Me Swades Holland??

Hi everyone,

First one remark about calling; if you want to call me, try to call multiple times behind each other. I got a lot of advertisements calls, so I don’t pick up fast…(the number is 0091 9711079858 only when I'm in Chandrapur)

Here’s an update about how things go on here. Whilest writing this, I lie on the matras, in front of the telly, playing hindi songs. just had a nice cup of hot chai (enormously sweet here!).

Last Thursday, after Dabis left, I went to a sort of municipality archive to retain maps for the waterproject. It was a funny experience to see how a municipality here in India looks and how the people work here. (or better to say: not working). First office we went trough some gates with guards, then into a sort of office room where men and some woman were seating and looks like they where doing nothing. When foreigners coming always a chair is available for you. And then telling what you want. They were talking about that I probably would need letters of permission. Here they are crazy about official paperwork, preferably in 10 copies and with multiple stamps on it. That looks impressive…Aha.. They were sending me to another office. And there I tried a new strategy. I called myself the tutor of the project and I’m working in landscape engineering. Then I made it to meet a geologist and he started talking about the chemical contents of the water and the physics of the stones..uhm then I feel a real beta…and then try to explain what my subject is about. Uhm landscape architect..Yeah in India…hihi…but it gives me a good insight of how working here for a municipality could look like. Also it comes to me that showing knowledge and having a Msc degree is very important here. Though I have a Msc degree, here that is considered that you have studied something like physics or maths. Being Msc without having knowledge available, but only understanding these matters, is hard to explain here. Also the knowledge I have is hard to show in an office, but I notice that it is useful too when it comes to the water project, as being attentive on landscape forms, soil and rock types and so. But designing public space here….uhm..very difficult I think.

Thursday evening I went to Mohurli with the plan to stay there till Christmass. Friday and Saturday I went with Ramrao on the bike out to visit villages. Trying to do some nature lessons and research for the water project. I go on the backside of the motorbike and then we drive up to the small villages. There we stop at the well where the village-woman are busy getting water up. Then I ask questions and Ramrao is translating them in Marathi. Also we went to a school to tell about the jungle and why it is important to take good care of that.

When I’m in the house, a girl, Meena comes, to take care of the household; making the food, doing some washing and cleaning. Whilst we’re not Indians, but volunteers we are supposed to give a hand. But it is not easy; after being a day away I’m tired and the first thing I want is to relax for a while, then she can’t speak any English word is only cooking spicey foods, as she don’t know how to make other foods. And then being used to be in dependable (and a bit highly sensitive) then it’s not easy! When I was trying to get more in charge to try to get what I want (different food, telling not to come in morning time, or that I cook dinner) she wasn’t listening.  Probably because she’s afraid to make mistakes, but it make me felt miserable.

In their eyes I’m probably a bad woman. I can’t make food, don’t know how to do dishes or washing and not behaving as a good Indian woman. On top of that I’m already “old” en unmarried…and I cannot even run a household... The woman in the village there are the complete day busy with the household. Average it takes a bit more time as in Holland, but some also have maids for washing. Rest of the time is spent in front of the telly (playing bollywood music songs) or sipping on a supari on the doorsteps. In two days I would feel very bored of that…but they don’t know better. And it can be ‘worse’, as they don’t have to do hard work in the fields, which the farmer people have to do. And having this image in mind and big cities as Mumbai or Delhi, then now I become more to understand the meaning of the big differences, and also the position of female in India.

But as I was having diarrhea since last Tuesday, by Sunday I was almost dry-out, without really knowing myself. When things went wrong with Meena again, I was having a moment of cry. Only, in Holland you can go into your room and know one knows. But here half the village was caring for me and asking and being nice, but no speaking English, so that wasn’t helping, making it only worse. And they thought all the time that I was sick, while I was feeling terrible because of the misunderstanding and having no time on my own/doing things the way I want and a lack of sleep. They send me back to Chandrapur, where Shannoo was a bit scared of how I look I guess. She put me on the matres and gave me ORS. Then I realized how far dried up I was and how bad I was feeling. So after a good bad, and liters of ORS I felt a lot better. I decided to stay in Chandrapur and going by bike to Mohurli everyday to work till Christmas. So that’s what I did the past two days and that worked a lot better for me. Today I have a sort of relaxing day; some time to work on the waterproject, doing some emailing and watching a movie.

Past two days whe gave nature lessons at two schools. The first one was a big school and the second very small. Some things are astonishing for me. The schools in the villages are government schools and teachers get paid whatever they do. There is no control on the quality of their work. That means that they come whenever they want, or go and I never got into a class seeing them teaching. The kids were always outside playing or not even there, because the teacher comes late everyday. Then it seems pretty normal to hit the children. When something is not going fast enough, or when the child doesn’t understand what the teacher want. Also one girl was crying, because she was afraid that I was a doctor who came to give injections. (Zo wordt artsen zonder grensen dus ongeveer ervaren.) Also a lot of children don’t come to school, as they don’t want to. And there parents are illiterated too so, they are not making them going. Also hitting among the children or pushing seems very normal. (you need these skills when you go into a big city or train; (so ‘jong geleerd is oud gedaan..of zoiets’ ).

But still I’m really touched by the way the Indians they are looking, doing, smiling and living their lives. I could not do it. …