Field Trip!

Today was quite a day, and I am still in the process of thinking about it. I will try to paint a clear picture to all of you.

           

We got up, and went to St. Xavier’s College to meet up with the rest of the ITSA team. We met up with Bina Mam, who helps slum dwellers fight for their land and rights. The government is constantly trying to destroy the slums, and relocate the dwellers, but she tries to get legal aid to those living in the slums, so that they can take the government to court.

The first stop on the trip was the “Hollywood” slum, as they are called because the women that live there are especially beautiful, and their amazing jewelry (nose rings, toe rings, anklets, bracelets; you name it, they were wearing it). They told us the history of how they came to be on that spot of land, and their struggles with the government. Many of their houses have been torn down, but they just keep rebuilding. They don’t actually know who owns the land that they are living on, and the government still hasn’t told them. But they are the seventh generation of people in that slum! They also said that they were known for being very honest people, which has helped them in the eyes of the law.

They have upcoming trials, which they have been preparing for. We wish them the best!

They were all so amazingly warm and kind. They were very open about the struggles they have faced, but they still were optimistic about the future. Compared to some of the communities that we saw later today, and which I will talk about in a different post, these people were very united. They acknowledged that there are several different denominations within one slum, but they all agree to come together and join forces against the government who is trying to destroy all of their homes. This was a sharp juxtaposition with other internally displaced people that we also visited later in the day. 

Their trade is to make Ganesh idols, and other Hindu gods. The city needs them to do this, but they just want to get rid of their "ugly" homes. 

Slums do look ugly from the outside, but once you are inside, you can see that it is a lively thriving community. People were happy to show us their homes, and allowed me to take pictures of them. I will leave you with some of the best from the day!

A day of ITSA-ing!

Just another day at the ITSA headquarters in Ahmedabad by team member, Arden Feil:

        This morning I arrived at Riana’s apartment around 11am to find the rest of the interns busy working on their curriculums for this Friday’s workshop. I quickly joined up with the rest of the Social Action and Justice team and we got to work planning for the workshop. 

Squeezed into the ITSA mobile!

Our upcoming session will cover gender issues and we made considerable progress in designing activities around the topic. After a nice lunch we all headed over the apartment in Paldi to continue working. Admittedly, by that point we were all a bit exhausted, so we were not nearly as productive as we had been in the morning. We relaxed and napped for a while (some of us even went in search of coconuts!) 


We did get a good amount of work time in too, and our lesson plan is pretty much complete for Friday. At about 6pm Riana and some of the India interns came and drove us over to Law Garden—a big outdoor market with vendors selling tapestries, clothing, and jewelry. It was definitely hectic and overwhelming, but also very exciting and exhilarating. A lot of the interns, including myself, found nice gifts to bring back for our friends and family. 

Colors! Colors! Colors!

Tejas helping navigate multiple sellers at the same time!

Neil getting his bargain on!

 We left the market just as it was getting dark and went to Swatti Snacks for dinner. We ordered a bunch of different dishes, which were all delicious and interesting to try. I’m now back at my host family’s house where I am enjoying some of my last nights before I move into the apartment in Paldi with the rest of the interns. Today was pretty calm and easy going; we got time to just hang around as well as have valuable preparation time. I think I speak for all of the interns when I say today was one of many great days we’ve had in 

Riana demonstrating to us the special technique to Pani Puri eating!

The Swatties (Swarthmore College students) pose under Swati snacks!

Historic Tour of Old City-Ana

Hello Bloggers!

So, today, on our seventh day in India, we went on a historic walk in the old part of the city. Similar to when one walks into China Town in NYC, the density of the people immediately quadrupled. Crossing the street involved ducking and running for your life, and walking in a straight line involved turning  sideways, and moving ones legs in a manner resembling the minister of silly walks (Monty Python). However, chaos aside, the old city was everything about India that one imagines. It started in a beautiful old temple where men and women were separated by a partition, and where the sounds of bells and Gujarati rose, and floated in the air above us. Then it led us through tiny streets from the 14th century with secret passageways that connected courtyards, and finally to a mosque (Gujarat is a muslim state), where we were met with stern stares, curiosity, and suspicion. Unsurprisingly, for a bunch of high school kids from the city, this experience was simply incredible, amazing, fantastic, superb, and any other adjective you could think of to describe something so unbelievable. So, without further ado, the picture of a (not too ecstatic to be photographed) Jain monk, exiting a smal temple...

The ice man (attacking his ice with admirable determination), who we saw in the narrow streets leading to the mosque...

And, finally, a beautiful woman (with a, might I say, incredibly subtle nose ring), in the temple at the beginning of our tour.
More to come, anxious bloggers (shout out to our 7 followers)! Love, Ana