Last Reflections

As our time in India comes to an end, it's hard for me to believe that it's really been just 3 weeks since we first set foot in Mumbai. In many ways, the time has flown, and in others, I've settled into a pattern here and feel like I've been in the city forever.

The changes I've noticed, both in myself and in our group, are too numerous to list them all. I watch as my fellow PA students step boldly into the chaos of the traffic while crossing the street, when only a few short weeks ago we had to hold hands just to get the courage to begin. I see how we've observed the poverty and hardships around us with everything from shock to sadness, and I am so impressed with and inspired by my peers as they ceaselessly give their all to the overcoming the challenges we have faced. And most of all, I see how we've grown comfortable with experiencing and sharing tough emotions with each other-- everything from anger to confusion to frustration and beyond.

In the end, I don't think this trip was an opportunity for us 14 extremely privileged kids from PA and Udayachal High School to act as "angels of goodwill" in less fortunate communities for three weeks, and then go home to our double shot Starbucks cappuccinos and on-demand cable, patting ourselves on the back for a job well done and writing this experience off as an impressive filler on a college application. To do so would be an insult to the work we've done here and the things we learned. And while I won't deny that the tired, homesick part of me is ready to go home to hot water and my own bed and take-out Chinese food, I know that my enjoyment of these luxuries will be forever tempered with the images I have in my mind of kids sleeping on highway medians and old men sitting for hours on doorsteps in the slums, waiting patiently for something that I, at least, can't identify. These sights have grown no easier for me to see, but during these 3 weeks I have grown a little bit used to them. In some ways, I wish that wasn't the case. No one should become accustomed to seeing the poverty like the kind we have seen here.

The key to affecting change is to never lose that shock and fury that hits you when you are first exposed to unimaginable injustices. With those emotions as the motor that continues to power your desire to act, and tempered with a "sophisticated empathy" (a phrase Mr. Mundra has used), any change you can imagine is yours for the making. I hope I never lose that vulnerability that has allowed me to get so much out of this trip, and I hope that this is only the first of many experiences I will have that leave me changed for the better in more ways than I could have possibly imagined.

Anabel

Catching Up

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the hiatus-- we've been incredibly busy/out of town for the past 5 days and are only now beginning to wind down.

On Thursday (which was also Michael's 16th birthday) we packed up and took a 6 hour bus ride to Satara, a part of rural Maharashtra. We spent 3 days there, learning about the Mann Deshi microcredit bank. The bank was run "by women, for women", and was a cutting edge example of the enormous impact that microcredit programs have on rural communities. In addition to meeting and speaking with Chetna Sinha, the founder of the bank, we visited the homes of several women in the community who were clients of the bank. One woman, Veneeta, had actually won an award from the Prime Minister of India, distinguishing her as one of many women who had benefitted from micro-finance institutions like Mann Deshi.

It was really nice to get out of the city for a few days to breathe some fresh air and see a different side of India. About 70% of India's population lives in rural areas like Satara, so we were actually seeing the lifestyle of the majority of the population. The bank funded each and every need of its clients, ranging from vaccination of goats to paper cup making, with the ultimate goal being women's empowerment and rise out of poverty. The women we met were incredibly self-assured and motivated to succeed in their endeavors, and we were inspired by their determination.

We also visited a fort built in the 17th century, and several ancient temples in the area. We even saw the filming of a Bollywood movie at one of the temples!

On Sunday we relaxed a bit back in Mumbai, went to see the Gateway of India and the world famous Taj hotel, and did some pretty intense shopping in the area. All of us are getting pretty good at bargaining, thanks to the instruction and example of Taranjeet and the Udayachal students, and all of us were able to score some pretty good buys.

Mr. and Mrs. Chase are also in town, visiting our program and attending a series of Andover-related events. They arrived on Sunday, and all of us were eager to see them. It's really nice to have a taste of home right here in Mumbai, and we were all excited to show them the work we've been doing and share our experiences with them.

Today we returned to STCI with Mr. and Mrs. Chase and showed them some of the work we'd been doing with the kids during our first week here. We were all so excited to be back at the school again, and we had a great time catching up with the kids (and enjoying the superior cafeteria cuisine of the wonderful STCI cooks). Mr. and Mrs. Chase went into the community with a few PA and Udayachal students, and visited the home of a STCI student, just as we had done earlier in the program.

Finally, we capped off today with a wonderful dinner hosted by the Godrej family, who are major sponsors of the Niswarth program. The dinner was attended by Andover alumni/ae, parents, current students, and various partners of the Niswarth program. We were able to meet successful executives such as Farzana Haque, Business Head for Retail and Consumer Products Group at Tata Consultancy Services, a billion-dollar industry. Her story was especially inspiring. Although she was extremely successful in the corporate world, her passion was development work, and she has continued to pursue this passion throughout her career. The event was a great way to recap our experiences on the trip and share them with others.

Tomorrow we're having the inaugural Niswarth conference, which we're all very excited about. We'll post again when we're done!

The A-Team

(Aditya M., PA '10 and Anabel, PA '09)

Settling into a Pattern

June 23, 2008

Today was our second venture into the community here in Mumbai. I felt much more prepared for the experience, having already been exposed to similar environments on Friday during our STCI home visits.

It has not gotten easier for me to see the living conditions in the slums here in India, but I do feel that I have become accustomed to it. On our first day here, Mr. Mundra drew a distinction between observation and judgment. Over the past week here, I think that one of my personal achievements has been developing the ability to look at something without drawing premature conclusions about it. That has definitely served me well as we have ventured into the community, where we are usually greeted with friendliness, but where we also have to be prepared for animosity and wariness on the part of community members who see us as outsiders. It helps to go in without assumptions, as Mr. Mundra said: observing, but not judging.

Our assignment this afternoon, given to us by Akanksha, was to take two hours in the community to complete a kind of scavenger hunt in small groups. Our goals were experiences, not tangible objects-- things like finding the cheapest oranges in the community, faking an ailment and visiting a doctor, using a public toilet, and finding the oldest person in the community. My group was able to complete most of the tasks fairly quickly, so we spent the remainder of our time interacting with community members, even visiting some of their houses.

I never cease to be surprised by the generosity of these people. When we visited the homes of STCI students last Friday, their parents were very welcoming to us, but part of me wondered if they only were so open and inviting because they had already known we were coming. I now know that this is not the case; on many occasions today, I was invited with open arms into a stranger’s house (a stranger who did not expect me), where I was offered food, told stories, and allowed to play with the family’s kids. This kindness always surprises and touches me. That I should be shown such patience and consideration, when it would be easier (and completely justifiable) to greet me with anger or disdain, is a rare and meaningful thing.

On a side note, I think it is getting hard for a lot of us PA kids—many of us are battling sicknesses, allergies, sleep deprivation, and the difficulties of dietary adjustment. On top of it all, we are 8,000 miles away from home and are no longer running off adrenaline. We’ve settled into a pattern here and are slowly but surely beginning to realize how very over our heads much of this experience is. I think it will take a lot of perseverance for us to continue to get as much out of this trip as we possibly can, but I have no doubts that we all have it in us. We’ve proven it again and again already, and I can only believe it will get better. Our willingness to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into yet another challenging and nervewracking experience today was again an example of the drive and strong character of each and every person on this trip that makes me honored to share this experience with them.

Anabel

Today was busy and the first day we've really had an opportunity to be involved in our projects and see the city of Mumbai. Just to give you a quick overview of what we did, we visited the first NGO site we're working with (Save the Children India), went to pray at both the Siddhi Vinayaka temple and the Haji Ali mosque, went out to dinner, and then came back to the guest house at the Godrej complex, where I'm writing this now.

I think it's testament to the kind of learning we're doing here that our first activity of the morning was a group discussion of religion at breakfast. We have Muslim, Hindi, Jewish and Christian kids on the trip, so that variety made for a lively discussion and I know that I at least learned a great deal about all of the religions. I continue to be surprised and excited about how much the American and Indian students have to offer each other, and moreover, how willing both parties are to share their cultures truthfully.

Our visit to Save the Children India, which was our next activity of the day, will always stand out in my memory as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Despite arriving almost a half hour earlier than expected, when we entered the school we were greeted by a long line of boys and girls dressed in green pants or dresses and green checked shirts. We all made our way down the line, and were given a red tika on our foreheads, as well as a rose. We then proceeded to an orientation with the director of the school, Dr. Anand (who, interestingly enough, has an extensive knowledge of Pink Floyd's greatest hits), and several of her leading administrators. STCI was begun over 25 years ago, and serves children from nearby slums with mental disabilities and hearing problems. The other piece of the organization to which we were introduced was Save Our Sisters, a branch of STCI which caters to female survivors of sex trafficking. We got to meet the girls who are currently in their rehabilitation program, and with the translating help of our awesome colleagues from the Udayachal school, we were able to talk with them, and afterwards many of us purchased candles, hand-decorated folders, and fabric flowers that the girls had made. We also ate lunch there in the school cafeteria and spent about a half hour getting acquainted with the younger students with whom we will be working over the next two days. We have split ourselves into four groups, and each group will work with the kids on four different activities during our time at STIC: art, theatre, dance, and computers. I'm working with Tessa, Saloni, and Aishwarya with the dance program, and we had a blast just getting the kids moving and having fun. I was surprised how outgoing our students became even in the short half hour we were with them. At the beginning, they were very shy and just looked at us, expecting something from us that we definitely weren't yet prepared to give. I also faced an additional difficulty in that I do not speak Hindi, and the STCI students do not speak English. They weren't the only ones having to overcome shyness, and initially I struggled to find ways to communicate with them without words. At our earlier orientation, Dr. Anand had told us that we would purposefully not have translators in the room, since she wanted us to "speak from the heart". As I helped lead the kids in stretches and movement games, I realized that a lot was being communicated between us, and no words had yet been spoken.

After that, we headed into Mumbai and visited the temple. It was in downtown Mumbai, and having arrived there we were fortunate enough to have VIP passes so we could bypass the long lines of hundreds of people waiting to pray which stretched down the street. We got into the temple and approached the idol of Ganesha, and the fervor of worship was overwhelming. There was a strong smell of incense, and the lights were bright and seemed even more so due to the vibrant colors of the room. And the people! There were so many packed into the room, and they were herded in and out quickly by attendants trying to ensure that everyone got a chance to view the idol. In exchange for our offerings of flowers and other things, we were given sweets made of nut pastes and cornmeal by the priests, which were delicious.

The mosque was beautiful. It stands at the end of a long walkway which stretches into the Arabian Sea and ends at the structure itself. Built in 1651, it is white and marble and definitely feels its age. The walkway was lined with beggars and street vendors and (to my great surprise) wild goats. The poverty was heartbreaking to me, and I'm a little nervous knowing that this is the first of many days that we will have to confront it. I was also surprised that there were vendors so close to a place of worship. I guess I had assumed that they would be prohibited from selling their stuff so close to the mosque, but that was definitely not the case. Seeing a fully operational mosque was neat, I think especially for us PA kids who spent an entire term learning about Islam in History 100 during freshman year. I also enjoyed it because Islam is a pretty hot-button topic in America right now, and I liked being able to experience it in a place where it is not really the exception to the religious rule, and therefore not surrounded by prejudice. We also took lots of embarrassing tourist photos.

The last thing we did today was eat a tasty dinner at a restaurant in town. I'm growing to love Indian food more and more, and today was no exception (tip: order both naan and roti. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the restaurant, and as the food arrived our collective relaxation and gratitude was palpable.

Now I'm exhausted, and will head off to bed. I'm hoping this is just the first of many eye-opening, fun, and fulfilling days we will have in Mumbai.

--Anabel