jenny b

Sorry to have kept you waiting at the edge of your seat! I did arrive safely in Delhi on the evening of the 1st and I spent the next 9 days in a very jam-packed orientation with the 18 other Fellows from AIF.

Most of the orientation program was filled with talks from development leaders from around the country. We heard a number of success stories from organizations working in the areas of Public Health, Education, and Livelihoods.

One of the interesting conversations was about the two realities that India exists in today: the rise in wealth for a small sector of Indian society (Indians top the list of Asian billionaires with 10 of them residing in the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ home of Mumbai) and the 80% of Indians (~918 million) that live on less than $2 a day.

It was discussed that the media has skewed the ratio of this dichotomy towards the minority that has experienced increased wealth and that even India itself has misperceptions about its educational and economic reality. Additionaly interesting is that  much like we sometimes deny in America, India’s continued economic growth depends on a large number of poor who are willing to work for only dollars a day.

We had a chance to visit some of those people when we went on a “slum tour” with a New Delhi-based organization called Chintan. We visited a group of people called “waste pickers” who use bicycles and hand-sorting methods to reduce Delhi’s ~10,000 tons of waste a day by more than 20% by collecting and selling recyclables.

Along the same lines, we heard from (and I visited on my birthday) a recycling and waste management organization called Conserve who turns recyclabes into beautiful accessories (hand and courier bags, wallets, shoes, belts, etc) for the international Fair-Trade market.

Though our schedule was very tight, I was able to get out and about just a bit. We had a scavenger hunt on the 5th and a few of us got to see the Moghul relic Qutab Minar, the tallest single tower in the world (dated around 1200 A.D.) and the Indian Bahai Lotus Temple.  As well as experience the crazy Delhi traffic. Driving in India is like kindergarten coloring – the lines are optional.

I did not go the the Taj on my birthday as originally planned, but rather chose to tour around Delhi a bit with two of my new friends, Nikoli and Bijal. We first went to Conserve to check out their buyer showroom (they do not have an Indian market and only sell internationaly).

Later we had some Pizza Hut pizza – Indian-style and explored a few of the market areas. I had a lovely dinner with a bunch of my new friends, who gifted me a beautiful silk scarf. We all sat around a table in a cafe, with our laptops out (first time for wireless), eating yummy foods and chocolate cake. Reid called me up via Skype and I got to see and talk to him and Brandon’s dad Frank (who was in town for a gambling tour, I’m certain!).

I arrived safely in Udaipur on Thursday morning and have since been attempting to navigate my new surroundings. I will post again in a day or so with some info about my project here at Seva Mandir, my initial impressions of this dynamic city, and of course some photos!

Cheers!