about any filling you could want and served with a selection of dipping sauces. The most common choices seem to have been mixed veg, cashew nuts and banana. All equally delicious. We followed this up by making an attempt to get into see the huge mosque in the district, but unfortunately it was prayer time and we were not allowed in. So to pass the time we went for more food.

This time we went to one of the most famous restaurants in Delhi - Karim’s. As it turned out the stop for pawartha was just starters and we all tucked in various main courses in Karim’s. The food was delicious. Some of Karim’s recipes go back generations to the founding chef who worked for the last Mogul emperor. There are a few recipes that are never written down and are passed from generation to generation.

We then all piled back into our rickshaws and our driver turned into Michael Schumacher. Flying through the traffic he must have thought he was an F1 driver so Gina (my rickshaw companion) and I held on for dear life. But we made it to every stop safely, despite a few hairy moments.

Our last stop was outside the amazing Red Fort. Unfortunately we didn’t go in, but I hope to be able to get back to it before leaving Delhi.

Tomorrow we’re off shopping for our sawaar kameez – so watch this space.

Week 1

2009-11-15T16:53:00.000+05:30

Namaste !

Two Hindi lessons and I'm already fluent. Classes are going ok. A bit tough but all for a good cause.

There are 16 of us here in Delhi,with 3 more on the way.It's been a great week, but I can't wait to be able to cook my own food and not rely on restaurants. I have had enough curry this week to normally last me months at home, but when in Rome......

We have had our first weekend off and got lots of exploring done around the city yesterday. Unforunately things can be a bit expensive when you look like a tourist, but prices should come down a bit once I move to Bhubaneswar and start wearing a sawaar kameez, and have a few words to ask the price while explaining I'm a volunteer here for a long time. Hindi classes are great fun. We start verbs tomorrow.

Weather is quite hot today - high 20s, but I'm going to be honest and report that it did actually rain here on Friday. We had to venture out for dinner with our umbrellas.

I have arrived - and to prove it I'm here

2009-11-11T18:12:00.001+05:30

First blog from Delhi.

We got in at 4am local time yesterday (Tuesday) morning and all straight to bed having received our mosquito nets. When we finally got up around 12 noon the sun was shining and life in Delhi was moving on. Thinking I was in a city where the sun would be shining I covered myself in factor 40 only to venture out and find that even though it felt sticky it was not very hot. And today it's cooler again. Although I have been told it's always hotter in Bhubaneswar (my destination in 4 weeks time)

There are 16 of us VSO'ers doing in-country training together and it's a lovely group. We had yesterday all to ourselves so we just strolled around to 2 of the local markets and around Lodi park which is meant to be one of the nicest parks in the area. It's full of old temples (unfortunately not cared for) dating back to the 1400's. It gets dark early - before 6pm - so you need to have a torch with you. Walking on the broken pavements is quite dangerous in the dark. There are even signs up warning you about this ' Accident prone zone'.

Dinner last night was in a lovely restaurant in the Defence Colony Market, but we stuck to vegetarian until we get more used to the local foods.

We start our language classes tomorrow. We will be learning Hindi not Oriya as previously advised. But that's ok as most people speak some Hindi in Bhubaneswar and the office culture is to speak English - so I'm sure all will be fine.

7 days and counting .......

2009-11-02T22:39:00.000+05:30

Well, this time next week I'll be on a plane somewhere between Heathrow and Delhi.

My visa has arrived so it's full steam ahead now for what I'm sure will be a fantastic year ahead. So far there's been no reaction to any vaccines and this morning I started taking my anti-malarial tablets (must remember to take them again tomorrow morning and the morning after and the morning after that etc etc)

Suitcase is packed - well sort of.
I still have to sit on it to close it. Thankfully as a volunteer development worker I'm allowed to bring more than I would be if I was going as a tourist.

At this stage I know that there are possibly 18 of us arriving in Delhi at the same time from the four corners of the world. Will be an interesting 4 weeks of in-country training in Delhi. Sounds like quite a gang.

I can't wait to go at this point. I have been in contact with others I did the VSO courses with who are already in their alloted countries like Vietnam, Zambia, Namibia and Tajikistan and am feeling a bit jealous.

Monsoon has finished (thankfully) but and temperatures are mild (for India) -only in the high 20's C at the moment. That'll be the main challenge. But everyone tells me I'll adjust to the heat. I'll keep you posted on that.

So that's it from Ireland. Next post will be sometime next week from Delhi.

Until then......

4 weeks and counting ........

2009-10-12T23:25:00.001+05:30

Well, it seems ages since I started going on about my trip to India.
I never thought I'd be writing a blog entitled '4 weeks and counting'. Yikes !

I'm off to Dublin tomorrow for my final concert of the year. Everyone knows I'm a big fan of live music and tomorrow night I get to see Spandau Ballet live on stage for the first time in 20 years. I can't wait. And I have front row seats. Worth waiting 20 years for.

One more lot of vaccinations to go after that. And I will be handing in my passport to the VSO office in Dublin on Wednesday morning to organise my visa for India. So it looks like full steam ahead now. No going back - not that I'd want to. I seem to be talking about this for ages (apologies and thanks to all my friends who are tired of me rabbiting on by now)

What was a very long 'to do' list when it was first written is nearly all marked off by now. I still need to buy my anti-malarial tablets and some chlorine tabs but that's it then - apart from trying to fit everything into the suitcase. I bought a new one last week, not that I needed one, but this is a yellow colour, and yes I do mean yellow. I was trying to envisage myself collecting a black suitcase in an airport as large as Delhi (and I can only image how chaotic )and thought it would be easier with a colour that stood out a bit more. And lo and behold, there was a yellow one in Dunnes just calling out to me last week. I'll let you know if the trick worked mid-November.

It seems that there are 8 of us heading out to India together. Although we are all heading to different parts after the 4 weeks induction training. 6 are based in the UK and 2 of us are in Ireland. I have managed to make contact with 4 of the 8, so hopefully will get to meet everyone in Heathrow. If not, in Delhi.

A short update

2009-09-28T22:19:00.000+05:30

Just a quick update as it's been a while since I posted.
Well, I did say that there wouldn't be much to say until I got to India

To date, I have had 2 lots of vaccinations and no signs of any ill effects. Although I do have 2 more sessions to go, so who know's what's ahead of me??

I have also included a weather update. (Thanks Sheila for the idea) Please remember that the time difference from Ireland to Bhubaneshwar is + 4.5 hours ahead of us here in Ireland. So it simply just goes from being very hot during the day to being quite hot at night time.

I bought what I believe to be my last purchase of shoes / sandles today. Typical me to go shoe shopping when the winter stock is coming into the shops in Limerick. I liked the style and thought I'd ask about other colours - I was fitting on a black pair. The lovely shop assistant told me they were the last available pair this year, so I thought it best to take them. I had noticed the lack of sandles in the shops but of course assumed everyone knew I'm heading for sunnier climes and would keep summer stock in their shops until November!!!

I hear you all cry 'they do sell shoes in India too'. Yes I know they do, but generally sizes are no bigger than a 5 for ladies and I take a size 6. So it's best to be safe than sorry.

Only 6 weeks to go. I'm really looking forward to the big adventure.I've been following the blog of others who have already started on their travels. Looking out of the window at the rain and grey clouds makes me think 26 C at 10.30pm in Bhubaneshwar, as I'm writing this, will be a welcome change.
And yes, I have thought about purchasing sun tan lotion.

What will it all be like?

2009-09-09T22:44:00.000+05:30

Short answer - not really sure yet.

I received an email yesterday from India enquiring if I'd mind if they change my job description a bit to make it broader than pure HR. Of course I was happy to oblige as it will make it all the more interesting for me.I understand that some 'Communications and Research' will be included, whatever that may mean. And it must be very difficult for anyone to confirm a job description when the person filling the role isn't going to start work until December.

I don't expect much will be done before January 2010 with getting to know the NGO, hopefully seeing a bit of what they do out in the field and of course, celebrating a traditional Irish Christmas under the soaring heat. Funnily enough I am looking forward to a sunny 25th December, as I've never experienced that before. I'm sure it will all be part of the culture shock experience.

I'm very lucky that I know of 4 other Irish people in Bhubaneshwar at the moment, and I'm sure there will be great opportunities to meet volunteers from other countries for Christmas dinner also. Don't know what we'll have yet. It might even be a vegetarian meal, but it definitely won't be beef!

Please help me raise money for VSO

2009-09-08T20:47:00.000+05:30

Check out my charity page

http://www.mycharity.ie/

Click on 'sponsor a friend' and then type in my name

I have a charity page to try to raise money for the VSO who are sending me all the way to India. The VSO recruit experienced professionals to work as volunteers overseas. Volunteers live and work in the local community and VSO then cover their living costs.

Volunteers are recruited from 7 different bases accross the world, including Ireland, and are currently working in over 40 countries. VSO has developed an integrated plan in line with existing governmental plans and local civil society groups to tackle exclusion and poverty.

Volunteering is one of the most rewarding ways you can make a difference to people living in the toughest circumstance

VSO send volunteers rather than money. Volunteers work on long-term sustainable solutions.

So every cent counts - even the smallest donation will go a long way.

Please click onto my charity page and give whatever you can. Thank you

http://www.mycharity.ie/

The Adventure Begins !

2009-09-07T19:12:00.000+05:30

Hi All

Well I promised a blog about my travels and even though I haven't left home yet, I decided to set up my blog.

As you all know by now I'm heading off to India in November as a VSO Volunteer. I'll be working in Bhubaneshwar, in the state of Orissa, with the Centre of Youth and Social Development (CYSD). If you'd like to learn a little more about that they do have a look at http://www.cysd.org/

I spent this morning ordering a few bits for my travels - things like mosquito repellant and filtered water bottles. I tried ordering a sink plug but for whatever reason the shopping website couldn't send that to Ireland. I'm sure I'll find one locally anyway. Just thought I could get it all done in one go on the net.

I have also arranged for all necessary vaccinations to start next week - can't wait ! But it will all be worth it.