Warm Milk

Thursday, June 12th: Day three started with cornflakes and milk – warm milk. That was quite a play on my senses. Quite good, though.

We visited another apartment in the morning, traveling via auto rickshaw. They’re easier to find than cabs in Boston during a Red Sox game. I’m already feeling a bit more independent, although still very cautious because I’m sure it's obvious that I’m not up to speed on all the customs. For example, negotiating. It’s just accepted that drivers and vendors charge foreigners way more. And when you think about it, you’re often negotiating over pennies. Or negotiating a driver down from $2.50 to $1.75 for a 30 min ride. In the U.S. that’s what they put on the meter before your tush hits the seat! Part of me would be happy to just pay it, and the other part doesn’t want to be taken advantage of. But is that really being ‘taken’? Thoughts welcome.

The other vivid memories of the morning rickshaw ride are the smells and the children. I’d been told about the smells in India, and mentioned that it didn’t shock me all that much. Today’s smells were different. Feces and urine. Very pungent and honestly a bit nauseating. People of lower castes live on the side of the roads. There are no sewer systems they can use, so the streets are their bathrooms and showers and kitchens as well.

The other memory this morning was of three children coming up to us while we were stopped at a traffic light. Two boys held up magazines, literally inches away from our faces, for nearly the entire time. The girl was selling cloth roses dusted with glitter. It was a light that lasted about two minutes and it was very uncomfortable. There’s nothing else for these kids to do. School is not an option for them because of the caste they were born into. Their families are so poor they have to work, and there is very little real work available. I’ve though to donate some money to an organization that helps street children because I don’t want to hand out money. I’ve been told that can be dangerous, that it can lead to the kids swarming you and worse. Giving money won’t help alleviate the difficulty of this person-to-person interaction (especially as it involves children), and I suppose I don’t really want it to. I don’t want it to become easy to experience what we experienced this morning. I’m sure there will be lots more reflection on this throughout my time here.

We ended up visiting another apartment in the afternoon, but decided to take the one we saw this morning. It’s huge, and I’d worked the price down with the broker online before we saw the place. Based on the other things we’ve seen, I think we’re getting a really good deal. It’s much bigger than the other places we’ve seen, it’s well furnished, and the best part is that it has a table for eating and a room that serves as a living room, with couches and furniture. Most other places were extremely sparse. We grappled with whether we need anything since we’re only going to be home in the evenings, but given that the office is small and sparse we decided it will be nice to feel relaxed at night. The other plus is that it is close to a Yoga studio! I’m looking forward to checking that out.

And based on what the work is cracking up to be, I think we’re going to need it! I’d wondered aloud with some of you what the culture of the office would be like in India. Would it be ‘western’? Multi-tasking, long days, banging things out? Or would there be the influence of a culture that moves more slowly due to the intense heat and how it literally slows down your body and mind? The verdict is already out that it’s going to be an intense time. Crank up the A/C, stay inside, and work! My boss in particular works incredibly hard, who in the two days since I’ve been here has stayed up until 3 am working, staying at the office until 10:00 pm one of the nights. He is normally based in San Diego (PCI's World Headquarters), and is continuing to do what seems to be a full work-load for that job as well. On the other hand, he has strongly encouraged me to look around for housing and settle in, and to go home early to take a nap as I adjust to the time change. But something tells me that I’m going to be inserted into the fast pace pretty darn quickly - and I want to be. I’ll need to silence the little voice in my head that says, “don’t kill yourself, you’re not even being paid.” There’s thankfully a much louder voice that says, “you’re here to learn, and to help, and the work is directly helping those with huge needs. You’re lucky to be on this side of things, and you’d want someone working that hard on your behalf if crushing poverty was your situation in life.” That is a familiar voice, and I’m glad it’s back and taking center stage.

Ok, it’s 11:30 and I need to get to bed. I hope everyone is doing well.

Sarah B.

A quick word about some of the work I’ll be doing. I'm working with an Non-Governmental Orgnization that focuses on health, humanitarian assistance and microfinance. We are running a program in the north east (not the far northeast) of India - Bihar province - an area affected annually by the monsoons and resulting floods. Within Bihar province there is an area that is extremely remote and is extremely undeveloped: there were no waterpumps unaffected by the floods, therefore no clean water. There were no waste management system, and people practiced open defecation in the fields. The program is installing hand pumps, creating community-led disaster preparedness programs, digging waste management pits, building community centers that will serve as safehavens during emergencies, women's centers, and educational and training centers for youth. I am intentionally leaving out the name of the organization I work with, as these entries are of a personal nature, and there are times I might talk about things happening at work. Given how search engines work, the blog could come up when someone searches for the organization, which I don't want to happen.