I was in Udaipur March 7-9, Udaipur 9-12, and back in Delhi to present. After the three awesome days spent in Udaipur, visiting rural areas but staying in a nice hotel in a touristy area, the three days we spent in Chittorgarh could not have been more different. While we still accomplished so much and most of us had a great time, it definitely represented how there are many different definitions of India - in this case, the modern and sometimes luxurious New Delhi, the "Venice of India" Udaipur, and rural and rustic Chittorgarh. My friend Michaela summed up all the different aspects of the spectrum of India on her blog by saying that: "India is simultaneous extremes. Chaotic and tranquil. Tolerant and communal. Sprawling metropolises and expansive farmlands. Strongly modest and hyper sexual. Ostentatious wealth and destitute poverty. Traditional and modern. All existing at the same time, in the same place, in the same breath." We definitely got a taste for that this past week.
On Thursday the 10th, we left our hotel in Udaipur at 5am for a few hours' train ride to Chittorgarh. Chittorgarh is definitely off of the beaten path and not exactly a popular tourist destination, and we all piled into a bus and drove four hours away from "off the beaten path," to a place that is actually what people mean when they say "the middle of nowhere." I've been there. And nowhere is beautiful.
It was almost impossible to sleep on the bus despite how tired we all were, as the roads upon which we were driving were rocky to say the least, and jostled us along in an already uncomfortable ride. We passed foothills and opium fields (really!) and saw some really incredible countryside... lots of it. Here one is quick to notice what I described in my last post: miles of desolate beauty and then BAM: a flash of a neon colored Rajasthani saree in the distance. We passed so many agricultural fields wherein you'd see stretches of hand-tended crops, and popping up every once in a while would be a centuries-old temple or structure or some kind of stone terrace. It was as if there was no time anymore to leave these structures to any kind of purpose, so they serve as small bits of shade for villagers to seek refuge from the hot Indian sun. Anywhere else in the world they could be fussed over and restored and cataloged, but here in India, there is simply too much history for such formalities. People are less concerned over preserving what these ruins used to be, and instead just let them be what they are now: relics of the Mughals, or the early emporers, or as is common in Delhi, the British.
When we finally pulled up into the Devgarh campus of the NGO we were staying with called "Prayas" (literally: empowerment), we thought it might be a joke. I saw a very tall building in the distance, and in a naive moment, perceived it to be a hotel. Not the case: it was the Devgarh Fort (and palace. whoops). We stayed in a large cement building on palettes on the floor. Though there was a lot of "wildlife" and finicky electricity and Indian style toilets with stubborn plumbing, the group morale was pretty high and we were just coming down from our fancy hotel stay, so all was well. The stay was definitely akin to camping. What was really cool was that for water, we would see lots of women filling huge pots ...and then carrying them on their heads, no hands, on rocky terrain, back to their houses, just like we had seen in the Rajasthani culture show in Udaipur. Except no dancing around with ten of them, and they were FILLED WITH WATER WITHOUT A LID! I have no idea how they manage this kid of coordination; it's amazing!
We settled in in the afternoon, had some rest, did some reading, and then most of us took a trip to the "hotel" - Devgarh Fort, which used to be the palace of the local royalty as well as the judicial court. I brought my camera... but forgot my memory card. Major bummer, but I got to relax and just take in all of the sights. We passed through the royal temple (still functioning) and then through all of the chambers of the palace, some of which are still used by visiting dignitaries and visitors of Prayas! (but not us, apparently? haha). There was one segment where we saw the queen's chambers - more mirror inlay than I had ever seen in my life, covering wall after wall. And it's not like this was some famous landmark in India - it's just one treasure this country continuously offers up. Incredible.
We had a brief meeting on how to conduct interviews in the field (that was our assignment for the trip) and were left to our own devices. We found out that it was Azim-ji's birthday, and Nisha and Caroline choreographed a Bhangra dance that we performed for him at dinner! I had Bhavna-ji take this video, in which you can hear her full-body laugh LOUD AND CLEAR:
He loved it, and was beside himself smiling :) It definitely did good things for group spirit, even if a few people couldn't participate due to illness. Almost all of use were sick once on this trip.
I got to meet another girl who tagged along on our trip through Chittorgarh. Gretchen was also a junior studying abroad from Cornell, and was spending six weeks with this organization, doing a project on public health. Her program had been based in Jaipur, so she had a lot of recommendations for staying in the city when I do my Independent Study Project there in a few weeks.
The sky when we were in Chittorgarh was beyond incredible. I had no idea that the sky could be so dark that it appeared black. My friends Hannah and Nisha and I stayed up on the roof of the teachers' apartment, and watched as one by one, hundreds of campfires popped up on the horizon. We went back up the next night to get pictures of the sunset up there.
Now is a good of a time as any... Suesue, if you're reading this, THANKYOUSOMUCH for the sleep sheet. I have this silk sheet that has been sewn together on three sides that my surrogate aunt gave me for this trip - and it has saved my butt so many times from having to sleep somewhere interesting and have to have my skin right against a questionable surface/bed bug infested linen. I could not recommend one of these things more to world travellers - it's great.
On our second day in Chittorgarh, we woke up for an early breakfast and went to a Prayas-sponsored center. Lying in bed that morning I had been having a total ILOVEINDIA moment, probably still on a high from the view on the rooftop the night before. It was one of those moments where I think "i'm in rural India. I'm sleeping on the floor. During daily life your opinion becomes a little more realistic. I do love India. But I also love toilet paper (not a common thing in India), so my love is definitely conflicted.
Mmm. Comfy.
We sat in on the Prayas meeting and got to see the local villagers in their elected representative meeting with Prayas. The representatives are for everything from the adolescent boys' group to the young married women's group, and they all come together to talk to the advocacy organization about how things are going, and what they need health-wise. The best part is how hands off Prayas is... they facilitate as much as possible, but ultimately they want the people themselves to take ownership over change. There's a really awesome Prayas chant "WE HAVE DECIDED THAT EVERYONE WILL BE HEALTHY" (but it's a lot cooler and rhymes and all in Hindi..)
We were given an assignment to do three interviews based on whatever topic we have chosen for our final projects. Our first attempts at interviews were kind of a bust. That morning I had made a list of quesitons that address the social determinants of health, but they felt so broad and intense. It was a mess trying to figure out who to interview in the village. "Who wants to talk to ASHAs? Anemic mothers? Farmers? The village officials?" It was crazy. My questions could really be posed to anyone, so I followed Michaela and Bhavna-ji into the village to sit in on M's first field interview, and ask the interviewee a few questions of my own. It was HARD. First, the fact that about 40 villagers were watching from the front of the house didn't help, second, I was being translated into Hindi, and third.. it's just really difficult to frame questions about the social determinants of health on an individual basis and really get anywhere... Interviewing is something I will have to work on.. while I love talking to people, I think I need to work of framing less broad questions.
This was the woman I interviewed, Kandeli, with her two children:
The villagers were definitely really curious about us.. we were far enough out of civilization at that point that most had never seen foreigners, and we quickly got a pretty big following of children. This one little girl was such a ham, and ran away giggling when I told her "nice to meet you" in Hindi.
We had a quick lunch and got back in the bus and headed to a village town hall that Prayas was attending. We sat in on the meeting, and then got to interview a rainbow. I can't begin to describe how beautiful these women looked, sitting together in their neon Rajasthani sarees, so I'll let you see for yourself. Bhavna-ji served as translator:
These women are the traditional birth attendants. They told us about how even small changes that Prayas has facilitated have become big ones: for example, they used to use field sickles for cutting the umbilical cord, which would give the baby an infection sometimes resulting in its death. They now receive free razor blades and supplies from the Gov via Prayas.
We also got to meet with local traditional medical workers that used to end up killing people because they are convinced that they have powers. Prayas intervenes by telling them that "yes, you do have powers, and because of these, you need to use them to see when there is an emergency and you need western medicine," etc, and other tactics to respect the tradition and powers and ways that these people have without letting tradition result in harm. From an anthropological perspective, they're doing a really amazing service to these people instead of stripping them of their beliefs.
We had one more night in Chittorgarh, and so when we got back to the compound, ran up to the roof of the teacher's apartment to enjoy the sunset. Hannah and I spent some time on the roof, had some dinner, and then all went to sleep fairly early, knowing the next night would be spent on the train.
The next morning, we had an early breakfast and got on the road to Choti Sadri, about halfway between the rural area where we were staying and the city of Chittorgarh, 4 hours away. We got there and got to see Prayas' main office. The ride there was unfortunately pretty eventful, with some of us getting sick on the ride or suddenly needing to stop to take care of some things.. pretty much everyone has been sick at least once by now, so at least it's about 75% awful and 25% funny.
It was a looooong drive.
To be honest, at the Choti Sadri Prayas office I was feeling like I started to in Madrid... when you visit so many museums in such a short amount of time...well, you only can appreciate so many earth-shattering masterpieces in one day before it;s easy to walk by them without really taking them in. That's what started to happen with rural field visits. We were all pretty exhausted from the heat and being sick and using Indian toilets for a few days (maybe I should speak for myself; it's just a different way of doing things, I guess..) that it was hard to take in the visit.
We finally got to Chittorgarh and had lunch in a nice hotel restaurant. After, we took a visit to another Prayas center in Chittorgarh and had a really fascinating conversation with the man who started Prayas itself. He talked about what it means to "create demand among the people:" what it means to change the culture around going to seek care - this may sound ridiculous to us as Americans, because we have been taught that when something is wrong, there is SOMETHING there to catch us. When we're upset, we have the right to exercise freedom of speech, and freedom of speech is encouraged. When we're discriminated against, we're told to get angry and do something about it. When we're sick, we're told to get care, and if we can't afford it, demand treatment, because doctors cannot turn us down (which is the way it should be, in my opinion..). Here, these same feelings don't apply. Whether that is wrong or not is not our place to judge, but it is interesting to me how Prayas has gone into these places and worked on showing people that they need to demand better, and ask more of the governing bodies that tax them. That they should demand care, and demand to be treated just as well as the citizens of Delhi when they get sick. Inspiring stuff.
The Prayas office also had an amazing, tiled, toilet-paper-bearing bathroom that we all got really excited over. It's amazing what gets us excited in India.
We headed to Chittorgarh Fort to have another "synthesis" meeting and visit the Shiva temple and victory tower. While the Fort was beautiful, there were some cute but vicious monkeys who kept threatening our synthesis...
We had dinner at the restaurant again and then a twelve hour ride back to Delhi, which was unfortunately pretty horrible. Our cabin had a random couple we didn't know in it, and the man was the LOUDEST SNORER I HAVE EVER MET IN MY LIFE. I brought ear plugs, "just in case," and I could hear him LOUD AND CLEAR even with them in. I also woke up in the middle of the night to a cockroach on my arm, and was so disoriented and angry and tired and disgusted that I just.. picked him right up and threw him. And I think most likely on someone else. Whoops.
The night went on absolutely forever, but it was finally six am when we rolled into the station. The Snorer and his wife actually ended up being really nice people, and his wife told us "how beautiful all the American girls look in Indian dresses." Thanks, Mrs. Snorer.
Molly and I were waiting for our teachers to call a cab, but got so tired of waiting that we argued with a few rickshaw drivers and finally got one to zip home. The guy started taking us the wrong direction, so we told him in Hindi to turn around and go a different way. When we finally got home, he tried to charge us more, so we did the typical Indian thing to do which is loudly throw a fit to embarrass the wrongdoer) and they wuickly back down. It sounds like a crazy, bitchy thing to do, but it's actually what you're supposed to do! And it works! It's amazing what we're getting used to!
The day we got back was also my Mom's birthday on EST time ("Deli" time), and the day after on GMT +5 time (Delhi time!). I got to call her the morning I got back. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
That that's it! I've been back in Delhi this past week, and it's actually been incredibly eventful! I have a LOT of pictures to post from the Lotus temple and Molly's new tattoo and the Old Fort and Holi - but that will have to wait till this week! I'm running on about a week delay, and I'm keeping up about a once a week trend.
I'm really enjoying blogging. I hope you're enjoying reading!
lots of chapati,
Laura
PS this was framed in the hotel restaurant where we ate on the last day. The dining room, filled with foreigners..
PPS: Kathleen! I thought you would think these reflections were cool... so i took this!
It was almost impossible to sleep on the bus despite how tired we all were, as the roads upon which we were driving were rocky to say the least, and jostled us along in an already uncomfortable ride. We passed foothills and opium fields (really!) and saw some really incredible countryside... lots of it. Here one is quick to notice what I described in my last post: miles of desolate beauty and then BAM: a flash of a neon colored Rajasthani saree in the distance. We passed so many agricultural fields wherein you'd see stretches of hand-tended crops, and popping up every once in a while would be a centuries-old temple or structure or some kind of stone terrace. It was as if there was no time anymore to leave these structures to any kind of purpose, so they serve as small bits of shade for villagers to seek refuge from the hot Indian sun. Anywhere else in the world they could be fussed over and restored and cataloged, but here in India, there is simply too much history for such formalities. People are less concerned over preserving what these ruins used to be, and instead just let them be what they are now: relics of the Mughals, or the early emporers, or as is common in Delhi, the British.
When we finally pulled up into the Devgarh campus of the NGO we were staying with called "Prayas" (literally: empowerment), we thought it might be a joke. I saw a very tall building in the distance, and in a naive moment, perceived it to be a hotel. Not the case: it was the Devgarh Fort (and palace. whoops). We stayed in a large cement building on palettes on the floor. Though there was a lot of "wildlife" and finicky electricity and Indian style toilets with stubborn plumbing, the group morale was pretty high and we were just coming down from our fancy hotel stay, so all was well. The stay was definitely akin to camping. What was really cool was that for water, we would see lots of women filling huge pots ...and then carrying them on their heads, no hands, on rocky terrain, back to their houses, just like we had seen in the Rajasthani culture show in Udaipur. Except no dancing around with ten of them, and they were FILLED WITH WATER WITHOUT A LID! I have no idea how they manage this kid of coordination; it's amazing!
We settled in in the afternoon, had some rest, did some reading, and then most of us took a trip to the "hotel" - Devgarh Fort, which used to be the palace of the local royalty as well as the judicial court. I brought my camera... but forgot my memory card. Major bummer, but I got to relax and just take in all of the sights. We passed through the royal temple (still functioning) and then through all of the chambers of the palace, some of which are still used by visiting dignitaries and visitors of Prayas! (but not us, apparently? haha). There was one segment where we saw the queen's chambers - more mirror inlay than I had ever seen in my life, covering wall after wall. And it's not like this was some famous landmark in India - it's just one treasure this country continuously offers up. Incredible.
We had a brief meeting on how to conduct interviews in the field (that was our assignment for the trip) and were left to our own devices. We found out that it was Azim-ji's birthday, and Nisha and Caroline choreographed a Bhangra dance that we performed for him at dinner! I had Bhavna-ji take this video, in which you can hear her full-body laugh LOUD AND CLEAR:
He loved it, and was beside himself smiling :) It definitely did good things for group spirit, even if a few people couldn't participate due to illness. Almost all of use were sick once on this trip.
I got to meet another girl who tagged along on our trip through Chittorgarh. Gretchen was also a junior studying abroad from Cornell, and was spending six weeks with this organization, doing a project on public health. Her program had been based in Jaipur, so she had a lot of recommendations for staying in the city when I do my Independent Study Project there in a few weeks.
The sky when we were in Chittorgarh was beyond incredible. I had no idea that the sky could be so dark that it appeared black. My friends Hannah and Nisha and I stayed up on the roof of the teachers' apartment, and watched as one by one, hundreds of campfires popped up on the horizon. We went back up the next night to get pictures of the sunset up there.
Now is a good of a time as any... Suesue, if you're reading this, THANKYOUSOMUCH for the sleep sheet. I have this silk sheet that has been sewn together on three sides that my surrogate aunt gave me for this trip - and it has saved my butt so many times from having to sleep somewhere interesting and have to have my skin right against a questionable surface/bed bug infested linen. I could not recommend one of these things more to world travellers - it's great.
On our second day in Chittorgarh, we woke up for an early breakfast and went to a Prayas-sponsored center. Lying in bed that morning I had been having a total ILOVEINDIA moment, probably still on a high from the view on the rooftop the night before. It was one of those moments where I think "i'm in rural India. I'm sleeping on the floor. During daily life your opinion becomes a little more realistic. I do love India. But I also love toilet paper (not a common thing in India), so my love is definitely conflicted.
We sat in on the Prayas meeting and got to see the local villagers in their elected representative meeting with Prayas. The representatives are for everything from the adolescent boys' group to the young married women's group, and they all come together to talk to the advocacy organization about how things are going, and what they need health-wise. The best part is how hands off Prayas is... they facilitate as much as possible, but ultimately they want the people themselves to take ownership over change. There's a really awesome Prayas chant "WE HAVE DECIDED THAT EVERYONE WILL BE HEALTHY" (but it's a lot cooler and rhymes and all in Hindi..)
We were given an assignment to do three interviews based on whatever topic we have chosen for our final projects. Our first attempts at interviews were kind of a bust. That morning I had made a list of quesitons that address the social determinants of health, but they felt so broad and intense. It was a mess trying to figure out who to interview in the village. "Who wants to talk to ASHAs? Anemic mothers? Farmers? The village officials?" It was crazy. My questions could really be posed to anyone, so I followed Michaela and Bhavna-ji into the village to sit in on M's first field interview, and ask the interviewee a few questions of my own. It was HARD. First, the fact that about 40 villagers were watching from the front of the house didn't help, second, I was being translated into Hindi, and third.. it's just really difficult to frame questions about the social determinants of health on an individual basis and really get anywhere... Interviewing is something I will have to work on.. while I love talking to people, I think I need to work of framing less broad questions.
This was the woman I interviewed, Kandeli, with her two children:
The villagers were definitely really curious about us.. we were far enough out of civilization at that point that most had never seen foreigners, and we quickly got a pretty big following of children. This one little girl was such a ham, and ran away giggling when I told her "nice to meet you" in Hindi.
We had a quick lunch and got back in the bus and headed to a village town hall that Prayas was attending. We sat in on the meeting, and then got to interview a rainbow. I can't begin to describe how beautiful these women looked, sitting together in their neon Rajasthani sarees, so I'll let you see for yourself. Bhavna-ji served as translator:
These women are the traditional birth attendants. They told us about how even small changes that Prayas has facilitated have become big ones: for example, they used to use field sickles for cutting the umbilical cord, which would give the baby an infection sometimes resulting in its death. They now receive free razor blades and supplies from the Gov via Prayas.
We also got to meet with local traditional medical workers that used to end up killing people because they are convinced that they have powers. Prayas intervenes by telling them that "yes, you do have powers, and because of these, you need to use them to see when there is an emergency and you need western medicine," etc, and other tactics to respect the tradition and powers and ways that these people have without letting tradition result in harm. From an anthropological perspective, they're doing a really amazing service to these people instead of stripping them of their beliefs.
We had one more night in Chittorgarh, and so when we got back to the compound, ran up to the roof of the teacher's apartment to enjoy the sunset. Hannah and I spent some time on the roof, had some dinner, and then all went to sleep fairly early, knowing the next night would be spent on the train.
The next morning, we had an early breakfast and got on the road to Choti Sadri, about halfway between the rural area where we were staying and the city of Chittorgarh, 4 hours away. We got there and got to see Prayas' main office. The ride there was unfortunately pretty eventful, with some of us getting sick on the ride or suddenly needing to stop to take care of some things.. pretty much everyone has been sick at least once by now, so at least it's about 75% awful and 25% funny.
It was a looooong drive.
(this was what I thought was a hotel in the distance that was actually the Fort. wishful thinking, Laura)
To be honest, at the Choti Sadri Prayas office I was feeling like I started to in Madrid... when you visit so many museums in such a short amount of time...well, you only can appreciate so many earth-shattering masterpieces in one day before it;s easy to walk by them without really taking them in. That's what started to happen with rural field visits. We were all pretty exhausted from the heat and being sick and using Indian toilets for a few days (maybe I should speak for myself; it's just a different way of doing things, I guess..) that it was hard to take in the visit.
We finally got to Chittorgarh and had lunch in a nice hotel restaurant. After, we took a visit to another Prayas center in Chittorgarh and had a really fascinating conversation with the man who started Prayas itself. He talked about what it means to "create demand among the people:" what it means to change the culture around going to seek care - this may sound ridiculous to us as Americans, because we have been taught that when something is wrong, there is SOMETHING there to catch us. When we're upset, we have the right to exercise freedom of speech, and freedom of speech is encouraged. When we're discriminated against, we're told to get angry and do something about it. When we're sick, we're told to get care, and if we can't afford it, demand treatment, because doctors cannot turn us down (which is the way it should be, in my opinion..). Here, these same feelings don't apply. Whether that is wrong or not is not our place to judge, but it is interesting to me how Prayas has gone into these places and worked on showing people that they need to demand better, and ask more of the governing bodies that tax them. That they should demand care, and demand to be treated just as well as the citizens of Delhi when they get sick. Inspiring stuff.
The Prayas office also had an amazing, tiled, toilet-paper-bearing bathroom that we all got really excited over. It's amazing what gets us excited in India.
We headed to Chittorgarh Fort to have another "synthesis" meeting and visit the Shiva temple and victory tower. While the Fort was beautiful, there were some cute but vicious monkeys who kept threatening our synthesis...
We had dinner at the restaurant again and then a twelve hour ride back to Delhi, which was unfortunately pretty horrible. Our cabin had a random couple we didn't know in it, and the man was the LOUDEST SNORER I HAVE EVER MET IN MY LIFE. I brought ear plugs, "just in case," and I could hear him LOUD AND CLEAR even with them in. I also woke up in the middle of the night to a cockroach on my arm, and was so disoriented and angry and tired and disgusted that I just.. picked him right up and threw him. And I think most likely on someone else. Whoops.
The night went on absolutely forever, but it was finally six am when we rolled into the station. The Snorer and his wife actually ended up being really nice people, and his wife told us "how beautiful all the American girls look in Indian dresses." Thanks, Mrs. Snorer.
Molly and I were waiting for our teachers to call a cab, but got so tired of waiting that we argued with a few rickshaw drivers and finally got one to zip home. The guy started taking us the wrong direction, so we told him in Hindi to turn around and go a different way. When we finally got home, he tried to charge us more, so we did the typical Indian thing to do which is loudly throw a fit to embarrass the wrongdoer) and they wuickly back down. It sounds like a crazy, bitchy thing to do, but it's actually what you're supposed to do! And it works! It's amazing what we're getting used to!
The day we got back was also my Mom's birthday on EST time ("Deli" time), and the day after on GMT +5 time (Delhi time!). I got to call her the morning I got back. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
That that's it! I've been back in Delhi this past week, and it's actually been incredibly eventful! I have a LOT of pictures to post from the Lotus temple and Molly's new tattoo and the Old Fort and Holi - but that will have to wait till this week! I'm running on about a week delay, and I'm keeping up about a once a week trend.
I'm really enjoying blogging. I hope you're enjoying reading!
lots of chapati,
PS this was framed in the hotel restaurant where we ate on the last day. The dining room, filled with foreigners..
PPS: Kathleen! I thought you would think these reflections were cool... so i took this!
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