Hi All,

It is wonderful to read your experiences in India, especially the volunteering experience in the organisation you are working.

Iam completing my first volunteer cycle and getting ready for the next. It was heart warming experience to see you all enjoying your field visits at Bangalore. Six of you already completed your time and left some wonderful mark behind inspite some of the hiccups you might have experienced . I also got some case studies from this experience.... ( : just kidding.

Life after Saahil

Hi Everyone

Hope you are all well? It has been a busy few days since Saahil's has left!! We are coping, just about!!!

I have been at AWAG's other office undertaking interviews with women who have been helped by AWAG. One of the women I had met now provides most of the legal assistance in court. It was much more difficult than I have anticipated. I am still trying to figure out where to begin writing the stories! It has really confirmed to me that AWAG do some amazing work. Work on the website is going really well ... we got some great feedback and some useful ideas. I am trying my best not to mess too much with the template (although Saahil you may have to give it a once over before it goes live!!!)

How is everyone else's placement coming along? I think some of you have now finished? Tina did you have fun in Calcutta? I was very nearly going to be there this weekend, but have decided not to go now! Am going to save my travelling for when I finish in mid September now! Saahil is now travelling around Delhi (I think), but has promised to pop back later this month as his return flight to London is from here. He has been missed by all ... since he was the only guy in the office!

Happy Independence Day for the 15th everyone!!!

Bye for now!
Nisha xx

Hello all: Slums, rural poverty, and cocktail parties.

Slums, rural poverty, and cocktail parties.

That's pretty much my experience of bangalore so far in a nutshell. To pretend each day of NGO working life was a trauma and an endurance test would be disingenuous.

It's been great here at the Belaku trust so far. An article about a day at the local theatre has appeared in the Hindu Times, and I've been poked by viji into posting it here. It's very exciting. They mentioned my name. Given that the last few times (!) me and Sneh have ended up in the Bangalore press has been for us attending one swanky opening party or another, this article goes some way to atone for all that and make it look like we actually do a job here. Ahem.

(Nb- Sneh found herself on the FRONT PAGE of the Bangalore times last week!)

Belaku does some awesome work- they have links with Anganwaris (Kindergartens) in the villages south of Bglr, and they do things like train teachers, provide health checks and, occasionally, ship a few dozen kids somewhere interesting to expand thier minds: as I see it, this is one of the most high impact things you can do for Indian development.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/04/stories/2009080458710200.htm

The article fails to mention that the group of kids we brought spoke no english, were wide eyed and gleeful about their first experience of the city, and largely turned up barefoot. Literally, a 2hour bus ride and then an auto to the venue with not a bata chappal in sight. Grinning like it was their birthday. (they don't generally know when this actually is, so this was as good a day as any... ;)

Anyway, encouraging them to run around acting out different scenarios and generally misbehave was super-fun, and made me realise that these kids had potential to be rocket scientists and definitely silver screen actors! How do you help them a) aim that high and b) fulfil that dream?

Well, that was me actually writing a blog entry, and I might just make more of an effort on this from now on! Am trying to get a new website sorted, a catalogue made and much more done here before I go- time is flying!

Will keep you posted- nice to hear your stories too :)

Samina xx

Goodbye to Guju Town

Hi everyone,

After spending a month working with AWAG my placement has ended. It has been a tough month full of ups and downs but overall it has been an amazing experience. The picture above shows the younger part of the AWAG team. The man sitting next to me (Amitbhai) was a truely inspirational man. He was always full of helpful advice and one night even read my palm. He somehow correctly guessed a lot about my personality after only meeting me for the second time and then gave me some guidance for the future. I should stay away from water, not go into a business partnership, not go into an economics based career but instead use my creative/artistic tallents more. More importantly he said I would be married at the age of 23 :-S hmmm...

I am traveling around India for the next few weeks but I look forward to seeing everyone again once I get back to London!

Take care

Saahil.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

The rain is all over us here in London..but as I write this the sun seems to have miraculously come out again. You guys are not the only ones getting the monsoon rains!

Did you know... 'The English monsoon came from Portuguese monção, ultimately from Arabic mawsim (موسم "season"), "perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monsun".The Arabic-origin word mausam (मौसम, موسم) is also the word for "weather" in Hindi, Urdu, and several other North Indian languages'. Thank you Wiki :) And that 'A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind that lasts for several months, caused by the development of a thermal low over a land mass normally within the subtropics' So it's all about the wind, but that brings in the rain so I guess we tend to relate it rains.

Oh yeah, the the picture is all about how rain is produced!

Where has all the rain gone?

Are any of you getting any rain?

I only ask, because it appeared that the monsoon had arrived with a vengeance in Delhi on Monday night. It poured non-stop for several hours, flooding roads and underpasses, causing chaos, gridlock and insufferably long commutes to work the next morning.

Mercifully, it got abit cooler and everyone was rejoicing, saying the monsoon had arrived.

Three days later, there's been nothing. Diddly squat. Nada. Zilch.

And the temperatures are creeping up again......

Like I said before: where has all the rain gone?!!