Blog, blog, blog...

No really, I am in India...haha!

So many of you are wondering why I am here, well here is a picture of one of the training groups that I am working with. This is a sewing training group combined with a mehndi (henna) painting group - the items that are on my lap and in my hand are decorative items made by the women as well - this is a group of about 30 women, each broken into two batches of 15 - one set of 15 does sewing the other does mehndi. The man sitting to my right is Siddarth Jain, he is a Program Officer with Jan Shikshan Sansthan - or JSS - the name is a tongue twister for me! and has been working with me while I am here doing my work. It has been great to have him around - excellent coordinator! The two women standing up behind me are the trainers the one in the purple sari is the sewing training and the one in the white kurta is the mehndi trainer. The program assistant Sandhya is the one taking the pic - the first pic she took she cut off the heads of the trainers in the back! haha! i could tell by the way she was pointing the camera down instead of at us! haha! this training is amazing, many of the women do multiple task in the household and now want to make some small spending money - so they have decided to take this training. Something they can do at home while earning money. Most have taken other training's and with this will pad their income by 500 - 1500 rupees (~$10 - 30) per month. Which, in addition with their husbands or family income, is enough to provide more food, better medicine and medical treatment, clothing and other items for themselves and their family. Additionally, most of the ones that are married, their husbands support them working, which is great to hear.

So yes, I am actually doing something here! haha! It is nice to be busy and working for something that I really enjoy! Okay, enough about work -

You know, I was expecting really hot weather out here, or just rain 24/7 -but it hasn't been like that - in fact, it has been quite pleasant, each night it rains, so by the morning time it is nice and cool so it is easier to go for a run or a walk in the AM and not worry about collapsing due to the excessive heat! Plus the rain cleans the street of all the fun stuff that can be found! haha! So I have found out, that Ujjain is a very religious town, more people here are Pundits (Hindu Priest) than anything else - that is the biggest profession here! anyway that is my random fact for the day - it is amazing the random things you see when you are in a religious town - for instance, the last couple of days i have seen elephants walking the streets, why you ask, because they are worshipped - just like cows...cows wander the street alot - i will take a pic and post it up, when you see how many cows can be found at any given point in time you will flip! haha!

i have come to learn that there are three ways of getting anything done in this town: 1)know someone big or 2) tell them you are from America 3) build trust. I always thought that people would be willing to help, no, you have to know someone - once that is established, you can get anywhere and get anything. the second thing, is to tell people you are from America - then they will do anything for you, ask you 101 questions, try to speak with you in english and ask you if you watch Hindi movies! haha! it is awesome - but the main thing, is that you have to build the trust of people - once they trust you then they will be more willing to help you - thankfully, i have learned the art of building trust - but if not, I have the other two on my side! haha! so opening doors is pretty easy...helps when you want to get something done...

no funny stories today - just random observations...

till later -

posted by ravi @ 6:06 AM