Two Sides

There is always two sides when we are doing an internship for EduCARE India. 

The two sides when you are a project manager or project coordinator, where outside the intern’s house we behave (or we try) like locals. As a woman I cover myself, no smoking or drinking allowed of course, we put our bigger smile in our face and carry on the workshops, meeting or whatever we have to do. 

And then is the other side, our little oasis in the middle of India, our houses, where we can wear crop tops, shorts, treat our fellow male interns as equals and there is (almost never) language barrier.  But even inside the house there are two sides, the professional and the personal one. We live and work together and usually in the same place, some of the centres have an office and can separate those two lives but when that doesn’t happen the two sides usually merge and confront each other. We have to be able to have a serious meeting over the same table we will eat later, play cards or relax. We have to be able to keep focus and active while we work from our beds and houses. We have to be able to challenge our fellow interns and explain our ideas or why we think that theirs are wrong without becoming personal. We have to be able to take critics from the same person we will cook later with. 

Personally I love the chance to work in pyjamas but for some people the ability of separate professional and personal life is not that easy. 

Cool Office in Gajner

We also have the two sides when we travel. When we are out of our villages we are tourists but we already feel ourselves at home in India. You feel like a local, not freaking out anymore by the bumpy buses, lack of privacy, toilets standards in the stations or cheap guest houses, you know what are the prices and you know how to bargain, you know how to deal with trains, buses and any other transport in India but...but still you are not a local, your Hindi is below “tora tora” (little, little) and your face shows you are from the West so you are not treated as a local. Some rickshaw’s driver will want to charge you more, the fruit seller will try to charge you more, the stares remain and no matter how much you cover yourself you feel the attention. Also there are good things to this; Indians are usually extremely nice and helpful and they will try to make your stay and experience in India as best as they can, you will be offered the best food, drinks, blessings and usually having the best treatment as guests.

Enjoying the Punjabi hospitality

And then we have the two sides of any experience, while my experience in EduCARE India has been beyond good and I have learned an endless list of things and skills there is always a darker side in any experience. I have been a really positive person all my life and I was not thinking about being any different in India but sometimes I have been overwhelmed by the situations around me. The delays, the heat, the monsoon, the animals, the bugs, the internet, water and electricity cuts, the few Indian or tourists that tried to take advantage of us in many different senses, the lack of commitment of some interns, the lack of response in certain cases from the community, the wanting of some privacy or some time alone, the small things that bring you comfort and that are impossible to find here... Those things some days and just some days make you see things in darker colours that they actually are (and I could continue but as I said positivity is a must for me).  

But if you focus in the other side like, the extremely and unbelievable beauty of India, the hospitality of its families, the amazing sleeper beds in buses and trains, the peer-to peer learning from other interns and staff of the NGO, the possibility of being your own boss, the smiles of the children, the feeling of the wind while you are in a rickshaw, the happiness when you meet again other interns from other centres, the successful projects, the laughs and nice nights around candles because electricity was not working (but everything is more poetic with a candle right?), the walks to the public taps for getting some water that lead to nice conversation with the neighbours and women, the amazing trips, the things you thought would never see (like me in Pushkar, I saw a cow with a chicken leg in her back!!), all the religions, culture, customs, landscapes present in India that are completely unique, and the list could continue for thousands of words...etc. 

Making friends around India

I have learnt to not be selfish here, to be conscious with what I advocate for and what I do, to behave ethically and to take in account the environment. I learnt what is to be a woman in a country where being a woman is a dangerous thing and I met some very strong women that are making the change in this country happen. I learnt how to deal with a different range of people, I met compulsive complainers here seeing everything as problems and not challenges but I also met fighters who will do their best and work hard to achieve what they want to. I learnt how to put away my ego and listen to the criticism of others about my work and the most important to learnt from it! 

As Communications Coordinator I have been working in front of my computer or having meetings with other fellow interns mostly of the time but I also tried to help in some projects of the centres so I could witness the grass-root action and be a part of it. I hope that communications is consider with the importance that it has in any organization and that is a respected field from now on in EduCARE India. When you don’t communicate, when you don’t participate and contribute in an organization you are taking a big step towards failure. 

For working in EduCARE India, we have to leave behind our preconceptions, our western minds are so conditioned that we forget that our way of living is not the only one and for sure not the best in many aspects. Ethnocentrism is not allowed if you come here. Open your mind, go with the flow, make an effort in understanding what and why are certain things happening around you. It is hard to leave behind the pre-conception that “the way we do it” is more acceptable because this way is only valid where we come from. Cultural sensitivity has to be present and patronizing the communities around you is not an option neither, here life has been different for thousands of years and while we are working towards the global needs through local action it is important to understand that the definition we have in our mind of some words it not the same and can`t be the same in India. 

All this time in India has been a gift, it helped me grow and change to a better myself. I could never forget all the moments I lived during this 7 months and I am really curious in seeing what EduCARE India is bringing on during the next months and years. I am very thankful for my internship with EduCARE India, all the learning that it brought to me and discover of a new world and a new way of seeing myself within that world.

I already miss my time there and all the people and places I got to know. I am already looking forward for my next time in India and who knows, maybe my next time with EduCARE India! 

Breathtaking landscape in Ladakh 

Mercedes Milán - Spain 

Communications Coordinator 

Living on the Road

One random day meanwhile I was working in Greece I decided that I wanted to move to another place and do something else. Once I made the decision one thing linked to another and after a series of lucky has by unsuspected events I ended up in India doing an internship with EduCARE India. 

Before coming I was a bit sceptic of what I will find in this country, in the organization, the people around me...when I arrived to Delhi that feeling was fading out slowly (I felt super confident after ruining a taxi driver scam) and during my Induction it went away definitely. 

Soon I learnt that my internship will be characterized by one thing, I will “live on the road”. As my internship is as Communications coordinator and during 2016 the COM Team (Collaborative Operations Management Team) will be travelling between the centres to be more helpful and support better the teams. I loved the idea from the very first moment and since then I have been discovering EduCARE India centres and India at the same time.

My first home in India was Gajner (Rajasthan) and it will always be a place I will remember with special affection. I loved how I felt part of the community really soon, how every child will greet me with a big smile, how beautiful were the sunsets at the lake, the amazing dinners that the interns prepared, all the chais and kachoris I had at Manoj’s shop (one of the places I miss the most!) and the weekend trips we did always preceded and followed by some hours in Bikaner, I city I got to know well (partly because of my multiple visits to the FRRO office) and I like for some inexplicable reason. Whoever has been in Bikaner knows that is a crazy and noisy city, but when you get to know it becomes...let’s say familiar.

ASP in Modiya Mansar (Gajner)

Lovely dinners in the intern's house rooftop

Peacocks acting as my morning alarms in Gajner

But the time to moved came and with a lot of sadness but some excitement for keep discovering India and EduCARE I left Gajner behind and I spent two weeks in Harike’s centre. During the train trip I already noticed how different everything will be from my previous life in India, the desert was not there anymore instead I will find green plains, the wetlands and humidity, a lot of humidity! Even the people were different Punjabis were undoubtedly taller and bigger than my previous Rajasthani neighbours. 

I still remember vively the buffalos and their crazy eyes, the Sikhs’ culture all around, my first noodle burger and how surprised I felt at first by Harike. I was used to my calm village life in Gajner where not many (or none) shops or food options are available and suddenly I found myself in a little town where they even had fabric shops and my beloved paranthas (a dish that if you didn’t try yet, believe me you are missing something!) I definitely took advantage of all the options that were around me, noodles, noodles burgers, paranthas, real ice creams, lassis, Chocos, milkshakes by Armand and more! I was awakening the food monster I have inside every single day.  

View behind the intern's house at sunset

In the temple community, one of the places where the interns in Harike work

Nevertheless soon it was time to keep moving.

After a long night driving where I found myself stuck in the back of a car surrounded by backpacks, household stuff and the belongings of my team members, we finally arrived to Naddi, Himachal Pradesh. It was six in the morning and it was so cold compare to my previous locations!! My body had a complete shock but even though I was shivering and I had a big lack of sleep, I could not believe how beautiful everything was around me, the mountains, the clean air and the view itself. As soon as I step out of the car and I got my first chai things started fitted in. 

Stunning view from Naddi

These four months have been a great learning experience so far and one thing I have learnt is that when you “live on the road” your house is your backpack and that means going through many housing situations. I loved the place I stayed in Gajner it was calm, fresh, I had shelves and we got a fridge just a week after I arrive (cheers for that!). Harike was good, I liked the open spaces, the big table, the size of the rooms and the pressure of the water was great compare to Gajner! Naddi was a bit rough in the beginning (even though the fridge came after only four days!) but once we started to clean, built shelves everywhere (thanks to Faik and Emma, they literally changed our lives!) and taking advantage of the balcony to enjoy the view, it became slowly slowly my third home in India (still having freezing showers though) 

Building shelves with Atul's help

Of course this incessant movement has sad sides, when you know all the shopkeepers, your neighbours, how the buses and trains work, who has the best paneer in town, who sells the best lassi and people treats you as part of the family, as part of the community you live in you have to move and start from scratch. But it has a lot of good things also, I got to know all the centres and all the interns (I am really happy about that, many beautiful and inspiring personalities in EduCARE!) I have experimented and lived in three different Indian states that couldn’t be more different from each other and the most important thing is that everywhere I felt at home.

Another lesson I am learning is about me, I considered myself a really easy going and flexible person before coming to India, but now I definitely can say that I am both even more (mostly like everybody in EduCARE, we left behind almost all our comforts and food pleasures, believe me) I can sleep on the floor of a train station without blinking (or literally sleep anywhere), I can cook tasty dinners with three ingredients, survive to power cuts or water cuts that last two days and I proved myself that I can survived without cheese! Everything takes longer here and everything can go wrong but once you accepted it life can be surprisingly good. I can also say that this way of moving around is making me realize how little I need to live and how many useless stuff we use that just take space and money away (cliché alert!). 

Getting to know all the communities and living among them, sharing time with all the teams and participating in some of the women’s empowerment projects I also find myself even more convinced about my ideals and principles regarding feminism, environment, education, gender issues and inequalities among people. I discovered really soon how unsustainable I was and how little I thought of the consequences of some of my daily habits. Before coming to India I also considered myself a feminist but now after seeing how Indian women feel and struggle daily and how many times I had to control and repress myself for not reacting against certain behaviours towards them, I can say that I am a convinced feminist seeking for equality among all human beings with a renewed motivation. 

I find myself sometimes thinking how lucky I am that I got to live this experience and how much I have learnt so far, I already see how I am changing and how much India, EduCARE India and its interns have opened my eyes and showed me how much still needs to be done. 

India can be too much sometimes, some days are a bit overwhelming but if you have the right attitude in the end everything works out and something good can always came up, all depends in how you face the situations!

I am looking forward to seeing what more India has to teach me! 

Enjoying Himachal Pradesh sceneries.

Mercedes Milán - Spain

Communications Coordinator in EduCARE India

Discovering India on the road

A little more than three months have passed since my arrival in India and I feel a bit more entitled to give a personal impression about this country. Unlike other visitors who may come here only with the purpose of travelling, coming to India to work means that in order to explore a bit of this vast country, there’s a lot of travelling to do in short periods of time. It’s like we live two kinds of lives: a relatively (sometimes very relatively) peaceful lives in our villages and motion-based and frenzy lives during the weekends we choose to travel. Popular destinations are in average 8-10 h of comfortable and relaxing government bus away from Harike. So, much of the knowledge I gathered about India has come on the road, a kind of window-based discovery.

First thing I believe anyone notices is the crazy driving on the roads. On the CIEEL induction course we were shown this really cool TED talk where it is argued that roads are more organized than it seems, that practically everybody and everything is allowed because spaces and boundaries are negotiated on site and at the moment. By living here, I understood how these boundaries are actually negotiated: through honking real hard and imposing your will over the others’ in a survival of the fittest style. Except for the Cow, of course. It’s unreal to see how Indian drivers slow down and stop to let the Cow cross the highway from one lane to another. Even the honking stops as if the drivers were showing their respect and bowing to it.

If you negotiate hard enough you might even be able to travel on the rooftop of a bus.

Second thing that I noticed is the amount of developmental constructions that are in place – as you would expect from a rapidly developing economy – but how every project seems at times paralyzed for a long time or just directly abandoned. There are countless buildings and roads half-built and no one seems to be working on them. Just like in many of our projects, it seems like there is a lot of excitement when the idea and the design is presented and everybody shows a lot of initial support but the hard part is to keep engagement and consistency. It’s awkwardly funny and a bit scary to see that not even the Government can materialize its projects efficiently. 

The other major thing that one notices is the crazy amount of waste that accumulates everywhere, specially concentrated in rivers, canals and open dump sites.That’s really not a cool sight.Perhaps because of my SWASH-focused thinking, I can’t avoid to see the environmental issue as one of the major problems in the development path of this country. It seems that India is following the same way as the West: economic development at the expense of the environment. Certainly directing the effort in improving social equity and infrastructure is an investment for the future and a real need of this country. However, a complete disregard for their environmental resources is putting a long-term mortgage on the society too and it should be acknowledged.

A typical open dump site in India.

Finally, one of the activities I enjoy doing to amuse these long hours of travel is looking out the window for titles and names of stuff. Indian people have a remarkable entrepreneurial spirit and a determined marketing attitude: ‘the best of (insert location), my friend!’. However, they are extremely bad at achieving orthographic rigorousness regarding company names or food menus. We’ve seen funny spelling mistakes such as “barger”, “braquette”, “crossiant” and many more. Sometimes it’s so shocking that I can’t help believing that they are doing it on purpose to give us customers a good laugh. 

Anyway, India might not be the most organized, constant and attentive to detail country but I think that most of us Westerners who visit would agree that it has a lot to teach to “our” world. It all depends on how you want to see things; what could be seen as a lack of boundaries/organization can also be seen as tolerance and freedom for example, and the lack of attention to details could also be seen as a sign of a more essentialist and less superficial approach to things. What I don’t find any “softer” or positive side to is to the environmental mess. It is always the same reaction when I see it no matter what mood I’m in. In fact, despite all the honking and the long hours spent on a bus, I find that travelling is a good remedy for helping me recover energy and motivation and to push harder my project back in Harike.

Pau Vallvé - Spain

SWASH Project Coordinator/ Project Manager in Harike

SIX MONTHS IN THE AMAZING INDIA

Being sick in bed one of my last days in Harike is not the best moment to write my leaving blog post. Even so, good memories and experiences overcome the bad ones. How do I start talking about what it has been the most amazing experience I've ever had?

October 16th - I arrive in Delhi and meet two interns with whom I suffer my first frustration: after paying in advance a very expensive bus to Dharamshala, somehow it ends up broken before we get in and we miss our first day of induction. Today and after hearing a lot of stories about scams in Delhi, I think we were lucky to have only that problem! 

Induction week - we are in Naddi, where everything is beautiful (except the huge spiders) and peaceful, a nice transition for my first time in India. I meet all these interns from different countries, with different backgrounds, languages and interests. I assist to some workshops, a wedding, a cooking contest, fun club and girls club. I spend time with my homestay's family and realize how lucky I am for being born in Europe, with access to education, health, transports, ... even heating systems! Basically, I am lucky for having options.

Arrival in Harike - In my second week I travel from centre to centre with my housemates because Punjab is dangerous until religious protests finish. Rait and Gajner host us and we are invited to their activities and Saturday meetings, which help us to know how to start with ours. I arrive in Harike and want to leave immediately: terrible bathroom, zero privacy, no beds, no chairs, no table, noisy family and buffalos living next to us, mosquitoes everywhere...! But the team is amazing and we are there for each other when leaving thoughts come to our minds. We start the family tree, find a logo and a slogan (s*** it Gajner!) and set up the identity of the new Harike's centre.

Harike's family tree

Quarterlies - EduCARE's reunion in Harike! We develop the house to host around 50 people full of ideas, challenges, knowledge and creativity. We come up with goals by centre and project for the next months and why not to say, we had a great time playing dumb games, getting to know each other and sharing random conversations with people from all around the world.

Community engagement - we walk around the village, talk and take pictures with whoever want to talk to us. I mean... with everybody. We start to identify people: the girl who speaks a bit of English, the stitching girl, the principal's daughter and English teacher, the toilet paper guy, the leader children of the migrant community, etc... Five months later, they all have names and work with EduCARE: Rashvinder and Harsvinder in Girls Club, Janu and Narinder at the school, Amit who works with the SWASH team and still sells us toilet paper, Sansgina and Prince participating every week in ASP... They all make my stay more comfortable, strangers that have become part of my daily life and whom, in one way or another, I'll miss when I leave. 

Christmas break - I love travelling, I've doing it my whole life and I keep looking for being paid to travel (any ideas?). 14 interns and two weeks of holidays, 39 hours and two non-sleep nights on a train just to reach the first stop. In the middle, tuc-tucs, boats, sleeper buses, taxis, ricksaws and scooters. Christmas and New Year's Eve far from home but with our EduCARE's family between Mumbai, Goa and Hampi (Oh Hampi!). Western food and meat after 3 months! Obviously, some diseases - we are not immune to diarrhea or pink eye. And in general, one of the best trips I've ever done, surrounded by beautiful places and people. Then we split, interns go back to their centres but I continue my solo-travels to the South. I visit two different NGOs, the city of Bangalore and in my way back, I got lost in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere...I don't panic though, because the most awesome family is there to adopt and feed me for a night, until it's time to get on the bus and finally reach Harike. 

Cold times - It's January and it's freezing in Punjab. Some people say it will only last one week, some other say it will last two months. It lasts too much for me, I miss the beautiful Spanish weather! Days working from bed with all my clothes on, improvised talks in the kitchen because it is the only warm space and races to the bathroom at night to go back under the blanket as soon as possible conform a normal day during Harike's winter. 

Finally feeling comfortable - Going out alone is not an issue anymore. The shopkeepers and communities know us and almost every inhabitant of the village has a picture with us, so they don't ask for more. We don't pay excessive prices for daily products (or that's what we think). The guys in the fish shop yell my name and country every time they see me, the cookie shop guy automatically gives me mentos when I show up and Amit wishes us happy International Women's day. We are invited to ceremonies where we taste delicious food and learn Punjabi dance moves while Indians look, record and laugh.

FFRO visits - I could write a whole blog post about them. Six days I spent in that room with the same officer saying: come tomorrow, drink a chai, wait a minute, the boss is not here, we lost your documents bring them again, another chai for special guests? Whether you want it or not, Indian bureaucracy is part of the experience and what you can learn from it is to increase your patience. Maybe learn something else and take a book with you when you have to deal with it.

New interns - We need more manpower, projects start growing and we happily receive five awesome interns in February. The centre is full and we learn how to survive, collaborate, live together, and most important, how to cook for ten hungry young people (the secret: start chopping at 6pm and eat rice and vegetables, let's say, at least 4 days a week) 

Goodbyes - It's time to leave for those who arrived in October. We've been around six months together and shared the most beautiful experience. I can't imagine a better closure than spending Holi in Pushkar and a few more days in Jodhpur that I will never forget. I have now friends in so many countries that I'm afraid I won't have time (or money!) to visit them all. I'll do my best though, and if I ever go back to Spain, I'll be waiting for the EduCARE and specially Harike team to visit me. 

So, what's next? Right now, I can only think in how hard is realizing that I'm leaving and I won't see the lovely kids of our communities grow up, although I'm looking forward to see the outcomes of the seed we've planted. India has taught me to adapt better to any situation and timing, so even if I still don't know what I'll be doing the next month, I'll figure it out. I know though that I only got to know a tiny part of this country and that I want more. I know, then, that sooner or later I will come back to the amazing India.

María Reyes - Spain

EcoBuilding Project Coordinator and Project Manager in Harike

Eco-Building in EduCARE India

When I arrived to EduCARE in October, there were no Ecobuilding interns nor previous coordinator. Some projects were done in the past and a few more were already spotted, so it was time to start working. I was expecting to stay in Naddi but I was sent to the new centre where community engagement was the most important part of the first months in Harike. Through all these house visits and walks around the village, I was able to observe the habitability conditions of most of the families. Five factors define a slum - lack of potable water or sanitation, overcrowded houses with no durability and insecurity of tenure - and you can easily identify some of them in the communities where we work in EduCARE. Although it's a small scale, with between 40 and 120 families, reaching awareness and improving their skills to finally help them building the needed infrastructure are the right steps to make a difference.

The number of Ecobuilding interns increased in the last months what allow us to develop new ideas and projects. In December we received Niall from Ireland, who has previous experience in bamboo and earthquake construction. He came right before Christmas holidays with lots of enthusiasm and willing to start building!

In January two more interns joined our team, Faik from Cyprus and Alexis from France. They are now working hard in Rait and Naddi respectively and we'll see the results very soon! The last Ecobuilding addition was Lamia from Madagascar, who joined EduCARE a couple of weeks ago and will be starting the new centre in Rang Mahal.

Currently, we have ongoing projects in the three main areas we work on: interns' houses, furniture and community projects.

Indra´s homestay with bamboo structure and mud walls

In Harike, we are improving our centre by building a fence that will keep strangers away during work hours - they are welcome the rest of the time!, making new furniture for our common area and designing the future ReStore that will open soon. The garden keeps busy our interns in Rait, where they are planning a greenhouse and experimental vertical farming to extend to families who don't have enough space for an horizontal orchard. Faik is also making new furniture now that the centre is full. Alexis will show soon the result of the greenhouse he's been planning in Naddi, next to the nursery where the forestry team work. Finally, all the interns in Gajner are finalizing details for the ReStore launch, including furniture and a canopy made by Niall. He's also working on the ECRC design and a new homestay in Indra's colony. Two weeks ago, he delivered a three days' on site workshop for interns and community about bamboo and mud techniques, and the outcome is that the homestay is almost ready to use!

Indra's Homestay

They all are small projects that will improve the interns' stay or the communities' conditions. Hopefully we'll serve as an example to them, increase awareness and family incomes, transfer our knowledge, eliminate the stigma to some materials, adopt a more sustainable way of life for, at the end, improve their habitability conditions and dignify their lifes.

María Reyes - Spain

Ecobuilding coordinator in Harike

Workshops at the schools in Harike

One of the first weeks in Harike, Jessica and I went to a school to meet the principal and get some information about the students. We went there as part of our community engagement because we were a new centre and we wanted them to know us and the work EduCARE does. What we were not expecting from that first contact was to have a formal meeting that set up the workshops in which all the interns and two schools are currently involved.

Two weeks later Jessica and I came back. We were asked to deliver a workshop on SWASH and since it was my second project, I prepared it. All we knew was that the students were 16 years old and don't speak a lot of English. That could only make me more and more nervous, but who wouldn't be scared of a bunch of teenagers that don't understand-not your mother tongue- but your second language?

The good thing is that right before getting into the school, a pigeon dropped one on my jumper and that could only mean good luck. The workshop went great, the students, principal and staff were satisfied and encouraged us to extend the program to more schools.

SWASH workshop about water pollution, sanitation and solid waste management

SWASH: María explaining a practical activity about recycling

For the next session, we had another challenge ahead; Jessica wanted to speak only to the girls about puberty and menstruation. As all of us know, that's a controversial topic! However, the school was very open about it and accepted the proposal. We were surprised when some of the girls asked intimate questions that they may not dare to ask their families or teachers.

The next topics were Disaster Management and Forestry delivered by Tommaso, Sydney and Aless. Seeing how good the workshops were working, we felt comfortable enough to extend the agenda to a government school. When we showed up there they said they were aware of our work and they were expecting us! After a few chais and somosas - which are always welcomed - we started a new successful round of workshops and we have established a close relationship with the principal.

Jessica during a group activity about menstruation

So far, we have done seven sessions. Every week we keep improving with the experience and recommendations from each new lesson and we feel the students are getting as involved as we are. All of us enjoy with the activity and it's definitely a good way for the community to get to know us.

Both schools have a post-exam break in March, but we'll be back in April with new and fresh topics and interns!

Part of the team with the principal and staff of the public school

María Reyes - Spain

 Ecobuilding coordinator in Harike

Feeling free and alive, a feeling of belonging to nature

Gajner has got a treasure, a treasure that not a lot of people take care about. It is unique, huge, beautiful, amazing. I am talking about the desert and the wildlife sanctuary.

My experience in the dessert started during my first week as an EduCARE intern in Gajner. Léa Monin, the SWASH coordinator when I arrived there, used to run for an hour twice a week. She told me about the wildlife sanctuary in the desert, which seemed to be really interesting, so I decided to go with her. We woke up around 5:30 in the morning, before it started to get hot and then we head off to the sanctuary.

The first thing that struck me was that, as we approached the desert, we met with more and more men with alcohol bottles in theirs hands and looking like being drunk. These men seemed to have spent the night drinking in the desert, and near the village there was pieces of broken bottles everywhere. This event shocked me and soon I found out of the big problem with alcohol that exists in India. In Gajner, many men of all ages get drunk every night, either because it has become a habit for them or because they suffer from depression. This leads to some of them losing their control and spending the night lying anywhere. For me, this was something really sad and shocking.

Running and exploring the desert in Gajner, has been one of the best experiences that I´ve ever had. Feeling the cold breeze in my face, admiring the sunrise and sunset in the horizon and seeing the Gajner Palace far in the distance is incredible, although what really makes the difference is its unique wildlife.

It's impressive to run between groups of gazelles, feeling their beauty and energy and imagine for a moment that you are one of them. Following footprints and getting lost between the bushes for hours to later realize that what you were following were actually cows. Raising your head and seeing above you huge flocks of eagles and hundreds of green parrots. Sneaking up on the lake and finally finding the blue cow (an impressive sort of large antelope very difficult to find) drinking water. Seeing something moving and running after it as fast as your legs can until you are close enough to hear breathing.

Feeling free and alive, a feeling of belonging to nature.

Gajner wildlife Sanctuary

Enrique Reig Navarro - Spain

Eco-building project manager, Gajner (Rajasthan)

Eco-kitchen, a way to fight the unbearable heat inside the house

When I arrived to Gajner one of the first things I realised was how incredibly horrible it was to cook there. There wasn’t any type of ventilation and we had to turn the fan every time the fire was lit. Beside that, considering that sometimes at night we had 40 degrees, cooking there was literally like tucking into a sauna. It was unbearable.

I was ordered to build an open kitchen on the rooftop and a room for more interns to sleep there. When I arrived, there was not enough space for everybody and some interns had to sleep on the outside. At the same time, I started working on two technical projects: the solar project, from Johann Kieffer and Vjay and the sand filter. It was about building a solar panel on the rooftop in order to obtain hot water for cooking and for the shower. The sand filter project, from Lucía Villamayor consisted on two sand filters, one on the terrace and the other one down in Manoj´s backyard, our logistics manager and neighbour. The sand filter aimed at cleaning the dirty water used for washing in order to reuse it to supply a small garden. We realized soon that the most logical idea was to make everything work together as an Eco-Kitchen, by fixing the hot water tap and putting there the sand filter.

For the Eco-Building I started with the material: Bamboo. It is very common and popular in Asian architecture and it still remains an integral part of their lives. Moreover, it is incredibly flexible, resistant and cheap, and it is more sustainable than normal wood since it’s production doesn’t waste a lot of energy. In addition, during the growth period the bamboo has a positive influence on the climate of the region and helps to control erosion and floods. So it was perfect for the Eco-Building project, in spite of not being endemic of Rajasthan (bamboo can not grow in desert areas and had to be imported from more humid places of India). 

The Eco-Kitchen that I designed is basically a bamboo enclosure of 2.7m per 6m, with a sloping roof that sheds rainwater sinks toward the terrace. It presents a versatile philosophy, which means that the space can be adapted for different uses such as kitchen, bedroom, meeting room, etc. The walls are designed to be movable and placed in different positions. The roof is made of small bamboos that are supporting a tarpaulin that can be put on or removed as needed. Finally, the design takes into account the location and the possible climate issues during the year.

I would like to say that I like the result of my work on the Eco-Building project, but I am specially proud and excited about the solar project and the water sanitation project. Some people got really interested on those projects and are currently trying to do the same in other places. At that moment I felt that we were doing something great and beautiful for the community.

 

Enrique working on the Eco-kitchen on the rooftop of the interns' house in Gajner

Enrique Reig Navarro - Spain

Eco-building project manager, Gajner (Rajasthan)

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)

The monster in my stomach

First of all, I’m not pregnant. Gajner is not one of those places where young people go and parents are scared their girls will come back with a baby in the belly. No sex, drugs and rock n’ roll around, trust me.

Still, somehow a monster came to live in my stomach when I arrived to India, and it’s always hungry. I used to eat a lot back in Spain, but I never reached the levels of the monster. NEVER.

Food in India is delicious and it’s everywhere. I think what attracts the monster the most are the spices. I walk in the streets and the monster is always alert, smelling around, looking for the best samosa. Even when it fails and the samosa was not that good, it doesn’t surrender, and makes me purchase (yes, purchase. In India no one ”buys” stuff, you “PURCHASE” it) another one.

The monster gets very excited when families in Gajner invite us to eat. I personally don’t really like the way of having people invited to eat here. You sit with the other guests, all alone in the floor of some room, and the hosts bring food, nonstop, but they don’t eat with you. My way of understanding the point of having people home to eat is to share the food and the time with them, and talk…but that is not how it works here. The monster does not think much about that, though. Every time there is almost no more dahl in the bowl, or veggies, or there are only two chapatis left, or rice is starting to disappear, more food comes. The plates are never empty; food is infinite, which is like a theme park for the monster.

When all the normal guests are done with the food, the monster keeps on asking for it. It sees though my eyes and it really struggles to stop eating if there is still food on the plates. So after everyone else stops eating, the monster and I have a long discussion while still feeding it. My shame of eating alone against its hunger. I win after a while, as even the monster realizes how people stare at us, trying to understand how is it possible, and it feels ashamed too.

The other interns in the house are frightened about the monster. When they cook, there is always this fear, “will it be enough”? When they serve the food, they look at the monster through my eyes, asking for its approval. When the food is over and the monster makes me wipe clean the few leftovers in all plates, there is always a moment of tension.

But the monster is cool, it’s peaceful. It would never hurt anyone, and it’s very easy to make it happy. If you want it to like you, you know what to do.


Cheers from the monster and me!

Lucía cooking Dahl for the house 

Lucía Villamayor - Spain

Bikaner Cluster Coordinator, Gajner (Rajasthan)

Drinking Water Production in Gajner, Rajasthan

Considering that all interns in the house have had stomach issues at least once during our internship, I started a research about the drinking water treatment possibilities and needs we might have.

At the beginning of July I went to see Jeetendra, a doctor in Gajner’s hospital. He told me there were many patients showing different sicknesses related to the drinking water in Gajner, such as typhoid fever or diarrhea and pain caused by bacteria such as E. Coli. This fact suggested that the water we were consuming was not safe. We have a filter in the house but it was clearly not enough.

Considering the weather in Gajner, disinfection of the water through Ultra Violet (UV) radiation seemed to be a good way to proceed, followed by adsorption onto activated carbon (AC). So, at the beginning of August, when my water conservation project was more or less running without too much supervision, I started with the construction of the drinking water system.

UV radiation is present in the energy of the sun, and is capable of interfering in the DNA chains of bacteria and viruses, causing their death. Moreover, UV radiation also reacts with the oxygen present in the water generating free radicals and hydrogen peroxide, both of them able to destroy pathogens and contributing to disinfection.

Furthermore, high temperatures are a limiting factor for the survival and development of pathogens in the water. The temperatures reached making use of this method are not high enough to exceed the limits for all pathogens to die (reached for instance when we boil water), but both factors together are responsible for the ability to get a water with high quality.

As for the AC, I consider myself a big fan. Its huge surface area allows the accumulation of a large number of contaminant molecules and ions. As an example, one gram of a typical commercial AC has a surface area equivalent to 1,000 square meters. So once we couple both processes together, the quality of the drinking water should be very high.

I had a glass box constructed, with a capability of 25 L. The height of the box is 7 cm (it must be less than 10 cm in order to ensure that the radiation reaches the lower layers). The glass needed to be very thick, so for the cover I used a thinner glass which allowed better for the solar radiation to pass through. The glass box was connected to the water tank (see figure A) and situated above an aluminum sheet so as to reach higher temperatures. The outlet of the box is connected to two activated carbon filters (see B and C).

Figure A: The water tank connected
 to the glass tank

Figure B: Glass tank connected to
carbon filters 

Figure C: Front view of the drinking
 water production system 

The cleaning method consists on filling the glass box through the tap connected to the water tank. After, the water must be left in the glass box under the sun for a period of time of six hours. Then, we can open the outlets of the glass box and collect the water when it comes out of the carbon filters.

The carpenter of Gajner, who helped me with the installation, wants to set up the same system in his house, which makes me feel very proud; but first I would like to make sure that the water is safe. For this matter, I contacted a Professor of the faculty of Environmental Science of the University of Bikaner in order to ask him if I could carry on some lab analyses to measure the degree of disinfection and other parameters for my water conservation project. He does not seem to be very interested in my story though. Still, I will go this week with some water samples to the university and let’s see if someone allows me to play in the lab.

Lucía Villamayor - Spain 

Bikaner Cluster Coordinator, Gajner

Grey Water Conservation in Gajner

I´ve been in India for one month already but there is not much I could do for my project: The first week I stayed in Naddi for the induction; the second I came to Gajner, but I was following my pals to their activities (girls/boys club, ASP, YWA) and knowing the community, in order to learn about the cluster’s routine and the community itself; the third week we were back in Naddi for the Quarterlies (that trip is a nightmare and I’ve done it three times in three weeks), and then we came back and I started with my thing.

The idea is to treat the grey water we produce in our house (water from taps, shower, laundry…) making use of a biological filter to use it to water a small garden I will start soon.

I have a design of the biofilter. It consists on a two-step biological filter. The first step is a soil filter with anoxic conditions where the carbon will be reduced as part of the metabolic activity of bacteria attached to the soil and denitrification will take place. The second infiltration step will consist on a soil filter with oxic conditions, which I hope to arrange by planting one plant which name I ignore but is everywhere around here, growing even in soils flooded with wastewater. Also the lower amount of carbon after the first infiltration step limits the growth of bacteria in the second filter. Less bacteria need to breath less-> there is less oxygen consumption-> more oxic conditions.

Plant growing in a soil flooded with wastewater

The oxic and carbon limiting conditions enable for the growth of slow growing bacteria capable for degrading a big range of trace organic compounds, contained in soaps and detergents, and which have a dangerous impact once in the environment. The oxic conditions enable also for nitrification to take place.

I think I’ve found a soil with a good corn size after the physical analyses of several soils around our house. This soil is near the Gajner Palace. The idea is to have a corn size that allows the water to flow down the filters, without getting stucked (too fine corn size) or without flowing too fast (too big corn size). If this last possibility happens, the bacteria attached to the soil corns won’t be able to degrade the carbon contained in the water.

Materials used for the soil analyses of three different soils

The trouble is that this sand is a bit far of home, and it’s too hot to carry it here. Good news is I made friends with a shop keeper who gave me some nails for free. I brought chai to drink with him and he was so happy that he drove me back home with his tuk tuk (yes! He has a tuk tuk too). I asked him, and he will help me carry the sand with it.

I found all the materials I need for the set-up of the filtration system in Bikaner, thanks to Manoj’s help. Coming back to Gajner with Léa in the bus, carrying 4 huge bins (she also needed 2), food and 3 mattresses for the house was a real challenge. The set-up of the filtration train is still in process.

I’ve been learning how to make compost. I have built a compost box and started composting. For the moisture, the effluent of the biofilters will be used. Until they are constructed and in order to be able to start as soon as possible with the compost, we are saving the water used for cleaning the vegetables for this matter. The compost is very important, as the soil here is so poor. 

The garden will be in Manoj’s shop’s backyard, right below our house, and the filters will be situated along the height of the wall, so as to let the water flow with the gravity and avoid the need of external sources of energy, and to drip directly on the garden. I cleaned the backyard as it was full of plastic bottles and bins and waste in general, and I will also have to work on the soil. 

Manoj's backyard full of waste

The heat was too strong for cleaning the backyard, but some random super nice guys of the community helped me early in the morning, making it so much easier.

Improvised awesome cleaning team

The plan is to have the kids of the ASP to help me with the garden, to learn about gardening and about the importance of recycling water, especially in such a dry area. The ASP team is very happy with this idea. In order to let the rest of the community to know about the project, we will also paint the wall where the filter will be situated with an explanation of what is it about as a cluster activity and also with the ASP kids, this way everyone can see it from outside the backyard.

I want to thank all my cluster partners for their help because without them the implementation of this project wouldn’t be possible, as there are so many things I just can’t do alone. Thank you so much guys!!!

Lucía Villamayor - Spain

Bikaner Cluster Coordinator

 

Building relationships

Living in a small rural area in the middle of Punjab is not an easy task. Everyday we feel watched and often people come to ask us what are we doing here and why, or just to say “Namaste!” Up until this time our work in EduCARE has focused on improvin the conditions,  and empowering the migrant people who are living in tents with no power, safe water or access to health. Many times the community does not understand why we are working with the migrants nor do they have an interest in the problems they confront everyday. Since we have noticed that the community is not interested in our work, we have decided to build more relationships with them and start projects where they too can have social and personal benefits. A week ago we visited one community in Dholbaha, is a small community with 3 villages (mohallas) within the community area- Mansa Devi, Ganesh Nagar, and Chand Mohalla. There are about 25 families living in total in this area. Each mohalla has about 8-10 families. Each household has about 6-8 family members. Most of the children in this community go to school.

Dholbaha Community

No one said it would be easy build relationships with local people, even moreso if they do not speak English. It is really helpful have an Indian working with us but we cannot relay on him everytime. Dholbaha Community

Visiting the families consists of sitting down in a circle and trying to speak as much hindi as we can with them. Family men used to welcome us while their wives or mother prepare chai, sweets or if we are lucky, pakora.  Even after four months of living in India, visiting families and in my case, living with one, I still feel uncomfortable when I see that is only women working in the house and men are sitting outside resting. 

We have visited some families, all of them live with the parents, the older, married couples are generally retired, and their sons and daughters if they are not married yet. In India once a couple gets married the woman moves to the husband's house and start living with his family. So, no matter what were her plans or what she wanted for herself she is now relocated to a new place sharing her life with a family that is not her own. This is why these wives do not feel confidence many times when they have guests in the house to start a conversation and also, as I said before, they have to cook and work indoors so are otherwise busy. 

In one of the houses we met a man and wife who live with his parents and his brother who is married also, and none of them have children yet. Both wives were smiling and they brought us chai and sweets during the time we stayed there. One of the women invited us to sit down in her bedroom while we ate and tried to speak Hindi with all the family.  She showed us her wedding album, they got married three years ago. It seemed that it is only the man who knows a little bit of English but not the women. They did not speak during the visit, so we could only talk with him and a little bit with the mother who was laughing while we tried to speak with her. Elder people, mainly the women, are very kind and nice when they receive guests, they like to show their family and they  laugh with us. Men in this case are more in the backgrounds, not engaged so much in the conversations. This is why we did not meet the family's father. 

Visiting this family and the others was really interesting for me, one because I could notice how women live in this area, despite the fact that I have been here for four months.  I am still not used to seeing women just working at home and being so shy that they refer to their husbands. In the next months I would like to have meetings with women in the community, make workshops and English lessons with them. Empowering women is the only way to achieve equality

Adriana Martinez - Spain 

Women's Empowerment Project Manager