We got a puppy!

Okay, so I will probably write at least one more post today, but for now:

We got a puppy at Durag Niwas!

His name is Chili and he is a miniature Dachshund. He is absolutely adorable.

It's been fun to watch him try to figure out how his own body moves (he's still quite intimidated by his own legs, it seems), but he is quickly becoming less frightened and more playful.

And little Ayoush is fantastic with him. He sings the puppy to sleep (with the same songs that his mom sings to him) and seems to be completely in love...but then again, how could you not be in love with a Dachshund puppy?

Chili fell asleep on my lap and started barking in his sleep...

Udaipur

I just had a really amazing weekend, so prepare yourself for an extremely long post.

I decided to go to Udaipur, a town about 7 hours from Jodhpur, known as the romantic heart of India. And it was pretty amazing.

Though touristy, it was a lot more relaxed than Pushkar (perhaps because of the holiday) and was extremely walkable. Sure, there were annoying shopkeepers and rickshaw-wallahs, but the streets had less cows (and less cow poop) on them than most and it was hilly, which was a pleasure after the midwest-like Jodhpur. It was also a chilly 30 degrees (86 F), which yes, actually caused me to reach for a long sleeved shirt, but which was also really lovely.

Not many cows in Udaipur, but there was the occasional elephant

I took the night bus on Friday, which leaves at 10 p.m. and arrives at 5:00 a.m. It was surprisingly comfortable, except for the fact that I was the lucky person who got to sit in front of a man who snored incredibyl loudly the entire way. He also slept straight through the 7 hours, which meant I was not given the luxury of sleep.

Though a haven for budget travelers and backpacks offering rooms at less than $4 a night, my guesthouse was great. Being one of the oldest in Udaipur, it had an amazing view, despite the fact that lakeside properties are usually monopolized by luxury hotels, and there were a lot of interesting guests there.

Gorgeous, no? I sat out on the guesthouse's terrace for hours just to take in the view

On Saturday, I started my day by doing a four hour cooking class at a local place called Spice Box. It was really fantastic. We learned how to make palak paneer, chapatti, paratha, poori, vegetable cutlets, malai kofta, biryani, etc. and were taught all about Indian spices along the way. The teacher was also great because, without me saying anything about my veganism, he always made sure to tell us that you could substitute soymilk in certain dishes, use soft tofu instead of paneer (by soaking the tofu in lemon juice to get the right taste) and, if replaceable, he told us what spices we could subsitute for ones that may be more difficult to find at home. It was hands on and it culminated with lunch, entirely comprised of the dishes we made. We got to take the recipes home (and I bought a very cheap, small Indian copper pot from him), so hopefully I will replicate it all soon.

Trying my hand at making malai kofta

After the cooking class, I went to the City Palace Museum. Again, it was gorgeous with amazing views. As it was a holiday, it was jammed packed with Indian tourists, but I went through leisurely with a really great audiotour in hand. As usual, I was struck by two things: the fusion between European and Indian styles (for instance, rooms generally Indian in style, which also incorporated ceramic tiles brought over by the British) and the amazingly intricate lattices used to keep women in purdah.

They had these creepy figures of the Maharaja throughout the City Palace (so that you could picture him in the study or the bedroom). Strangely, the top was a poster and the bottom half was three-dimensional, with real shoes and wooden legs (?)

Of course, the view from the City Palace was also breathtaking

Hand-carved lattice for maintaining purdah

In the middle of the courtyard was a cage for tigers, filled with human children

One example (and a fairly poor one) of the melding of European and Indian styles--Ganesh surrounding my British tiles

Apparently they used to dress the horses up as elephants before going into battle, the idea curiously being that the elephants used by the enemy would not charge/stampede their own young

After that, there was little to do (given that everyone was going home for the holiday), so I went shopping! I got a ton of great stuff (at incredibly low prices) and was extremely thankful when the shops weren't open on Sunday (a rarity in India, but its dependent upon the city), because I would have been tempted to spend a lot more money. Mostly, there were places selling silver jewelry, handcrafted notebooks with silk covers, scarves, handmade Indian shoes and sandals, and standard backpacker clothing.

On Saturday evening, I was excited to see that there was a cultural show at a local haveli, and even though I didn't have high expectations, it was really great. It began with some traditional Indian music and then included various Rajasthani dances and a fantastic puppet show. Unfortunately, they charge for you to bring in a camera in many places in India, so I opted out for the show, but I wish I hadn't. The first dance was essentially an old woman with cymbals placed on various parts of her body swinging a spoon in a way that hit the cymbals in perfect time with the music. She was accompanied by a sitar, a singer, and tabla. The second was a woman dancing with a bowl of fire on her head. She ran around, spun, etc. while the audience held their breath in fascination/horror. The third was an old woman who danced with multiple pots balanced on her head. I remember being extremely impressed when women in Ghana walked around barefoot with giant pots of water on their heads while cradling multiple babies in their arms, but this almost topped that. She started with one pot that probably holds roughly six gallons of water, but soon she had a stack of ten pots on her head and the stack was a few feet taller than her. As if this wasn't impressive enough, she then stood on glass, while balancing all of the pots, and even ran around the room like this.

It was also great to hear Indian folk music. While I can't say I really like Indian folk music (the singer wails in a high-pitched way that isn't too pleasant), the percussion was really good and this made it fairly enjoyable.

On Sunday, things were closed so I spent a fair amount of time just taking in the view and reading. I found an amazing little bakery (where the cooks were European trained and therefore knew how to make real cake and iced coffee) and then went and got a 45-minute full-body Ayurvedic massage (costing only $12). The massage was interesting, involving a lot of oil and fairly light pressure. Supposedly, it helps your body release toxins, so you're supposed to leave the oil on your body until the next morning. It culminated with an amazing scalp massage though, which alone was worth the $12.

Some other fun facts about my weekend in Udaipur:

-It's sadly a top spot for disaster tourism, as the beautiful lake around which the town is built is expected to dry up within 25, and maybe even only 10, years. It was devastating to see how low the lake is even now, in monsoon season, especially because there are water marks showing what it used to be and I imagine it was gorgeous.

-I got my fair share of interesting come-ons here, including the completely unoriginal, but well-delivered "Excuse me, but did you injure yourself? (Pause) Because it must have been a long fall from heaven." The best though was probably this:
Guy: Excuse me ma'am, are you looking for a rickshaw?
Me: Nahi.
Guy: Are you looking for a cold drink?
Me: Nahi.
Guy: Are you looking for a guesthouse?
Me: (No response)
Guy: Are you looking for love?
Me: (Burst out laughing)

-I was swarmed by shopkeepers who, upon hearing I was American, wanted to discuss Phelps (or "phellups" as they called him) and were curious to know if I knew him. They worship him here.

-India has been invaded by the French these past few weeks, and it was simply impossible to go anywhere without seeing a giant group of French tourists. Sadly, the giant French high school group visiting my guesthouse seems to be completely offended by spicy food, so our food has been entirely toned down (read: made tasteless) for the week.

-I had some of the best food yet in Udaipur, including Rajasthani chickpea dumplings (which essentially ended up being Indian-spiced falafel balls in a masala curry sauce)

The gorgeous view from the amazing restaurant

-The James Bond film, Octopussy, was filmed in Udaipur (as were parts of Darjeeling Limited and some other famous films) so every low-end restaurant proudly shows the movie to its guests. They are extremely proud of Octopussy...almost embarrassingly so.

-Take note: When a bus gets full in India, they start putting people first in the aisles and then on the roof. I luckily had a reserved seat (though it was disquieting to hear the tapping of people moving around on the roof).

And finally: Just read the list in the photo (this is from a really nice restaurant, btw)

Another soiree, another strike

Last night, I got the chance to attend and really interesting and fantastic party. The woman who will be my translator for the interviews was excited to have her seven-month-old grandson in town and invited over roughly twenty-five people to celebrate! The event was catered and my plate was stacked high with some of the most delicious food I've had since I've been here. The grandson was adorable. And the company was really interesting. The son whose baby we were celebrating is married to a British woman, lives in Delhi, and works as an accent neutralization specialist. I wish I had a chance to ask him more questions about his job, but there wasn't much time. The other son is an technical engineer who works for one of the American companies that outsources to Delhi (so essentially, he runs IT for an office located in Europe). It was really fascinating...and here is the picture of the adorable spiky-haired child, in the arms of my friend, Smita.



And today was another strike day (which is why I can blog at 2 in the afternoon). A number of people were unfortunately killed in Kashmir yesterday, and it seems like whenever any religious-political clash happens anywhere in India, people of the same political party strike in solidarity. So I'm home for my second strike day this summer, and I'm staying in to avoid the potential chaos (although no violence has broken out at all, these political groups apparently threaten shopkeepers who don't abide by the strike).

Some more ramblings...

Mmmm Masala
I love spicy foods and, even though they often tone it down for foreigners, I've had my fair share of spicy dishes since I've been here. What's so cool though is that all the American foods they import are kicked up a notch and you can find virtually anything "masala flavored." Masala, it turns out, just a generic term for a mix of spices--nothing specific, as I previously thought. So far, I've had masala flavored chips (very, very spicy), masala topped pizza (amazing!) and, when I peaked in a McDonald's out of curiosity, I saw that they have masala spiced fries. But my favorite masala-flavored anything is:

Masala cup o' noodles!
Delicious!!! Firstly, as a college student who generally misses out on the cup o noodles in the states due to hidden animal ingredients, I appreciate that the Indian ones are always vegetarian (and clearly marked). Secondly, these are truly yummy and cost next to nothing.

Elance
This week has been all about the finishing touches on my interviews (to start next week and continue basically until I leave). As I prepare, I have been trying to find a transcriber, because I have grant money from Human Development to hire someone to take over this pesky and tedious task. Well, let me just say: Elance.com has answered my dreams! It is a site that networks potential employers with a whole bunch of freelancers for everything from translation/transcription to graphic design. They have this awesome (and free) system where you post a project and either invite specific people to bid on the work or open up the project to the whole network, so anyone can bid. At a certain point, you pick the person you want to do the work and hire them, and using paypal.com, they facilitate the transaction. It's been fantastic so far and because you review individual freelancers, it also seems to have some reliable measurement of quality, which is great. Anyways, there's my plug. Hopefully some of you can use this wonder...

Henna
Work was long and tiring today, so I was looking for something relaxing, but interesting, to do this afternoon. And because I clearly want to stand out here even more than I already did, I went to the local salon and got my hair henna-ed. I'd done it twice before (once, in Thailand, where Daniel and I washed it off in the Pacific Ocean) and was excited about doing it again, without the messiness of bright red hands and stained towels. It's totally fine, but I am now very much a redhead. Luckily, it will wash out before I get home, because it is a bit shocking.

The salon was really interesting though. The girl who got a haircut next to me left and then her hair was promptly swept up and gathered up into a ponytail. I'm not sure what they're going to do with it (I hear that the human hair extensions people buy in the U.S. often come from India, so perhaps it's being sold).

Boobs and babies

World Breastfeeding Week has finally come to a close! It was a lot of hard work and a lot of hours in the hot Indian sun, but it was also a lot of fun, and it seems like we accomplished Veerni's goals for the week (as sketchily laid-out as those may have been). The events happened six times and each time there was gathering of over 100 people (in one over 150 people showed up), which is a success in itself.

As I've mentioned before, Veerni essentially adopts six villages at a time. For breastfeeding week, in each of these six villages, we held a workshop on breastfeeding (to help end a series of misconceptions that were likely harming the health of these babies), a rally (to raise awareness of the breastfeeding mothers' need for support from their husbands), and conducted a mini-study, through a pre- and post-workshop survey that we conducted.

All of the villages were extremely different, but generally, we were first led to a shaded area by the promoter. From there, she would send word of our arrival and within minutes, women, men, and children would be flocking our way. In one village, we were there after a heavy rain, so the women were in the fields when we arrived and it was a site to behold a line of one hundred women dressed in bright reds and oranges walking back from work, toting babies and carrying huge buckets of soil and produce on their heads. In another village, again after rainfall, everyone in the village was in the fields, so we just went to the fields and conducted the events in the shade of a nearby tree.

Once gathered, we distributed the pre-test to roughly 20 women and adolescent girls in each of the villages. As many of the women are illiterate, the Veerni staff busily talked them through the questions, fifteen in all, which aimed to test breastfeeding knowledge among villagers and the prevalence of misconceptions about feeding the baby honey while breastfeeding, waiting a few days after delivery to feed, etc.

After we collected the pretest, we began the workshop. As you may remember, last week, I had been told to design this workshop, so I did. I was also told, as I designed posters, that Veerni has a projector and has used that for the workshops and would use that for this one. I questioned it. "Where does the power come from?" "Will they be able to see it from outside?" But Rashmi insisted, so I worked on the powerpoint, with the notion that, if all else failed, we could print out each slide and use those as visuals. Of course, when the day of the first workshop arrived, Rashmi tells me that we won't bring the projector, because it will be sunny and no one will see it (ummm yes, I had mentioned that). And so she brought her laptop to show it on (a shiny, shiny screened laptop). Well, that fails, so here I am extremely frustrated, because my one major contribution (aside from the pre- and post-test design) to this week was for nought. Sure, they used it as an outline as they talked, but in some villages, they didn't. Rashmi assured me we would get it printed out at a printer near the office, but when this fails using Rashmi's laptop (and I didn't have mine at the moment, this got delayed until there was only one workhop left. Luckily, they will use it to do more indiviualized workshops when women are pregnant).

Aside from this annoyance, the workshops seemed to be well-received. I am still not used to the teaching style here (it is much more confrontational than I would think is affective), but when I inquired a tiny bit about it, I was told that this is just how they teach. People also tend to talk over eachother constantly, whether in the setting of a workshop or in the office, which gets really, really frustrating if I'm not in the right mood. Again, I feel things could be more effective if the leaders collaborated better (rather than have two people speaking about the same thing at once), but this isn't really my place and culturally, this style is certainly accepted.

We then gave out the post-tests and soon after, started the "rally." Rally is definitely a loose term for what we were doing. After asking the Veerni staff about what this "rally" is actually about, the only answer I got is awareness. Sure, people should be aware of breastfeeding, but aren't they already? Then I got, "well their husbands don't support them: they will make them go to the fields even when a baby is a newborn, demand that their wife cook/clean taking time away from feeding, etc." While this answer, that we were rallying for husband's support, was still unsatisfying, it would have to do. In actuality, the rally was probably just a great morale booster; it was a bit of excitement for the villagers and a good opportunity for men and women in the community to do something together (some women even came out of purdah for it). The Veerni staff made signs for the rally (signs that were quite verbose for rally signs) and "slogans" that they chanted, one of which, "One, two, three, four, mother's milk more and more!" rhymes in both English and Hindi and seemed to be a favorite.

This really was also a huge milestone because it marked the first time I rallied about something while simultaneously having to worry about stepping in cow dung...

Also, generally, the villagers were, as always, a bit fascinated by me and my presence. Every word of Hindi I spoke brought laughter or big smiles, and it wasn't uncommon for me to be swarmed by children. Again, "what is your name?" and "what is your father's name?" seemed to be the main questions, but also "What is your village?" Um, "My village is New York"?
Amusingly, an older woman who took a liking to me was having a conversation in Hindi with one of the Veerni staff members, seemingly about her difficulty nursing given her small breast size. Suddenly she turns to me and starts pointing at my chest. She was commenting on the fact that "I will have a lot of milk for my babies," with the other elders nodding in approval.

And now, for the photo finish. As usual, everyone wanted their photo taken, so some of these are the result of that:

The site where many of the women were working

As one can see in this picture, many of the women cover their faces in sheer material when out of the house. This is one form of purdah (others are completed restrained to their home and never show themselves to people beyond their family)

As you can see, the signs were verbose, to say the least

About fifty children were crowded on this one slide at some point during the day. It's the school's "playground."

I love this woman.

We had biscuits to give to all the kids at the end, so here are the girls lining up

The jeep that the Veerni team travels in (it's often a bit of a clown car as we've piled over 8 people into its seats)

Just a slew of funny things in India

I keep a tiny reporter's notebook with me and whenever I see or hear something humorous, I am sure to write it down. So hear is a short list of some of my favorite funny things from India:

Indian English

In the region I'm living and working in, I think it's safe to say that most people have not had the chance to learn any English beyond "Hello, how are you?" and "What is your name?" Sure, there are tourists, but the industry is pretty restricted to just a few sites, guesthouses, and restaurants in Jodhpur. And when people do speak English, it's not the polished "accent-neutralized" English of Bangalore techies (or zippies, as they are called). It's an Indian version, with its own peculiarities and nuances that make editing a written report going to Americans tricky, at best. A lot of it is awkward vocabulary choice (and I don't blame them--I probably speak French with really awkward words sometimes, given my limited vocab), but some of these simple word choices make for really entertaining and unintended connotations.

Some favorites:

"Ladies"--I feel like I constantly live in a Dimitri Martin stand-up act, because everyone uses "ladies" instead of "women," thinking it is more respectful. But often, it just sounds strangely creepy. It's hard to find the perfect example, but take for instance what once existed in the Annual Report about the sewing classes Veerni offers, to help women achieve economic independence. "The ladies are trained in basic sewing and embroidery skills...Within a few months, the ladies are then selling these items to local shops, or within their communities." Maybe it's just me, but substituting "women" makes this sound much more acceptable. Perhaps it's the fact that "ladies" is euphemistic for "prostitute" in the U.S....either way, I've been trying to rid my Veerni coworkers of this habit when writing for a UK/US audience.

"Wounds"--Indian English often uses words that make things sound much more dramatic than they actually are. Take, for example, my encounter with a coworker this morning. "Oh no! You have wounds!" "What?" I think, "I haven't been in an war of any sort over the weekend (except with my stomach, that is)." Then, she points to the blister on my foot. "Ohhhh. My blister is a 'wound.' Nice." I must admit, calling blisters caused by cheap flip flops "wounds" makes me feel much more hardcore...

"Accident"--Another example of dramatizing ordinary events by switching up the vocab. I get to work today and I'm told that yesterday Veerni's car had an accident in the village. "Is everyone okay?" I ask, curious that I had not been called by my boss about this. I soon find out that there was no "car accident," as they had told me, but that the car got stuck in mud and that it took a few hours to get it out. A mishap, perhaps? Or an annoyance? But a "car accident" sounds much more dire than they meant it to.

There are more, but they escape me for now, though I will try harder to remember them and write them down next time.

Indian Signage
While few signs can match the hilarity of "Dwarf City Day Care Center" in Jo'burg, South Africa, some of the Indian signs do come pretty close. Some favorites:

Our camel safari company in Jaisalmer advertised itself with a sign saying that it was "Probably the Best Camel Safari in Town." Probably? We gave them a few points for modesty (and honesty) and did, in fact, get persuaded by this sign to book our safari with them.

At the military base in Jodhpur, there is a sign asking people to take out their IDs when they get to the gate. But instead of saying "Please show your I.D." it existentially tells people to "Show your identity at the gate."

This one is dirty, so I apologize in advance to my parents and all of their friends who read this blog. On the way to Pushkar this weekend, I spotted a warehouse with a sign that read "Empty Cum Filling Shed." Indian English loves the Latin word "cum," which means "also used as." But it is generally used correctly. Here, it is not used correctly and it makes absolutely no sense, but makes for rather awkward, and inappropriate, signage.

And finally, perhaps my favorite: A sign spotted by Chloe at a restaurant in Jaisalmer advertised "Child Beer." They meant "chilled beer," though it took a few hours for us to figure this one out.


While less funny, other random stuff...

-Today, at work, my coworkers decided they wanted to make me feel better, through various Indian culinary home remedies. But unlike the chicken soup, orange juice, or matzoh balls that people tell me to eat when I am sick at home, these loving coworkers wanted me to drink buttermilk. Buttermilk (endearingly AKA-ed "my worst nightmare") is curd (essentially, yogurt), diluted with water, with salt added to it. It is perhaps the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. And this was their cure for digestive issues? Luckily, I had braved the buttermilk before (I gagged down about half a glass when my coworker practically bullied me to drink it a few weeks back), and so I was able to get away with not having it, but it was a bit of a fight. Funnily enough, the second solution they provided was a giant, hot green pepper (the size of my fist) deep-fried in batter. Having refused the buttermilk (and because they bought this pepper at a stand especially for me), I ate this while in the car the way to the field site, with my eyes watering from spiciness the entire way.

And finally, in honor of being more than half-way done with my trip, a list of the things I miss the most (in no particular order; I apologize for all of the food-related ones...haha):

1. Thai food. Okay, I think it's peanut butter and peanut-based sauces that I miss the most, but I could go for just about anything at a Thai restaurant right now. I think it basically comes down to the fact that I am not used to eating the same type of cuisine every meal of every day. I've done it before and I'm glad it's Indian food that I'm chained too (it could be far worse), but even so, three months is a long time and even though the food here is really good, I have to bashfully say that its not always as good as I had expected it to be (for whatever reason, sometimes Indian restaurants back in the U.S. do a much better job with certain dishes).

2. Raw vegetables

3. Potable tap water

4. Being able to bite into a peach, plum, grape, nectarine, apple, etc.

5. American men. I never thought I'd say this, but after dealing with Indian men staring, snapping my photo, and flirting incessantly all the time, I miss American men a lot. Friendships between men and women just don't exist here and many Indian men seem to have all sorts of preconceptions about what Western girls are like, which completely alters, and strains, the interactions.

6. Italian food. The closest we have is Pizza Hut.

7. Temperatures that dip below 95 degrees.

8. Tank tops.

9. Infrastructure.

10. And of course, all the friends who are currently stateside, in Europe, or in China.

First case of Delhi belly

After roughly five weeks in India, I experienced my very first case of Delhi belly this weekend while hanging out with Hannah in Pushkar. And it was not pretty.

While I will not go into details, there were a good thirty minutes where it definitely looked like a scene out of The Exorcist, and though that did not last long, I had chills (in a 95 degree room!) for the next three days or so. Today was much better and I finally returned to work (which I desperately needed to be at, given the busy-ness of recent days). So, I am hoping that it has finally passed and that I am clear for the rest of the summer (keep your fingers crossed).

And because of that, I will follow with a slew of random posts to make up for lost time. In terms of work, I will blog about that once World Breastfeeding Week ends tomorrow. It's been pretty exciting (and a nice change of pace), so there will be a long post, with photos, to come sometime this weekend.