udaipur....and maya

I want you to meet Maya. I met her as part of a service project we are doing with Sadhna, a women's cooperative that was created by seva mandir in upaipur. Our project consists of detailing the histories of women working with this cooperative and creating a booklet with their photos and stories, as well as a powerpoint presentation that outlines their lives and involvement with Sadhna.

Maya is about 32 years old. She is married with 4 children. She can sign her name, but has basically had no education. She has been working with the cooperative for more than 12 years and says it is an important source of income for her family and allows her family to eat sufficiently, for her kids to go to school, and for her family to live a simple life.

Her husband is a mason and makes about 125 rupee a day, when there is work. That is about $3 a day. Maya works about 5-6 hours a day for Sadhna--she does handstich work for clothing sold by Sadhna, which sells to distributors such as Fabindia in India and Global Exchange in San Francisco. She can embroider about one Kurta (a long shirt that women and men wear) a day in those hours and receives about 28 rupee (just over 50 cents) for her efforts. That Kurta will sell for 450 rupeee at Fabindia (about $10).

The low amount she received was surprising to me and quite disturbing for the students also doing interviews, but she actually sounded somewhat content with the work for Sadhna, though she said a better wage would certainly help her family. In a good month she earns about 800-1000 rupee, in a bad month about 500 (just over $10).

Her biggest challenge is trying to accumlate assets with her low salary and the family's current debts. She owes about 3000 rupee to her self help fund and about 20,000 rupee to her father in-law, who lent them money to build a room on land that he owns.

She shares her one room with her husband and four children. Her father and mother in-law live in an adjoining room, as do two of her husband's brother's and their wives and children. Between all of them they share one latrine. There is no running water on their property and they must walk to a nearby water pump in the rainy season and about 1K to another water pump in the dry season. Her family has no assets to speak of--no animals, no land, and really not even the house/room where her family lives.

She is from a middle level caste and her water container is not allowed to touch those belonging to the higher castes, yet she admitted those in lower castes were not allowed to let their containers touch hers.

She found it odd that I was married but had no children and she wondered if I could help them improve their living conditions with latrines and better wages. As we rode the bus back to Udpaipur, my students and I were already forming a plan to help women start their own cooperative where they could earn higher wages and be part of community development efforts to help their village.

It's been wonderful to be back in Udaipur. There is water this year, after the monsoon. Last time I was here, it was during a bad drought and you could actually walk to the lake palace. Now, water surrounds the palace like you see in all the pictures. It is a beautiful city. I'm staying with Namrata, one of our indian staff and her family has welcomed both michael (the other professor) and I into their lovely home.

I'm eagerly waiting for Mark's arrival this sunday and we'll spend some time traveling around the area before heading to Mumbai to see In Defence of Animals.
We are wrapping up the class mid-week and they all head back to San Francisco.

That's about it for now! Today was a very special day--my interview with Maya opened my eyes to the realities of rural women in India and her story touched my heart. I hope I can get actively involved with helping to create a new women's cooperative here in Udaipur.

gravis, service project, and ranakpur

We had a great time in Jodphur...we went on a field visit with Gravis and learned about mining in India and the plight of mineworkers...we visited a mining community and an actual mine and talked with the workers. It was really interesting, though quite tragic, as many people are dying from various diseases from working in the mines for decades.

We completed a two day service project in a rural community outside of Jodphur at a local school. We did a health camp, which included vision tests and dental work, as well as building a large cement platform for the school where they can hold events and meetings...everyone worked really hard and the community was very involved the whole time. It was pretty rewarding.

We then went to Ranakpur, a wildlife reserve and visited an amazing jain temple as well as an important forte in the region. I have a lot of great photos--it was all very beautiful. Next we're off to Udaipur, where we'll finish up our class.

15 hour train rides and more

We made it to Jodphur....after a 15 hour train ride. Wow, that was long. Luckily (?) I was sick and had taken something that put me to sleep for nearly half the trip. The students are amazing--real troupers. They don't complain at all and just take whatever we throw at them. It really has made this a great trip.

We visited Agra and saw the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatepur Sikri...it was a nice intro into the history and culture of India. We are now in Jodphur and just completed our first field visit. We went out with Pratham, an environmental NGO that works in the urban slums. It was quite an experience to visit their schools/libraries in the slums and meet all the kids and families. They were all really excited to see us (their first foreign visitors). We got some great photos and learned alot about their work in literacy training and health education. They have a great staff who showed us around.

Tomorrow we are off to visit Gravis, an NGO that works with the mineworkers of Rajasthan. Then we are doing service projects at two schools.

So far so good. We all have head colds, but nobody is too sick and everyone has a great attitude. We are staying at the very neat mandore guesthouse, which has beautiful grounds and a wonderful staff.

Namaste!
A

Off to India!

Back to India...I'm halfway there, sitting at the london airport on internet....it's a brutal trek over...20 hours flying and then time on layover...ugh; I'm getting a bit old for this.

I'm flying into Delhi, 2 days before my class arrives. The FSD staff in India are handling all the logistics of the 3 week class on poverty and inequality. Namrata and Anna are meeting me in Delhi and then Siddhartha will be meeting up with us the 2nd week in Jodhpur. It's been about 2 years since I was in India and I'm very excited to be returning to this amazing country.

We will start in Delhi, visit Agra and Fatepur Sikri...then a week in Jodhpur where we'll visit the NGOs of Pratham and Gravis...and do service projects in Mandore, just outside Jodhpur. Then we'll spend a weekend in Jaiselmer on the edge of the Thar dessert, followed by about 8 days in Udaipur, where FSD is based. There we will visit some of FSD's partner organizations, stay with host families, and do service projects in youth development and microfinance.

My hubby Mark will be joining me at the end of the class and then we'll spend 10 days traveling around, volunteering, and then leaving from Mumbai...there I'll be visiting IDA India, and animal welfare partner of IDA in Marin county.

We'll that's it for now....once I'm in India I'll post some of the adventures I'm sure we'll encounter!