Leaving India

I always knew that this internship would give me a chance to learn and have new and unique experiences, but I was surprised at what I became to know about the most. The thing I learned about the most while working for EduCARE was in fact, myself. 

Of course, the internship is about community engagement, practicing sustainable development and sharing knowledge with others-but for most of us, it becomes much more than that along the way.

I got to know more about myself than I ever expected. The frustrations, the challenges, the constant nausea and diarrhea brings out parts of you that you don’t like or try to avoid. But in India, when there is no power or water or horrible and unavoidable weather, you sometimes can’t escape these parts of yourself. When this happens, you begin to learn how to adapt or how to react in situations. Then, after time, you begin to realize some parts of yourself that are really great. You realize you are an innovator, most certainly a problem solver and have more ideas, knowledge and definitely patience, than you ever thought you were capable of. 

On a more narrow point, I got to learn specifically about microfinance in the field. Traditional microloans and microsavings is not the only way to conduct microfinance in developing countries. I understood quite quickly that sometimes the most effective ways of doing a project are not the most efficient or traditional ways of approaching ideas and projects. It could not be truer that flexibility is essential and the key to succeeding in any projects attempts. Even while keeping this in mind, you will almost definitely fail at some stage. Of course we are constantly told failure is good and it takes time to accept this but its true. The constantly failing and mistakes is often what gives you inspiration for better ideas or alternative solutions. So what I’d really like to say is thank you. 

Thank you EduCARE for giving me so many opportunities to fail :)

Breanne Jury - Canada

Microfinance Project Manager / REstore Project Coordinator in Paro and Naddi

My experience in EduCARE: from Paro to Rait

I have to refer to two different places when I write about my experience with EduCare as I had worked in two centers (Paro and Rait) completely differentiated by people, thoughts, projects and atmosphere but united by EduCare. What I can mention and what I cannot in this blog seems very difficult to me because there are a thousand memories coming to my head when I think of my last three months with this organization. To witness the diversity in this country in two neighboring states with respect to people, lifestyle, language, food and landscapes was very intense. Two states so close to each other but so far in many ways.

Initially, attracted by its mountains and scenic beauty I wanted to be placed in Himachal where I thought I could work alongside nature but I was asked to move to Paro which I must say was disappointing. However after speaking to Mr. B I realized that to begin with it would be better for me to move to Paro to work on the projects that I was interested in and then move to Himachal later depending on the projects I will be involved in. Punjab was a very good experience indeed as it was a remote village and I had the opportunity to learn a lot from the villagers and the other interns I met and worked with. All of us were from different parts of the world and it was very nice to live and work together on different projects, we had the time and liberty to work on our projects at our own pace and convenience. Even though we were all assigned to different projects we made the most of it by sharing ideas and helping each other wherever and however we could from soap making to making a garden for the migrant community, we had our hands on all the possible work that we could be involved in. I am missing all those people I met, the migrants at the camp, the kids, the interns with whom I had spent so much time every day from making breakfast till hitting the bed and not to forget, breakfast at Indojap and Fauji’s chicken curry. I hope to meet all of them soon during my travel. 

My initial plans were to stay with EduCARE only for 2 months, but by the time I started enjoying my work it was already going to be the end of my internship so, I decided to extend my internship for another month to be involved in something I really liked and always wanted to do. Thus, after a month and a half in Paro, I was asked to move to Rait. I was happy to go to the hills but I was equally sad to leave Paro as I had been already attached to the people and place there. Thus saying good bye to the place and people I already felt belonged to in just a month and a half, I left for Rait ready to meet new people and a place which I was not aware of. 

Me with Aurelien, Breanne and Amelie in a festival in Hariana

The place and the intern house was very different from Paro, two neighboring states but so different in every way pertaining to weather, language, people, food and landscapes. To witness the diversity in this country was very immense and intriguing. Nevertheless, I had to start getting used to the new interns, the villagers and also the projects that I would be working on. But in no time I was very comfortable with everything already and I commenced work with the same enthusiasm I had been working in Paro. Again it was an intense time in Rait as I had only 6 weeks there. I felt that I did a lot of different things in Rait when compared to Paro as I was always on the move working with the other interns on different projects, meeting the villagers to speak about our projects, meeting government officials, working at the local school and so on, I was never confined to a single project, I had something to be involved in all the time which helped me learn and understand many things, things I may never be associated with In the future. 

Working with completely different set of people in two different centers in such a short span of time was very intense for me, but I enjoyed every bit of it during my three months with EduCARE. This organization has helped and inspired me to get involved in the kind of work I was always interested in. Now all I wish for is to involve myself in helping the underprivileged in this country in whichever way possible.

Madhu, Sylvia and me with Dr. Sudarshan Dabroch and his family, the only ones using biogas in the village

Rizwan Ahmed - India

SWASH Project Manager, Paro (Punjab)-Rait (Himachal Pradesh)

Diwali – the festival of lights (and really loud firecrackers)

For weeks people had been talking about Diwali, the festival of lights, or by some referred to as the “Indian Christmas”. Shops had been selling fireworks, candles and tons of sweets in all colours and shapes. Needless to say, we were really excited about celebrating this important event. I had been ravaging the stores in the nearby city of Hariana in the search for a pre-made dress. Believe me, it’s a lot harder than it sounds! Most of the people here buy fabric, which they then bring to the tailor. With only one day to go however, this was not an option for me. Luckily, after having tried most of the very limited selection of pre-made dresses, I eventually found one that was actually pretty nice! 

Me, in my new dress, with Bide, a girl from the migrant camp

And so the big day came! It didn’t start out great though. A girl we know from the neighbouring community of Janauri had offered to come by our house and cook for us. We happily accepted! In true Indian fashion however, we had problems with the gas in our kitchen that day so the lovely lunch never happened! Luckily the rest of the day turned out a lot better. The families in the migrant camp we work with had invited us over to celebrate with them. We were not exactly sure how Diwali was celebrated but people had told us to bring sweets. So we all dressed up for the occasion, got a big box of Indian sweets and some fruit and headed off to the camp. The camp seemed really happy to see us but they were even happier to see the sweets we brought. It didn’t take long for them to finish it all (for some reason they were not as interested in the fruit…). One of the young boys had a particularly good appetite. Unfortunately it was too much of a sugar shock for his poor tummy so the sweets all came back up in the end of the evening… 

Geeta and Taravati enjoying the sweets we brought

Apart from that incident, we had a really good time with the families. We did henna with the girls, took hundreds of photos (of course everyone wanted a picture with their Diwali outfit on) and the kids lit firecrackers. We didn’t really see the point as the firecrackers were not nice to look at and they were super loud! For the kids, however, it seemed the louder the better! We were a bit worried seeing them lighting them off everywhere. The rest of the adults in the camp did not share our concerns however, and to our massive relief no one, including us, got hurt.

The children of the camp playing with firecrackers

After spending a couple of hours with the family we headed off to the neighbouring Janauri community to meet with the families we had got to know there. They didn’t really have time for us when we arrived so we walked around in the community for a while, had some pakoura (deep-fried vegetables) and watched the fireworks that were going off all around us. It was so beautiful to walk around there at night with all the candles and lights everywhere! People also seemed to have embraced the Diwali-spirit and offered us sweets as we went along. One type of sweets was particularly interesting. It was basically deep-fried sugar twisted into an orange spiral. It was really weird, greasy and sweet but somehow it worked! We made a last visit at the house of one of the young women we had got to know in Janauri before heading back home. Madi, our Centre Manager, had bought fireworks so whence back home we lit them off our rooftop while having some delicious homemade popcorn. A great ending to a great day!

Siobhan, Sonia, little Jyoti and me in the temple of the migrant camp

Sabina Bäckman - Sweden

Women's Empowerment Project Manager, Paro (Punjab)

Air pollution & health in the Paro migrant camp

Last week Rajvir, a five year old boy at the Paro migrant camp, fell sick with a chest infection. After an overnight trip to the government hospital in Hoshiarpur and a course of antibiotics, he’s now much better and well on the way to recovery. However, it highlighted to all of us one particular health risk that the migrants in the camp, together with many other families in India, face daily: indoor air pollution from burning wood and plastic.

Worldwide, over 4 million people die each year from illnesses attributable to household air pollution. India has one of the highest death rates, standing at 400 per million population. Burning wood, which is common across much of India for cooking, releases carbon monoxide and particles from incomplete combustion, which have harmful health effects. At the Paro migrant camp, they also burn soft plastic as tinder, releasing additional harmful chemicals. Although there are outside stoves, most of the cooking in the camp is done inside the tents, where there is little or no ventilation, increasing exposure to toxic chemicals.

As would be expected, most diseases from household air pollution are respiratory illnesses, such as acute pneumonia in children, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, burning wood in the home doesn’t only affect the lungs. People exposed to indoor air pollution are also at greater risk of heart problems and stroke later in life.

So what can we do at Educare to minimise the health risk to the migrants of burning fuel? One of the top priorities is education. To this end, we are working to incorporate educational activities about indoor air pollution into the after school programme. A longer term goal is to find an alternative energy source for cooking, and to work with the community to find ways of increasing ventilation within the tents.

There are also health measures that can be taken. Childhood vaccines can protect against pneumonia; better nutrition boosts the immune system to fight off infectious disease; and screening for cancer and tuberculosis catches disease at an early, treatable stage before the condition becomes too serious. Hence through a collaborative approach between health, SWASH and alternative energy, we can reduce the risk of illness from household air pollution in the Paro migrant camp.

Burning wood as fuel is a major cause of household air pollution. Although the migrants at the Paro camp have outdoor stoves, they often cook inside with poor ventilation, which can have serious health consequences.

Siobhan Botwright - UK

Health Coordinator, Paro (Punjab)

How my experience in EduCARE has changed over time

Did the time fly or did it crawl? I honestly can’t tell. The last six months have not always been easy. I’ve cursed India, I’ve loved India, but in the end I’m leaving EduCARE feeling pretty good. I didn’t always embrace this experience, but about half way through my internship my attitude started to change for the better, and I think this can best be demonstrated by my very different coordinator’s retreat experiences.

Back in July I attended my first coordinator’s retreat as the new Center Manager for the Paro center. I was a little stressed and overwhelmed at the time, so I was looking forward to going to a new center in Rait, and learning from the other veteran managers. When I arrived in Rait the other interns were busy with meeting the waste department and setting up new waste facilities. I thought “wow, their interns do so much more than Paro! They have a strong project and get things done! Why can’t we do that?” That night the interns cooked mixed veg for dinner, with so much variety, I thought “wow, they have pumpkin and carrots! I wish Paro had as many vegetables as them”. Everything annoyed me little by little. The next day I woke up with the infamous Delhi Belly (my first time experiencing said illness) and I spent the next three days in the toilet stall of the Rait house with some serious bowel issues (“wow, even their bathroom is nicer! I wish Paro had a toilet like this”). I was miserably sick (I even missed the last workshop of the retreat because I had passed out with a half eaten piece of bread in my hand) and between trips to the bathroom I was on the phone with interns back in Paro trying to mitigate conflicts between the team. I just wanted things to be easier. I wanted my team to get along and do their work; I wanted to spend a normal amount of time on the toilet; and I just wanted things to be better. I left the retreat weakened physically and mentally and ready for a holiday (a holiday at this point would just mean a burrito, a smoothie, and a western toilet).

Cut to my second retreat in the middle of October. I was coming directly from my holiday and going to Khuri outside of Jaisalmer. I was so excited to see all of the old coordinators I’d gotten to know, and the new ones who had just arrived. I was so stoked to tell people about my trip and to talk about the projects that were breaking out of Paro. I celebrated my birthday with 20+ co-workers who surprised me with a chocolate cake (no easy feat in the Indian desert), and we slept in the desert under an incredible night sky. The workshops may have been long, but I felt I had a lot to contribute. I had a project that was uniquely my own, I knew the organization better, and I was enjoying myself. Jokes were still made that I was a plagued mess at the last retreat, but I laughed and embraced the Khuri toilet stall happily.

 Celebrating my birthday in the Khuri desert with all of the Educare coordinators

Two things occurred between these retreats, and I owe them a lot. First, I met Daniela; second, I found soap.

Daniela was a new intern that arrived a few weeks following my IBS filled retreat. When I met her, everything was “amazing” and “beautiful” and I thought it was “too much”. Surely, she couldn’t truly find everything “amazing” and “beautiful” when I thought everything was “overwhelming” and “difficult”. But after Daniela came with me back to Paro, and it was my turn to give her a tour of my Indian home, the constant exclamations of amazement and beauty started to resonate with me. She’s right! It is incredible that when you walk down your street complete strangers invite you in for chai and start a dance party! And it’s super cool that the migrant community greets us with hugs and practical jokes when we enter their home! Daniela made me realize I was being negative about an experience that offered so much positivity and beauty. And at the same time that Daniela changed my outlook, I found soap. 

Playing with the Paro kids during Laura and Daniela’s center tour  

Finding a project I felt good about gave my time in India a new purpose. I no longer felt I was floundering, but I had something to work toward that could produce tangible results. And having Daniela in the back of my head reminded me to appreciate the opportunity. While I still don’t feel like I’ve finished what I started, and I have so much I want to keep doing in terms of making soap with the community; Daniela reminds me to revel in what I have accomplished and embrace the relationships I made with the community. I still have a list of goals for the soap making project that I hope another intern will take on, but in the end I embraced the work that Paro did, I embraced the vegetables in our town, and I’ve embraced that India does stuff to your bowels that sometimes is funny…after the fact.

With Geeta, Sonya, and Vide, our soap makers and Restore girls at my final Restore opening

Madeline - USA

Center Coordinator and Microfinance project Manager, Paro (Punjab)

Lessons learned from EduCARE

Even after 1 1/2 years of EduCARE, I have laughed, cried, been thoroughly stressed, and also overjoyed many times in what feels like a blink of an eye throughout my internship. Now that it is time for me to move on, reflecting on what I have learned has showed me that I am leaving EduCARE as a completely different person than the girl I was when I first arrived.

I wanted to first join EduCARE because I wanted community development experience and I wanted to ‘help’ people. I have learned that we all come to do service work for our own reasons but we are not here to merely work for the poor. Yes, most of the communities are marginalized, and many of the people do not have huge financial incomes, but in no way are we doing poverty relief. Everyone I have met in the communities, especially the women, are strong, powerful, capable people, with ideas and opinions on how things should work. This doesn’t mean we can’t come with our own ideas and knowledge of how to improve their lifestyles, but my approach is no longer to help poor people, but instead empower people that maybe haven’t had the same opportunities as everyone else.

Playing with the kids from the migrant camp in Paro

During my induction when I first arrived with EduCARE I had a workshop on sustainability. I took my sustainable living index and ranked horribly. If everyone lived like me, we would need 3 planets! Never have I ever had the opportunity to not only become aware about environmental issues, but actually make real improvements in my life to make a difference. Organic gardening, water conservation, reusing grey water, and managing waste were all foreign concepts to me before but have become an integral part to who I am now. I want to take what I have learned in doing my small part to help the world and inspire others in my own country.

I now have so many more couches to crash on during my travels and I have made lifelong friends. Living and working with so many people from all over the world has broadened my horizon of how the world operates and I can now go home with a whole new repertoire of international culinary dishes I have learned from my roommates. In many ways EduCARE is like a family away from home. You would be amazed at the level of comfort and kinship that can arise from living with people in such close proximity in a foreign land. These people have become my family and helped me truly embrace that home is where the heart is.

Paro Center members

India is a challenge, no doubt about it. Nothing is done on time, and we must face a language barrier in everything we do. On top of that, EduCARE doesn’t make it any easier. It was definitely a challenge at first to work in an organization where everything could change from one day to the next. As an Operations Coordinator it can be a major challenge when trying to organize meetings for the organization. Now that I have adjusted, I have learned to roll with the punches; meaning change is a good thing. When we are stuck in our ways we fail to see the potential in a different outcome. Yes sometimes the chaos can cause temporary confusion, but in the end it all works out for the better. It always does.

Me with Sundar in Hariana, Punjab

Of course there have been many moments where I have been frustrated, homesick, or even unhappy. But whenever there has been a challenge I have always had wonderful and supportive people around me to help me push through. Sometimes all it took was for me to go for a walk in my community and see the sheer beauty of what lies around me. I mean, I’m in India after all, a country very far and different from my own. It is bound to be difficult at times, but I would just have to remind myself I came here for a reason and the strength and courage that brought me here is the same motivation that will pull me through.

Me with Geeta and Sonia, girls from the migrant camp in Paro

All in all I have fallen in love with EduCARE, the philosophy, and the people involved. EduCARE has given me so many opportunities that I will carry with me for a lifetime. When I signed on to become a fellow one year ago, I wasn’t fully sure how it would be, and one year later I feel that it was one of the best decisions I ever made. There are no guarantees in life; we all have to be objectively selfish. Your experience and your life are what you make it. Learn, be happy and be free. Always be an intern, gaining knowledge and awareness about the world. Make you mark and make it count. And make sure when you have to go, go without having any regrets.

Me and Shannon with Simu and Nancy during Girls' Club

Thank you Mr. B, Rachael, COM team, the community and all the interns. You have made my experience amazing and you will be greatly missed.

Margaret Arzon - USA

Operations Coordinator,  Maiti (Himachal Pradesh)

A Garden for the hungry tummies

I did not have a definite idea as to what I was going to be working on initially when I started my internship at EduCARE. My longtime wish to work on rural development projects like waste management, alternative energy or forestry in my country has brought me here but still not knowing where and what to begin with. To work with the migrants, the needy, the poor or kabadiwalas (trash pickers) as labeled by the society, was the apt platform for me to put in my thoughts and efforts to work on something that would help this migrant community in their everyday lives.

The migrant community of Paro

Since the day I started visiting the migrant camp here in Paro, Punjab, it was quite conspicuous that the community struggles to meet their daily needs. Some days they would not even have enough money to buy their aata or cheeni for their roti and chai for the day because Nanku, the head of the family could not accumulate enough trash to sell or the trash buyer did not show up for the day, or even if he did he was shameless enough to cheat these vulnerable people in their basic mathematics right in front of my eyes. Who is to be blamed? Is it their ignorance, illiteracy and poverty or is it that some people are too heartless to swindle these poor people off their daily bread. Hence, I decided to settle down with a project that would at least be of use in their food supplies: a community garden.

Preparing the plot for the garden

Initially we were planning on making the garden organic but it seemed to be a strenuous task as it would be a lot more time and money consuming to buy the organic seeds which were not available locally, to build a nursery, to shelter it, to get the organic fertilizers and pesticides and also the maintenance. However, after discussions with the community about all the important factors such as their necessity, plot for cultivating, ploughing, fencing, watering, sustainability, etc., we decided to go ahead with the locally available hybrid vegetable seeds. I had no prior experience in gardening so I had to do some basic research online. Also, by discussing with a few people about the soil here and the seasonal crops that can be cultivated during this time of the year, we finalized on eight vegetable seeds which included coriander, spinach, cabbage, peas, cauliflower, carrot, radish and turnip. Thus, with very little knowledge and hoping for the best outcome for the community, we commenced work by marking a plot at the camp with the help of Nanku and Gulshan. Since the community was very excited about it, things started moving pretty fast in the beginning. I would not say that we had to put in excessive effort and time in making this garden, but without Nanku’s involvement from ploughing the soil till sowing the seeds, it would have been arduous. Perhaps the hardest part was to motivate Nanku every day to get work done as he would be tired after his day job or he would be busy with some meeting at the camp.

The main structure of the fence for the garden 

We started by cleaning the plot and as we began the initial ploughing, we had to collect manure (animal waste and compost) to mix it with the soil and then we had to let it set in the following couple of days while we started working on the fence, which was the most labor and time consuming part in this whole project. Aurelien and I had to collect plenty of bamboos from the nearby jungle and carry them on our shoulders back to the camp. Some days it had to be early mornings and some days it had to be late evenings. The bamboos were put together and the fence was made by pushing them deep in to the ground to make it sturdy and also make it dense enough so that the dogs and chickens cannot penetrate. Even at this point, I was skeptical about the outcome of this project; not knowing if we were doing things the right way or how beneficial this whole thing would turn out to be for the community. Nevertheless, we were highly motivated to persevere by the little kids at the camp, who repeatedly questioned us every day when were we going to sow the seeds.  

The bamboos are ready to be placed! 

One of the kids of the camp observing the process

The garden fence, made of bamboo, was quickly finished

After the completion of the fence it was all ready, the soil looked fertile, the fence looked sturdy and the seeds were waiting to be sown. Thus, with a couple of days of re-ploughing to loosen and level the soil and dividing the plot into many sections for different seeds we were all set for sowing. The seeds were scattered considering the three important factors of gardening, the depth of sowing the seeds, spacing between the seeds and watering, all the seeds were sown in the following couple of days. I visited the garden everyday to water the soil and peep over the fence to check if a leaf was showing up from the ground and one evening within the next three or four days there it was, a few cotyledons popping out from the soil. The excitement and happiness running inside me was immense to see something grow from the seeds that were planted with my own hands. 

The first cotyledons in the garden!

I cannot forget to mention that this whole process wouldn’t have been possible to be completed in such a short span of time with no cost involved, without the contribution of all the other interns (Aurelien, Amelie, Madeline and Breanne) who were involved from day one. Now all I can wish for is a fruitful garden to fill the hungry tummies in the community.

Rizwan Ahmed - India

SWASH Project Manager, Paro (Punjab)

The magic of a smile

A month ago I had the chance to visit the different centers of EduCARE and when I arrived to Paro, in Punjab, and we walked by the migrant camp, I instantly fell in love with Yjoti, a little boy of one year and a half that was crying in the arms of his young mother. When we approached to the tents made of bamboo and plastic, all the children run to us to introduce themselves with big smiles on their faces, even though they barely spoke English. One of them got my attention when she pretended to be angry and crying with a tousled wig on her head and asked for a photo. Two seconds after clicking the button, Paravati was laughing. 

Paravati pretending that she's crying for the photo

The migrant community in Paro works as trash pickers and wake up really early in the morning to collect plastic bottles that can be sold in order to get some money to buy food for the day. The girls, unfortunately, do not go to school since they are needed in this arduous task. While other children are running on the schoolyard or learning Hindi, math and English in high school, girls like Paravati work everyday under the Punjabi sun, carring big bags of trash and suffering the unbearable humid heat of the region. I frankly have to admit that, despite coming from a hot region in Spain, the heat in Punjab was too much for me. I was sweating through every single pore in my skin during the whole day and the only thing I wanted was to lay down under a fan and work from there. 

Yjoti, Sonia and me

So when the next day in the afternoon the children from the migrant camp welcomed us again with a big smile and willing to do some activity, I felt grateful and it made me realised that heat cannot be a reason to hold us back, because it was not holding them back from spending some time with us. That day we did mhendi, henna tattoos, with the girls and we took thousands of pictures with our cameras. Yjoti, the little baby, was also there with his mom, Sonia, a young girl of 19 years old. I decided to start playing with Yjoti so Sonia could participate in the activity with the rest of the girls and do some henna to the younger girls. Probably, they do not have access to henna every day and that is why they were all so exited about it. 

The girls happily showing the henna design

And then I realized, looking at those girls and at the little Yjoti, that I was also smiling, a sincere smile that I hadn’t shown in a long time. And then I realized that it’s true, that you can be happy with less and that happiness is not the fancy cars that go around the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Delhi or all the clothes that we can afford to buy back in Europe. Those kids without anything were happy because we were there, because we were all having fun and because for a couple of hours they were not thinking about the unbearable heat and the arduous job of the next day.

Me with Yjoti while the girls were doing henna

Laura Sabater Zamora - Spain

Communications coordinator, Maiti (HP)

"Garmi, garmi". Dealing with the heat in Punjab

Before I arrived in India at the beginning of June 2015, the news at home was displaying stories on a near daily basis about the insane heat waves across India. The south was experiencing temperatures nearing 50’C, Delhi was a toasty 44’C (112’F for my fellow Americans), countless photos of people guzzling water crossed my BBC news app. My friends and family loved to alert me of these temperatures, but I assured them I wasn’t going to places mentioned in the news, and thus should be ‘chill’. I was right….sort of.

While Punjab was never mentioned in the history-making heat wave, that did not mean the Punjabis were relaxing in balmier weather. Much of my experience with Educare, and thus living in rural India, has centered on the unrelenting heat. I believe on one of my first days I (naively) asked if the house I would be living in would have hot water. The answer, technically, was no. However when your black water tank sits on the roof baking in 40’ your water really will be hot, whether you like it or not. Living in Janauri I quickly had to be accustomed to stepping out of a shower and not being able to differentiate between what were water droplets from my freshly washed hair, or new beads of sweat already starting to do away with my recent cleaning. It’s a never-ending, and sometimes futile, battle.

You learn to embrace this heat though. Everyone’s affected by it and brings you all together at a basic human level. One of the first Hindi/Punjabi words I learned was garmi (hot), and it is the perfect way to break the silence when meeting people. If one is ever at a loss for their Hindi (which happens in every conversation I’ve entered in India), they simply feign an exhausted face, fan themselves with their hand and mumble “garmi, garmi, garmi”. It is a perfect way to connect with whoever is in the room, and most likely they will respond with the same motion, and you both will chuckle.

I won’t lie, aside from vanity reasons; this heat is difficult to work with. Children that should normally be running and screaming with excitement lay exhausted in the shade. Getting “rambunctious kids” excited for after school activities is often one of our biggest challenges in Punjab. Community engagement is difficult when the majority of people in the villages are sitting inside with their fans on. But we make it work.

I don’t mean to whine about the heat because in fact, life thrives here. Everyone still adds just as many hot spices to their daal (well, maybe not every intern), everyone still drinks their daily hot chai, and we still manage to play games of tag in the migrant camp that leave us dripping in that Punjabi sweat. If anything, the heat just adds a little more flavor to the experience! But that doesn’t mean I’m not excited for that autumn chill!

Madeline lighting up fireworks on the 4th of July

Madeline Zdeblick - US

Paro center manager and microfinance project manager, Paro (Punjab)

New Microfinance projects are on a roll in Paro, Punjab

The Punjab Microfinance project is undergoing an overhaul! The cluster went from zero microfinance interns to three, and thus the weeks since Educare’s quarterlies have been spent coming up with a shared vision for the microfinance initiatives we would like to see here. Assessing some of the past microfinance projects here we decided we wanted to go ahead and open a ReStore, and the best way to do this would be to start with a juice stand run out of the Paro office.

We believe this juice stand will be a good way to increase Educare’s visibility in Paro, and we can gradually encourage some of the girls in the Paro migrant camp to come help work the juice stand. We’re hoping this will teach the girls financial literacy skills (such as bookkeeping, addition, and subtraction), independence, and a desire to expand on new projects!

Rachel hopes to engage the women in Paro in a sewing project to make and sell re-usable bags either out of the ReStore or out of the local shops, Aurélien plans to expand on an organic farming project to sell fresh produce, and Madeline hopes to re-engage the chicken coop project out of the Paro camp to sell eggs in the ReStore.

We have a lot going on for Microfinance here in Punjab, stay tuned for some big changes!

Madeline Zdeblick - USA

Cluster Coordinator, Punjab

Cleanaholic in India

Being a person who loves it clean, very clean, clean in a way that you should be basically be able to eat from the ground it seemed to be an absurd idea to travel India or even choose it for the personal summer internship destination. Month ahead I only heard “And do you really think that it is the country you want to go to? You sure?”; not only from parents also from the rest of the family and friends. But my personal answer was clear “Yes I wanted to and yes I knew it will be a totally different world”. Regarding culture, gender equality, weather, landscapes, but also in terms of hygiene and cleanliness.

Typical documentaries show India as a place where waste just flies around. No one cares. No one thinks it is of his or her business. But was like that in reality? I wanted to find out.I came to research the environmental impact of the garment industry. Not too far from my idea of cleanliness and very high standards of hygiene. I am very disappointed about the garment industry and big companies negatively impacting the environment of thousands of people and consequently impacting their health. So I wanted to observe and find out more about the management of these businesses and how they treat their waste. 

But for now let us get back to me and my obsession of being clean and living in a clean environment; leaving the airport doors at the 31^st of May and stepping in the real Indian world was a big step for me. To see and finally smell the huge amount of waste being more or less everywhere definitely feels different than just watching it in TV. It smells. In some areas it smells a lot.  My first destination was Naddi, a small place at the food of the Himalayas, a place for higher casted Indians to go on holidays and at the same time EduCARE’s headquarter. Since it is a touristic place it supposed to be clean and beautiful. The latter is surely the case but with the cleanliness… I don’t know... Definitely not my standards and quick I realized in what troubles I put myself in - This place being called clean? I didn’t even want to know how the rest of the country looks like if this supposed to be clean. Welcome to the mind of a cleanaholic.

When I arrived in Paro, a small village in Punjab, which is my final destination for my internship, I started to clean up the intern house and to prepare “my corner” - I cleaned, cleaned and cleaned and bought a small shelf and hangers for my cosmetics before I actually found some rest from the travel. Eight hours from North to a little bit more South. Eight hours of seeing more of eye-catching India and also eighthours of seeing more waste; on the streets, in the lakes and rivers, on the fields, next to the houses. The next day a carpet to put my luggage on followed so that it is doesn’t get dusty; my suitcase spent the first night on the collection of mattresses. A proper mosquito net was the cherry on the cake. As a cleanaholic you always find something to do or improve, you are never bored.

 

Other interns mostly make fun of me. Finally, it all comes back to the question “Why did you choose India if you hate dirt?” I only have to say it isn’t impossible to enjoy India and my time here just because there is this one thing (even though it is a bigger thing) I don’t really like. People need to be more open-minded and tolerant with other people’s lifestyles. Judging someone just because he/she came here even though not liking dirt is unfortunate. I do love cleanliness and so do I accept India and it’s uniqueness. 

So now you might see the reason why I later on decided to be also part of a colleagues project trying to develop and implement a waste system for a smaller community. Doesn’t everyone say you should make your passion to your job? So will I and I am curious of what the next month brings. Not only cleaning, that’s for sure. There are many things to do and to explore - With toilet paper and wet towels or without.

Awa Sall - Germany
SWASH Project Manager - Punjab