Getting Started

June 6, 2009

Monsoon season has officially started. As Alex John, Jen, Krishnan, Alex N., and Bronson and I left the boys guest house last night to go out to dinner, we felt the first of many rain drops fall on our heads for the summer. It was a very light rain, that Krishnan said was a deceiving preview to what would soon be thunder and lightening storms with horizontal rain due to heavy winds. During the monsoon season we are to expect about four hours of cumulative power outage throughout each day – fifteen minutes here and there.

My typical morning has been roughly the following: My roommate Jen and I wake up at 5:50am – usually without an alarm. Our remarkably early rise is only possible because we started this routine the morning after we got here, so when we adjusted to the time difference and shedded our jet lag, immediately forcing ourselves to wake up early told our bodies that 5:50 was the normal time to wake up. If only our bodies knew the truth ;). That being said, I love this change in the schedule of my day. At 6:15am, before the city of Hubli wakes up, we walk from the Ladies Hostel to the boys Guest House. This has come to be my most favorite part of the of day. I don’t have to fear for my life when crossing the street and there are less people out and about (people who blatantly stare at us because we look different).
At 6:30am the “R.A.” of the boys Guest House, Rahul, leads us in a relaxing session of yoga.

After the early morning I have some down time before the Indian work day starts (usually 9:30 or 10am). I make oatmeal for breakfast and read or go online.

This past week has been pretty low key, which was beneficial to Alex, Bronson and I. Alex and Bronson needed some time to adjust from vacation life to working life and I needed get used to India!

We did meet with an NGO called Chinyard that we might work with for the micro-credit/water kiosk part of our project. We will be meeting with them again this week after they talk to their director about our project. We also met with Mohsin – a college student at KIMS College who was one of the volunteers that taught out curriculum in the elementary school. We want to talk to him in detail about each lesson plan and find out what worked and what didn’t so we can improve the curriculum this summer before it is taught again. Mohsin was also one of the volunteers that went around to households to do surveys about the water filters. This aspect of the project definitely has to be improved because Mohsin just has hand-written questionnaires that he filled out last year at each house. The online data base that was supposed to be used to record survey results didn’t work out for some reason. Mohsin has final exams now and is finishing his last year of college. He will be a valuable asset to the improvement of the project, so we hope we will be in close contact with him in the next few weeks after he finishes his exams.

On Wednesday we have a meeting with WLF (Water Literacy Foundation), the NGO our project paired with last summer and that we will continue to work with this year.

-Nina