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My Grand Goan Adventure!

I never got a chance to post about my fabulous trip to Goa (late Nov). Goa is a state on India’s West Coast, and is known for its beautiful beaches and delicious seafood. Our excuse for going was to celebrate my birthday and another fellow’s birthday, but we all definitely needed some time away from Hubli-Dharwad.

We spent the weekend in cute little beachside huts, swimming in the unbelievably warm salty water, eating as much fish as possible, and dancing the night away at a ‘silent noise’ party (everyone gets their own headphones, there are three different DJs playing, and everyone dances their heart out to their DJ of choice).

Some photos to capture the trip:

Travel

This post was written for Deshpande Foundation. To check out what other fellows have written, visit the Global Exchange-Innovative Impact blog.

When traveling in Hubli-Dharwad, I swear by local buses and the heel-toe express. Together, these marvelous forms of transportation get me to and from work, my friends’ houses, the market, and almost anywhere else I want to go with very little hassle.

Sure you’re standing, sandwiched between too many people (three little kids you’re trying not to step on, a woman carrying a baby [why will nobody let her sit?], and the conductor who weaves through the bus doling out tickets with remarkable efficiency), holding on to the handles for dear life, and trying to avoid hitting everyone in the head with your elbows…

But all of this is worth it, because the bus has everything I’m looking for in local transportation. Buses are:

· Cheap and haggle-free (although sometimes you have to make sure the conductors aren’t pocketing your money);

· Frequent;

· Relatively safe (the drivers are experienced, and if you get in an accident you’re in the biggest vehicle on the road, except for maybe the trucks);

· Relatively eco-friendly;

· And occasionally a great adventure!

While the bus can occasionally be an adventure, the heel-toe express almost always provides some form of external amusement—cute little puppies, kids screaming your name, pigs chasing each other and squealing bloody murder, vehicles honking at you to get out of their way, the occasional neighbor (or random stranger) that invites you into her home, and local shop-owners with whom you’ve developed some sort of unidentifiable yet super-fantastic relationship.

Given my year and a half in India, and several experiences serving as a tour guide for friends and family, I’ve come up with the following essential travel rules:

1. The largest structures/bodies have the right of way; the pedestrian NEVER does.

2. ALWAYS look both ways—several times—before crossing the street, even if it’s one way. People always drive on the wrong side of the road.

3. Don’t let rickshaw drivers rip you off; if you don’t like the price, walk away.

4. If you’re getting on a bus, ask at least three different people, plus the driver or conductor, if the bus is going where you want to go.

5. Always get a receipt from bus conductors.

And last but not least: always be on your toes, expect delays, and plan accordingly. You have to be relaxed and flexible when handling transportation in India.

Auntie Sussy's Salsa... IN INDIA!!!

Was it as good as Auntie Sussy's?
Nope.

Was is as fantastic as it would have been if Auntie Sussy was there to share it with?
Nope.

Was it still pretty darn tasty?
You bet!!!

I Am on a Marathi Billboard

Way back when I first arrived in India many of you will remember that I was (un)lucky enough to star as the "other woman" in the music video for a Marathi film. I regaled my experiences in my post, "I am a Marathi Film Star." Now, over a year later I am (un)lucky enough to have my face plastered all over a billboard for the film. Credit to this find goes to Sumedh, a Mann Deshi volunteer in Mhaswad.


I'm thinking I should start demanding royalties :-)

Common Ground

Those of you who have been keeping up with my blog might remember my post, “Day One,” which touched a bit on organizing and demonstrating in India. The latest struggle in Bangalore is to make public parks available to the public rather than just an elite few.

Recent demonstrations are in response to Karnataka Horticulture Minster Umesh Katti’s proposal to restrict access to public parks to only those with ID cards, excluding huge pockets of the population (mainly marginalized groups).

What really impresses me is that this rights violation and terrible exclusionary tactic has brought together so many diverse groups to protest in solidarity—street and working children, Dalits (a re-appropriated political term for those formerly known as ‘untouchables’), GLBT activists, civic societies, sex workers and those who support their rights, environmental groups, law firms, migrant workers, etc.

If these groups—many of whom have never before worked together—can find common ground on this issue, who knows what else they are capable of ?!?

In this dark cloud of an issue, they give me hope :-)

Small Wins

Every other Wednesday us fellows get together to discuss a reading we’ve all done on development, interact with some sort of development expert, or talk about our work in a solution-oriented manner, and then have a delicious DF-funded dinner. Although this is a compulsory activity, it’s something I always look forward to.

A while ago, my friend Mari led a discussion on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and introduced the idea of ‘small wins’ as a way of achieving much larger goals. In the context of CLTS, a small win is a community recognizing the danger of poor sanitation; designing, building, and funding their own latrines; and eliminating open defecation. In the process, the community forges strong relationships and develops a sense of empowerment that helps the community solve other problems that it faces.

Earlier this week at Bhageerath I experienced my own small win, and it felt amazing! One of my colleagues, Jabshetti, is particularly energetic and opinionated. He’s a blast to work with, but often we have very different opinions. Jabshetti just launched the first part of his project, School, Domestic, and Community Sanitation (the title is something we don’t agree on), and we decided that it will be one of the projects I monitor and evaluate (M&E).

To effectively M&E the project, I need to fully understand it. The basis of this is understanding the project goals and project plan. Unfortunately, Jabshetti hadn’t thought about either of these things until I asked him about them. As a result, the goals he came up with were both all over the place (there was no clear focus) and way too ambitious (getting 100% of Karnataka to do a zillion different things).

As he was listing out the project goals, I continually asked him questions about them: Do you think this is realistic? How is this goal related to that goal? How do these goals fit into your vision for the project (the vision is something else we have to tackle)? What do you plan to do to help you achieve this goal? I told him I would look through the goals that night and see what I could synthesize; I asked him to do the same.

My overall approach while working at NGOs is not to tell them what to do, but to make suggestions and help them realize what to do themselves. Apparently it worked, because the next morning Jabshetti came in, dropped a book on my desk, and told me that the two of us needed to look through it, sit down, and seriously think about the future of his project.

Now, I know that thinking about the future of his project will involve some disagreements, a few crazy ideas, and delusions of grandeur, but knowing that I helped him to think more critically about his work made me really REALLY happy! Wahoo!

"Uganda proposes death penalty for hiv positive gays"

This is seriously NOT COOL, Uganda.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6935558.ece


Britain and Canada protested yesterday over a proposed law that would result in gays in Uganda being imprisoned for life or even executed.

Gordon Brown followed Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, in telling Uganda that the legislation was unacceptable.

Mr Brown made his views plain in a breakfast conversation with President Museveni of Uganda on the margins of the Commonwealth summit.

Homosexuality remains criminalised in many Commonwealth countries, but the more liberal countries have been horrified by the new legislation.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 is going through Uganda’s Parliament after receiving its first reading last month.

According to Clause 2 of the Bill, a person who is convicted of gay sex is liable to life imprisonment. But if that person is also HIV positive the penalty — under the heading “aggravated homosexuality” — is death.

The Bill has not been endorsed by the Ugandan government but it has allowed it to proceed, and some top officials are said to have praised it.

A Canadian government spokesman said: “If adopted, a Bill further criminalising homosexuality would constitute a significant step backwards for the protection of human rights in Uganda.”

The Bill proposes a three-year prison sentence for anyone who is aware of evidence of homosexuality and fails to report it to the police within 24 hours. And it would impose a sentence of up to seven years for anyone who defends the rights of gays and lesbians.

Addressing the Commonwealth People’s Forum, Stephen Lewis, the former UN envoy on Aids in Africa, said that the Bill made a mockery of Commonwealth principles. “Nothing is as stark, punitive and redolent of hate as the Bill in Uganda.”