A Wonderful Surprise

I told you guys of the sanitation issues in India last week, so you can imagine my surprise when I came across this!!!

Most probably one of the best bathrooms I have seen. The toilet situation here in India leaves much to be desired. To be honest - It's pretty disturbing.

This restroom is a luxury reserved for those of a certain caste. The poor will never see the like of this bathroom. They instead defecate on the side of the road. I am careful to avoid the feces on my morning run. Sanitation is a big issue here.

While you may not be able to tell by the picture, it's actually very clean. It's an interesting take on the modern latrine.

Thoughts?

TTYS!

My Observations on India's Issue Of Sanitation

Every Monday we go out and visit one of the villages around Jamkhed town. CRHP does not do their work in Jamkhed town because its mission is to serve the poorest of the poor. The majority of the project villages are in remote areas where no one wants to serve.

I am going to try to paint a picture for you of what the villages look like....

In the first village there were many small huts scattered around. The houses made from cement or bricks are for the people of a higher caste. Human and animal feces lined the sides of the roads; no drainage system, no house has a toilet. The wells are only located near the brick homes. In the second village most of the houses were built of brick and cement. Soak pits are built along the road to eliminate stagnant run-off water. the roads are pretty clean. Approximately half of the homes had toilets. but what was very interesting was that due to lack of space inside the homes, some built toilets on their rooftop!

If you ask anyone what is the biggest obstacle in helping the villages progress it is a unanimous response - SANITATION! Toilets more specifically. It's a concern that the villagers have a hard time adjusting to. This I think has to do with the culture itself.

First, you would have to understand the caste system in India. The lowest caste does the dirty work - the work that no one else wants to do. Therefore, if you as a higher caste member (example Brahmin) have a toilet in your home, who would clean it? No one wants to clean the toilet so it is easier to use a bucket and take care of your "business" in the open air. While I hear conditions have improved there are still many improvements to be made.

Is there an easy answer or solution? I personally think, for sanitary purposes, the western toilets would not be the best solution. A modern version of latrines would be best and prevent the spread of infections.


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Photo Source: Sanitation Update

Surprise! Mickey Welcomes Me To India

Ughhhhh!!

So there is a mouse in our building. I'm grossed out and a bit disturbed. This is so new to me... Fighting off Mickey Mouse - never in my wildest dreams!

To begin my tale (no pun intended... lol), I was seeing little pellets of poop in the bathroom. The other residents were saying the pellets were from the geckos/lizards. Being that we are in India, the lizards are unavoidable! But on Friday morning, I went into the bathroom and noticed that the drain had moved. I thought that was strange, had some suspicions but shrugged off the weird vibe I got. Just as I thought, my suspicions were confirmed at breakfast. A girl in my building said a mouse ate through her plastic bag and devoured her mango! OMG, I nearly passed out... this is so out of my comfort level. It's all so new. Wow!

Please allow me to have a moment. Just this once...
We are staying in one of the worst buildings in the village!
I'm moving TODAY!
Get FOH!
Everyone knows I can't co-exist with them things (mice)!
Mommy!!!

Now that that's out of my system, I can say lucky for me I always zip up my bags and always sleep with a nightlight on!

I hear Management is putting traps around the building today. Whoa! I'll keep you posted.

The Breakfast Of Champions

I've been trying to get used to the food here but finding it a bit difficult. Since I've been here, I just have a boiled egg and banana to get my day started. The rice is spicy!

The Breakfast Of Champions:

Getting Acclimated

We went on our first visit to the villages!! It was such an eye opening experience. Villagers were so friendly and welcoming.  Language barrier be damned, we had great conversations with them! Some gave us a tour of their homes while others told us about their children levying the village in order to travel to school in Pune.

It was amazing for me to see that no matter what they had or did not have they were happy and they expressed it. They lived their lives in a manner necessary to maintain a good productive lifestyle. The women were constantly working. To my surprise, although they lived in a poor village some homes had a satellite dish and TV!

The school children were so jovial! They are apparently used to receiving visitors. They harassed us for a "foto" and wanted to examine each picture afterwards. Surprisingly, some of the children were familiar with some English words. Hopefully, with the help of our daily language class, I will soon be able to carry on basic conversation in Marathi.

While I'm still getting acquainted with my surroundings, I took a walk into town yesterday to buy some fabric. A tailor is supposed to take our measurements to make my saree/sari.

It was sort of like and organized mess (reminded me of my closet lol)!! A swarm of blue and white children's uniforms running around and screaming since school had just let out. The cacophony also included honking cars,  motorcycles, mopeds, and the three wheeled cars. Where ever the merchants found space they set up shop for their goods. This is where it gets organized. The fruit merchants were together, bracelets and saris in one area and if needed you could still go into the little shops on each side of the street. We went into this three to four story building. It had a large variety of fabric, saris, and other items of clothing. Each floor was totally saturated with workers or people were just spending their day there. A group of us arrived at a messy counter and had the employees pull out every type of fabric they had - all different colors and patterns. We sensed they were getting a bit overwhelmed and inpatient when we couldn't make up our minds. So it goes... this is the market! It's just what you do - search for the best product for the best price! Another floor above carried and sold saris. We had to remove our shoes since there were mats arranged everywhere. You remove your shoes and basically sit with the merchant of your choice while he/she surrounds you with all these beautiful patterns and colors. The choices are so overwhelming! Side note: Lol, I'm so thankful for bringing a pumus stone! I can't count how many times we have to remove our shoes to walk into a room!

Walking back we stopped and purchased some mangoes to possibly make some shakes. On the walk, I located an eyebrow threading place! This is my top discoveries for the day! When it comes to my eye brows, I have placed my trust in one lady for the last 14 years. Yes, I confess, there have been in between but the results have always ben the same - dissatisfaction and frustration. I'm in INDIA!! So I'm seriously considering getting my eyebrows threaded while I'm here. Live a little. Why not?!? I'll keep you posted.

Crossing Over and Safe Arrival in India

So as a woman, of course I packed way too much! First goal was to only bring one suitcase and a carry-on. My bag was definitely over the 50lb limit (88lbs *head hung low*) the teller at the airport could not stop laughing! I had to remind them that I'm going for two months! A lady needs her stuff. Nonetheless, I purchased an overpriced duffel at the airport to separate my stuff.

The flights were pretty long. I slept through every time they were going around to take meal orders. My meals were all defaulted to vegetarian. LOL... so far so good, let's see how long I can keep this vegetarian thing up. They gave this snack on the plane that didn't quite go well with my taste buds...sort of like spicy noodles? Not my favorite! 

I'm In India!! Wow!

What a long journey to Jamkhed! JFK to London then London to Mumbai. The security is serious here on this side if the world! The US has nothing to complain about. I actually saw someone who had been tasered down by security. From Mumbai a car service met us at the airport to take us to Pune to then meet a CRHP representative to drive us to Jamkhed.

Everyone is pretty friendly so far. On the five hour drive to Pune from Mumbai the driver stopped next to another car (we got a little nervous since it was in the middle of the night) but it was so the other passengers could get into another car since we were going to different locations. From Pune, we met a the CRHP rep driving an Izuzu trooper in front of the Samrat Hotel. The driver was nice and we pulled over to have a light snack - some "tea." I probably had the best Chai tea I've ever had!

We arrived into Jamkhed at 7am the next morning just in time for class! Yes, class. I can express how tired I am but I think the endorphins have taken over. I am just so excited to be here the fatigue is taing a baack seat at this time. I am looking forward to coming back to my room and resting my head...

Talk to you soon.