TravelStream™ news feed for member gseindia on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gseindia en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:48:26 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1230331320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1230331320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1230331320/tpod.html Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:48:26 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Happy Holidays everyone! We are home and safe. I'm currently in MD with my family. I transformed one of my grandmothers' bedrooms into "World India" yesterday and shared with family and friends a little about our trip. Now it's time to sort photos and make some art. I'll post some more photos when I get home. I look forward to talking about the trip so feel free to set a date with me in the next few months!

Here's to a New Year!

Be Blessed,
Jessi
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Vapi, Gujarat, India

It hard to believe this trip will be over soon! Currently, I'm staying with Alpa and Snehul along with their son, Rimul. They have a beautiful penthouse and are extremely accommodating. Today Hamilton and I went to Alpa's school and interacted with some fourth graders. I told them about camp then taught them the "human knot" game which they seemed to enjoy. Hamilton wowed them with his pot-throwing abilities. I'm havign some technical difficulties uploading pics, but will ASAP.

Yesterday I spent some time with the head of the MAA Foundation, a privately-funded NGO who's slogan is "If you want to change the world, start in a small corner." They provide scholarships, have developed career advising technology, offer para-teacher training and many other services to answer the tough issues facing education in Gujurat's rural areas. MAA Foundation incorporates real business sense into it's execution, and hopes to further develop a model that can be used in other parts of India.

Afterwards, Frank and I palled around with our new artist friend Panchal - a 70 year young man who makes "scrap art." He is self-taught and produces vibrant works the incorporate litter (believe me, this is an unending resource in these parts). Clearly, his works are inspired by this industrial town. He is looking for sponsors so that he can come make ann show his art in our area - all he needs is a bed and a 10 by 10 space to create in!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227952260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227952260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227952260/tpod.html Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:38:42 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Anklesvar, Gujarat, India

From Frank:

For some of us, this was our first Thanksgiving away from home. Fortunately, we were in good company. The Kulkani family -- Nikhil, Aditi, Coustabh and Aniket -- welcomed us into their home with open arms and tandoori. Knowing it was Thanksgiving, the family cooked a meal of tandoor butter chicken and fresh fish, accompanied by a batch of fresh pineapple juice.

With Mumbai having suffered heinous terrorist attacks just that morning, anxiety was planted firmly in the backs of our minds. Though we'd been here nearly a week by this point, we'd never felt further from home. This meal with new friends (and a family, for that matter) helped us feel not necessarily at our homes, but at home.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1229173320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1229173320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1229173320/tpod.html Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:25:10 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Vapi, Gujarat, India

From Frank:

The concept of scheduling has gone by the wayside, much like the tomato truck we saw smashed into a tree in the Ankleshwar countryside, but with less carnage and no chance of saucy humor (no one was injured seriously that we know of). But, much like the myriad tomatoes flung from that truckbed, we've learned to roll along without too much bruising. We're now in the industrial city of Vapi, where we'll be rooming with two more host families (not at once) before we depart for the Rotary conference in Daman, and from there back home.

In the meantime, what Vapi apparently has in store for us is more vocational days. I attended a press conference with the general manager of a local news station. We interviewed the executive magistrate, more or less a mayoral position, and I felt strangely at home, until the cameras and microphones were turned on us. Since Dr. Volk and I had already conducted an interview, I felt it only fair that we afford our fellow team members an equal opportunity. Hamilton and Jessi stepped up to deliver their thoughts in a manner befitting Tom Brokaw in the midst of a night terror.

From there, we dined at the Hotel Supreme (most roadside hotels are simply restaurants here, though you'll likely find people sleeping there anyway) on a variety of vegetarian fare, including our newfound favorite, Veg 65. Though its name resembles a '70s era sci-fi movie with unitards and Charlton Heston, it's quite the delicious appetizer. The simple explanation is "marinated carrots," but it's touched us on a much deeper level. Jeffrey especially.

From there, our vocational journey continued, as we first stopped at a potters' community -- 14 houses shared by a group of potters, a profession that has its own caste. Like western pottery, Indian potters use wheels, only they're motorized by a balancing act and a stick, bearing more resemblence to a spinning top than a modern potter's wheel. Hamilton's vocational day continued with a visit to a brick-making yard, followed by a stop at a statue-maker's residence, where he and his brother make statues of Ganesh, the Indian god of new ventures and good fortune.

We're not quite sure what tomorrow has in store. We do have a schedule, meaning we must abandon it completely and simply expect the unexpected. Till then.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228909140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228909140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228909140/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:41:50 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Silvassa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, India

From Hamilton: Not enough time for a proper entry, but here are some photos of the past week or so.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228584480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228584480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1228584480/tpod.html Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:04:02 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Navsari, Gujarat, India

Hello Everyone -


We're currently in Navsari - a beautiful little city with farming villages surrounding it. Today was a busy one. By the treatment we received, you'd think we were famous - rose petals thrown at us, red carpets, constant photos being snapped, kids asking for our autographs.........Of course, it's not about us, but Rotary, and all the social programs it is providing here. We've been to several Rotary-run schools, hospitals, water treatment plants, as well as a prosthetic shop, pharmacology college, and many others.

While based in Dhule a few days ago, we ventured to the Ellora and Ajanta Caves and a fort - google them and be amazed. Definitely a worthwhile sidetrip.

We're officially halfway through our trip!
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Baroda, Gujarat, India

This NGO was started by a woman who invested her own money and time into teaching deaf, mute and differently abled people who to sew purses, address books and more. They work in a relaxed, comfortable environment for a per-day wage.
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Bharuch, Gujarat, India

We were only in Baruch for 2 nights, but what fun!As always, the people bent over backwards to make us feel welcome. My host was Neeru Randhawa, a funloving woman who loves to force-feed me ;-). Her son, Pratek, niece Keerin, and friend Aleyfia as well as many other family members made this a warm place to be.

We went to see a temple, all hand-carved, as well as a medical center run by Rotary and a peanut factory.The peanut factory tour gave us an inside look at the workers' conditions and it was quite an educational experience to see what goes into making a simple bag of peanuts.

Our time at Bharuch ended with a concert by Palash and Palak, a brother and sister pair who raise money (like, milllions) for charity. We were all pulled up onto stage at least once to dance, and I'm sure some incrimnating videos will surface soon ;-). I got my journal autographed by these kids - they wrote: "The way to God is serve mankind" and "the world is a camera, keep smiling." Sweet kids.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227610440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227610440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gseindia/1/1227610440/tpod.html Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:50:21 -0500 GSE Team India 2008: District 7670 to District 3060

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Baroda, Gujarat, India

My first vocational day was a great one! Olak Desai introduced me to Ravindraa Shinde, a potter who works as a designer in Olak's firm. Ravindraa and I sat around getting acquainted by looking at each other's pottery photos, then hit the town. Ravindraa first took me to meet a well-regarded potter the he knows, a National Award Winner. We climbed into one of the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws that are all over the city and headed out. I was a bit surprised when we pulled off the road beside one of the sprawling slums that fill in the gaps of the city. These are smokey, smelly shanty towns where row upon row of tin, wood, and straw shacks house the inumerable masses of poor and otherwise homeless denizens of the city. The lanes between huts are now and winding, and latrines are somewhat where anyone happens to be when the call of nature arrives. Ravindraa left me for a few moments to make sure the potter was in and available, but soon returned to bring me to the right hut. We walked about about 200 yards into the slum, fortunately a straight shot at the edge of the shacks and entered into a small, dark hovel crowded with upright bed frames and other seeming junk. The potter was an elderly man, maybe 75 years old, by the name of Gauri Shanker. He was not the slightest bit frail-looking, but he moved slowly as if each step ached. He enjoys visits from other potters and had me sit in the single chair while we talked using Ravindraa as translator. Gauri lives and works in this shack except when he is invited to teach at a college or university in the surrounding states. He showed us a letter of invitation to one such occassion, but sadly the letter had reached him a few days after the event had occurred.

After a bit of talk, the old potter sat down and showed me the use of his wheel and demonstrated throwing several pots. The wheel is low to the ground, and Gauri has to squat and reach across to the middle of the wheel to center and shape the clay. The wheel is spun with a pointed stick that fits into any of a series of holes around the edge of the wheel. A few good turns of the stick and he quickly shapes the clay into small jar. After several such pieces, Gauri invites Ravindraa and I to drink some tea with him. A young girl appears out of the shadowy room behind Gauri and dashes out the door and off into another part of the slum. After she exits, some children who had begun to linger outside the hut drop any semblence of disinterest and begin to crowd the doorway to see what business this clean, pale American might have with the elder potter.

While the girl is off fetching tea, from where I don't care to think of, Gauri shows me some of his finished pots, glossy black pieces with some sort of silvery decoration here and there. The pots are made of local clay and are fired a few feet from the hut in a shallow pit kiln fired with dried cow dung, stack of which are plentiful in the area. The pit is filled with dung, then stacked with some pots, then more dung, then more pots until a sufficiently sandwich pile has been erected. Then the stack is covered over with more dung and some wood then encased in broken pottery shards. It takes the better part of a day for the kiln to fire, provided it is not raining. I ask Sauri about the silver decoration so he demonstrates by grabbing finished pot without decoration and scratches a quick design into one part of the surface. He then spends some time searching for a rag in which some small materials have been stored. He pulls out a dull grey metal and begins to work it into the scratched design. The material quick fills in the scratches and a little polishing begins to bring out the shine. I ask him what the material is, and the potter finds another rag and pulls out a small vial. He opens it and pours out shiny liquid metal directly into his palm. The substance can only be mercury, and I shrug back as he offers to pour some in my hand. He explains that one can dilute the substance in water to make it workable, but that it retains its shine even through the dung firing.

After the girl brings the tea back and we sip it while talking more, I purchase a few pieces. Outside, we snap a few pictures and depart with many thanks to the old potter. We stop by a pottery market where I purchase one piece that has elephants on it.

I've run out of time for now... but I will finish this another time.
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Baroda, Gujarat, India

Muni Seva Ashram is out in the country, close to Baroda. It was started by one woman, who decided to go against the grain and help the villagers there. 30 years later, it has one of the best medial facilities in Gujurat, as well as a nursing home, a home for adult mentally ill women, a nursing school and many other projects to serve the people. All the money has been donated and treatments for cancer and other illnesses are given at little to no cost.
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