Hindi training

The 6 of us spent 4 days in Delhi waiting for some news on our immediate future, and finally were sent on a train up north, back to Mussoorie. Now we are with the rest of our original group (17 fellows total) and have just begun intensive Hindi training. We have had one day and have already learned about 20 vocab words, how to ask basic questions, and about 20 characters of the Hindi alphabet. We were supposed to go South so we could learn Telugu, but they couldn't find a teacher in Delhi or here, which is why we are learning Hindi now. Hopefully they will get us a tutor in Telugu when we finally get to our placements (though supposedly almost everyone in Hyderabad speaks English, but I'd still like to learn for field work and just to be respectful).

We are staying at a hotel near the language school. We are about 45 minutes from where we were two weeks ago. It's also really beautiful here and if you walk high enough when it is clear you can see snow capped mountains in the distance. There are monkeys everywhere, swinging from trees, playing in the road, and occasionally swooping down to steal plastic bags containing fruit purchased at the market.

In Delhi, 6 of us stayed in our director's 2 bedroom flat which was pretty cramped. I went to several places with Lily and Leah, including the Bahai Lotus temple, these amazing ruins called Qutub Minar, went to old Delhi and visited the spice market and the wedding district, and saw a Bollywood movie entirely in Hindi (though the plot was pretty simple and Leah translated about a third of the movie since she took Hindi at Harvard).

I'll try and put some pictures up eventually.

Terror in Hyderabad

...is the headline screaming from the television and all the Indian newspapers this morning. Last night, as us World Partners Fellows enjoyed our last dinner together before the Hindi-learning group headed north and the Telugu-speaking group south, our field officer took a call on her cell phone just as the food arrived. She said everything was fine, though took several more calls during the meal.

When we arrived back at the hotel, she asked to speak alone with the 6 southern-bound fellows, which seemed like a normal request since she would be traveling North early the next morning, while we would be taking a 25-hour express train to Hyderabad the next evening. We would arrive Monday evening.

Once we were all together, she said: "Two bombs went off in Hyderabad tonight. We are canceling your train tickets and you are staying in Delhi until further notice."

So now we are in Delhi at our field officer's flat (she is up north), hanging out and waiting until we hear something. According to the India times, in addition to the 2 bombs that went off, they found 19 others that they diffused, in a variety of locations such as bus stops, each contained in a black plastic bag. The ones that did go off were in an amusement park during a laser show, and at a popular eatery. As it was Saturday night, both venues were quite crowded. The media is claiming that the blasts killed at least 41 people.

So now we wait.

Delhi

We are back in Delhi for 4 days, then Sunday those of us who ae placed in Andrha Pradesh in the South take a train to Hyderabad for our language training.

I got a bit sick from eating paneer tikka at this kebab place. So did 4 others who ate there; the rest were fine. We went to McDonalds and got McVeggie burgers. In India places like McDonalds have a vegetarian menu that is about the same size as the non-vegetarian menu, and everywhere has a color-coded system for veg and non-veg (green and brown).

I went to the Modern Art museum in Delhi then went shopping at an outdoor market and got a purse for Rupees 100 ($2.50).

The internet is pretty slow. The weather is hot, but not unbearably so.

Mussoorie

I finally made it out of Boston, spent a lovely night in London with my friend Ashley, had lunch with my friend Amanda (who had just returned from studying in China), and returned to Heathrow on Sunday afternoon. I met up with the other fellows on my flight and the 8 of us flew to Delhi. We spent the day walking around and looking at shops and had lunch in this fancy restaurant for about $5 bucks each. We spent the night in a hotel.

Early Monday morning we boarded a bus and spent the day driving to a learning center called SIDH just outside of Mussourie. It's in the foothills of the Himalayas. It was pretty terrifying driving up the winding roads in a big bus. You never know when a car, cow, goat, person, bike, or somethign completely random will be in the road. Drivers beep constantly here, to tell people to hurry up (even when sitting in traffic and cannot move), to warn others they are coming around a bend (so, nearly constantly while driving in the mountains), and, seemingly, just for fun. I'm finding being a passenger pretty scary, but the drivers seem to know what they are doing.

We are staying in dorms at SIDH. We are doing orientation, which includes sections on Indian history, American Jewish World Service policies (e.g. don't break the law in India), development, etc. We get 3 yummy vegetarian meals a day, as well as chai tea at breakfast and afternoon break, and lemon/honey tea at late morning break.

We arrived after dark on Monday. When I woke up and finally had struggled out of my mosquito net and found my glasses, I spent about an hour just sitting outdoors and staring at the beautiful, breathtaking mountains. Since we are in the mountains, it's pretty cool up here, unlike Delhi which was constant sweating weather, even at night.

I used my first squat toilet, which wasn't nearly as intimidating as it seemed. I'm taking malaria pills and applying bugspray twice a day. I took a couple of bucket showers, and this morning for some reason we had hot water, so I took a luxurious hot water bucket shower.

I am online now because we had a free afternoon and came to Mussoorie. We are here at SIDH until Wednesday, then travel back to Delhi for 4 days, then us Southerners travel to Hyderabad for language training.

I'm still adjusting to being here and being in the big group (there are 17 of us fellows, all Jewish American young adults who graduated college in the past 3 years). I think I'll be more settled once we arrive in my city and move into our flat.

Delayed in Boston

The day of departure has arrived! I stayed up late condensing all my stuff into my backpackers backpack and a book bag-sized backpack (the woman who checked me in was very impressed with my one checked bag when I told her I would be in India for 10 months). I look strange walking around with one backpack on my back and the other positioned awkwardly over my arms on the front. Since I am transferring through Heathrow, I can only have one carry-on bag (additional personal item, such as a laptop or purse, is prohibited for all flights originating or transferring through Heathrow).

I'm at my gate in terminal E using wifi, waiting for an update on the status of our flight. Right now it is 55 minutes after our original scheduled departure time. I'm supposed to spend the night in London at the flat of Ashley, my good friend and all 3-terms Oxford rowing buddy. I was due to arrive at 7:40pm, and her place is an hour 15 minutes from the airport. Hopefully we will board and take off soon, or I might end up searching Finsbury Park in the middle of the night... Then me and 7 other AJWS fellows fly to Delhi tomorrow at 5:40pm. After a couple days in Delhi, we go to Musoorie for 10 days of training, during which I am not likely to have internet access.

Now for the waiting game...

Info on my organization

Overview of the organization:

It started as a space for women to come together and subsequently developed into an organization with a strong feminist perspective. it has put gender perspective into Andhra Pradesh. The organization has many projects which include:

• legal counseling for women
• training for women & men for governance, leadership, politics – rights based trainings to create awareness for people around human rights;
• research on gender, women’s history – producing publications in several language about women’s rights & human rights, gender and domestic violence;
• work with Telegu women writers in AP, now extended to women writers all over India, last February they extended to South Asia;
  
• cultural interventions – 2 dance ballets that are educational & educational films as well;
• campaigns & media interventions;
• minority & disability rights

The organization functions as a state level resource organization for women provides technical and training support to host of grass root and women organization in the whole AP state

Volunteer Assignment:

Myla will be expected to assist the organization in the in the following areas of work:

• Assist with research around legal advocacy campaign for women’s rights in AP. In that area Myla can do research with the guidance of another professional who works with the organization
• Prepare training module on legal literacy for college students
• Involvement in leadership trainings and other initiatives as determined by fellow & staff.

Field Visits
It will be important for Myla to gain first hand knowledge of the organization's work in the field. On average she will be joining the staff on field visits for about 3-4 days in a month.

Key Dates:

Myla will arrive in India and will join the rest of World Partner fellows for a month orientation and language exposure in Hyderabad. After the completion of Language course she will be expected to join the organization from September 17 and through June 2008.

Living Accommodations:

Myla will be sharing the recently acquired two bedroom flat with other WP partners in Hyderabad.