Reflections on my last few weeks in India

Hello everyone

As you may have gathered, I am now back in the UK (and no, I am not to blame for the snow!). Since I've been back I've been thinking a lot about my experiences over the last 5 months and in particular my last few weeks in India.

I left the mountains on the 14th January and from then until I left India I was travelling around to Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and then back to Delhi. Some of this was for work and some was for leisure/pleasure - take your pick! Thinking back, it feels like I experienced as much during this time as I did during my time living in the mountains, however I think that all these experiences are incomparable. It really struck it home to me complete disparity between Indian cities and rural areas. In Delhi and Bangalore I really got the feeling that I could be absolutely anywhere in the world and to some extent this demonstrates the far reach of the so called 'homogenised urban age'. Many of you will not believe me, but when walking around parts of Delhi I felt like I could have been in Kensington or Chelsea in London. Partly because of this, and maybe because of the time I have spent in India now, I found myself feeling so comfortable in these places and I could really imagine myself living there. Thanks of course must go to my lovely friend Asha who is living in Delhi - she was responsible for my shopping trips and visits to the hip bars in Delhi :p

The reason for trip to Delhi and Bangalore was for fundraising events that Aarohi was holding. I had been involved in some of the organisation of the events and had been listening and watching the students rehearsing for the shows for near on 2 months so it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to see the final product. It also gave me an opportunity to experience a 2 day train journey (possibly to be never done again, and note to self, don't eat too much of the train food or touch ANYTHING on the train) but the best part was travelling and spending time with the students and the staff at Aarohi. Before this, I guess I hadn't really felt like I had a chance to bond with many of them - because of the geography and culture of where I was living the was not much socialising in the evening! But during the trip, I developed such a deep and profound respect and admiration for these people and for the effort they put into everything they do. I couldn't help thinking that if we had been in the UK, the same team would have been chewing everyone's ears off about being tired, fed up or overworked. But quite honestly, they were just happy for the opportunity to be involved and to experience new situations themselves (including not being able to communicate with south Indians - quite an interesting situation to watch!). It is the time spent during these 2 weeks that has really built a bond between the organisation and I, for this reason I am sure that I will be back there sooner rather than later.

The rest of my time was a whirlwind - a weekend spent in Pune with Kunal and Megha, followed by a week in Delhi. Before I knew it, it was time to return home. To be honest I'm still trying to process everything and am finding it quite hard to put my thoughts into anything comprehensible right now. With time though I hope that I'll be able to write a complete reflection of my entire time in India - I have had some realisations but most significantly, I think that I have really grown up. Being in a different situation and experiencing the the lives of rural communities in India has helped me to formulate and clarify some of my own thoughts and beliefs. I have also had the opportunity to meet so many new people, many of whom were truly inspirational and these I will never forget. I just hope that now I am back (and back out of the different situation) I can continue to develop these and further my commitment to working in this sector. If I could pinpoint one thing that India has taught me - anything is possible at anytime, you can do whatever you want and will always find a way to get there.

For those of you that I haven't yet spoken to or seen, I can't wait!!! I'm in London from Sunday - Thurs, so I hope to see a lot of you :) I'm also hoping to continue blogging so watch this space.

Love

B xxxxx

Malnutrition...

I promised that I would write about my trip out to our health office to do my field research, so here I am fulfilling that promise to you all. No, it’s not as a result of a New Year’s resolution I may or may not have made (who believes in them anyway!), but in fact my research brought to light a few things that I thought you would (may) all find interesting. I hope so.

Our health office is located in Jhadgaon, another village in the block of Oklakhanda which is another area of the district I’m normally in. It may be hard for you to imagine, but this place is even more isolated than where I normally stay. In Satoli, the village where the main office is located sees at least 3 or 4 vehicles passing every hour – in Jhadgaon, you’re lucky if you see 3 or 4 in a day. It’s very badly connected and as a result the public provisions are worse and development is also further behind. I’m really finding it hard to write that the communities are ‘less developed’ because while the majority of people have lower educational attainment and the mindset is very different, they are not necessarily ‘less developed’ as a community only in the way that we think of development. Mind sets are different though and as the benefits of things like maternal care have not yet been realised completely and cultural stigmas stick (mainly because they are not exposed to better alternatives), maternal and infant mortality is high, and sanitation and hygiene leaves a lot to be desired. 

The work that I have been doing with the health team has been to assess the implementation of growth monitoring of children under the age of 3. Growth monitoring is a tool that is used to assess whether a child is growing and developing normally – we use weight as an indicator, however height is also commonly used. As growth is largely determined by nutritional intake it is used worldwide as an indicator of whether a child is receiving adequate food and nutrients. I say largely because there are many diseases that can also affect child growth including worms (ew) and re-occurring diarrhoea and dysentery. It’s a really important activity because alongside doing the growth monitoring, the health worker is meant to give counselling on child nutrition. Undernutrition and malnourishment is a HUGE problem in India. In this state 40% of children are malnourished, and there are more malnourished children in India than any other country. Fair enough, there obesity rates are also rising in the cities, but malnourishment still remains a large scale problem across most of the country. The fact that obesity is on the up just demonstrates to me that there is a huge disparity between the wealthy (mainly) city dwellers and those living in the remote rural areas.

Growth monitoring of children is carried out by health workers trained by Aarohi in their villages. Basically they weigh the child, mark it on a growth chart which shows whether the child is underweight or not, and whether they are growing at a normal rate. I went along with health workers to observe their work and I also conducted interviews with families in 3 different villages. My survey contained questions related to family income, crops grown (most people have land), child nutrition and their attitudes toward growth monitoring.

It was a wonderful experience to interact with communities in some of the villages we work in and to gain more of an insight into their lives and challenges they face on a daily basis. Wow, do those women have their work cut out for them. I may have said this before, but it’s worth reiterating that here, women are responsible for everything in the house, and on top of this they are responsible for working in the fields and collecting water (which by the way they don’t boil despite the fact that they know it is unclean – their reason for this is because they don’t have time. I think this demonstrates a real difference in education and is an indicator of just how hard things are for these families). They have no time to think about what food they should be preparing for their young children and as this knowledge maybe isn’t second nature to them and they may have to spend extra money or time getting the right foods, child’s nutrition does suffer. During my visits, the number of malnourished children fits with the profile of the state – about 40% were underweight which suggests undernourishment.

In fact, many of the younger mothers were really quite deluded about what a good diet includes and in some cases couldn’t answer the question. At the time I guess I thought this was strange because they grow all their food, and in my deluded and naive mind I was thinking that they probably chose what to grow. No, they grow what they can on their small piece of land. Don’t forget we’re in the hills here so all land is stepped and nutrient run off from land is high (especially after the rains) so the productivity of the land isn’t brilliant. As a result of the introduction of fertilisers (thank you Britain) they are also now dependent on these to increase productivity, however it makes farming a really expensive business with not many gains. Families I spoke to said that their land does not produce enough food for their own use so they have to buy extra food. Let’s just say that they don’t really get a varied diet and many families only eat 2 meals a day. Given that children under 5 are meant to have 4-5 meals a day, this is a major worry.

Another major worry I have is the number of women who feed their children the expensive Cerelac supplement made by….guess who, yes, the lovely (not) Nestle. Women here told me that because it is expensive they believe it is the best thing to give their children. What they don’t understand is that because it is a supplement it is supposed to be given alongside a full diet, and should be mixed with clean water. Yet again, I think I see Nestle creating more problems for people living in poverty. Actually, when I was looking into this I read that it is illegal for companies to market any alternative to breastfeeding, and while Cerelac isn’t technically an alternative, women here believe it is, so are Nestle violating laws again? Wouldn’t be the first time, right? Women also told me that because it is on TV they believe it is the best for their children. Despite being told that good whole food is better, it appears that the Cerelac craze is a widespread one in India. Another corporation strikes again, well done.

Anyway, my research will help to inform further training for our health workers and also some alternative interventions at village level within the health program. This work again demonstrated for me the need for ‘development’ to happen at a local level and by NGO’s who know and are respected by the people and communities that they are trying to help. They are the people who know the lay of the land and can work to better involve the community (all of our health workers are from the village that they work in) thus working to implement a better informed ‘development’ solution for these people.

I have one more week left in the hills and then I will be city hopping for a bit until I head back home at the beginning of February. I’m so glad that I have been able to complete this work and hope that it will help the ever so stretched health team to combat this problem of undernutrition in Uttarakhand. 

Now please excuse me, I need to go and handwash my underwear - :p now that's something I really won't miss!

B

xoxo

Happy (Indian) Christmas

Hello everyone

Firstly, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!! OK, so it's nearly new year, but I figure it's better late than never. Also be safe in the knowledge that I was thinking of all of you on Christmas Day. Mainly being jealous that you were all probably home sipping champagne for breakfast and indulging in wonderful Christmas meals!

So this was the first year that I had indian on Christmas Day. Many of you Chet's people will find this hilarious and for the rest of you I shall explain. There was a person in my year at school who used to drag his family to the Indian on Christmas Day because that was the only food he would eat....I think the catch phrase was 'want to get an Indian'? I'm not saying that it was a necessarily a bad thing, as it really wasnt! Our christmas dinner consisted of a wonderful egg curry, salad, Kheer, chocolate cake...the list goes on, it was wonderful. I'd also received a delivery of christmas treats from my mum when she visited earlier in the month and as you can imagine the homemade christmas cake and christmas pudding was much appreciated.......I've only just stopped eating........

I promise not to write this entire blog on the subject of food, it's just my state of mind at the moment. Maybe it's because it is so cold. This is my most overused phrase right now and the thing I blame everything on because I am permanently cold.....the blessing of the cold weather is that the mountains are looking more and more beautiful every day. I still wake up in awe of them.

SO much has happened since I last blogged and I don't feel like I can do it all justice right now, however just to update you.....From early to mid December my mum was visiting and we took a trip down to Andhra Pradesh (it's warm there). I had a wonderful time and it can probably be described through three words - bangles, bikes and Biryani.  I spent a lot of time buying bangles in the wonderful bazaars around the Charminar in Hyderbad - Mr Bangle man (Wahid Ali) is awesome and even 'gifted us' two extra arms of bangles each - basically he probably felt bad at ripping us off and decided to do a 2 for 1 deal. We spent a lot of time trying to cross roads in Hyderabad - a mildly entertaining activity and for the girl who has been living in the mountains were the most traffic on the roads are cows, a bit of a shock to the system, however we mastered it and were flying across by the end of the trip. It was a wonderful trip and after my apprehension of leaving the safe and comfortable environment of the hills, the trip really re-ignited my travel bug.


After my return I spent a week completing research in the area where our health project operates - a truely wonderful and yet another eye-opening and mind expanding experience and one I think I should devote a blog post about. That will come soon. That research is now complete and I'm frantically writing it up while I work to complete my fundraising work. I only have 2 weeks left here before I head off to Delhi and Bangalore for the annual fundraising events - I can't believe how time is flying!

Oh, guess what! I got to run!!! A few days ago was the Aarohi Youth Wing running and cycling event, an activity started last year to engage with the young adults in the area. I was so impressed by the number of people who participated and the great atmosphere that was created on both days. I was even more impressed by the people who completed a 5k race in flip flops - I kid you not! I was also out run by at least one of these..... All I can say is that from now on I need to train at high altitudes. Most of you know that I try to be a regular runner, and I would say that by now I know my body pretty well so am tuned in to how it feels when I run. This run was something I had never experienced before - my muscles tired so much quicker and my stamina was greatly reduced. Obviously I knew it was going to be a lot harder to run at higher altitude with reduced oxygen but I had no idea just how much it would affect me - a real lesson learnt!

Hopefully, the internet problems are now behind us and I will be able to update you more frequently for the next few weeks. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve - behave yourselves. I will be - maybe my most sober New Year's eve in a long time, mainly because Sara and I are considering going paragliding on the 1st and I don't really fancy dropping out of the air....

All the best for the New Year and enjoy the rest of your festive holidays.

Love B

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

the state of things.....

I’ve been mulling over this post for a while now. Part of me feels like there’s not much to report, but I think that’s not really true and that I’ve become so accustomed to life here that many things are not feeling new anymore. For example the now weekly visits/attacks by a crew of monkeys is to be expected and I have now become accustomed to springing out of bed to give my best ‘monkey scaring’ shout. In reality this shout does nothing – that may be because it sounds exactly like my cow herding shout. However, since my good friend Kunal thinks that my blog should form the basis for my book debut, I thought that I should probably continue to write….*please note, that this is a joke, and I will not be appearing at a Waterstones near you to sign a copy of my shiny new book*. On the other hand, it does seem very ‘Sex and the City’ – if I write books do I automatically get a pair of Manolo Blahniks?

So onto the stuff of real life…since I’ve been back from Rishikesh it has been work, work and more work and as I’m sure you can imagine I’ve been enjoying being busy. Aarohi has a number of fundraising events held in Delhi and Bangalore in January so as well as getting to go to them (which I’m totally psyched about), I’m helping to write the fundraising appeals and to get some sort of sponsorship for the events. It’s funny because if someone gives me work like this my normal reaction is to get onto it straight away however I’ve been taking the time to think about and understand just what is realistic for this NGO and what kind of support is needed exactly. It’s definitely done me the world of good and I’ve had a chance to reflect a lot on the work they are doing here. I don’t think I have spoken about this enough up until now….

Aarohi is working in the state of Uttarakhand – if any of you haven’t looked at a map to see where I am, I’m both shocked and offended. So to save yourself go now and ‘google’ it, and in particular look for the towns of Nainital and Almora as I am pretty much between the two of them. In fact, Almora is the opposite side of the valley to where I stay and at night I can see the sparkling lights of the town. Tonight they are accompanied by the stars and you would never believe how many stars there are! I know that sounds really stupid, but after living in London for a while you learn not to look for them, so this is pretty cool.

So, now that you know where I am, I should probably put the area into context. It’s about a 10 hour drive or an overnight train journey from Delhi and while there are a few major towns in Uttarakhand, the majority of the state is dominated by remote rural villages. State infrastructure has made some expansion into the area I am in, for example we have tarmacked roads (in some places) and electricity the majority of the time. However since I have been here I have visited villages where they are without electricity, and almost ¾ of the year without any water supply. Combine this with a human unfriendly terrine, lack of basic education and healthcare and the presence of cultural taboos and practices that are deeply ingrained into the communities and you’d be pretty much on par with this area. I know that before I have spoken about the importance of education, and I stand by the points I made, but I am talking about a very different type of education here. This is more of a ‘life’ education. For example, knowing what to feed your child to ensure that it has a chance of developing properly, and in fact this links back to the presence of cultural practices. Some could say that the state has tried to change healthcare practices and the medical provision here, but hospitals are still few and far between, while the primary healthcare facilities are usually unstaffed (because people don’t want to work here) and without medicines (usually as a result of corruption – either the money goes missing or the medicines do). There is also the National Rural Health Mission, an India wide initiative, however one could also say that the difference this is making in some states of India is debatable. So as you can see there are multiple primary and secondary problems that are deeply intertwined and interconnected that often I don’t know where to start thinking about it. I also have to say that, after being here I am even more disgusted by the politicians and people in the UK that have critiqued DFID for still funding aid initiatives in India – I think the above will demonstrate the real need here. Today I read that in India 1.7 million children under the age of 5 die every year – a figure that translates into a child dying every 20 seconds.

This is not as a direct result of a lack wealth (obviously economics plays a part, but it’s not the main reason) but an absence of basic healthcare. Something as simple as the distribution of oral rehydration tablets and teaching about how to use them can save the lives of many children every year. The provision of this kind of healthcare is an area that Aarohi is deeply involved with, and is also an area that I am contributing to. The Aarohi rural healthcare project is working in a total of 30 villages and the focus of the project is the training of local health workers. Each health worker has been picked by their village to be in this role and we train them to give basic advice related to pregnancy, family planning, infections and diseases, and they are also in a position to refer people onto another health care facility if a serious medical problem is reported. Not only are they raising awareness in their community but they are filling the gap left by the state and also giving everyone access to basic care. The aim of the project is that it will after time be self-sustaining and each of the health workers will pass their skills onto another in the community. This is much like the functioning of the role of village ‘dai’ (midwife) which has traditionally been passed through families. While their practices are not always safe (the training of dai is another area we work in) all the knowledge they do have is passed on and I think that there is something really valuable about that.

In essence, the project is providing communities access to a basic right – the opportunity to live. OK, I may sound completely over the top here, but when you hear stories of young babies and new mothers dying because the family couldn’t make the 3 hour trip to the hospital this point is pretty valid.

There is SO much more I could write about with regard to Aarohi’s work and I’m sure I will over time, but for now I will leave you with what I have written about here. It’s something that I think we can all get passionate about and I hope that have given you an insight into what life is like for rural communities in what is ironically one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. Don’t forget that Aarohi also has a website – www.aarohi.org so please do check it out while you’re waiting for me to tell you more!

Finally – it’s COLD! I know everyone who has spoken to me recently has already heard this but I’m just reiterating that I am freezing my arse/toes/nose/hands off. I wonder what will be left by the time that March comes around…..

Chai?

Those of you who have had the wonderful opportunity of visiting India will know that they really are a nation of tea-drinkers. I’m a bit mystified as to why people use that phrase to describe the UK, because the tea-drinking efforts back home really do not match those of much of the Indian population. N.B – I really don’t mean to be stereotyping here, but to some extent it has to be done!

But it is not just any ordinary tea that is drunk, it is chai. Also please note that Chai Tea Lattes from Starbucks taste nothing like what is drunk over here and I doubt that marketing concept rather a lot now. I assume that the people who drink that Latte from Starbucks have never visited India…anyway. Chai is a tea that is so sweet you can only consume it in very small quantities, and maybe it is this sweetness that makes it possible for me to drink it. As most of you know, I am a staunch coffee drinker and it has taken a while for me to adapt to the lack of black coffee in my life. However, chai has in some respects replaced this gaping hole in my drinking habits.

Anytime is time for chai, be it when it is brought round the office at 11am by Bimla, the lady who cooks at the office, at 3am on a railway station or in fact when you are on a train trying to sleep. The latter 2 situations occurred on my recent trip to Rishikesh – strangely enough and in their own way they stand out as memories from the trip.  I say ‘strangely enough’ because I’m finding it quite strange to write about situations involving tea!

So this week my fellow volunteers and I travelled to Rishikesh for a short Diwali break. The journey was probably around 12 hours each way and started at on the Sunday evening when we left the enclaves of the village we are staying in, Satoli. Satoli is truly a beautiful place, however I had been feeling that it is very easy to live in a little bubble here meanwhile forgetting that I am actually in India. I was craving some of the ‘organised’ chaos, vibrancy, colours and sounds that are characteristic of many of the larger towns and cities. We took an overnight train to a town close to Rishikesh called Haridwar and as is normal here trains seem to arrive into stations at strange hours of the early morning. Ours arrived at 3am and it was then our mission to find somewhere to hang out until it was light outside. We opted for the ‘upper class lounge’ and settled down to find something to do to pass the time. Thalia went to sleep (lucky girl she can sleep anywhere) and Sarah and I were left literally twiddling our thumbs (you had to be there!). 30 minutes passed and I then decided it was time for chai (anytime is chai time), see how I’ve adjusted to life here? And so what ensued for the next 3 hours was tea drinking and biscuit eating which left us pretty delirious and wired, ready for the holiday!

Rishikesh is a town set on either side of the Ganges river, lovingly referred to as Mother Ganga by many and is one of the holiest cities in India. It’s very popular with tourists, both Indian and from outside and the town definitely mimics this in its popular German bakeries, markets and restaurants serving Chinese, Indian, pizza, Italian, the list goes on…I guess I shouldn’t complain as it gave me my fix of good coffee, muesli, salad and cake, simple things please me. We spent time visiting different Ashrams and temples, on the beach and browsing the markets – always a bargain to be found and my shopping habit has somewhat been stunted since being here! It was Diwali on the Wednesday night and the town had been preparing for days by putting up lights and letting off fireworks – mainly on the street and from glass bottles, much to the delight of the young kids setting them off and to the dismay of the Rishikesh vistors that were deafened by them when they went off next to you (yes that was us). So yes I got to see my fireworks, but the real highlight for Diwali for me was being able to witness the special puja (offering to the gods) on the banks of the Ganges that evening. The singing, chanting, lighting of candles as well as the atmosphere was wonderful and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see it.

So after 4 wonderful days it was time to head back to the hills and the cold! On the way back we spent some time in Haridwar and happened to come across a bazaar. It was very cool and also busy as we were still in Diwali season. Everyone was out buying the traditional Indian sweets, which by the way I have eaten way too many of! But the one thing that I really must share with you (sorry to the boys reading this) is the wonderful bangle shops :p OK, I have seen bangle shops before, it’s nothing new however I had never seen this…so, as you can see from the photo below the shops have bangles in pretty much any colour. But what is really special is that you can get the store owner to match the bangles to the colour of your clothes – bring a new piece of clothing along and he will measure your wrist (with his hand of course) take a look at the colour of the clothing item and find something that matches. Now if that’s not service I don’t know what is. I’d really like it to be a new business venture…. 

Outside of the hours of 10am-3pm it’s getting pretty frosty up here, not good. The train back was also overnight and with the lack of the underlying smell of urine that train on the way out had it was a tad more comfortable, but I guess that’s what you get for Rs140 tickets – it’s about £2 guys, for a 7 hour journey. Yes, that’s what you pay for one trip on the tube. At every station, the chai wallas get on the train and shout ‘chai’ up and down the train. This is nothing new, but what was hilarious on the train back was the children that decided that they would mimic the chai walla, so everytime he said ‘chai’ they would copy. It was the BEST imitation I have ever heard – they had the tone of the different voices down to a tee and they had the coach (or was it just me in my delirious state) in fits. See the possibilities that chai can bring you?

However, all is not well in the chai world. After an interesting conversation with our health co-ordinator I was surprised to find out that in fact the consumption of chai could be one major cause of anaemia. It is said that if you drink chai after eating a meal then it will stop the absorption of iron into your body. This is caused by one of the main components of the tea used to make chai and so there is work being done to see how we can begin to change habits. I anticipate that this is a near impossible task – one because the habits of tea drinking are so deeply ingrained in the way of life here and two, because there’s a real lack of education and a presence of steadfast traditions and taboos surrounding nutrition already and it’s proving difficult to bring about change. But for the sake of the undernourished women and children that I see every day I really hope that some change will happen. I am still amazed at how the women leaving in rural Kumaon are able to continue with such a long and physically intense day leaving no time for anything other than cooking, working the fields, looking after the livestock and on occasion finding the time to feed their children. I’m deadly serious when I say this – during my focus group discussion a few weeks ago our health workers told me of instances when babies became malformed due to being left in cots all day while the mothers were out working the land all day or children of 1 or 2 being left to fend for themselves all day. This unfortunately seems to be a way of life for many living in nuclear families. I wonder if and how this will change in the future…..

So I’m now back in the hills for another 5 or so weeks when I will be visiting Hyderabad, I’m very excited. However, there is work to do, which by the way is going ok. As mentioned above, I completed the first part of my research into malnutrition before I went to Rishikesh. This involved holding a focus group with our village health workers and supervisors, and as well as getting to see the work we are doing on the ground it was very fruitful as far outcomes are concerned. The next stage of this research will involve interviewing families in the 6 villages we work in. Fundraising is also coming along and I am helping Aarohi with their annual fundraising events taking place in Delhi and Bangalore in January. So, I’m keeping busy!

Thanks for reading the update – now go and grab yourself a cup of tea (preferably with 3 spoons of sugar thrown in my honour).

B xxx

Things that cannot be described through the power of pictures....

This post is entirely dedicated to the stunning people and sights – things that pictures really don’t do justice to. It hasn’t stopped me trying to capture them and while they say that a picture paints a thousand words, in my case a picture really doesn’t do any justice to where I am.

Some of you may have seen the now frequent pictures I am posting of the Himalayan mountains. To anyone who hasn’t seen them in the first person, these pictures may look all the same however I can assure you that in fact they are all different. No day is the same here – the mountains are always changing, as is the weather and as a result you see different peaks and in a different light. Even after a month here I can sit/stand and stare at these mountains for an eternity. I have no idea what goes through my mind when I do but I’m just so in awe of them! Is this the geography inside me gasping to get out or just a person appreciating nature? I have to laugh at that because ‘nature’ and being at one with it has become a running joke with the 2 other volunteers and I. Last week we visited the Ashram local to us and the guy there kept talking about reconnecting with nature. It’s not the thought that entertained us, just the way he spoke about it and repeated the notion over and over again as if somehow we would appreciate it to a greater extent the more he said it. So, the mountains are the first thing that while I will try my upmost really cannot be represented in my photos. Who knows though, maybe it’s my lame pink camera :p Surely not though….

While I’m thinking about the mountains – I really want to go on a trek! Who would have thought it?! And I know many of you (ahum Edge) will be wondering how I could do such a thing in my stilettos – maybe I could be the first girl to try. Unfortunately, I’ve missed the boat for this year as it’s getting too cold up there however maybe I can fit one in before I return home – visa extension please!

Secondly, the night sky here is not matched by anywhere else I have ever been. There is a significant lack of light pollution and instead the sky is full of stars. While I love the London skyline at night I’ve got to say that it is nowhere near seeing the milky way stretching across the sky against a deep blue night sky. The week previous to last I spent so much time lying on our balcony marvelling at the stars – absolutely beautiful. Again, a photo could never show this and it’s only something you can experience in person. Personally, I think that the setting I’m in makes them even more stunning. Also on the subject of the sky, this week it was ‘Sharad Poornima’. This describes the full moon at this particular time of year – it marks the transition from autumn to winter. This week it lit up the sky – so much so that I didn’t need a torch much (a rarity here!) and that it seemed like a spotlight in the sky. As you may know, the lunar phases are very important here in India and there are some great traditions of what you should do when one comes around. For example, you should make a special rice dish and leave it outside so it collects the dew.

I’ve also had my own experience of the local beliefs recently. I’ve had a bad cough and so I’ve been given multiple remedies to try. One of which was a tree branch. Ok, so I say a branch, it was more of a twig, but still….a tree! Anyway, I thought I’d go with it as I’m on this open minded thing right now and you know there’s got to be something in it if people have been using these natural healing remedies for 1000s of years. For a short while it actually soothed my throat! Amazing. 

My list of ‘things that photos don’t do justice’ could go on forever and so I’m just going to share one last thing with you. That is the feeling of letting all of your personal space go. Being British, I quite like a large personal space and get very frustrated when people move into this without my say so. Fair enough, living in London and cramming myself onto a tube with sweaty city boys helped me to get used to this invasion but nowhere near as much as this weekend has. The charity I’m working with organises an annual ‘haat’ (kind of like a fair or mini festival) and they have a number of different shows. On Saturday night there was a mixture of dances from Kumaon (the region of Uttarakhand that I’m in) as well as a pretty cool hip-hop number (they could hardly hold me down!). I’m not trying to make a point that I’m in desperate need of a night out (I am), but that this haat brings together people from many villages. Since I got away from Delhi I have never seen so many people in one space – it was great to see the community coming together. However, on the downside was the complete lack of personal space. As young females we were relegated to the floor (which was fine) and we sat down leaving a lot of space around us, just like any normal person would do right? Wrong! Within 15 minutes we had children sitting on our laps, other women cosying up to us and the gobby young lads nearly standing on us. Goodbye personal space – this feeling is one that cannot be illustrated in pictures. You are crammed and claustrophobic yet somehow it's ok - you get caught up with everything that is happening around you. I think I am now over the need to have at least a few cms between me and the next person so when I next see you, you’ll have to excuse me if I sit on your lap. I’ll stop eating too much food now so I don’t weigh a tonne then of course it’ll be fine…. 

 Just re-reading this I realise that I've mainly focussed on objects and things, and have not even touched on the feelings and emotions you get from living and just being in this environment. Remember, you often get inspiration from those things or people who are right in front you and yet somehow glance over....think about it.

This week is an exciting one; I’m starting my research into child nutrition and am beginning by taking a trip to the remote villages that Aarohi works to speak to our health workers. Then on Sunday Thalia, Sara (other volutneers) and I are taking a trip to Rishikesh – the yoga capital of the world (apparently!). I’m very excited and as it’ll be Diwali while we are there I’m hoping that we get to see a firework or two. That’ll also make up for me missing firework night in November. So, I shall tell you all about the trip soon!

B xoxo

Epic

I’m officially in week 3! Can’t quite believe I’ve been away for such a short space of time – it feels like forever but time has also flown by. One of those weird phenomena that we’ll never be able to explain…

I feel like this week has been a successful one as far as work goes. Firstly, I had a breakthrough on the fundraising side of things (although time will tell how it pans out) and I also sorted out the fine details of the work I’m doing on child malnutrition. I’m especially excited about this project, both because I’m interested in the subject area and because I’m going to be able to see it through in its entirety. There are still some frustrations on my part with regard to some areas of work, however I’m finding diplomatic ways of working with things and also coming to realise that no matter how strongly I feel about something, sometimes it’s not best to blurt it out….. Many of you will know that I like to stand up for and share what I think, but I’m now thinking that maybe it’s not necessary of effective to share it on every occasion… could this be the end of the gobby me?!

This week I attended a presentation by some ICICI fellows who had completed some field work for Aarohi. They had visited 3 areas in the area collecting data on healthcare and there are a few interesting points that I thought I would share – some will be familiar to those of you who are familiar with development issues.

Firstly, there is still great scepticism surrounding the administration of ‘western medicine’ and in many cases they will only resort to this after they have tried every other method. These other methods include visiting shamans, herb doctors as well as carrying out traditional rituals in the village. This really interested me because it demonstrates that there is still so much belief placed in these traditional healing methods. They also spoke about so called ‘sickness from fear’ which is whereby people fall sick because they are scared of becoming sick. After performing a ritual it is believed that the fear will be removed from this person and they will be cured – apparently this has cured jaundice in the past…

This also relates to the widespread belief in cultural taboos in the area. For example, pregnant women have to eat very strict diets when pregnant and when breastfeeding as they believe certain foods are bad for the baby. The foods believed to be bad are actually those which are essential for a healthy child and the restriction of these in the mothers diet both results in both the mother and baby being malnourished and in poor health. Women are often pregnant every year (usually until they produce a boy) so you can imagine how detrimental the restrictions on food are on their long term health.

Furthermore when it comes to giving birth, the majority of women still give birth at home (although there are an increasing number of hospital births in families with higher incomes). This often takes place without a trained midwife or nurse present, thus decreasing the ability of being able to respond to complications. The fellows told us of a woman they met while conducting their research. This lady was 9 months pregnant and was still working in the fields – she didn’t know how or where she was going to give birth to her baby. I was almost struck for words when I heard this and demonstrated to me that while there is progress being made in some areas, there is still such a long way to go – especially in terms of education and awareness.

In other news, 2 leopards were spotted right by my house about 10 days ago. We’re now scared to go outside in the dark! I also did my first longish trek yesterday. I think it was in the region of 15-20km, however the first half was entirely uphill so it was rather painful. Yes, this is what I now do on days off to occupy myself….who would have thought it? It was wonderful to see a different part of the area – it’s amazing how the hills change so much in the space of a few kms.

Hope the update is interesting….I’m now off to prepare photos for a presentation I have to do in our weekly meeting about myself. Needless to say I’m having problems finding appropriate pictures because my main source is Facebook. Not sure that the office will appreciate my references to ‘wankered Wednesday’ and other such events..

And I nearly forgot – I’ve begun to introduce the phrase ‘epic fail’ to Uttarakhand. We were having dinner with the director of the organisation a few nights ago and I referred to something as being an ‘epic fail’. After explaining the meaning, I think he was quite taken with the so I’m now promoting its use. Epic. 

Any requests for my next blog post? 

B xxx