Sangooola after 1 week

So it is the beginning of my second week in Sangola, a small town in a draught-prone region of rural Maharashtra (central western state of India).

I’m just getting over this nausea-vomiting- body ache bug. Woah, did I ever feel horrible. Nice to be surrounded by 5 doctors! [the director of the organization I’m working with is a doctor, and her family clinic (with her husband, son, and daughter-in law all as doctors) is across the street. Oh and the mobile health clinic they run is parked right in front of my guestroom with another doctor!]…So at least I’m being taken care of.

There were quite a few things that shocked me about this place the first few days. Some things I had forgotten about…

Namely,

· just how dusty this place is (e.g. at the end of the day, you have a generous helping of dust on the folds of your elbows)

· How ‘clean’ is a very relative term

· How ‘bed’ is also a relative term (metal cot with a 1inch ‘mattress’)

· How my guestroom, hard as it is for me to adapt to, is quite privileged by comparison to the local norm (I have a bathroom and running water (undrinkable to me), 2 beds, space, and an ‘inverter’ which allows me to have a light and a fan during the 6 hr /day power outages)

· In case you didn’t catch that: no electricity 6 hours per day, everyday. At least this time there is a schedule so you can plan out your power needs. (in more remote villages it goes up to 12 hours/day)

· People’s frankness…while ppl are very chaleureux, generous, and really happy to see me and be with me, they are pretty frikkin honest about certain things which I’m not used to… About 10 ppl told me bluntly that I got fat from 3 yrs ago. This varied from “you got healthy” to “3 yrs ago you were beautiful and now you are fat”. I told them to give me a few weeks of diarrhea and vomiting to lose 10 pounds ;)…

Whatever, more hilarious than hurtful. And I should say that these are the same ppl that constantly give me compliments on how I’m dressed with matching bangles and bindis…

o Not having grown up with brothers and sisters it’s really nice to have kids coming in and out of the guestroom calling me ‘Milena Tai’ (big sister)

o Most ppl here (99%) eat on the floor, with their hands. In one room homes for 5 ppl, there isn’t much room for a table, so the floor is multi-purpose. And richer families that can afford tables say it keeps them human (returning to the earth, being part of the earth).

o I’ve got to say that I forgot just how fragrant the open gutters of Sangola are :s, on top of goat, cow, and donkey dung sprinkled throughout the town as well as in the parking lot in front of my guestroom. Did I mention ppl throw garbage everywhere? Oh, and garbage management = setting garbage on fire. Great for your health and environment.

o Ridiculous roads and driving, it’s a wonder I’m still alive. Lanes don’t exist, and honking is the only rule.

o Coffee here means: MILK + SUGAR + coffee powder

But the women of the organization are just wonderful. 10 big sisters/aunts/mothers.

In terms of my research, so far I’ve been informally talking to MBUP workers, get accustomed to the town (biggest chunk!), and attending their various activities:

· Cluster development program: supporting local artisans through training and links to markets

· Aarogyadoot: Mobile Health Clinic for remote areas. Scheduled to go this past week, but the monsoon rain damaged the roads and could not support the bus!

· MBUP primary school held a training / personality development of rural children from remote areas of the district. The program is based on the survey I worked on 3 years ago. There are only boys for now b/c it is ‘simpler’ in the pilot phase, ‘and then we’ll see’…hm. For further investigation.

My first official interview was last night.

Keep in touch,

Milena Norveeti