Adventure Land *updated--photos*

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Lately, it seems I have been doing less exciting stuff as my student life here in Delhi picks up. Though everyday I experience small and exciting (and challenging) adventures. It is only 8:30 here in Delhi and already I have had two great moments. One when I was swiping my metro card through the metro gate: When I swiped, the gate refused my card at first. I began to move over to the next gate where a man was also about to swipe his card through. He saw me coming and said, “Ap Karo,” telling me that my post now worked and to go back to it. Whenever people automatically speak to me in Hindi, I like to think that they see me as an Indian, since I have dark hair and a big nose and all. I later looked up what he said to me in my Hindi notebook and he said “You do.”

My second adventure today was when I was hailing an auto from the metro. I flagged down an auto and when he came over I told him in my broken Hindi, “Nizzamuddin East, railroad Station ke pas.” He continued to answer in Hindi and I continued to reply, “han, han,” which is “yes, yes.” I was very proud of myself. Then when I arrived at my school, I had to ask for change; my driver was trying to tell me, in Hindi, that if I gave him a ten he would give me a twenty (it was 40 rs, I gave him a 100 rupee, and he gave me a 50 rupee and I need 10 more.) Remembering the fact that anytime someone starts talking numbers I revert to my math phobia and math ineptness, I love having math conversations in Hindi. (It’s much better than tying to understand “regression tables for dummies” in my economics class…I think I prefer Hindi math conversations…)

Aside from my morning adventures, this weekend was a full blown adventure! My economics class explores India’s socio-economic development through examining education, health and health infrastructure, the Employment Guarantee Act, and microfinancing among the poor. While trying to get a grasp of India as a whole, we look to the heart of rural India to see exactly how India’s new social and economic policies affect and help the poor and extremely poor living in the villages. Thus, I spent this weekend in Haryana on a class field trip. Haryana is one of India’s richest states; economically it is doing very well but, it is not doing as well socially. There is a large sum of people living at and below $1 dollar a day. My class visited several villages within Haryana; the part of Haryana we were in was the Meirot Block, in the Malokhra village. Let me try and explain, though I still don’t fully grasp it. India’s government (s) go(es) in this order, from top to bottom. At the top is the Indian government, the “center”, then it goes: the states, the districts within the states, the blocks that make up each district, the “Tahsil,” which is a part of the local government that is comprised of the Panchai. The Panchai are 5 elected officials (think wise elders.) Within the Panchai is the Sarpanch, who is the leader/go to guy of the Panchai. (Spellings of the above listings may be incorrect.)

During the weekend, my class visited a local school of primary and middle school education, a hospital, talked with a Sarpunch about the affects of the Employment Guarantee Act, and talked with a group of women about how they established their inner group loans and monetary support system. The school was very interesting. The Indian government funds schools in certain ways, such as once there are 300 students in primary school, the school is granted money to build a middle school; the schools are also given money to feed the students lunches. To quote my teacher, the schools are just another way that shows India’s corruptness. For example, all schools must have boundary walls that enclose the school. However, most schools don’t have boundary walls, instead the school officials will ask for money to build, say, more classrooms. Then, instead of building classrooms that are 100% finished or adequate, the money will be pocketed by school officials. When we visited the school there was supposedly teaching occurring. However, all the students were running around the dirt courtyard and coming over to us to see what was going on. It is hard to know whether it was an off day, since a couple teachers were the ones talking to us, or if it was a usual day. When the midday meal was served all the children gathered around a huge metal pot full of rice and vegetables. The students are responsible for bringing their own dishes and silver ware to eat with. However this is an obvious as not all children have them. Some children were eating off of ripped off notebook. One thing that I was impressed with, and am now going to concentrate on for my class project, is that this school did offer certain accommodations to children with special needs. Well, maybe not accommodations per se, but the children participate in Special Olympic programs that are held at the local, state, and national level.

The hospital was…well let me put it this way: I got extremely sick the morning that we left for Haryana. I had gotten Delhi Belly (aka the runs) the day before. I thought it was over but it wasn’t; the entire bus ride I was throwing up and very uncomfortable. I did get better. When I saw the hospital, I made sure to tell everyone that if anything happened to me, just to drive the two hours back to Delhi. I’d rather die of dehydration that gang green. I can describe what the hospital looked like in three words: World War II.

Talking with the local Sarpunch about how the Employment Guarantee Act is working was enlightening on how the Indian government operates. The act is great in theory, but completely incompetent in practice. The act is supposed to provide 100 days of work for the poor so as to give them a way to support themselves. There are many problems with this on how workers hours and work is recorded to when the workers are paid. In recent times, there have been many complications with paying the workers; sometimes it is several months before workers receive their payments. Of course, if you need food and supplies “now,” you cannot afford to work when you won’t be paid right away…

I really enjoyed our talk with the local women. The woman we talked to was very educated compared to the other women; she had graduated from 12^th grade and received her BA (in what I am not sure.) Most women in the village we visited do not go past 5^th grade. It was definitely her education and her ability to read, write, and do math that made it possible for her and the other women to start up their self help group. What happens is that a group of (usually) women come together and put it about 100 rs. They go to a bank and take out a loan. Eventually they have enough money to loan it amongst themselves. For example, if one woman’s family has an ill child and needs expensive medicine, or if another family wants to buy a cow as a wedding present for someone, they can borrow money from the collective pot. Of course they have to pay it back with interest over time. This woman showed us meticulously kept money books that listed the incoming and outgoing expenses over the years.

Well, I have written a lot and I still fill like I only skimmed the surface of this past weekend. I will put pictures up of the weekend soon.